Australian Design Alliance

Media Release [AdA]: Design Missing Innovation Ingredient Dec2015

The Victorian Government’s Department of Primary Industries has committed to partner with industry to drive growth and long term job creation in six priority sectors: Professional Services (Including Financial Services); Medical Technologies; Food and Fibre; International Education Services; Transport, Defence and Construction Technology; and New Energy Technology, many of which directly or indirectly affect parts of the design sector. The AdA has been invited to contribute to a round table discussion regarding designers in the Professional Services sector to provide feedback on the discussion paper in August, where it will represent its members’ opinions and agendas.

While a recent Commonwealth Department of Industry Review into food labelling has received attention from the press, other issues regarding labelling, including country of origin and false claims, continue to impact the design sector. The Australian Design Alliance was recently contacted by a promoter of Australian furniture and asked to highlight the issue of the labelling of replica furniture.

Reductions to the Australia Council’s budget and the creation of the National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA) will be the focus of the recently announced Senate Inquiry into the Impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts. More particularly, the impact on artists, arts companies and the small-to-medium arts sector as a result of these changes to arts programming and funding will be examined. More than 90 submissions from arts practitioners and members of the public were provided to the Inquiry before the call for submissions was closed on Friday 17 July.

Designers and other service providers await the Productivity Commission’s draft report on the Barriers to Services Exports, which is due to be released on the 12^th of August. The Issues paper, released in April 2015, set out the scope of the research study to investigate the policy-relevant barriers to exporting Australia’s professional services. The issues paper stated that service industries, which are a large and growing part of the Australian economy, currently account for 70% of the economy, but only 20% of total exports, which indicates scope for significant growth.

Victorian designers and businesses are encouraged to apply for the Premier’s 2015 design awards that give prizes in the following categories: architectural design, service design, product design, communication design, digital design and design strategy. Applications close Friday 21 August. For details regarding the awards and entry, click here.

In May, the ADA attended the COAG Industry and Skills Council along with other heads of industry and peak bodies to discuss industry and skills policy.

The International Federation of Interior Architects/ Designers (IFI) and its local representative, the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) are pleased to announce that the City of Melbourne has become the second Australian city to officially adopt the Declaration, which recognises the interior built environment as a significant and integral part of urban life.

Sadly, Adelaide has decided not to proceed with its bid to become the WDC in 2018. The Government of South Australia decided it could not agree to the terms of the Host City Agreement with the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, who run the competition.

Entries are now open for the 2015 Australian Award for Urban Design, with categories for design initiatives, projects, built developments, and publications that will make a significant difference to the places, spaces, buildings and infrastructure of our cities.