Design Matters is an annual design conference that is held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since its inception in 2015, Design Matters has attracted numerous designers from around the world, evolving into a platform where participants can not only experience cutting-edge trends and ideas but also gain diverse inspiration.

As the name suggests, Design Matters provides an opportunity for participating designers to reexamine the societal role they should play and consider the responsibilities each individual holds towards their own act of design.

Every year, Design Matters focuses on three topics related to the design industry and community. Last year, the themes were “What Are We Responsible ?,” “Decolonizing Design,” and “A Little Pick-me-up”.

While working as a UI/UX designer in the cross-functional department at DMM.com, a tech company based in Japan, I am also personally involved in regional revitalization activities in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture. I often have opportunities to contemplate the role and responsibilities of a designer in my daily work. This time, I had the privilege of traveling to Copenhagen as a member of the Spectrum Tokyo editorial team to participate the conference. In this report, I will share my insights and experiences from the conference through the lens of a Japanese designer.

Thinking on a Global Scale, Not Just Human-Centric

The overall visual theme of this year’s Design Matters is focused on Planet-Centric Design. It aims to explore more environmentally friendly and planet-centered design through the lens of sustainability. Throughout the venue, biological patterns symbolizing these concepts are scattered, many of which have unique appearances resembling plant veins or cells.

These patterns were conceptualized by identity designer Sara Bertova. They represent the microbial and mycelial networks beneath the soil that surround us. This serves as a message against the human-centric and individualistic design processes that designers often fall into.

In the “design thinking” process commonly used by digital designers for problem-solving, there is often an unconscious tendency to focus solely on humans. Despite the simple fact that we are just a small part of nature on Earth and a minority among species, we tend to fall into such perceptions.

The messages displayed throughout the venue, such as “What are we responsible for?”, serve as a catalyst for participants to reconsider the meaning of their presence at this conference.

Ecologically Conscious Venue Design

Halvandet is a bar and a restaurant located in an industrial area that shaped the local industry’s history in the heart of Copenhagen. It offers views of canals and the cityscape. The main stage and various event spaces are situated in an open location, utilizing the unique design elements of the former factory site.

The venue design at Halvandet showcases an ecologically conscious space, where industrial containers have been repurposed into gender-neutral restrooms and cable drums for electrical wires serve as wall decorations. This reflects the Danish approach to spatial design, which values both historical landscapes and functional aesthetics. The utilization of complex environmental elements is skillfully incorporated, creating a captivating atmosphere that stimulates curiosity.

Furthermore, the entry experience to the venue, from the main stage to the rest areas, is designed to enhance guest communication through various approaches. It is evident that thoughtful arrangements have been made to activate interactions among attendees.

Collaboration with Local Businesses for Experiential Activities

Design Matters offers a variety of activities tailored to the local context, in addition to the main stage events. The opportunity to engage in these experiences is one of the benefits of attending the conference. There were tours available for ticket holders to participate in fieldwork related to local industries and visit local companies before the conference.

The light lunch featured a diverse and inclusive food menu, including vegan options and traditional Danish open sandwiches.

Furthermore, as one of the activities at the venue, the renowned Danish coffee bar, “Prolog Coffee,” held workshops. Prolog Coffee emphasized the importance of preserving the cultivation environment of coffee beans and increasing transparency in trade with farmers to create an exceptional coffee experience, which they shared with the participants.

Design Matters establishes partnerships with local businesses in the host city, respecting the identity of its location while collaborating in line with the conference’s themes.

Diverse Speakers on the Main Stage

The main stage featured not only senior designers from globally recognized companies but also experts from educational institutions, researchers, typographers, illustrators, artists, and more, showcasing their initiatives and insights. Each session was incredibly fascinating, and to be honest, it was impossible to absorb all the information presented. However, I would like to highlight a few sessions that left a lasting impression on me.

Guidione Machava – How Decolonizing Design Facilitates Innovation

Guidione is a senior product designer from the Republic of Mozambique in Africa, and he has been active across various sectors. He recognizes the challenge that, despite the increasing number of companies striving for diversity, it is extremely rare to find African designers who can compete on a global level.

Due to the unique nature of Guidione’s career path as an African, he believes that it is not replicable in his poverty-stricken and unequal home country. In response to this issue, he established the World-class Designer School, a design school with national accreditation in Africa that provides a peer-to-peer university-level learning environment. Despite being a free school, it fosters an entrepreneurial spirit among its students and provides a system that connects them to the industry.

It is crucial that everyone has the opportunity to participate in a stage where they can develop an interest in design and learn. Guidione actively works towards designing his country’s education system as an effective means to produce designers who can create the future “Made in Africa” brand.

As a designer at DMM, I am involved in a service called DMM WEB CAMP, which aims to collaborate with the government to cultivate future digital design talent. While there is a common goal in creating designers for the future, I couldn’t help but notice a significant difference in scale when it comes to Machava’s role as a designer in his own country, leading the way on a global level.

Lee Timutimu – The Power of Indigenous Storytelling

Lee is a descendant of the Maori people, and the indigenous population of New Zealand, and he shared the importance of storytelling as a means to preserve their cherished indigenous culture for future generations.

