Designers' Chain Table

In collaboration with the Creative Industries Fund NL, an exploration was conducted into the form a chain table for the design sector could take. While this partnership holds extensive knowledge of the subsidized and primarily cultural part of the sector, there is less familiarity with commercial practice. Therefore, a preliminary phase was chosen in which researcher Martijn Arnoldus of Social Finance Matters drafted factsheets on regulations, rate structures, and professional practices. Under the title “Design Your Own Rate,” these factsheets were presented during a session by the Fund at Dutch Design Week. They serve as the starting point for further steps.

Preparatory research for the launch of the chain table

During the exploratory phase, a steering committee was established which met twice. This committee is composed of independent designers, agencies, clients, educational institutions, and industry experts, and has the potential (and ambition) to evolve into a chain table. The delivered factsheets have been well received and prove to be a useful starting point for the follow-up. The steering committee advised organizing the chain table approach as a design process. This advice was taken to heart and translated into a commission for the social design agency Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken (A/BZ) from Rotterdam. A/BZ developed three prototypes for potential practical instruments and organized a workshop around these with approximately 25 (mostly emerging) designers at Dutch Design Week (DDW). The input from this session, supplemented by on-site interviews during DDW, is being developed into a concrete approach for the chain table. In addition to the Creative Industries Fund NL, the expertise of BNO, the professional organization for designers, will also play a significant role in the approach.