This presentation was developed for the Singapore International Design Forum (IDF) in 2003 by Professor Ron Newman. Professor Newman was, at the time, Director and Dean of Sydney College of the Arts a Faculty of the University of Sydney

1.
"
Creative Industries:
Its relevance in a design
education?
Does a case exists in 2003. . ?
for Singapore International Design Forum (IDF)
by Ron Newman

2.
"
This presentation was developed for the Singapore
International Design Forum (IDF) in 2003 by Professor Ron
Newman who was also the convener of the event for the
Singapore Designers Association. Professor Newman is now
CEO of the fully online Virtu Design Institute.
This DesignMeetings website is the Research portal of Virtu
Design Institute.

3. Skills
Culture
Commerce
Knowledge
Design
Education

4. we are bombarded by clever statistics
From UK government website Creative Industries accounted for 7.9%
of GDP in 2000.
• Four of the creative industries account for three quarters of the
economic value of the grouping of sectors: Design (2.8% of the whole
economy), Software (1.6%), Publishing (0.9%) and advertising
(0.7%).
• The creative industries grew by an average 9% per annum between
1997 and 2001.
• Exports contributed to £8.7 billion to the balance of trade in 2000,
equating to 3.3% of all goods and services exported.
• Exports of the creative industries have grown at around 13% per
annum over the period of 1997 - 2000.
• In December 2001, creative employment totalled 1.95 million jobs
• Over the period 1997 - 2001, employment in the creative industries
grew at a rate of 5% per annum, compared to 1.5% for the whole
economy.
culture.gov.uk/creative_industries/default

5. . . .there are real concerns in many
economies, not to be left out . . . ?
UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Arts Council of England
(ACE) and the Design Council launch a guide to careers: Your Creative Future.
Outines career options in booming UK industries, including digital media, design,
film, television, and the performing arts, interspersing them with the personal
experiences of some of today’s creative practitioners. Estimated revenues of £60
billion and a workforce numbering around 1.4 million, the Creative Industries
are fast becoming a cornerstone of the UK economy, as Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport Chris Smith points out in the guide’s foreword: “The
creative industries offer some of the best, most interesting and rewarding careers
around. And opportunities in these areas are set to increase over the coming years
as the UK’s creative industries go from strength to strength. Growing twice as
fast as the economy as a whole, they are generating wealth and creating new jobs
for the future.” Andrew Summers, Chief Executive of the Design Council, says:
“All the evidence shows that Creative Industries like design are continuing to
expand at an extraordinary rate …”!

6. – Extracts from The Auckland University of Technology Dean of the
Faculty of Arts, Professor Peter Harwood's speech at the opening of the
Arts For Your Sake festival of student works, November 2001.
– I wish to briefly explore the new concept or term
creative industries". The Blair government in Britain in 1997
defined the concept as "activities which have their origin in individual
creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential for wealth and
job creation through generation and exploitation of intellectual
property".
– Some 13 industry sectors were identified including craft and antique
markets, IT software, film, TV, radio, visual arts, interactive leisure
software, publishing, advertising and architecture. To these we have
added the humanities and social sciences, fashion, graphic and spatial
design, language, Maori art and design and the culinary arts.

7. The term "creative"or "liberal arts"as defined in the
early 1700's is to be liberal, free or virtuous (i.e. non commercial). Hence
the slight snobbery or elitism in higher education about fine arts in
contrast to "cultural industries" and the consequent dumbing down
effects of mass entertainment - cultural industries like media and movies
which often fail to combine art and culture but instead form commercial
exploitation.
– Today, these two themes, "creative arts" and "cultural industries" have
evolved into a third, or the next era of "creative industries" and the term
focuses on the twin truths that the core of culture is still "creativity" but
creativity is produced, deployed, consumed and enjoyed quite differently
from the way it used to be. "Industries" refers to economic sectors and in
this sense is interactive; oriented to the new economy; small enterprise
based; requiring content with individual artistic talent; i.e. a service
sector with high added value in the business of applied creativity
(including education, finance, tourism and hospitality. !

8. The creative industries are the fastest growing and most significant hot-
spots of the new economy in the world:
we see new commitments being made !
• In the United Kingdom the creative industries have revenues of some £60
billion and employ 1.5 billion people. They contribute over 4% of the UK
GDP and the sector is growing at almost twice the rate of the economy as a
whole.
• In Canada, creative industries account for some $29.6 billion in GDP. New
media growth in Toronto is about 20-25% per annum with total output about
US$700 million. A spectrum of creative industries sectors in the New
England states accounted for US$6.6 billion turnover, growing at 14% per
annum.
• Australia also reports substantial turnover, employment and growth in the
creative industries sectors. Queensland alone estimates creative industries to
have revenues of A$5 billion p.a., with an annual growth rate of 7% and
employment increases of 42%. Identified strengths for the sector in
Queensland include: highly talented individuals; high levels of innovation; a
culture that values diversity and enthusiasm and strong government support
for the sector (e.g. Queensland government grant of $15 million for a
Creative Industries Precinct at Queensland University Technology (QUT).!

