Export Conference To Discuss Design Council

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30126, 9 May 1963, Page 6

Export Conference To Discuss Design Council

The proposal to establish an industrial design council in New Zealand will be discussed at the Export Development Conference at Wellington to be held early nexit month. The working committee on the Quality and Design for Export section of the conference has already decided this, according to an article in the latest issue of the “New Zealand Manufacturer,” the official journal of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation.

The Department of Industries and Commerce has suggested for discussion the following main functions of a design council: a design advice section, design centres, a library and information service, a design education section and a packaging and advertising section. The minimum staff a design council would need is listed as: director (or executive officer), deputy director (or senior advisory officer), three design advice officers, typing and clerical staff. “In appointing staff, apart from those on purely administrative duties, senior staff members should have practical design experience or training,” the article says. The working committee considers that, following the tradition of other councils established by statute, the secretariat of a design council might best be provided by the Government, at least in the first instance. For practical reasons, the council could be attached to the De-

partinent of Industries and Commerce for staffing and other services. The article proposes that the council would have to be established in the first instance with Government finance. It points out that the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation is at present considering to what extent it can support the establishment of an industrial design council. (The federation council, last November, passed a resolution agreeing, in principle with the establishment of a design council). “In the financial context, it should be not that New Zealand has been spending from its overseas funds approximately £1,250,000 annually in design royalties and

commissions. The development of design facilities within New Zealand would quickly result in material savings in this expenditure. “An industrial design council in New Zealand would be of little use if it were established with weak functions and inadequate finance,” the article says.