2010 seems to be Queensland’s year of design, with the State Government demonstrating a fervent committment to fostering its design industry. 

To top this off, Premier Anna Bligh announced the appointment of a council made up of some of the biggest names in the arts, design and architecture worlds  – aimed at strengthening the DIA’s vision for Queensland as an Australian destination for design.

“The Queensland Design Council bolsters our ambition to be a design hub for the Asia Pacific region and will advise the Queensland Government on design led solutions to 21st century social, economic and environmental challenges,” said Anna Bligh.

The strategy is an outcome of the ‘Smart State = Design State’ report that Michael Rayner, Brisbane-based director of Cox Rayner, prepared for the Queensland Government’s Smart State Council.

“My report demonstrated that Queensland’s design sectors possess enormous talent however as a whole, they are not well coordinated or even interfaced,” Rayner, a core member of the newly-founded council, told indesignlive.com.

The Queensland Design Council (QDC) will be effective in bringing the design sectors together to conceive and to help implement collaborations between designers from different sectors.

It will also link designers to businesses and industries which can benefit economically from better design and innovation (this strategy is about prioritising ‘demand-led design’ over ‘supply-led design’), explained Rayner.

One of the youngest members of the council is Yassmin Abdel-Magied, president of Youth Without Borders, which strives to empower youth to implement positive change in their communities.

“As a young member from a multicultural background, I hope to bring a different perspective to the table,” Abdel-Magied told indesignlive.com.  

“Queensland is a state with a large migrant population, and often when looking at usability, creativity and innovation, perspectives from these groups are almost forgotten.”

Change might be meet with resistance, Yassmin Abdel-Magied told indesignlive.com, “but the change that the council has the potential to put in motion is quite significant”.

“I think when it comes to looking at design and innovation, the biggest issue is the tendency to put ideas in the “too hard” basket, or push creative input aside without really investigating its future potential.”

“I think this is the place for idealism, an arena for all ideas to be put on the table for consideration, said Yassmin Abdel-Magied. “If not here, where else?” 

Queensland Design Council
arts.qld.gov.au/policy/qld-design-council