Two IDSA members have been elected to serve on World Design Organization’s Board of Directors 2017–19 term. Srini Srinivasan, IDSA, (shown on left in photo) served as treasurer in the last term. Now, the president and CEO of LUMIUM, Inc has been named president-elect in the next term. IDSA Fellow David Kusuma, (shown on right in photo) vice president, research and product innovation at Tupperware—which is an IDSA Ambassador—also has been elected as a Board member.
Srinivasan has more than 25 years of professional experience in creative design; user experience design; telecom and wireless product design and development; company formation and venture capital; global marketing and sales management; and manufacturing and operations. LUMIUM is a creative design company that specializes in consumer electronics, smart devices, medical devices, housewares and user experience design for global clients.
“To be elected as the future president of World Design Organization is a great honor for me and LUMIUM,” Srinivasan tells IDSA. “I’m looking forward to working with IDSA members who aim to support UN Sustainable Development Goals and through design, create a better world. It’s becoming more and more important to protect our world and environment through responsible design.”
For the past 15 years, Kusuma has been responsible for leading product development and R&D for Tupperware Brands Worldwide to develop 150 to 200 new products every year in more than 100 countries around the world. His focus is to leapfrog conventional boundaries of innovation by developing new technologies and materials to create game-changing product solutions. Kusuma is also a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).
“It’s an exciting time to be elected to the WDO Board,” he Kusuma. “Having the privilege to rejoin after 16 years since my last term on the (then-) Icsid Board, I am very motivated to collaborate in forging a new direction for WDO to contribute to the solution economy and the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals, while helping to bridge the future with history of the past.”
IDSA Executive Daniel Martinage, CAE, and IDSA Students Special Interest Section Chair Meghan Preiss, also attended the 30th General Assembly of the World Design Organization (WDO) on Oct. 14–15 in Torino, Italy. “IDSA was pleased to have this opportunity to share information and ideas about the future of industrial design with colleagues from across the globe,” says Martinage. The assembly also marked the 60th anniversary of WDO, formerly known as the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid).
“At WDO, we are ready to collaborate and build a powerful coalition for change, working in partnership with the wider design community and multi-stakeholders and using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework,” notes new WDO President Luisa Bocchietto, only the second woman to hold the office. “Our World Design Agenda is a plan of action for 2030 that helps us to establish common ground and speak as a unified voice when accessing decision makers and multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations.”
Since 1957, WDO members have gathered every two years to address key issues and guide the future of the organization. This year’s theme was in line with WDO’s vision to create a better world. “We decided to embrace the solutions economy and to promote the ways in which design can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs,” say organizers. “And as an international non-governmental organization with UN Consultative status, we have the opportunity to make a real difference by influencing decision makers at the highest levels.”
There are seven SDGs that have been identified by WDO members as particularly relevant to the industrial design community. Four of them were addressed at the General Assembly to explore how design-led innovation could:
- promote responsible consumption and production;
- make cities more inclusive, safe and sustainable;
- build resilient infrastructure and promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization; and
- foster innovation that ensures health and well-being.
In addition, the World Design Medal was awarded to industrial designer Harmut Esslinger, founder of frog design.