The Danish Design Centre’s design definition aims to include design in all its diversity and should serve to set a distinct course for all the activities of the organisation.

Design is no longer limited to the processing of materials in the intersection between form and function. Increasingly, design is used as a method for addressing complex issues, organising processes, and optimising interpersonal relations.

A good example of this is the service design that led to the fundamental renewal of Max Bank. The design process turned the customers’ interactions with the traditional bank upside down and improved the products and services that have become Max Bank's hallmarks.

Design enhances competitiveness
Design is crucial for the competitiveness of Danish companies. The new design definition should be seen as a natural extension of the Danish Design Centre’s strategy of disseminating knowledge about design and its economic potential for business. Thus, the term “added value” is a key component of the design definition.

A good example of the value-adding potential of design is the Danish company Cimbria, which manufactures industrial loading chutes. At Cimbria, re-design led to an improved product and substantially higher turnover.

Design is also capable of adding immaterial values to a product that include user experiences, quality, expectations, sensory appeal and impressions, identification, and emotions.

Good design may help incorporate story-telling into the product, as in the case of the family-run ice cream maker Hansens Flødeis. In every aspect of the interface between company and customer, Hansens Flødeis works strategically with design in order to enhance and strengthen the story-telling aspect of the product.

The importance of aesthetics
Any design process has to involve a refinement of the product’s sensory appeal and styling. The Danish Design Centre fully acknowledges the continued importance of aesthetics for the concept of design without, however, defining design as the exclusive domain of decorative objects.

Danish design has come a long way since its golden age in the post-war era. The Danish Design Centre's design definition is based on a contemporary concept of design, which incorporates the changes that the design concept has undergone while keeping an eye on the future that the concept is moving towards.

There is no doubt that design has a crucial role in ensuring Denmark's status as a competitive and innovative society.