Historically, the Maori people experienced colonization as Europeans expanded into the new continent, resulting in the loss of their land and enduring discrimination. The remnants of this history still persist today, with Maori people facing lower employment rates and higher suicide rates compared to the average New Zealand population.

Drawing on his extensive experience in the IT industry, Lee founded a tech company called Arataki Systems. Through this company, he operates a community called “Te Reo Wainene o Tua,” which focuses on sharing Maori culture and stories. He also creates content to pass down the rich Maori cultural heritage to future generations.

Additionally, Arataki Systems collaborated with Meta, a Facebook group, to provide information and oversee the development of AR experiences that visually showcase Maori stories in a spatial context. Arataki Systems serves as the creative lead, ensuring the authenticity of Maori stories while overcoming technical limitations in the Asia-Pacific region, ultimately sharing Maori culture with the world as navigators.

In the beginning, Lee mentioned, “I am not a designer, but there is no significant difference in visually conveying through storytelling.” This statement made me reflect on the theme of Design Matters, “What Are We Responsible For?” It reminded me of the power of storytelling and how it can play a crucial role in preserving and sharing cultural heritage.

Workshops

Online streaming has become the standard of today, one of the experiences that can only be gained by attending the event in person is participating in workshops.

I was able to participate in several workshops.

Doodle Club – Doodle Workshop

This workshop was led by Geo Law, an illustrator based in London. It emphasized the importance of collaboration through doodling as an act that anyone can engage in.

Personally, I struggle with communication in English and often feel overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the venue. This workshop was a great help to me in that regard. It turns out that many other participants shared similar sentiments.

It is natural for everyone attending this conference to feel nervous when encountering a new environment, and sharing the process of doodling, which anyone can easily participate in, served not only as a recreational or refreshing activity but also as an icebreaker for the entire conference.

Geo’s intention seemed successful, as the workshop provided a highly effective way to convey the charm of drawing while clearing the icebreaker for the first day of the conference.

The Eye of the Beholder – Workshop for Gaining Different Perspectives

This workshop, led by Sara Jepsen and Pelle Martin, designers from the Copenhagen-based design agency Spring/Summer, is a debate-style workshop. It explores the diversity of perspectives on how we perceive objects and actions, testing them through group work and sharing to gain new insights and understandings among participants.

Based on classic brands and product examples, the workshop deepens discussions among participants, staying true to the theme of the Design Matters conference.

We all unconsciously see the world through different lenses, gaining unique insights and inspirations that we bring to our creative work. Understanding that it is challenging to expand these perspectives within limited environments or relying solely on our own abilities, we can gain valuable hints for teamwork. 

The importance of acquiring different perspectives from other companies extends beyond the workflow of designers. I also learned that it is necessary to clearly communicate critical viewpoints in our own words. Even with great perspectives, they lose their meaning if we hesitate to speak up and express them.

In addition to this workshop, there were other unique activities that generated discussions aligned with the conference theme, such as storyboard workshops and group workshops to create workshops. Participants had interactive and enjoyable experiences while gaining multidimensional insights.

 Creating Opportunities for Exchange through Diverse Approaches

After the main sessions and workshops, speakers had the opportunity to interact with participants in the “Meet The Speakers” room, allowing for further conversations. I was able to have conversations with Andrew, a product designer at Notion, and other members I met at Design Matters Tokyo. It was a rich and intense time where we could delve into more in-depth discussions and talk about their specific experiences in product development and organizational design processes, which we couldn’t do during the sessions.

While learning through one-sided speeches and taking notes can be done through online archives, having the opportunity to ask questions in real-time after speaker sessions and engage in conversations with fellow participants on the same topics is truly one of the highlights of attending a live event.

At Design Matters, various non-verbal communication activities were available, such as drawing sessions and soccer games in the break area. This allowed me, even as someone who is not fluent in English, to interact with designers from different countries.

Reflecting on the Social Role of a Digital Designer

At Design Matters 22, I felt that I was able to deepen my understanding of the joys and challenges of design through fieldwork in Copenhagen and interactions with the organizing team. As someone who often speaks as a representative of my company, participating in Design Matters 22 has significantly changed my perspective. I strongly believe that design leaders who stand as representatives of products and services should not just be spokespersons for their companies, but should also embody the attitude of a designer who contributes to society and users through their services.

While it is important for designers in business companies to generate revenue and achieve impactful results, I believe that it becomes increasingly difficult to create valuable solutions and convey strong messages through individualistic approaches. 

This may be my own biased interpretation, but in the main stage presentations and conversations I had on-site, I resonated a lot with the roles and philosophies of Guidione and Lee, who work in the same educational domain as me. They became a catalyst for me to reconsider my approach.

• Having a strong commitment to the products and services as a designer
• Having social beliefs and philosophies as a designer
• Attempting dialogue through various means as a designer

Through this experience, I reaffirmed these three principles and aspired to be a designer who embodies them. Additionally, I believe that their practices and messages can be applied in our daily lives and work in Japan. We should not be ashamed to engage in dialogue through various means and discuss the future we envision.

If you have the opportunity to attend the conference in person, I encourage you to engage in conversations. Let’s connect and share our thoughts!