Design in the East Midlands

The headline

The East Midlands recognises the value of design more than any other region in the UK.

Time and again, our survey shows attitudes are more positive than the UK average. For example, 29% of East Midlands businesses believe design is crucial to their bottom-line success. The UK average is 15%.

Significantly, the region is competing strongly. In 2004, the East Midlands achieved the highest gross value added (GVA) growth in the UK. The association between its attitude to design and GVA is interesting. See The link between design and better business performance for more on this topic.

The details

What role does design play in business?

East Midlands businesses value design’s role more than others in the UK. One in four (26%) say it’s integral.
UK average 15%

How important is design to success, compared to other factors?

In the East Midlands, design is twice as important as elsewhere in the UK. 29% of businesses reckon it’s crucial to their success.
UK average 15%

Of course, traditional factors are also essential to success.

For example, 84% of the region’s businesses rate financial management as crucial. And 66% point to the quality of their staff.

How do businesses use design to compete?

Two thirds (68%) of East Midlands businesses believe that, over the past decade, design has become more important in helping them compete.
UK average 46%

Given this, it’s not surprising that the region has a fairly healthy attitude to investing in design. In the past three years, 43% of East Midlands businesses have increased their investment.

However, a third still don’t invest in design at all, though this is better than average.

The region has also embraced innovation. A quarter of businesses say they compete through it – the highest proportion in the UK. However, other factors are seen as the main bases for competitiveness, such as the added value of a product/service (74%), or its price and cost (67%).

How many businesses have developed new products or services?

Over half (54%) of East Midlands businesses have developed new products or services in the past three years. They lead the UK in doing so.
UK average 40%

What types of design do businesses use?

Businesses in the East Midlands mostly use communications design, and are the lead users of digital and multimedia design in the UK. 58% and 64% of businesses respectively use these services.
UK averages 52% and 31%

Businesses also use far more product and industrial, interior and exhibition and service design than elsewhere.

Only a few of the region’s businesses (17%) don’t use any of the design services surveyed.

Do businesses use designers?

Like other regions, businesses in the East Midlands often don’t employ designers. But there is a slightly greater tendency to hire external consultants than in the rest of the UK. 28% of businesses do so.
UK average 19%

Where do businesses apply design?

Businesses in the East Midlands are more likely than those elsewhere to apply design to externally facing functions, and new product development. 65% and 46% of businesses respectively apply design to these areas.
UK averages 50% and 28%

In most other areas, the region broadly mirrors the rest of the UK.

Regional portrait

There are signs that the East Midlands economy is doing well compared to other regions.

The region had the highest level of gross value added (GVA) growth in 2004: 5.3%. (UK average 4.6%).

Overall, the region contributes 6.5% to national GVA. It’s the third largest region in England, but has the second lowest population.

Growth is forecast to be 6.8% by 2021, slightly ahead of the UK average.

In terms of sectors, manufacturing appears to be more important to the East Midlands economy than it is to some other regions. It accounted for 23% of GVA in 2002 (UK average 16%). Traditional manufacturing strengths are clothing and textiles, though these are in decline.

The region’s strengths include:

• Three prosperous cities in Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton
• Good transport links
• Low unemployment rates (though this is countered by a relatively high proportion of low-skilled jobs).

EMDA – the East Midlands Development Agency – is launching its third Regional Economic Strategy in July 2006.

The East Midlands: A Flourishing Region will build on previous initiatives from 1999 and 2003. The region’s ambition to join Europe’s Top 20 regions remains paramount. Since setting this target in 2003, the East Midlands has climbed from 35th to 28th.

The latest strategy will set economic priorities, but will not be about economic growth at all cost. The vision is for a region characterised by growing and innovative businesses with skilled people, in good jobs, participating in healthy, inclusive communities.

For more information on the East Midlands, see theOffice for National Statistics website.

How can I use this information?

If you’re a business intermediary

This survey suggests the region’s businesses are some of the most design aware in the UK. This may inspire businesses that aren’t already using design to do so, and may also attract design businesses to the area.

These findings could serve as key information for you to use in your work with businesses.

If you're a design business

The East Midlands should be fertile ground.

Businesses are clued up on the value of design. 26% say it plays an integral role in their organisation, compared to 15% across the UK as a whole.

Whatever services you offer, your chances of a business using them here are better than average. For example, the likelihood of a business using digital and multimedia design is double the UK average (64% compared to 31%).

You could also present these facts to your clients, who may not be aware that their region leads the way in the use of design.

This survey also provides statistics to help prove the importance of design. For example, new products are more likely to be developed here than elsewhere in the UK (54% of businesses do so, compared to 40%).

And as well as the results of this survey (which look at what your clients are doing), we’ve also looked at what your peers are doing. The business of design is the first comprehensive survey of the design industry.

Among other things, the research compares the supply of design services in your region to that in others. This complements the demand for services discussed above, and should further help you discuss these issues with your clients.

If you’re a design educator or student

For researchers, there are several areas that could merit further investigation. Some of the ratios by which the East Midlands exceeds the UK picture are significant. Frequently, figures from the region double the average (for example 29% see design as crucial to their success, compared to 15% nationally), and occasionally triples it (service design is used by 21% of businesses, compared to 6% in the UK overall).

For this reason, the East Midlands is potentially a rewarding region for further study.

For students interested in a career in design, the strength of design here makes the East Midlands a region potentially rich in opportunities, particularly in popular design services such as digital and multimedia design, and interior and exhibition design. Both are used twice as much here as in the UK as a whole.