9. Some suggest that the contribution of the Creative Industries
in the new economy overcomes the false dichotomy or
dualism between science and arts. Because the creative
industries are not like existing industries, government and
policy change is required. Similarly, curriculum challenges
include input from creativity so that artistic talent and
"culture" assume central positions in our thinking.
!

10. In a recent paper by Cunningham and Hartley of
Queensland University of Technology (QUT), suggested that
"Creative Industries" is an idea whose time has come.!

11. that the direct Creative Industries link is the way forward
rather than the notion of Cultural Industries inputting into
commerce.
does it have to be either / or . . . ?!

12. Culture
Commerce

13. Skills
Knowledge

14. New
Technology!
New Values
New
Business
Models!

15. Culture
Commerce

16. "..you employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build
houses and palaces; that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly
you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy and I say 'this is beautiful'.
That is architecture. Art enters in." Le Corbusier
!

19. commerce is looking for innovations that are
less risky
Copyright ©

20. Skills
Knowledge

21. “In today's complex world, it is no longer possible to tackle a design
problem from a single skill: a multi disciplinary team approach is
required. The answer to high complexity is what I call High Design.
By high design I mean an integrated process incorporating all the
skills on which design has historically based itself, plus all the new
design related skills we need to be able to respond to the complexity
and challenges of the present and be able to anticipate those in the
future.”
Marzano, S'Flying over Las Vegas' EDC 1992

23. When we talk about what makes that building so good we use necessarily
use words like vision, belief, passion and philosophy. Utzon's constraints
were not only of satisfying the program of an Opera House, but also a
response to context, a belief in natural systems as a structural device,
mathematical order, the perception of harmony that lies within emotional
relationships, the idea of a sculptural form-in-the-round with the harbour as
its viewing platform.

24. Future
Practice!

25. Future Practice!
• Design Leadership
• Culture Vision
• Innovation Risk
• New values
• Enhanced process

26. an example: Welcome to the
wonderful world of

27. Introduction
• Established in 1984
• by Dare Jennings
• Plenty of young optimism
• Stores all around the world

28. Design Philosophies
• Radical
• Free thinking
• Relate to the present
• Employes individual artists
• Surrealism

29. Art at Mambo

30. Ethics is the Business
• Own set of moral principles
• Belief in common sub-conscious
• Cultural awareness
• Vision for Niche Market
• Humorous yet ethical

31. Actuality in ethics
MR AND MR SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
WOULD PREFER NOT TO HAVE A
NUCLEAR REACTOR SITUATED
HALFWAY UP THEIR ARSE

32. Management
• Mariage between creativity
and business
• Management techinques
• Momentum of change

33. The Mambo NON Future
• Purchased by Gazel Corporation Limited
• Divisionalised structure introduced
• Mambo lost focus
• Executives on service agreement with Gazel

34. Future Practice!
• Design Leadership
• Culture Vision
• Innovation Risk
• New values
• Enhanced process

35. Skills
Culture
Commerce
Knowledge
Design
Education

36. and so finally what does it mean for
Singapore . . . ?!

37. ARTS COUNCIL HAS NEW CHIEF:
The national Arts Council of Singapore has a new chief
executive officer, Mr Lee Suan Hiang, currently CEO of Spring
Singapore. Mr Lee, 53, will take up his new position on Oct.
15, 2003.
He will also assume the new post of Fellow in charge of the
Creative Industries Strategy Group at the Ministry of
Information, Communications and the Arts. There he will help
develop design and other creative sectors.
The Straights Times Sept 16th, 2003
and so already Singapore has officially
adopted the language . . . !!

38. “ in my view Singapore needs to be careful not
to adopt the ideas of others so readily, but
rather it should innovate and develop
strategies that suit its own unique position . . !”
!
Ron Newman 2003!

39. and remember There are two important factors, the two
poles in the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on
the other, the spectator who becomes the posterity...
Millions of artists create, only a few thousand are
discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less
again are consecrated by posterity.
Marcel Duchamp from Le Processus Creatif.

40.
Creative Industries:
Its relevance in a design
education?
a case exists in 2003. . ?
for Singapore International Design Forum (IDF)
by Ron Newman