New design roles

Design can be used to generate social impact, make a difference and encourage commercial success. Designers today are starting to express the opinion that their collaboration with NGOs for the resolution of critical environmental, social and humanitarian problems, has to become a routine process. An initiative by the Rockefeller Foundation, brought together designers from several disciplines and from all over the world, on a discussion panel in Italy in July 2008, in order to strategize and share ideas about the successful future of the NGO/design collaboration.

“We have to stop this dichotomy that says: We do these kinds of projects because it’s our way of ‘giving back.’ Instead, think of it as being a way of learning, of having impact, that will also provide other forms of value for your firm.” - Larry Keeley, Doblin Group

Most of the ideas and steps suggested to accomplish a vital cooperation of the design firms and NGOs, were focusing on administration, open communication and transparency between designers and research. Sharing information could be accomplished by the formation of a "Knowledge Bank", where every designer can retrieve case studies and success reports on sustainability projects. One can even tap into the bank with further information and experiences.

Furthermore, creating a bridge between the NGOs and the design world would make their cooperation more mundane, self explanatory. The creation of a Design NGO (D-NGO), would reinforce the above, and foster more creative action and interaction.

Finally developing an operating system for social impact, would provide designers with more useful feedback and information. According to the participants of he Rockefeller Foundation meeting, the mentioned system would allow more designers to become involved in social projects, lower the cost of the production of such projects, provide a greater impact on the work, elevate prestige and visibility.

Maybe this is an example of the designer in a coordinating, analytical, research role. The actual designing, will be determined later based on the needs of communities and consumers. Finding real problems through research, interactions with communities in need, and sharing of information, is replacing the creation of "problems" and new consumables.