German Gref meeting SmirnovDesign

On March, 2nd, at the meeting led by German Gref, Head of the Ministery of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, the concept of industrial design development in Russia was discussed.

Among the problems raised were issues of low competitive power of Russian products and the necessity to attach strategic significance to design as one of the tools that will help bring Russia to the world level.

The main theme of Sergey Smirnov’s speech at the meeting was the necessity of stimulating the demand for high-quality design services in Russia that is closely and directly connected with the development of internal production. According to Sergey Smirnov one of the most important aspects of those impeding the growth of industrial design industry is the fact that there are few people in Russia today that are really conscious of the necessity to use design as a tool of their strategic development. However it is obvious that the situation is changing now – thus, many large production companies have been approaching SmirnovDesign lately asking not only to design new products but also to organize workshops and other educational programs aimed at top management and describing design possibilities at solving business problems.