The Design Institute of Australia (DIA) is supporting, and has pledged cash, towards a crowdfunding initiative to support the creation of a national Australian design policy.

The DIA’s pledge has been given to the Australian Design Alliance (AdA), an alliance of Australia’s peak professional design organisations which aims to highlight the value of design in Australia’s economy and everyday life.

The AdA is conducting an online crowdfunding campaign which aims to raise $15,000 to help lobby the Australian Federal Government.

The DIA’s $3000 pledge has re-focused attention on the pressing need for Australia to catch up to the rest of the world and recognise the vital role that design has to play in modern economies.

Lisa Cahill, Executive Director of the Australian Design Alliance, said that the DIA’s pledge was “a magnificent gesture” and “a vital declaration of support from one of Australia’s most respected design organisations”.

“Thanks to the DIA’s pledge, and the contributions of all our other supporters so far, we have now raised just over $9000 of our $15,000 goal,” she explained.

“There’s still some way to go and not much time left, so we really need individuals and organisations to follow the DIA’s lead and rally to our cause.’

Cahill said that if the crowdfunding campaign was successful, the AdA’s first step would be to build an evidence research base to demonstrate the value of design to the Australian economy.

“Our research will also take the best strategies from design-savvy countries and adapt them for inclusion in the policy,” she said.

National President of the DIA, Oliver Kratzer FDIA, said that the DIA believed that a national design policy was of critical importance.

“This campaign for a national design policy is the highest level, most coordinated and supported effort in the history of Australia,” Kratzer claimed.

“If we don’t take advantage of this now, then it will be another generation before we get another chance.”

According to Oliver Kratzer, himself an Industrial Designer and founder of his own industrial design company in Sydney, the Australian federal government is largely ‘design blind’, viewing design as part of the arts or ignoring it completely.

“It’s imperative that we have a federally administered, national design policy that compels politicians and bureaucrats to take design into consideration,” he said.

“At state level, South Australia and Queensland are currently taking leadership positions in design, which highlights the lack of federal policy leadership.

“A national design policy means that design becomes part of federal government consideration and conversation.

“The government’s current emphasis on efficiency completely ignores the demand side of the equation.

“Efficiency might save money, but nobody ever saved their way to greatness.

“Design, on the other hand, is outward-looking and creates money.

“It’s time for design to be recognised as the vital economic driver that it is.”

Architecture & Design Team

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