VANCOUVER—The GDC organizing committee from Vancouver Design Week 2010 was asked to attend the Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations) World Design Congress in Beijing from October 24 to 30.

The group of four included GDC national president Rod Roodenburg, Patricia Xu, Pauline Lai and past president Mark Busse. While in China, Busse, design director of Vancouver agency Industrial Brand, and Roodenburg, partner at Ion Branding + Design in Vancouver, spoke to four schools about Canadian design. “We were asked to present to the Icograda general assembly in Beijing and promote Design Week there,” he says. “We also spoke to four design programs – at CAFA, Shanghai, Fudan and Tsinghua universities – about what we are doing in Canadian design.”


Busse says he was surprised at how little the Chinese students knew about Canada and our design industry. “The title of our lectures was originally called 'Designing Business: art in the service of Canadian design and economy,'” he says. “But we soon realized that they were far more interested in who we are, what we do and what lessons we've learned in our career so far.”


The GDC group also invited the students to Vancouver for Design Week, to be held April 26 to 30, 2010. “The theme of the week is Design Currency: defining the value of design,” says Busse. “We are challenging attendees to participate in a conversation more than a traditional design conference would. We are interested in the interaction of people, workshops and real problem solving dialogue.” Contact: Designweekvancouver.ca