During this year's World Design Capital Helsinki Design Week and Dutch Design Week I was the Project Manager, Video / Content Editor and Web developer for the "Design Cares" exhibition. This exhibition was set up to show student work around the topic of designing for wellbeing, from the University of Technology Eindhoven, Design Academy Eindhoven and Aalto University (Finland).
The exhibitions took place in the hearts of both design weeks; namely the remarkable Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas) in Helsinki and the Town Hall (Stadhuis) in Eindhoven. They were exceptionally popular with both visitors and press, and it was very well visited (around 10,000 in Eindhoven).
There is only one letter separating 'cure' and 'care', but with healthcare costs increasing and quality of life at stake, the impact of this one letter is huge! Design Cares about your wellbeing, and showcases breakthrough solutions designed by design students to help you, your community and your society change for the better.
Design students from Design Academy Eindhoven, Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology and Aalto University Helsinki exhibit how a strong design approach creates meaningful solutions for personal, social and societal health and wellbeing. Design thinking is used to generate holistic solutions that make a difference by creating value for end-users, care-providers and other stakeholders.
Although each institute has a different approach towards design education, all schools think the human factor is increasingly missing in the current health environment. People are replaced by technical and tectonic solutions whereas often a friendly word, a touch, or a smile is an important part in what we need to feel better. It is in design's understanding of the subtleties of human relations with each other that encourage a new culture of wellbeing and health to be learned and adopted.
Design Cares is about improving the quality of life and lowering healthcare costs through designs that help you care for yourself, care for others and care for all of us.
Who Cares? Increase your wellbeing.