9 Points: Design & Business

Design is an important competitive asset for companies. Design skills are needed today in product development, marketing, brand and corporate image management and strategic planning alike. Together with nine Finnish design agencies, Design Forum Finland has produced the exhibition 9 POINTS - Design & Business demonstrating the types of challenging tasks addressed by present-day design agencies. The exhibition provides background for topical themes and issues. How does design encounter digital or marketing communications? What is service design? What is the design process like today from the assignment to the finished product?

The agencies participating in the exhibition are Creadesign, Desigence, ED-Design, Ego Beta, Fusion, Helorinne & Kallio, Pentagon Design, Provoke, and design agency TANGO On display are both concept designs and completed solutions for products. The agencies selected for the exhibition represent the various sectors of design in broad perspective and they will also participate in the national Design Road Show tour.

Design Road Show will visit six localities to engage industrial enterprises and Finland's leading design agencies in discussion on how firms and companies can gain competitive advantages by making use of design and the services of the design industry. Coordinated by Design Forum Finland and financed by Finland's Ministry of Employment and the Economy and TEKES - The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, this project aims at activating businesses in six regional growth centres by reaching out to approximately 300 firms and companies. The project gives design a prime role in regional economic strategies and lays the basis for a design industry operating at the national level. The Design Road Show tour will be held in 2008-2009 in Turku, Tampere, Rovaniemi, Vaasa, Kuopio and the Helsinki Metropolitan Region.

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