NYDN – Nordic Young Designers Network

Introduction

The Nordic design sector is globally known and recognised for its approach, its products, design solutions, and for its special attention to sustainable development, and serves as an influential source of inspiration across the globe. However, interestingly there is only little collaboration between the Nordic design students and the universities, which both students and teachers regret. The educational principles and the strong focus on sustainable development is shared, which is also why more Nordic collaboration and interaction could accelerate learning processes and create synergies in the Nordic region and beyond.

The goal of NYDN

The goal of NYDN is precisely to further interaction, collaboration, and learning processes by inviting design students in the Nordic region to present their work on a shared digital platform. Along with presenting their projects in their individual showrooms the students will also be able to communicate with other students and stakeholders via the “post”, “comment”, “like” and “forum” functionalities of the platform.

The development and plan for NYDN is based on the findings and results generated through a successful pilot project realized from 2021 to 2022. Students and departments from 8 universities from the Nordic region participated.

The aim of NYDN is to create a network and platform at hand, where students can show their work in progress, ask fellow students for advice, create forums where more students can work on the same topic, find some to collaborate with, solve challenges, and finally of course showcase the final outcome of their hard work.

Many interesting projects are produced each year by students either alone, with other students and/or with companies, public organisations, or projects developed with students from different universities. Central aim of NYDN is to disseminate innovative concepts and collaborations across the Nordic region through its communication channels to inspire the Nordic and global audience of NYDN.

NYDN, will therefore represent an entirely new type of platform that design students can benefit from using to access new information and knowledge and generate ideas and collaborations.

New Nordic Designer Award

Students presenting their projects on NYDN will automatically compete for “The New Nordic Designer Award”, which is a new award for design students in the Nordic region. A jury has been established consisting of representatives from 5 Nordic design departments. An additional five jury members will be appointed to take part in first nominating 45 projects and later announcing the 15 winners of the award.

A video feature about each of the winning projects and the students behind will be produced and shared through the communication channels of NYDN, the Nordic design associations and the participating design departments at Nordic Universities. Finally the winners of the award will be exhibited at a new venue in the Nordic region each year.

Accordingly, NYDN will be a shared platform and resource that students can use to excel as students and to develop the skills they see fit for their future career. All students at Nordic universities, both bachelor or masters programs within the following disciplines of design can participate in the Nordic network:

1) Visual communication, graphic design, and digital design

2) Interaction design, service design, systemic design, design systems, and strategic design

3) Product, industrial, object, and furniture design, as well as textile design

4) Interior and exterior design, architecture

5) Glass and ceramics

6) Accessories, jewellery, fashion, and costume design

Graduation Award Show at Tableau Gallery

How will the students use NYDN and actively be engaged in the network?

Guided by NYDN’s communication and engagement strategy, students will:

Showcase their projects on the platform, whether in development or completed.
Engage with peers and stakeholders to receive feedback, advice, and new information to enhance their projects.
Establish forums to collaborate with students sharing similar interests, sometimes leading to actual project collabs among students across the nordic region.
Present projects developed in collaboration with companies, public organisations, or NGOs.
Participate in the New Nordic Designers Award competition.
If selected among the 15 winners, have their projects exhibited at NYDN’s annual award exhibition, accompanied by a video about their work.
Gain exposure and promotion through NYDN’s platform, newsletter, and social media channels, reaching a broad Nordic and global audience.

Especially during the initial years, the NYDN Secretariat will play a central role in guiding and motivating students to establish specific forums across the Nordic region. Results from these forums, showcased through videos, articles, and posts, will encourage further student engagement and collaborative efforts within NYDN.

Simultaneously, NYDN will collaborate with student organisations from Nordic universities to designate NYDN Student Ambassadors. These ambassadors will serve as NYDN’s representatives on campus, facilitating communication, identifying relevant projects and contacts for the NYDN Secretariat, and collecting feedback from design students to enhance NYDN’s future endeavours.

The organisational set up of NYDN

Nordic Young Designers Network (NYDN) is organised by the non-profit association “Crafting Futures” that is a membership based organisation with a chairman, a general assembly where the members take the major decision of the association.

In developing and managing NYDN 2024-2026 the following organisational units are planned.

The NYDN Secretariat

The NYDN secretariat will have the overall responsibility of the development and management of NYDN 2024-2026. It is at the same time in charge of servicing the NYDN Steering Group and Jury in their work and will be in charge of implementing their decisions and in the development and management of the NYDN Platform and application, the award of NYDN and the exhibition of the awarded projects.

