Introduction

AAfter its elevation of status in 2020, Taiwan Design Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as the TDRI) began to develop research in design policy. INTRODUCTION And in that same year, experts from industry, government, academia, and research were invited to organize a series of policy workshops, in which they ran through a checklist of the status of Taiwan design development that resulted in the publication of a “Taiwan’s Design Blueprint” This publication addressed eight aspects on Taiwan’s design and development ecosystem, including:

Design Policy Design Funding Design Support Designers Design Users Design Education Design Research Design Promotion

As the goal was to enhance the development of domestic design, having a firm grasp on the development pulse of the domestic design industry was essential during design industry tracking. Hence, systematic data tracking and inspections were carried out in order to track domestic design development, which led to the “Design in Taiwan Report 2020” being published. This year (2021), based on the “Taiwan’s Design Blueprint” our research team focused on the development of domestic “design talent” and conducted a design talent questionnaire and interviews with experts.

In pace with the promotion of design internationally in recent years, design has branched out and embraces a lot more different industries and public sectors, and is now regarded as the key force driving innovation. In 1997, Denmark became the first country in the world to involve design in social development and bolster industrial competitiveness. To date, many EU Member States, the United States, Singapore, and South Korea have also followed suit in formulating design related policies to drive their respective nation’s industrial transformation and overall economic development. In recent years, international design policies have gradually focused on three aspects:

(1) using design to drive innovation and enhance industrial competitiveness (2) adopting design to improve public services quality and public sector efficiency (3) implementing more systematic planning of limited resources to achieve the goal of sustainable social development.

Thus in this promotional tidal wave, design talents are gradually being held in high regard and playing key roles.

As an overview of what other countries are discussing with regard to design talents, in the Asia region, the Japanese government is encouraging more businesses to recognize the value of design. And in addition to focusing on bolstering the design thinking of business talents and advocating high level design positions, they are also beginning to pay attention to the possible benefits of emerging design fields, such as service design, to business development. The development of design talent in Korea is also keeping pace with industry trends. The Korean Institute of Design Promotion (hereinafter referred to as KIDP) has organized a network of designers at home and abroad, which in addition to serving as a channel to globally market Korean design, it also acts as an important gateway to cultivate international design talent. Singapore in its “2025 Design Masterplan” 1 proposed that design will become one of its national skillsets. The specific strategies they propose to accomplish this include nurturing citizens’ appreciation and cultivation of design starting from preschool education, developing higher design education orientated towards cross-disciplinary learning, and encouraging designers to persist with in-service continuing studies. In Europe, due to the attention paid to social and environmental issues, such as climate change, aging societies, and the postpandemic era, the British Design Council believes that designers can play a key role when mankind is put to the test facing such social and environmental issues, with such tribulations also bringing greater imaginative vision and expectations for the professional competency of the new generation of design talents.

“2021 Taiwan Design Talent Report” is the first large-scale and systematic investigation and study on design talent in Taiwan. Our hope is that this research and publication will invite more experts from industry, government, academia, research circles, and interested public to follow together with increased interest the current situation and future development of Taiwan’s design talent, ultimately creating a more flexible and friendly environment for the design industry and design talent.

1 Design Singapore Council (2016). Design 2025. Retrieved from https://www.designsingapore.org/resources/design-2025.html