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Welcome to the membership organisation for Industrial Designers involved in product, service and interaction design. Read more...

Membership

We invite you to join us. By becoming a BDI member you will have access to a whole range of services to support you and your business.

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Business

Let us help you find the right design partner to make your innovation more effective, build your brand and grow your bottom line.

BDI Hot Topics

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No more them or us!

In an interview for Engineering Designer, IED Chairman David Maffin and BDI Chairman Gus Desbarats discuss the changing roles of engineering and industrial designers and how the IED can help facilitate better collaboration between the two.

Member and industry news

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New D&T curriculum axed

Ministers are to scrap the draft design and technology syllabus just two months after it was published amid claims that the document prioritised ‘life skills’ over rigorous disciplines such as engineering.

Government plans to recategorise design

The Government is reviewing its categorisation of the creative industries and is planning to drop Craft as a classification and merge Design and Designer Fashion into one group. These new classifications would form the basis of Government research...

Thought leadership

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Should we be concerned about a shortage of Rare Earth Elements?

Although there has been a lot of attention in the media recently, Rob Bell, Team leader for Process Commercialisation at BDI member C-Tech Innovation, believes that we are not in danger of running out, if we act to utilise our resources more...

There’s nothing worse than ‘fiddling’ in the dark!

In this BDI thought leadership piece Adele Graham-King, Smallfry’s Business Development Executive, talks about making medical devices more intuitive after being woken up in the night by her 3 year old daughter who has asthma and often needs her...

University Design Industry Partnership (UDIP)

The BDI University Design Industry Partnership (UDIP) is the first formal alliance of its kind in the UK. It was created in May 2010 to benefit BDI and University members and the UK economy as whole, and to improve and develop collaborative activities in support of design and innovation. Our partnership seeks to bring the industrial design community and academia closer together to forge stronger links to address a number of issues affecting the growth and quality of the design industry.

Dates for your diary

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Designs of the Year 2013
Mar
20
Location: Design Museum, London
The Designs of the Year awards, from the Design Museum, ‘The Oscars of the design world'...
UK Device Developers' Conference
May
14
Location: Bristol, Cambridge, Manchester
A conference for the developers of' "intelligent systems and intelligent devices". An event for...

BDI Partners

New Designers 2013
New Designers is the exhibition for emerging design.

Taking place over two weeks, with eight distinct design zones and two prestigious Awards Evenings, New Designers is the UK's most important graduate design exhibition, full of innovation and fresh thinking.
The show sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK's leading universities come together to showcase the future of design and creativity.

Commission, recruit and buy directly from the future of British design before it hits the high street. Visit Part 1 for textiles, jewellery, ceramics and more and Part 2 for design ranging from furniture and products to illustration and motion arts.
Rapid Prototyping Conference 2013
Rapid Prototyping 2013 will bring together manufacturers and users of rapid prototyping devices, designers and engineers, with the aim of advancing innovation through the use of Rapid Prototyping and Additive Manufacturing across the automotive, medical, aerospace, consumer electronics, defence and consumer goods industries.

Recent innovations are providing cost benefits as well as the flexibility required for making in-house prototyping and manufacturing feasible, irrespective of the company’s size. This conference aims to provide insights into the status of Rapid Prototyping and its future and offers a fertile ground for innovation and collaboration.
Plastics Industry Awards 2013
Launched in 2001 the Plastics Industry Awards are known as the Oscars of the UK plastics industry. Eight hundred plastic professionals and their guests attended last year’s black-tie awards ceremony to see Magmatic win Consumer Product of the year for the Trunki, Nathan Bestwick named Young Designer of the Year and F-Board win the Industrial Product Design category. Sponsored by Engel, HiTech Robotics and Automation, Lawson Keys, Agentdraw, BMB, Distrupol, Hasco. Nexeo Solutions and Summit Systems, the Plastics Industry Awards also enjoy the support of the British Plastics Federation, British Design Innovation, GTMA, The Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (IOM3), PTIC and the Plastics Design & Moulding exhibition
The Design Business Association (DBA)
The Design Business Association (DBA) was founded in 1986 to promote professional excellence within the design industry. Our membership consists of over 400 design consultancies and design-led businesses throughout the UK, including many of the brightest and most respected names.
International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®)
The International Design Excellence Awards is the premier international competition recognizing and promoting design excellence across a number of industries and disciplines. Each year designers, students, and companies worldwide have the opportunity to get their designs in front of a diverse juror of renowned experts and become recognized as one of the world’s best. Started in 1980, IDEA® fosters business and public understanding about the impact of design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. The IDEA program is considered one of the most preeminent design competitions with its scope and influence reaching across the globe.
THE BIG RETHINK 2013: MAKE YOUR BRAND MORE POWERFUL
THIS marketing event, now in its fourth year, gathers 150 leading marketers together to generate fresh ideas. It is a space in which conventional thinking is challenged and critical visions, tools and insights are shared. With interactive sessions led by the most unexpected and talented individuals, this summit will provide our audience with new approaches to marketing in today’s challenging environment.

THE THEME THIS YEAR
BRAND. It could be the most valuable asset you have. Is it as powerful as it could be? Is it strong enough for you to withstand increasing competition to your company? In 2013, The Big Rethink will invite you to think about interesting ways to make your brand more powerful.
Med-Tech Innovation Expo
Med-Tech Innovation Expo is 100% dedicated to medical device design and manufacturing and is at the very heart of the industry. The Expo will be a brand new, exciting platform that will further push and facilitate the essential networking and business opportunities the sector has to offer in the UK and on a global scale. It will bring together all parties involved in the development of new and next generation medical devices: academia, OEMs, clinicians, support and development agencies, investors and of course the supply chain service and product companies. It will take place on 10 and 11 April 2013 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, UK.
Technology Frontiers Economist Conference
The 2013 event will build on the success of the first sold out summit. Over 250 senior business leaders will once again be joined by The Economist's Tom Standage to help foresee how advancements in technology may affect businesses operating environment, customers, competitors and business models. Technology Frontiers is THE technology event for business leaders. It is a truly inspiring event that looks over the horizon at where technological innovation is going and how business can prepare for that today.
True to the principles of The Economist, it is not just about great ideas, but ideas with meaning – the practical implication for business.
New Design
New Design is the magazine covering the products and processes of design in all its forms. Combining an experienced editorial team and contributions from major industry figures, New Design has established itself as a must-read for anybody connected with the design world. We work hard to gather the most important stories affecting the industry in the UK and worldwide. Constantly striving to improve our coverage, we are committed to bringing you the lowdown on the people, products and issues that are shaping the design industry today.
Eureka Magazine
For over 30 years, Eureka has been synonymous with engineering innovation and technology transfer, constantly evolving to suit the times and to deliver its readers and advertisers a market-leading brand that doesn’t just begin and end with a print product. Eureka has a proven, targeted and intensively-researched audience of design engineers and, as our reader survey outlined in the media pack demonstrates, they are purchasers with the budget, the authority and the desire to spend. What is more it demonstrates that Eureka influences where they spend. Eureka is the “must-use” promotional brand for anyone trying to reach engineering design decision makers.