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Design West Michigan has offered members a host of free Designers Gatherings hinged on a speaker or panel of speakers talking about design or design thinking, as well as networking opportunities with fellow local designers. Past gatherings have included, top, a discussion with Peter Lawrence, chair of the Corporate Design Foundation; Nancy Miller, a senior editor at WIRED magazine; and Julie Lasky, editor-in-chief of I.D. magazine and, bottom, a presentation by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Change by Design.

“We have a legacy of design here. It has shaped our environment, driven our economy, and fostered world-class innovation. We want design to be even more of an economic building block for the region and others to know that. We want that legacy to be an ongoing, living part of our identity.”

John Berry, executive director, Design West Michigan

In West Michigan, design is like a jewel waiting to be mined. It’s right there, just under the surface, but it needs to see the light of day to be appreciated. And it needs a little polishing.

Design West Michigan exists to make that happen. It’s an advocate and a catalyst, a promoter and a publicist. It’s an educator, advisor, connector and encourager. In the process, it’s gaining a lot of attention and many followers.

“We want West Michigan to be known for design,” says John O’Neill, communication director at Design West Michigan. “We want to show that West Michigan, with its talent, resources, and design savvy, is a great place to have a business.”

DWM Executive Director John Berry puts it this way: “Our intention is to brand West Michigan as a ‘design-centric’ community.”  That’s a term he uses to describe a region where design disciplines and the results of good design are recognized for the value they add to the economy and the overall quality of life.

A design-centric presence is evident in an area’s businesses and boards, colleges and universities, art associations and museums; in its heritage of design, its design awards, and the media coverage it garners; in its collective population of designers, its communication networks among them, and its recognition of a “creative class.”

“West Michigan is a design-centric region that functions well because design and business play well together here,” says Peter Jacob, Design West Michigan’s education director. “Many businesses here are design-centered. It’s been that way for years.”

Kevin Budelmann, advisor to Design West Michigan, is president of one of those design-centered businesses, People Design in Grand Rapids. “For a midsize area, there’s an elevated design consciousness here,” he says. “There’s a high caliber of design and a rich pool of design talent – great foundational resources for businesses to tap into. We openly talk about the value of design in business. Design plays an important role in our value systems.”

O’Neill, principal of Conduit Studios and graduate of Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, says that “it’s great to be a designer right now in West Michigan. It really feels like there’s a community, and it’s here now, and it’s growing.”

Jacob, a furniture designer and also a Kendall graduate, sees and feels a growing optimism in the area. “It’s more fun to be here than it was 10 years ago because there’s so much support for design and the arts. There’s a new kind of spirit among younger designers. Design West Michigan is one way to take hold of that spirit and do something with it. That’s why I’m part of it.”

Design West Michigan was formed three years ago with funding help from a federal economic development initiative called Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development. Other important early help – professional involvement and guidance – came from the regional advisory group of more than 50 volunteer designers from 43 companies.

The founders also established a national advisory group, a composition of business and design heavyweights from MOMA, the Corporate Design Foundation, Nike, design periodicals, and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. – that would be Nate Young, now president of the NewNorth Center for Design in Business in Holland, Mich. This advisory group defined specific objectives and tactics. With Berry leading the way, Design West Michigan was launched without a lot of fanfare, but with plenty of reasons to feel positive about its future.

“There was immediate support from business leaders, economic developers, designers, educators – people who understand and appreciate the value of design and design thinking to business and the community in general,” says Berry.

Especially important is the alliance that has been developed with Kendall College of Art and Design, where Design West Michigan has its office. “It’s wonderful that we have support from the faculty and staff of an institution like Kendall,” says Jacob, who serves as president of Kendall’s Alumni Board of Directors and also teaches there.

“Kendall is a hub of design,” says O’Neill. “They really make Design West Michigan possible, and we’re infinitely grateful for their support. We assist them by providing a network that helps them place their graduates in good positions in the area. We’re also looking at ways to help K-12 design curriculum development and are in discussions with such groups as IDEO.”

With growing support and increasing community involvement – over 600 “members” have signed up on the website, www.designwestmichigan.com – Design West Michigan has also been pursuing another of its major objectives: serving as a catalyst for establishing a regional network connecting people from all design disciplines.

“Design West Michigan is unique in its promoting the cross-pollination of design in a regionally focused effort,” says Budelmann. “Other design organizations have a broader umbrella or only serve a slice of the design world. It’s also unique in getting design groups together who don’t typically talk with each other. That’s easier to do here than in a large metropolitan area because people live in closer proximity to each other. They’re more easily connected.”

Not that it’s necessarily easy to get designers talking. “Designers can be non-joiners,” says O’Neill. “We tend to stay on our own islands.” Design West Michigan works on getting them off their “islands” and into the broader design community by holding events that bring together people from various fields of design – interior, graphic, architecture, landscape, furniture, color theory – “to communicate with each other and to be inspired.”

“Designers today are being asked to do more, to have broader knowledge,” says Jeff Reuschel, advisor to Design West Michigan and global design director at Haworth in Holland, Mich. “Designers often need to work together on complex projects, so we need to know more than just our own discipline. We need to understand our common challenges. We need to connect and learn from each other – and realize how much is going on.”

“We have a critical mass of people who are interested in getting together and talking,” says O’Neill. “It feels like we’re colleagues, even though we might bid against each other on projects.”

“The progressive design world is increasingly interconnected,” says Budelmann. “Design West Michigan is helping make that happen here.”

But it’s not just designers that Design West Michigan seeks to reach. Developing design and design-thinking awareness programs for non-designers is also an important objective, and one that complements the work of the NewNorth Center for Design in Business. “Businesses need to understand how effective design-thinking problem solving can be,” says Jacob.

Design West Michigan is enabling interaction and design-thinking appreciation through an ongoing and growing program of events. West Michigan’s first-ever gathering of people from all the design disciplines attracted 250 participants in 2008. The second-ever gathering, which hosted editors of national publications, drew over 300. The third event, also drawing over 300 people, featured American Institute of Graphic Arts Executive Director Ric Grefe talking about the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative. And the fourth event drew over 400 people to IDEO President Tim Brown’s presentation on using design thinking in consulting with businesses.

“We’re bringing in speakers whose messages are intended to help start conversations that wouldn’t have happened otherwise among participants and within businesses,” says Jacob, DWM’s education director. “We encourage people to bring friends, not just other designers, but entrepreneurs, artists, anyone with an interest in design.”

What’s next? Design West Michigan is awaiting the results of new regional research, conducted by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a project aimed at defining the economic value of design – the correlation between design and profitability.

More and more, Design West Michigan is making its presence felt and appreciated. “We’re confident that Design West Michigan will continue to grow,” says Jacob. “It’s an easy concept to grasp. People who hear about it are immediately inspired.”

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TAGS:

• design
• design west michigan
• haworth
• jacob
• jeff reuschel
• john berry
• john o’neill
• kendall college of art and design
• kevin budelmann
• midesign