What does the Danish Design Centre do?
The Danish Design Centre is Denmark’s professional knowledge centre for design and innovation. Our main task is to carry out design and innovation activities aimed at Danish businesses with the purpose of improving their competitiveness.
Why does the Danish Design Centre seek to improve the competitiveness of Danish businesses?
The key focus for Denmark’s design policy - “DesignDenmark” - is to increase the achievement of added value in Danish businesses’ through an increased use of design. The ambition is to bring Denmark back into the international design elite in order to make Denmark more competitive. The Danish Design Centre plays a key role in the implementation of this design policy, partly through a range of design and innovation activities aimed at Danish businesses.
What activities does the Danish Design Centre engage in?
The Danish Design Centre initiates a range of design and innovation activities that are made available to companies that are ready to implement design investments. We engage in a wide range of activities, including workshops, guidance, dialogue meetings and conferences. These business activities aim to generate a greater understanding of the use of design and innovation in practice as an integrated element of a company’s business development efforts with the purpose of creating competitive products.
Furthermore, the Danish Design Centre works towards branding Danish design internationally, focusing specifically on contemporary Danish design and Danish design competences. The goal is to provide and secure international knowledge about Danish design and Denmark as a design nation as well as support Danish design as a brand in order to attract investment projects and clients to Denmark.
Who is the Danish Design Centre’s main target group?
The Danish Design Centre’s main target group is buyers of design work, that is, businesses. Our secondary target group is members of the national and international public with an interest in design.
What else goes on in the building on HC Andersens Boulevard?
The Danish Design Centre resides on HC Andersens Boulevard in the heart of Copenhagen in a building designed by Professor, Architect Henning Larsen. In addition to office space, the building houses exhibition space, a shop, a café and a conference centre that is the venue for many of the Danish Design Centre’s activities.
Our partners
The Danish Design Centre works closely with local partners throughout the country, including the Business Link centres and the design ambassadors, all involved in a dedicated effort to promote knowledge about the use of design to companies throughout the five regions of Denmark. The Danish Design Centre also cooperates with design centres in other countries as well as knowledge and research institutions in Denmark and abroad with the goal of making the latest insights about innovation, design processes, new materials and international trends available to businesses. On 20 May 2008, INDEX: was established as a subsidiary of the Danish Design Centre. Visit the INDEX: website.
That’s not what I thought the Danish Design Centre did...
The Danish Design Centre has been around since 1978, and the focus of our efforts has developed over the years. Today, the key emphasis of our daily work is on disseminating knowledge about the use of design in relation with innovation processes and business development. That is why the design promotion activities are the main element in our product portfolio. In addition, the Danish Design Centre stages a number of exhibitions on Danish and international design every year. These exhibitions aim to highlight the Danish Design Centre’s profile as a knowledge centre for design and innovation to members of the public with an interest in design, to businesses, and to our international partners.