I was honored to have been invited to give the closing keynote presentation at the Design Center of the Philippines’ First International Design Conference, focused on design thinking. It was a packed room of business leaders and designers (as far as I can tell around 300 people.) Natalia Bednarek opened the final session with “8 Signs You May Not Be Design Thinking.” My talk discussed present and future directions in design and its impact.Side discussions with Rhea Matute, Executive Director of the Design Center of the Philippines, and others centered on how can we brand and position the Philippines. Despite an incredibly diverse array of high quality products, many of them hand-crafted by expert artisans throughout the country, does the phrase “Made in the Philippines” elicit any positive thoughts? Brand thinking can be applied to companies, organizations, and celebrities – but also to political movements, social causes, cities and countries.
