Heading North

Leading up to BNO’s annual general meeting, BNO director Diana Janssen and BNO board member Taco Schmidt discuss current developments in the design sector that will shape our direction in the years ahead, and how BNO’s recent move to Amsterdam-Noord ties into that.

We see more often that designers are being asked to help shape and define processes. The outcome of their work is no longer a concrete, tangible product, but rather are asked for a plan for example, one that other parties take forward and implement.”

“We’re seeing designers find their way into government institutions,” says Taco Schmidt, board-member and treasurer at BNO, and founder of Qindle.

These designers map out the systems their processes operate within and pinpoint where changes could make them run more smoothly. “As BNO, we’ll need to respond to this development.”

Designers for designers

Diana Janssen: “Where we want to move toward is an agenda-setting and connecting role. That is a different role from the one we have now. It will become more designers for designers. We are an association where you can gain a lot, but we also expect members to contribute something.”

“Where we want to move toward is an agenda-setting and connecting role. That is a different role from the one we have now.” — Diana Janssen.

“That role is really about making sense of the world around us,” Janssen continues. “We want to show how the profession is evolving in a broader societal, economic and political context, and what that means in practice for designers every day. In doing so, we might even help them see opportunities they wouldn’t have spotted on their own.”

Schmidt: “Designers can play a far more significant role in the transition towards a more sustainable and equal world than most of them realise,” Schmidt says. “Far more than they often think, actually.”

“Designers can play a far more significant role in the transition towards a more sustainable and equal world than most of them realise.” — Taco Schmidt

He also sees the design sector splintering into an ever-growing number of disciplines. “Back in the days, there was the graphic designer, the packaging designer and the industrial designer, now you can add the social designer, the information designer and the systems designer to that list.” And the list keeps growing, which only makes BNO’s role as a connecting force within the sector more relevant.

Like-minded

And there’s a real need for that, Schmidt recognizes. “Designers working inside a government organisation or a small in-house studio don’t often find themselves surrounded by like-minded creatives to bounce ideas off.” BNO can provide that platform.

Designers can apply their skills far more broadly than before, Janssen argues. “It’s a conviction that’s gaining ground and becoming more widely shared.” “Within BNO too,” Schmidt adds. “The power of design doesn’t just sit in the end product it also lives in the research that leads up to it,” Janssen says. Sometimes a concrete deliverable isn’t the point at all; design-led research can be just as valuable for bringing processes into focus or making social structures visible. “This is part of what designers are capable of, and we need to make that understood by the people who commission their work.”

“The power of design doesn’t just sit in the end product it also lives in the research that leads up to it.” — Diana Janssen

Power of innovation

Earlier this year, BNO moved to De Baanderij on the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam-Noord, sharing the space with five other professional associations. “As an organisation, you can keep writing policy plans and talking about collaborating more, but at some point you just have to get on with it,” Janssen explains. “Sharing a space means you’re naturally in each other’s orbit, and things start to flow from there.” There’s a practical side to it as well, she notes. “Since the pandemic, we’ve all been working from home more, and that changed how we actually use our offices.”

The move fits neatly into Janssen’s broader mission. “When I became BNO’s director almost three years ago, I was struck by how fragmented the creative sector is, while at the same time, you see just how much it contributes to the Dutch economy. The design sector runs through the whole of society, from agricultural machinery to healthcare and the energy transition.”

The connecting power of design

BNO is one of the larger professional associations in Europe, yet it still doesn’t make its voice heard enough in public debate, Schmidt believes. “As a sector and as an association, we have a role to play in society.” BNO also wants to have a stronger presence in education in the coming years. “When we ask members which design discipline they work in, they often say all of them,” Janssen notes.

The profession is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, but educational institutions are struggling to keep up, held back by regulation and accreditation requirements. “We see the challenges they’re facing and we’re in conversation with them, because everyone wants design education to stay relevant.”

“As a sector and as an association, we have a role to play in society.” — ​Taco Schmidt

Schmidt adds: “As part of our multi-year plan, we organised workshops bringing together people from education, business and government to exchange ideas with our members about the skills designers will need going forward, and how artificial intelligence, for instance, will shape the profession. When you step back and look at the bigger picture, all of those workshops and conversations were really about the same thing: the value of design for society, and how BNO can help strengthen the ties within the creative sector.”

This interview was originally published in Dutch on bno.nl and has been translated into English.