About the Centre
Why a centre for competitive design exists, and the questions that shape its work.
Origins of the question
Creative work is rarely produced in a vacuum. Clients compare options, audiences choose between alternatives and studios compete for briefs. Yet much of design education and practice still treats quality as a private matter between maker and material.
The Centre was founded to take the competitive reality of design seriously and to treat it as a subject for disciplined study rather than a source of anxiety.
A position on judgement
We do not think competition makes design worse. We think unexamined competition does. When teams cannot say why one option outperforms another, decisions drift toward whoever speaks loudest or whatever was approved last year.
Our position is that good judgement can be built. It needs clear criteria, honest testing and a habit of revisiting conclusions when new evidence arrives.
Judgement improves when the reasons for a choice are written down and open to challenge.
Much of the Centre's work is about making those reasons visible without reducing design to a checklist.
Principles we work by
- Compare designs against real alternatives, not imagined ones
- State the criteria before reviewing the work
- Share methods so that others can test our conclusions
- Accept findings that weaken a favourite concept
These principles apply equally to student projects, commercial briefs and our own research.
Questions we are asked
No. The Centre values varied briefs. Smaller teams often face the sharpest competitive pressure and benefit most from clear, low-cost testing methods.
No. Competitive design covers products, services, communication and the processes that bring them to market.
Through short briefing notes, workshops and published research. Each finding includes the method used to reach it.
For a fuller account of the Centre's programmes, see the overview and core activities.