Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Design promotion in Belgium in the 1960s
This problem raised by the director was subsequently discussed
by the board members of the Design Centre. The general conclusion
of this discussion was formulated in the reports: ‘The Belgian
Design Centre is the best organized one of the six member states
the EEC. It is positioned to become possibly the first Design Centre
of the Common Market. It is necessary to study this issue more
thoroughly.’ Thus, due to the blurring national frontiers with regard
of the manufacturing of products, the Belgian Design Centre envisaged
a European future.
In 1968, the selection criteria were adjusted, but were still quite restricting
especially by the conditions imposed by the federations
of the different industries. The products promoted by the Brussels
Design Centre, had to be sold under a Belgian brand but could be
produced by an associated factory outside Belgium. Yet, for each
such case, the Design Centre had to contact the federation of the
industry in question for approval. Moreover, on demand of the federations,
other foreign Design Centres were asked to revise in a
similar way their regulation for selection. Products designed by
Belgian designers but produced by foreign companies could not
be promoted as being ‘Belgian’. They could only be shown in the
Design Centre on the thematic temporary exhibitions.
Still this formula was experienced as time-consuming and to restricting.
Eventually, the procedure became slightly more relax.
The Design Centre did no longer had to ask permission to the federations
to include a Belgian product produced in an associated
factory outside Belgium. Yet, the issue kept being brought up in
the meetings of the board members. The chairman of the Design
Centre Pol Provost stated in 1972 that it became ‘more and more
difficult to define with precision the nationality of products, due
to the internationalization of the production.‘ The members agreed
unanimously with this statement of the chairman and claimed to
support the principle of freedom. Yet, they argued that ‘one had
to considerate the fact that the Design Centre is financially supported
by the Belgian Office for Foreign Trade and has to remain a
tool of national promotion and progress.’
5. Conclusion
In the scope of the European Common Market, transnational design
initiatives were set up in the early 1960s to construct and
disseminate the idea ‘European Design’. This ‘European design’
was understood as a compilation of products each having their
own nationality. Unfortunately, most of these initiatives stranded.
This failure was probably due to the lack of European infrastructure,
which obstructed the development of a true European design
network, while at the same time national identities were developed
as an effective trading tool on the international market.
At the end of the 1960s, the consequences of the European Common
market on the way products were produced, created a discord
between identity and the place of production. In the case of
the Brussels Design Centre, the changing nature of production
forced the national institute to rethink the question of national
identity with regard to products. While it was before defined on
basis of where it was produced, the evolutions on the market compelled
to come with new selection criteria and definitions of what
was ‘Belgian‘ or not. The Design Centre embraced this situation as
a steppingstone to become the first European Design Centre, but
was inhibited by its official status as national institute.
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