DESIGN: As Design Week gets underway, Ireland could take the lead in design by second-guessing markets and gaining worldwide distinction in creativity, says HAYDN SHAUGHNESSY

'There are more people designing better things all the time in Ireland," says architect, design enthusiast and president of the Irish Design Institute Barry Sheehan, adding: "what we've got to do is design more complex and innovative products."

The feeling in the design community is that although more needs to be done, Irish design's time has very nearly arrived. All it takes is to be able to grapple with those more complex and innovative products. With recession an inevitability, the ingenuity and breakthrough ideas that are the hallmark of good design can help the wider economy revive.

This recession is like no other. It is an amalgam of market over-reach that has economists questioning whether the system as we know it can survive. "We're in unchartered territory," says Martin Dooney, formerly head of UK bank Barclay's Global Money Markets, and an occasional mentor to Irish companies. "There's no question that in Ireland we now have a level of wealth we've never enjoyed before, but nobody can say where this is going."

There was wide consensus that modern economies had to rely increasingly in human ingenuity and agile, frequent innovations.

"Companies over the past five to 10 years have gone through all the operational efficiencies and improvements they are able to make," says Sean McNulty, a principal with Innovator, a leading provider of training for the research and development sector and adviser to several companies on design and innovation processes. "Two-thirds of managers are now focused on adding value from the customer end, that is developing processes that will deliver what customers want, even before the customer knows they want it."

The ability to second-guess markets is what McNulty believes to be the essence of design and innovation. Therefore it's a reasonable proposition that in these unchartered waters those countries that find the fast road back to prosperity will be the ones that best harness this type of creativity. It's easier said than done of course - second guessing markets is after all something of a holy grail. And it is also a troublesome area for management. It means acknowledging that the future resides with a somewhat quixotic process where imagination and vision take precedence over statistical projections and cost cutting. But how do you understand the process of creativity? Architecture often acts as a shop window for design. The quality of the built environment used to be a source of civic pride and for previous generations controversy over such buildings as the Dublin Central Bus Station brought design into public discussion.

"In architecture, we are certainly beginning to create absolutely beautiful buildings that stand the test of buildings any where in the world," says Sheehan. The point was underlined last month when Dublin's Grafton Architects won first prize in the learning category at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona. Grafton won the award for the Luigi Bocconi University in fashion-focused Milan. Judges quoted the firm's "handling of space, light and local materials succeeded in distilling the essence of this tough city into a confident, contemporary form".

But if design is going to help lift the wider economy, then Irish creatives have to make an impact across the board. "Design is the key to identifying customer needs," argues McNulty, "because design is a process that adds value to customer experiences, it identifies added value whether real or perceived. It's about the ease of use, packaging of products, literature, customer support, websites, the brand."

Eugene Skelton is the design director of Dublin-based Dolmen, a product design company that specialises in medical devices. Dolmen's speciality is the ergonomic aspects of those devices, how equipment looks and feels in the hands of a skilled surgeon. The company is beginning to achieve global recognition.

"Initially we began work with a US subsidiary here in Ireland," says Skelton. "All the main medical companies have a subsidiary here. We began with Cook Medical on small projects in 2000 and they liked what we did, particularly the speed of our turnaround and our quality."

Since then, Dolmen have worked for most of the Cook Medical subsidiaries around the world, the company's workload boosted by word of mouth. Skelton emphasises that the company has been relentless in focusing on their core strengths. "It's mostly about human factors engineering," he says. But agility is also an important selling point.

The fact that Dolmen's work is mostly for overseas companies is, however, a telltale sign. There's a growing feeling that Ireland is getting many aspects of the design business absolutely right. The problem is with local take-up. As yet, Irish companies remain a missing link.

Sheehan believes the Government could do more to highlight the importance of design thinking. "You can understand the current priorities," he says. "But if we don't innovate, none of us will have medical cards and we won't be worrying about hospital beds." But McNulty points out that policy in this area, at least at the grass roots level, is on track.

"Enterprise Ireland has been very good at getting innovation on the agenda, but companies are very slow to change. We have the right approach in place, but companies still see design as a luxury rather than a key to differentiation."

In the Shannon region, Skillnet has been attempting to remedy that. Alan Maguire is the newly appointed network manager of the Shannon Design Skillnet. The initiative provides managers of small- and medium-sized companies with design insight around products, services, and brands. It was recently expanded with a second Skillnet Unlocking Innovation.

"Design Shannon runs Strategic Directions with 27 companies currently on the books going through a two-year design awareness programme," says Maguire. "Last year, we had 37 companies and this year we have seven of those coming back for a third year."

There are plans to take the initiative nationwide. "Unlocking Innovation is a new initiative at no cost to the customer. It's feeding customers into Strategic Directions as we plan to go national with the programme," he says. Unlocking Innovation provides half-day seminars to businesses to explain the benefits of design and innovation as well as providing practical advice and acts as a lure for the longer course.

Along with the Centre for Design Innovation in Sligo, which has launched a 15-month Innovation by Design programme, Unlocking Innovation and Design, Shannon's Strategic Directions are evidence of growing momentum at management level.

As yet, though, there would appear to be a deficit not only in company uptake generally, but also arguably in critical mass and vision. For example, is there an Irish design identity that's as recognisable as the Japanese or Scandinavian?

"There should be," says Niall Scott, principal of Scott, Tallon and Walker (STW), a leading Irish architectural firm. "You can see it in Japan - a very strong design language. You can see it in Ireland in paintings, in the colours artists use; you can see they are distinctly Irish. For architecture, I don't know."

STW has traditionally encouraged clients to take a step beyond design and incorporate art into their buildings. Partner Dave Flannery has continued this tradition in the current generation of Irish architects at STW. "There is a massive lack of visual awareness in Ireland," he says. "If you travel to Paris, for example, you sense a real awareness of architecture, even among taxi drivers, an awareness of the architects who are working in the city and of their work. You don't get that in Ireland where creativity is more literary and theatre-based."

It is a curious deficit in the Irish approach to innovation that it is not more visionary. Vision costs very little other than self belief. "In Ireland, we can certainly deliver first-class product design," says Sheehan. "It is a fact though that you often have to go abroad to build a reputation, though we're beginning to see it is possible to build a reputation while remaining here. The problem is we have a tendency to accept lower standards. It's that old thing. We moan but we don't complain."

DESIGNDATES

Nov 3rd: Launch of Design Week

From Nov 2nd: IDI Awards Exhibition at Substation, Caroline St, Cork

Nov 4th: Reform 08, Sustainable Design at the School of Music, Cork
50 x 50 at the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design Original Print Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin

Nov 5th: The Art of Design Exhibition at Áras an Chontae Offices, Charleville Road, Tullamore

Nov 6th: Irish Design Shop Exhibition, NCAD

Place making(creating environments) at Univ. Ulster, York St, Belfast

Nov 7th: Irish Design Effectiveness Awards at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin

For more information, see designweek.ie