Matchbox at the IoD

While design-level advice helps companies to succeed - for example by growing faster and charging more - most small to medium sized companies don’t take advantage of this advice in their product or service development. The Design Council looked to Engine for help in addressing the gap between design’s under-use and its strong potential to help grow businesses.

We were asked to develop the programme, content and tools for a national campaign of workshops for small business owners and designers. Business owners on the programme learn about the potential benefits of using design and designers become better equipped to service the needs of business.

The final product took the form of Matchbox - a card-based mind-mapping tool, designed to be kept and reused. For designers, it’s an inspirational way to learn about their clients in order to better develop new business and provide the most useful services possible. It allows business owners and their advisors to explore the diversity of ways in which design can make important improvements to a company’s success beyond just the way something looks.

The programme and Matchbox have been so successful in providing information and inspiration on how design-lead approaches can help address business challenges that it has become part of a national design programme endorsed by the DTI.

“Matchbox is a core component of our programme to drive the better use of design by business. It had a remarkable impact on the understanding of design by more than 100 business leaders during the pilot phase. We are now rolling it out as part of our national design programme developed with Regional Development Agencies”.
Harry Rich, Deputy Chief Executive, Design Council