Office of Design : The role of the Office of Design was to create an understanding of the functions of design in the industry and government sectors, to stimulate the application of effective design by direct and indirect means, to accomplish general design awareness, and to ensure the availability of capable designers.
The Office of Design focused on several priority issues, specifically:
Addressing a perceived inadequate utilization of Canadian design skills by secondary industry: to counter heavy competition from foreign manufacturing and Canada's reliance on imports from other countries, the Office was tasked with addressing the perceived disinclination of Canadian entrepreneurs to employ design as a tool to make their products more competitive.
Addressing a perceived shortage of qualified designers: the Office was responsible for addressing Canada's secondary industry failure to develop sufficient demand for native design professionals to warrant the creation of well-equipped design schools. As such, the Office was responsible for persuading industry to accelerate the utilization of design while also producing designers who qualify by scholarships for training abroad; in addition, the Office was to design educational facilities of international calibre within Canada.
Addressing a perceived inadequacy of design management skills: the Office of Design was responsible for addressing weakness and/or lack of professionalism in design management. The Office therefore created design management training programs in co-operation with provincial governments.
Undertaking the development of a national design development network: so as to broaden the understanding by industry of the value of utilizing design skills and techniques, the Office was tasked to secure the co-operative involvement of provincial departments of Industry and Commerce to create local design responsibility centres to service industry.
Utilizing government purchasing power to enhance the use of good design: historically, government purchasing procedures were based on procurement at minimum cost. This desire was challenged by the need to acquire products of good design and quality, and to stimulate improved environments through the combination of centralized purchasing procedures with effective design practices. The Office of Design was responsible for identifying such effective design practices.
Addressing a perceived absence of an industrial design policy: the Office of Design was responsible for formulating industrial design policy, relevant to industrial policies in general, by the priority determination of Canadian-designed and manufactured goods and processes possessing strong market potential. This required systematic identification of industry sectors and/or product categories in which lack of design use constituted a significant constraint to be overcome.
Maintaining of a design advisory service: historically, the Office of Design had acted as the sole national repository of information relevant to design, and provided a design advisory service to federal government departments, provincial governments, trade associations, professional societies, educational institutions, and to the general public.