The NYDN Secretariat is poised to oversee the project spanning from 2024 to 2026, employing a dedicated project manager, an experienced editor, and a community specialist. Additionally, a community and social media assistant will be engaged to complement the team. The operational aspects of the NYDN platform will be entrusted to a service provider of utmost quality and efficiency, selected for its prowess in the market and cost-effectiveness.

NYDN Steering Group

The steering group of NYDN consists of the following organisations and representatives:

Joakim Karske, CEO, Design Forum Finland, Finland
Björn Nordin, Managing Director, Svensk Form, Sweden (TBC)
Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director, Iceland Design and Architecture, Iceland
Tor Inge Hjemdal, CEO, Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA), Norway
The representative from Denmark will soon be announced.

NYDN Steering Group will be responsible for deciding on the general course for the long-term development of NYDN. The group has two formal meetings each year – a video call meeting and a physical meeting where the group will be presented to the results of NYDN, discuss and decide on how to solve challenges, and new initiatives that will contribute to NYDN’s goal fulfilment.

NYDN’s Secretariat prepares the meetings for the Steering Group, including meeting material and all activities related with following up on the meetings.

The Nordic design associations represented in the Steering Group will also play a central role in realising the communication strategy of NYDN through their individual platforms, newsletters, and social media channels.

Going forward the NYDN’s Secretariat also recommends inviting the partner universities of NYDN to be represented in NYDNs Steering Group along with being already represented in NYDN’s Jury. The existing members will be asked to decide on this possibility in the coming months.

The NYDN Jury

NYDN’s jury is established with one permanent representative from each Nordic countries, including:

Eva Kappel, Head of Education, Design School Kolding.
Katrín Ólína Pétursdóttir, Head of Design Department, Iceland University of the Arts.
Rachel K.B. Troye, Vice Chancellor for Education, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
Puintila Simo, Lecturer, Aalto University.
Tor Lindstrand, Head of the Master Program in Spatial Design, Konstfack.

The jury will be responsible for the following main tasks and activities:

Take part in defining the scope of NYDN.
Identify and invite 5 additional members of the jury for a year at a time.
Develop the assessment criteria applied for the New Nordic Designers Award.
Assess the graduation projects presented by NYDN,
Decide who should be awarded with the New Nordic Designers Award and
Participate in planning NYDN’s yearly award exhibition.

The jury will have more meetings over the year especially in relation to the award and the belonging award exhibition.

Student Ambassadors

Having Students Ambassadors at each university proved during the pilot project very useful, and students ambassadors will therefore also be appointed for the next phase of NYDN. They will act as NYDNs representatives at the Nordic universities that will take part in involving and engaging students in the activities of NYDN, including the yearly award, and will in general provide “on the ground” feedback to the Secretariat and the Jury of NYDN that will be useful in optimising the development of NYDN.

At the NYDN Jury meetings the idea of asking student organisations at the universities to appoint their university’s Students Ambassadors has been discussed.

The financing strategy of NYDN 2024-2026

The overall goal is to develop NYDN to become financially self-sustaining over a period of where the costs of running and developing NYDN will be financed by different sponsor partnerships. The assessment is that when NYDN is up and running and widely used by design students across the Nordic region several major companies would be interested in entering sponsorship agreements with NYDN.

It is estimated by the NYDN Jury that around 9.000 students in the Nordic region potentially could participate in NYDN.

Nordic international design companies like IKEA or LEGO or international companies of a non-nordic origin like Adobe are examples of companies that will be approached regarding sponsor partnership.

Short term financial strategy

Within the next three years (2024 to 2026) the plan is to seek financing to cover the costs of developing NYDN through grant applications.

In this context it is planned to apply for funding from the following three funding programs:

Nordic Culture Fund
Nordic Culture Point
A.P. Møller Fonden

These are all programs that support Nordic collaboration within culture and education, and the two last mentioned programs have already supported the pilot-program of NYDN.

During the 2024 to 2026 the plan is to organise the activities of NYDN in following three projects:

NYDN Online 2024-2026. This project begins with a preparation phase from Sep to Dec. 2024 followed by the full scale launch of NYDN Online 2025-2026. During 2025 and 2026 the goal is to roll out NYDN for all design university educations in the Nordic region and to engage as many design students in the online Nordic design students network.
NYDN’s New Nordic Designer Award exhibition 2025. The exhibition will present the 15 winners of the award at the yearly exhibition of the Network. Presented at the exhibition but also for the general presentation and promotion of the winning projects and the designers behind a 7 min. video will be produced about each of the winning projects.
NYDN’s New Nordic Designer Award exhibition 2026. Will organise a similar exhibition and video production presenting the projects of the 15 winners of the award in 2026.

