DBA Members’ Forum | December Summary

• We were challenged to get out more, uphold the inherent curiosity of designers, stay focused, filter out the noise and have meaningful dialogue with others. Maximise connection.
• Inspiring the future generation was raised more than once – there’s a wealth of opportunity for designers to pay forward to the younger generation. Work with your nearest school, mentor a student, engage with parents and children at every opportunity to inspire them to a career in design and lobby government to rebuild creative education pipelines. A more diverse industry starts with increasing awareness of design careers – what will you do in 2025 to make this happen?
• Design collaboration – think about the way you apply design to how you work with your clients.
• Step up more and take action – we can be loud advocates for design’s ability to shape culture, drive change and inspire. Check out Design Declares.
• What are we going to destroy to create? Stop asking for permission, take action. 
• AI was a hot topic – but human interaction and connection remains essential and sets designers apart. If designers are going to maintain their relevance in the future, we need to take advantage of AI. Guide your clients through technological transitions and use your curiosity to discover future emergent behaviours.
• Stop selling time – we need to be rewarded by selling value and outcomes. 
• Foster peripheral learning – design leaders need to create a workplace people want to come to to connect, to learn, to be inspired.
• Pull together and create the loudest and most united front on copycat design – see what ACID are doing to support. 
• Re-open the possibilities of what design can achieve in 2025, design is not the answer but the question.

Coming up

There was much, much more covered in the inspiring hour – I hope you find these notes helpful. Join our next meeting on Monday 13 January, 4-5pm GMT, look out for an email with the details in a few weeks.

We’ve captured the conversation highlights from all the Members’ Forums which have taken place which can be found here.