Dundee summit to highlight designs for success

Some of the world’s biggest brands – including drinks giant Diageo, textiles maker Harris Tweed Hebrides and aerospace engines group Rolls-Royce – will gather in Dundee this month for the inaugural Scottish Design Summit.

Harris Tweed Hebrides will be among the firms sharing their expertise. Picture: Robert Perry

Hosted by the University of Dundee’s Design in Action project, the event will examine Scotland’s potential to create a design-led economy and show how creativity can help firms can improve their results.

Professor Georgina Follett, director of Design In Action, said: “Design isn’t what happens to sell the product, nor is it the labelling and the fancy pictures. Design is how the product started and why it works.

“Successful companies of the future will be those that embrace design earlier in their development process. In short, design can help the Scottish economy achieve a new drive and focus.”

Speakers at the summit, to be held at Dundee’s Malmaison Hotel on 22 May, will include Mark Hogarth, creative director of Harris Tweed Hebrides, Rolls-Royce head of supplier engineering Richard Baker and Kerrin Lumsden, design manager for reserve brands at Diageo.