Opinion: Liverpool needs a design infrastructure

Jun 12 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

DESIGN Show Liverpool has already proved so popular that we have had to move to a new, larger venue to accommodate all our exhibitors.

That shows the need for this type of show in Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year. The city needs a strong design infrastructure to support its great designers.

It’s all very well having a really strong student base and really great graduates from Liverpool’s universities, but unless there’s a scene for them to be part of then they’ll leave the city.

I want people to feel they want to stay in the city because they know there’s a quality, high-profile show that’s theirs.

There’s some really great designers in Liverpool that we didn’t even know about, and we pride ourselves in knowing what’s going on in design.

I’m really pleased with the turnout of designers we’ve had. We’ve got some unbe- ievably brilliant designers. It shows the quality of what’s going on in the city.

We were inspired to do this show when we organised one in Southend. Some people from Liverpool and Manchester came to visit, and we asked: “If this sort of show is going to Southend – not putting down Southend in any way – why haven’t we got something like this in the North West?”

We feel this show fits in with what other people are doing. It started with the Tate.

There’s some great things like Fact, the A Foundation and the Biennial that bring people in to the city and make them think about design work.

During the press launch in January, what Andrea Nixon of the Tate said to me was she felt the Design Show fitted with the way people are trying to make Liverpool the UK’s second visual arts city, next to London. With the sort of reaction I’ve had to the show from exhibitors, journalists and designers, I’m hoping we will increasingly think of Liverpool in terms of the creative and visual arts.

DESIGN Show Liverpool runs from June 19 to June 22 at the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre, in Greenland Street, Liverpool.

BY DELLA TINSLEY, co-founder of Design Show Liverpool