In Slovenia, there is a special situation where design as a business is put together with arranging and decorating and the English translation of it is: “special design activities”. That’s why every serious design consultancy in Slovenia is registering advertising (or something else) as its main business activity. All the stakeholders in design should aim for the establishment of design as an independent industry.

This post was part of my presentation competing at the WBPC10.

How is design established as an independent industry? Short case of design standards in Slovenia and Germany.

If you are to register a new company, let’s say a design consultancy you usually need to formally declare what kind of activities your new company will pursue. In Slovenia we have to register at the Statistical office, there you have to choose your main activity and other activities of your new company. In the case you are establishing a design consultancy, you would expect to register design as your main activity, similarly an advertising agency would register to advertise. But in Slovenia, we have a special situation where design is together with arranging and decorating and the English translation is: “special design activities”. That’s why every serious design consultancy in Slovenia is registering advertising (or something else) as its main activity. Part of my motivation for the master’s thesis presented also at this blog was to influence change in that direction.

Just to have a short case allow me to present what happens if you are trying to register a design consultancy in Germany, f.e. In Germany, you also have to choose your main activities (Gegenstand/Tätigkeiten). And yes, you have a complete scale of design activities that you can choose from. I’ll write it down in German because my guess is that you don’t need a translation to understand the point:
+ Grafik- und Kommunikationsdesign,
+ Industrie-, Produkt- und Mode-Design,
+ Interior Design und Raumgestaltung
…
Available is also:
+ Entwicklung und Programmierung von Internetpräsentationen
…

If you are registering for a design consultancy in Germany you really feel like one.