The Distributed Design Platform (DD) aims at promoting and improving the connection of makers and designers with the market through the development and recognition of the emerging field of Distributed Design. This is done by supporting creatives, their mobility and circulation of their work, providing them with international opportunities and highlighting the most outstanding talent. A recognised mechanism for highlighting creative talent is a label: a recognition that both certifies and promotes distributed design projects and their authors.
Within DD, one of the key goals is to develop a Europe-wide label that certifies and promotes talented makers and designers that represent Distributed Design principles in their work. In order to reach this goal, the DD project has dedicated a four-year study to explore potential criteria for selection, application, awarding and setting up a management structure sustainable over time. The label is intended to be an innovative approach to valorisation and recognition in response to the novelty of the field of Distributed Design.
The first section of the report looks at the tasks and activities undertaken by the platform in the last four years with respect to value-based certification. It covers the core values of DD: Open, Regenerative, Collaborative and Ecosystemic which have emerged from the Platform organically through the last four years, and have been defining principles defined by its members.
The following section looks at cases where value-based certification has been implemented in similar contexts including different technology choices. By studying these, and gathering views of various Platform members and industry experts, key learnings have been formulated. These guide the design of a potential implementation system for the DD Label.
The last and the most innovative section of the report is a roadmap, proposed by the research team that identified a potential avenue to develop a certification system to meet the needs of the Platform, and to incentivise designers to engage with DD’s principles. We aim for this report to be a step-by-step guide that aligns with resources available for development.