White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 4Table 4.1 – Companies in the design segment and designers involved (withduplications)CompaniesProductsSignedProductsDesign Companies 143 6,817 6,639Non-designcompanies withsigned productsNon-designcompanies withunsigned products111 5,123 3,256126 6,060 0Total(Foreign)Designers1,141(519)313(62)0Total 380 18,000 9,8951454(581)4.7 Italian industrial designin figuresIt is difficult to assess economically thecontribution of industrial design interms of value added and jobs alongthe whole chain of value creation. Thefirst problem we encounter is the verydefinition of design: a cross-sectoractivity of key importance instimulating product innovation andprocess innovation in manymanufacturing sectors, especially theso-called “Made in Italy”, export-drivensectors.A second problem concerns the way inwhich members of the professionalcategory of designers are recorded instatistical sources. We can talk about“design and styling for textiles,clothing, footwear, jewellery, furnitureand other personal and householditems” (ATECO 74875), but thismakes no distinction between stylists inthe fashion sector and industrialdesigners. The resultant figures are thusinevitably an overestimation.Hopefully the professional associationsand the Consiglio Superiore del Design(the Italian Design Council) will setthemselves the objective of drafting anannual report on trends in the sector,as happens in other countries, like theUnited Kingdom with its two bodies(British Design Innovation and theDesign Council). The reports of theprofessional associations, however,only monitor their own members’activities, i.e. those who explicitlypractice the profession and thereforeare part of the “outright design”category. But other people working ondesign activities within companies atvarious stages in the value chain (core,manufacturing, distribution) are left outof these reports. In this case thecontribution of design in terms ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 107