In cooperation with the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, we explored in what form a chain table for the design sector could take shape. Because in this collaboration admittedly much knowledge is available from the subsidized and mainly cultural part of the sector, and less from commercial practice, a preliminary phase was chosen in which fact sheets on regulations, fee structure and professional practices were prepared by researcher Martijn Arnoldus of Social Finance Matters. Titled “Design your own tariff,” the fact sheets were presented during a session of the Stimulation Fund at Dutch Design Week. They are the starting point for further steps.

Preparatory research for start-up chain table

During the exploratory phase, a guidance committee was established and met twice. This committee is composed of independent designers, agencies, clients, education and industry experts and has the potential (and ambition) to grow into a chain table. The fact sheets produced were well received and proved to be a useful starting point for the follow-up. The supervisory committee advised setting up the chain table approach as a design process. That advice was taken to heart and translated into a commission to social design agency Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken (A/BZ) from Rotterdam. A/BZ developed three prototypes for possible practical instruments and conducted a workshop around them with some 25 (mostly novice) designers at the Dutch Design Week (DDW). The input of this session, supplemented with interviews on location during the DDW, will be worked out into a concrete approach for the chain table. Besides the Stimuleringsfonds, the expertise of BNO, the professional organization for designers, will also have an important place in the approach.