ReDesign Business: bringing the design industry and business together
A pioneering digital programme between 14–19 September explores what design and business can learn from each other, launching at London Design Festival 2020
This year’s London Design Festival is set to be very different to previous years, and not simply because it will take place against a backdrop of pandemic in a period of mass social transition. At a key moment during the international design calendar, coinciding with the festival, ReDesign Business is an independent online conference that argues for a closer relationship between design and business.
Founded by Deborah Rey-Burns ’ maverick global speaker-agency Propela, ReDesign Business introduces a packed daily calendar of digital events to LDF, including talks, immersive workshops, panel discussions and fireside chats – and even a nightly sleep lab session to end each day on a restorative note.
“The traditional business toolkit is not equipped for the current state of things – we believe design can provide an alternative.” – Deborah Rey-Burns, founder, Propela
With many organisations reeling from the diverse impacts of Covid-19, and an increasingly volatile and complex commercial landscape to navigate, it’s clear that the traditional business toolkit falls short, that conventional models are not fit for purpose, and that we need to learn to adapt and innovate if we are to withstand instability and survive in a post-Covid world. ReDesign Business looks to the design industry for alternative tools and models, aiming to tap into design’s creativity, critical thinking and user-led approach in order to address societal needs and evolve to face the future. In counterpoint, the programme will serve to shift the focus from design as a means of making products, to design as a process of generating solutions for some of the most pressing issues we face today.
With topics ranging from rebuilding brands after Covid to tapping into the inherent creativity of your inner child; insightful hacks for more equitable business cultures to the need to design for happiness over profit or efficiency, the ReDesign Business programme aims to inform and inspire both business leaders and design professionals alike.
Talks include:
Aline Costa, head of culture transformation at Beautiful Corporations, discussing the value and activation of purpose in business with Brompton Bicycle CEO William David Butler-Adams.
Entrepreneur Tolu Farinto is a changemaker at the agency Utopia, which aims to rewire business culture towards purpose, inclusion and entrepreneurism. He shows business leaders how small changes can help tackle systemic problems and break down barriers faced by minority groups.
Vanessa Dewey talks to architect and systems designer Indy Johar about how the current recession can serve as the trigger point for a complete systems reset in which the historic orthodoxies of economics, politics and leadership can be challenged or overturned, and how there is an urgent need for new, collective and proactive leadership to take us out of crisis.
Speculative designer Ted Hunt making the case for designers treating time as a creative medium through ‘fourth-dimensional thinking’. Researcher, futures strategist and co-founder of the School of Critical Design Gemma Jones joins him to unpack how embracing the plasticity of time might help designers and businesses bring about an era of regenerative growth and equitable progress.
An advocate of ‘designing for happiness’, J Paul Neeley argues for a new, big-picture approach to the design process, one that takes into account the complexity of the world and considers all outcomes, not simply the narrow goals of ‘faster’, ‘stronger’ or more ‘profitable’.
Co-founder of the critically acclaimed foresight, design and technology studio Superflux, Anab Jain will outline her concept of a more-than-human politics, arguing that we need to bring diverse communities together to collectively imagine the possibility of another world.
Sophie Thomas – the campaigner, designer and chartered waste manager who has advised the likes of Dr Martens, Procter & Gamble and Samsung – offers aspiring circular businesses a toolkit to reduce their environmental impact, drawing on inspiring real-life success stories from the design world.
Innovation coach and host of ‘The Grandkids Test’ podcast, Stephanie Rosilio talks to finance-industry leader Charlotte Valeur , former head of the Institute of Directors, about breaking down stigmas surrounding neurodiversity and how conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia could be the untapped superpowers in your business.
Marketer and design-thinking evangelist Letizia Marchetti offers an insightful introduction into the design process, demonstrates the tools that designers use to creatively solve problems – and demystifies the design mindset to help businesses survive and thrive in the post-Covid landscape. See the full Schedule
See full list of Speakers
