Strategic design can have a positive impact on profitability and the company’s bottom line, according to the Norwegian Design Council. It has even created a new award called Design Effect – modelled after the British one – to recognize projects for their financial impact, part of the government’s Design Driven Innovation Program launched in 2009.

As a design writer and curator for the best part of the last decade, one of the most enjoyable and inspiring roles I have had the pleasure of being employed in is that of curator for 100% Norway – which I’ve been doing for the last five years. 100% Norway is an exhibition established to showcase and promote Norwegian design to an international audience. It is organized by the Norwegian Embassy in London, The Norwegian Design Council in Oslo, and Innovation Norway, and it has taken place annually since 2003 during the London Design Festival every September. The idea is to improve trade links, swap best practice, generate new business and a warm fuzzy glow of pride among the Norwegian creative industries – all good economy boosting stuff.

We are all familiar with the traditional way of using design as a form of visual expression, but it is often very hard to define what design really is. What is certain is that it is getting increasingly more important. The Norwegian design environment is often characterized by playfulness, the use of strong colours and new thinking.

The Norwegian Design Council, together with the design and architecture environment in Norway knows that user-oriented designers are possibly the most accessible and efficient innovation tools available in product development. Working creatively, with innovation and cooperation, Norwegian designers and architects will continue to “raise the bar” with products that are aesthetic, sustainable, user-friendly, environmentally responsible and commercially successful

Does a specifically Norwegian architecture and design exist? Is there a collective identity which is essentially and tangibly different from that of other nations? Or, as national boundaries seem to dissolve, with trends and products spreading in global waves, is this mainly and outdated discussion put forward just to attract tourists?