about us

Many people feel that design is a tool that can help them to create more value but are not sure where to start or how it will work in reality.

At designindustry, we believe that design is a way of thinking. It is a strategic tool that needs to be applied organisation wide and understood at every level. Design thinking is equally valuable for the development of products, services and systems.

We believe that design is not just for ‘designers’.

To be effective the process needs to have participation from everyone. It needs to become part of the culture - “the way we do things around here”. This design-led culture then enables the Designers to focus on what they are best at – stimulating ideas and enabling those ideas to become real.

Upon accepting that design is the way forward organisational leaders are in many ways breaking new ground for their organisation. Often this implies an element of personal risk. designindustry understands the need for support - to know where to begin, what steps to take and in which order.

Our suite of services enables leaders to visualise design in the context of their organisations.

designindustry helps organisations to build up a bank of tools to support the entire process, acknowledging the importance of maintaining the balance between current needs and future possibilities.

Working through designindustry’s processes from beginning to end ultimately results in an increased effectiveness of the internal capabilities of an organisation. This is something that remains long after our team have left.

We define design as simply:

Formulating the best-fit service, product or system to serve both producer and consumer now and in the future.

For more information contact us or download our Organisation Profile

Our preferred approach is that of a partnership designed to step through three stages:

• Education: Our aim is to make sense of design-led thinking in enterprise; we offer seminars and workshops with delivery partners such as universities and business support agencies and tailored products directly to our clients. designindustry publishes a regular update on design in enterprise issues and other valuable information is posted on our website

• Exploration: designindustry works with an organisation to identify their specific problems or opportunities and to explore the facets of design process that will ‘stretch’ the organisation to find the optimum solution

• Integration: We offer a range of services that are customised to respond to the design challenges of an organisation. Incorporated in this offering are the tools to support transition to new thinking at all levels

The multi-disciplined people behind designindustry include educators, businesspeople, manufacturing expertise, trend analysis professionals, change managers and strategic design and implementation people. We pull together teams specifically tailored to the challenge.

designindustry is a leading supplier of design development and integration services to organisations in New Zealand. Everything we offer is based on extensive experience and firmly focused on results. All our services are individually customised and targeted to the needs of our clients through the application of our unique set of design tools and our ability to mentor organisations in the implementation of those tools.

We look forward to sharing the transformative power of design with you.

our background

designindustry was established by Dorenda Britten in 1999 based on a growing belief in the opportunities for innovative New Zealand companies to design better services and products, authentically connected to real market needs. The initial years of designindustry were focussed on researching and developing the Ten Design PrinciplesTM which form the basis of our ongoing work.

Since then designindustry has grown to become New Zealand's best known design strategy consultancy.

Dorenda Britten As the Managing Director of designindustry, Dorenda brings together a wealth of knowledge and experience in utilising Design Thinking as a strategic tool. She recently contributed to the development of a white paper on R&D for the Minister of Research Science & Technology.

For more information contact us or download our Organisation Profile