IN Oscar Wilde’s highly celebrated essay, “The Critic as Artist,” leading voices Gilbert and Ernest engage in Socratic dialogue discussing the need of the world for artistic expression. Gilbert, in one of his interchanges with the latter, said: “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
This piece of literature was published back in 1891. In a not-so-distant 21st-century future, features on The Economist and Bloomberg, prove that this literary point is still relevant as corporations from different industries gradually shift from their procedural thinking methods to out-of-the-box approaches in building the core of their business models.
Held recently at the SM Aura Premier in Taguig, the annual International Design Conference (IDC) thought leadership forum explored the possibilities that this global movement will bring. The gathering of local and international design leaders shared how a “dangerous” kind of creative thinking propelled their business on top.
“When we say dangerous, we do not mean hazard or peril. It is a description of the kind of thinking that forces us out of our comfort zones,” Rhea Matute, executive director of Design Center of the Philippines, explained. She added, “Creativity can get locked away in a safe default, which puts us at risk of complacency and can harm our potential for growth. But turn creative thinking around in a different direction and you end up with a provocative thinking that creates tension and challenges at the precipice of our ‘creative’ default.” The IDC 2018 began with the premise that a creative thinking process was central to design leadership to develop decision-makers who find innovative solutions to real-world challenges. Arch. Abelardo Tolentino, who headlined the keynote discussions this year, said that a step to becoming one is by challenging the status quo.
Tolentino is the founder, chief executive officer and president of Aidea Inc., which ranked 47th in the Building Design UK’s World Architecture 100 list, a survey of the top 100 design firms in the world. His company grew from a 20-man team to a powerhouse firm of 200 designers in the last two decades.
Tolentino’s talks were followed by few others from the likes of Michael Barry, the founder of Quotient Design Research and Innovation, and a Design Thinking professor in Stanford. He discussed the dichotomy between crafts and digitized fabrication to address the craft innovation gap, and how it can contribute to economic growth in the Philippines.
Door To Asia designer coordinator Mikiharu Yabe, on the other hand, showed how collaborative programs like DTA transform the perception of design as a tool for change and designers as change agents. SoFA Design Institute dean Tobias Guggenheimer, Makerspace Manila founder Gino Cariño and Curiosity cofounder Pamela Cajilig discussed learning from education in academic programs. The panel underlined the need for continuous learning beyond the university walls, emphasizing how creativity and complex problem-solving, combined with entrepreneurship skills can prepare students for work.
Meanwhile, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Trade and Investments Promotions Group Head Nora K. Terrado led the media panel interview.
The trade undersecretary, who also served as an IDC keynote speaker, talked about how the creative economy creates an impact on the growth of national economy. She said, “The audiovisual segment of the market gets us approximately $1 billion in terms of revenue. But what we need to understand is when we add the media and performing arts and the entire creative-related segment, it could even go as high as contributing to 7 percent of the services export market.”
According to Terrado, the DTI is already in works to further support the growth of the creative economy. “What you will expect as early as the first quarter for 2019 will be an indication of a baseline—to create an industry just like the IT-BPM [information-technology and business-process management], which took us 15 years [to maximize its potential.]”
Currently, the Philippines’s IT-BPM sector’s voice-based services is the largest contributor in the local BPO industry, comprising 64 percent (493,000) of generated direct employment and 67 percent ($ 7.4 billion) of total revenues in 2011.
The undersecretary added, “Part of the IT-BPM already includes the animation and game development and the software sectors. We believe that collectively, these would add about 20-30 percent into creative-design centric solution population.” This implies higher job opportunities and employment.
“The good thing about the creative industry is not dependent on hard equity,” concluded Terrado. “When we remove the limits to what the industry can do, we can create new and emerging industries.”