ABOUT

EHDM Project

The European House of Design Management (EHDM) encourages the use of creative thinking and creative methods in public service projects across Europe. The aim of the project is to enable public sector organisations to use design management thinking and methods currently used by leading companies in the private sector.

Design management
Public and private sectors today face a common challenge; delivering the best possible products and services that are sustainable, efficient and cost effective. The world is witnessing how successful initiatives based on innovation at strategic and operational levels offer solutions to meet this challenge, with far reaching results.

The public sector across Europe currently commissions billions of euros of design services across all member states, to improve and deliver public services. The strategic use of design practice has been shown to make a significant contribution to improvements in services especially in reshaping them to extract more performance from reduced budgets. However, design practice on its own, even at the highest standard, is not enough. It is well-managed, high quality, strategic, user-centred design practice that makes the difference.

This is not just the project management of design activities but it is a specific activity called design management. Design management is a business discipline that uses project management, design strategy and supply chain techniques to control a creative process, support a culture of creativity and build a structure and organisation for design.

EHDM is a three-year collaborative project running from 2012 to 2015, co-funded by the European Commission. It is one of six pilot projects funded by the First Action Plan of the European Design Innovation Initiative.

The consortium of collaborative partners comprises of a mix of public and private organisations:

• Design Business Association – project coordinator (United Kingdom)
• Estonian Association of Designers (Estonia)
• Design Denmark (Denmark)
• Umbria Trade Agency (Italy)
• Innovhub (Italy)