A Curious Journey through an Unknown World

The Companion will be the first publication to bring together the wide range of theoretical, practical, practice-based and historical perspectives on design that have emerged over the last forty or so years, and to understand how they relate to a wide variety of academic disciplines and audiences. Valentine’s chapter is commissioned as part of the section of the volume entitled ‘The Boundaries of Design’. The chapter draws on her research developing Design Mindfulness in collaborative and partnership based projects. What is the new business of design and by default the responsibility of being a designer? How can designers craft their future, understand practice as a portfolio of experience, knowledge and skill with underpinning values that transcend subject specific boundaries? How should we evaluate excellence in visual practice? Drawing on her research concerned with communication of design and craft, changing perceptions and developing reflective methods for improving quality, this chapter describes a new framework for communicating craft practice. It uses this framework as a basis for analysing progress and developing a framework for excellence within the visual practice of making. It contributes new knowledge of design as a meta-language, enabling the leadership capabilities of designer’s to be communicated with greater transparency and meaning for those in the Creative Industries and the Arts. A criterion for identifying and evaluating leadership traits and competencies in designers is shared, with insights into how performance can be enhanced and how quality can be enriched. The concept of cultural change is discussed and examples of mindful design practice in the 21st Century are used to exemplify how design adds value when seeking to improve cultural and business wellbeing. On closing, it calls for the missing discourses of management, leadership and innovation to become critical parts of future design and craft education.