I had the honour of hosting Belfast Design Week’s Design Camp Conference. Run in partnership with Northern Ireland Design Alliance the conference looked at the role of Design in innovation.
Taking place at The Mac, nestled in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, the event featured international contributions from a wide range of sectors including UX Design & Technology, Public Services, Graphic Design, Architecture & Urban Planning, Fashion & Lifestyle and Film & TV including:
The Stone Twins
An Amsterdam-based design consultancy founded by Irish twin brothers Declan and Garech Stone. The duo are known for their engaging and witty work, as well as their forthright opinions.
The Stone Twins are the creative agency behind A’DAM Toren, the newly-opened multifunctional tower in Amsterdam. Not only did The Stone Twins devise the name (an abbreviation for ‘Amsterdam’ or ‘Amsterdam Dance and Music’) and brand strategy for A’DAM – and it’s sub-brands Moon, Madam & A’DAM&Co – but they also led the interior design teams in their pursuit of a holistic brand identity.
Passionate and assertive about design, The Stone Twins are authors of ‘LOGO R.I.P.’ (a critically acclaimed book that commemorates 50 defunct logos) and regularly contribute articles to various design journals, such as Eye, DesignWeek, Amsterdam Ad Blog and Communicatie.
Jenny Lee of Studio Aikieu
Studio Aikieu continuously tracks key innovations, trends and cultural developments that will impact design thinking across all disciplines. Influenced by the principles of ‘co-design’ Studio Aikieu forges collaborative partnerships with key industry players, as they believe to find creative solutions, involves working with individuals and organisations from different fields. As such Studio Aikieu have worked in partnership with Scientists, Technologists, Botanists, Engineers, which has enabled the studio to provide fresh, innovative insight through the fabrication of thought-provoking outputs.
Previous brands the studio has worked with include Microsoft, Holition, Visage Technologies, Queen’s Mary University, UEA, Matches Fashion.
Anna Rackard
Anna works as a feature film, TV drama and commercials production designer. Her feature films include Love & Friendship, Stella Days and Ondine. She won an Irish Film & Television Award in 2010 for Ondine and again in 2012 for Stella Days. Her television drama work includes A Dangerous Fortune for ZDF, Foyle’s War for ITV and George Gently for the BBC. In 2001 she published a book, Fish Stone Water on the holy wells of Ireland and in 2004 co-directed a documentary on the same subject called An Tobar.
Vittoria Casanova of INDEX: Design For Life
Created by Denmark in 2002, the INDEX: Design to Improve Life organisation is in sync with the values and principles that made Danish design widely renowned in the last century, focusing on humanism, social understanding and democratic thinking. We thus promote the application of design and design processes to improve vital areas of people’s lives worldwide.
Vittoria has been working at INDEX: Design to Improve Life® since 2015 originally from Italy, she holds a BA in Product Design from NABA, Design Academy in Milan and she has a MA in Design Management at Business School, Il Sole 24 ORE, Milan.
Vittoria has a strong interest in the cross-sections of design, entrepreneurship and social behavior. She believes good ideas have the power to change the world and she´s curious about exploring different mindset and culture through traveling, talking, reading and eating. Her biggest inspiration comes from the different stories about people and she´s always inspired by how people with scarce resources can achieve amazing outcomes.
http://designtoimprovelife.dk/
Fiona Murphy, Director, Frontend.com
Design Health – Can UX change the world?
•Design’s role in better organisational and product decision making
•Assimilating UX into the development process
•How UX and technical innovation is making a difference to migrant healthcare
•Impact of UX and Service Design on how we deliver products and services
Fiona Murphy is a co-founder and Director of Frontend.com, a leading international UX design consultancy based in Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1998, Frontend.com was one of the first UX design firms in Europe and over the last two decades Fiona has worked for some of the world’s top brands. Her vast experience ranges from delivering UX solutions for finance & banking systems, pharma to FMCG consumer websites. Fiona co-founded Frontend because she believed there was a real need to provide design and innovations that work for end users and has spent at least 20 years advocating this. Originally graduating from the NCAD, Fiona went onto the Royal College of Art, London to complete a European Masters in Interactive Multimedia.
Her work exploring concepts of using immersive technology to improve the understanding of abstract concepts in physics was exhibited at numerous venues. User research forms a critical role in Fiona’s work and she has overseen multiple research programmes both in Ireland and abroad for global organisations. More recently, Fiona has been heavily involved in a philanthropic project examining how UX design can help in the provision of healthcare to displaced people caught up in the current European migrant crisis. Fiona and her team has received multiple design awards at national and international level – most recently receiving the Grand Prix at the 2015 IxDA Awards in San Francisco.
Donagh Horgan
Donagh is a multidisciplinary design strategist – service designer, innovation planner and architect working mainly in Europe and South America. His practice sits at the crossroads of design, technology and social change – connecting the dots. He works cross sector on mainly social innovation projects, consulting on transformational change for organisations. He has a background in engagement-led design and planning, and champions open process and dialogue in the planning of social infrastructure, spaces and services. Donagh previously led on strategy and engagement for FutureGov in London, working with NESTA, Google, local and national authorities. He is an expert in design thinking, agile development and participatory projects. Clients from diverse sectors include Dublin City Council, Wayra Telefonica, ICON Clinical Research, numerous community organisations and enterprises. He led strategic development on This for That in Glasgow, a social exchange technology startup designed to match resource with need, and develop sustainable connections across sector. He is currently based at the Institute for Future Cities in where he is pursing a PhD at the University of Strathclyde..
alex milton design 