The design economy in the Valencian Community

Research carried out in 2018 with the support of the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI) to define, identify, measure and assess the use of design in the major economic sectors of the Valencian Community.

The report includes the results of research carried out on 1,345 companies and an in-depth analysis of 30 Valencian companies. Among the main conclusions of the study is the existence of a clear correlation between the use of design in companies and their capacity for innovation and economic results.

Another important conclusion is that the study shows a significant link between the use of design and business results. In other words, the probability of a company having positive and successful economic expectations is almost twice as high if that company regularly uses design as if it does not.

Based on the report, at the ADCV we developed our own tools to assess the use of design, which we named the Utility Standards and the Design Compass, that together with the Design Ladder, ended up configuring D-Tool, a digital self-diagnostic tool for the qualitative measurement of design in organisations.