BEYOND THE SELF

DOT, Designers of Today, is a new association of young designers who engage in necessary and charitable work to set a different agenda for the debate about the designer's role today.

DOT came about through the ICIS Development Programme for Designers and is today comprised of 36 graphic designers, spatial designers, industrial designers, architects, ceramists, project managers, furniture designers, art directors and process designers.

DOT was initially conceived as a multidisciplinary networking exercise, and in that respect it has been hugely successful. But in a way that has become characteristic of the association in general, reaching the immediate goal is just the beginning. The young designers found that there different approach to and view of design was a strength and a resource that could be tapped to achieve something unusual - something beyond the individual self.


DOT is a rare construction. It is a project as well as an association of professionals who are driven by ideology - by a desire to make a difference beyond profit. The basic idea is simple: Demonstrate that design can be a material as well as an immaterial discipline and do it for a good cause.

DOT's basic idea is becoming a code of ethics - a set of basic guidelines for the association's current and future projects. Like the association, the code of ethics has grown to become part of a greater debate within Danish Designers. The code maintains that any design project takes into consideration the environment, social rights, humanitarian respect and compassion, in short that the design is sustainable. Simple as it sounds, this code of ethics - like so many other things in DOT - is innovative in relation to the world in which today's designers work.


But what is the concrete result of all these good intentions? Simple: DOT is based on the idea that all its members give 5% of their professional time to charity. DOT has already donated 2000 working hours to UNICEF Denmark, and more projects are being considered - all with the thing in common that they redefine the role of the designer in relation to the world around her and with regards to the designer's own work.

This need for a new definition of the designer's role now and in the future is the second half of the background for DOT. With fundamentally existential questions such as "who are we and where are we going?" DOT helps set and guide an internal and external debate which eventually will show where and how designers must play a part.


Today, design is much more than putting a pretty shape to things. Design can basically be divided into material design and immaterial design. Material design is what most people consider to be traditional design. Immaterial design is a process that attempts to find new solutions to complex issues and that includes disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and strategy. And even though all of these areas represent important elements of a fruitful design process, there has never been much interaction between them. Until now.

Today, the design process is the result of an undertaking where focusing on the process itself always improves the final result. Documentation, drafts, sketches and project descriptions often ask good questions about how people should relate to each other and to the world around them. In a time of soundbites, hastily introduced legislation, and an overwhelming amount of rapid-fire information, the design process is a guarantee for careful consideration. And while the opportunities and challenges of the modern world are not to be dismissed, paying attention to the process in a design project ensures that the deliberations behind the solution can be used in other areas as well.

Professional network. Charity association. Multi-disciplinary resource. Whatever way you choose to define DOT, it is a new factor in the world of design, a factor that will make sure that design always is an integrated and inevitable part of something beyond itself.

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