Melbourne (Australia) – An international programme that provides a platform for indigenous design entitled Indigo was launched last night in Melbourne by Icograda, the world body for professional communication design, in partnership with Australia’s National Design Centre.

Indigo is an ongoing programme that offers opportunities for local and indigenous designers across the globe. As designers work within a global context seemingly without borders, Indigo provides a platform for evolving creative expressions that shape the formation of national cultural identities.

“Indigo seeks to understand what makes design distinctive to its home, the connections to the place where it is made and for whom it is made,” said Kathy Demos, Director of the National Design Centre. “To address this, we have set up a network of designers and a series of projects that explore its meaning and interpretation throughout the world.”

“Indigo is a demonstration of the IDA’s commitment to fostering and promoting cultural diversity in today’s globalised society,” said Don Ryun Chang, President of Icograda and IDA Lead Chair.

“Icograda is delighted to be working with the National Design Centre in developing this international platform for design practice as it contributes to the formation of national cultural identities. Indigo puts Icograda’s ‘leading creatively’ philosophy into action: to use design as a medium for progressive change,” Mr Ryun Chang said.

The inaugural Indigo event, a presentation by New York based curator Cynthia E. Smith from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, took place last night before a sell-out audience of 450 designers and design interested public at ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image). The presentation focused on Design for the Other 90%, and looked at the ways design plays an integral role in the lives of over a billion people who exist on less than $1 a day, as well as providing solutions for the poor and marginalised in more industrialised countries.

A highly participatory and collaborative programme in its approach, Indigo welcomes contributions and commentary from designers everywhere. The programme’s new website is now live and designers are invited to nominate their own projects on the website for inclusion in the Indigo programme.

Indigo is an Icograda-led project of the International Design Alliance (IDA).  The IDA is a strategic venture between the international organisations representing design. Indigo is operated under license by the National Design Centre in Australia, and is sponsored by FutureBrand and Monash University.

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