The projects are of course connected. However by dividing the project activities up in three the funding can be raised separately for each of the projects one by one over 2024 and 2025, which is more practical and realistic.

Thus in the first 4 months of 2024 the focus will be on raising funding for NYDN Online. Later in the year the aim is to focus on raising funding for the NYDN exhibition in 2025 and in 2025 the focus will be on raising funding for the NYDN 2026 exhibition.

Time & Activity Plan – 2024-2026

2024	Tasks to perform during the indicated time periode by the secretariat
1. Sep. – 10. Sep.	The manager of the secretariat of NYDN and the service provider that will be developing and operating the NYDN platform and application are appointed by the NYDN Steering Group and Jury.
11. Sep. – 31. Oct.	The project manager is in charge of preparing the following: 1) NYDNs 2025 engagement strategy that will activate and motivate students and departments to communicate and interact through the NYDN Platform, 2) NYDN’s communication strategy 2025 and 3) a plan for the development NYDN’s platform and application in collaboration with the service provider.
1. Oct – 31. Oct.	The NYDN Jury finalise the work on 1) how the categorise design projects uploaded to NYDN, 2) The assessment criteria to assess projects for the NYDN New Nordic Designers Award, 3) the NYDN exhibition plan for the winners of the New Nordic Designers Award 2025 and 2026.
1. Nov.	A combined physical meeting between NYDN Steering Group and Jury is held. At the meeting the participants are presented with the results of the work of the Secretariat and important decisions for NYDN’s developement are discussed and decided upon.
2. Nov. – 8. Nov.	The comments and decisions agreed upon at the the combined meeting is implemented into the material and plans presented and discussed and decided upon
	A complete contact list for all design departments in the Nordic region is developed.
11. Nov. – 29. Nov.	The NYDN communication material targeting the Nordic design departments is developed that will introduce NYDN is developed and finalised.
2. Dec.	All design departments in the Nordic region are invited to participate in NYDN for 2025 to 2026.
2. Dec – 31. Dec.	The final development work on the NYDN platform and application is completed and the software solutions are tested thoroughly. The editor and the assistant for NYDN’s secretary are appointed to start in the first week of the new year.

2025	Tasks to perform during the indicated time periode by the secretariat
1.Jan.- 28 Feb	The Secretariat will arrange video calls with the contact persons at the Nordic design departments to discuss NYDN’s plans for the year and possible projects by the departments that could interesting to presented on NYDN as part of the engagement and communication strategy of NYDN
1. Jan.- 31. Dec	The secretariat will produce, publish and distribute 1 newsletter, 7 posts and 7 reels for social media per week communicating about student projects and collaborations initiated and/or presented on the NYDN platform following the engagement and communication strategy.
1. Jul.	A NYDN Steering Group video call is held to assess the results of NYDN 6 months through the year.
15. Aug – 31. Aug	NYDN projects of the year are assessed based the assessment criteria and the online scoring system of the platform by the NYDN Jury in collaboration with the NYDN Jury
15. Sep.	The 45 projects that are nominated for the New Nordic Designers Award are revealed through the communication channels of NYDN and the partner organisations.
16. Sep – 31. Oct.	The exhibition and video’s of the 15 winners of New Nordic Designers Award are prepared.
1. Nov. -15 Dec.	The 15 winners of New Nordic Designers Award are revealed at the opening of the yearly exhibition of the winners of the New Nordic Designer Award. The exhibition is planned to be open for 1 and a half months each year at a different venue and Nordic country.
14. Nov. – 1. Dec.	The secretariat assesses the results achieved during the year and prepares for the coming year based on the conclusions drawn. As part of this process the following two strategies are updated: 1) NYDNs engagement strategy that will activate and motivate students and departments to communicate and interact through the NYDN Platform, 2) NYDN’s communication strategy. A plan for how to improve NYDN’s platform and application is also developed.
2. Dec.- 3. Dec	A combined physical meeting between NYDN Steering Group and Jury is held. At the meeting all the above material is presented, discussed and decided upon.
	The comments and decisions agreed upon are implemented into the material and plans presented and discussed at the meeting in the days following the combined meeting.
16. Dec.	The invitation to participate in NYDN in the new year is sent to the design departments at Nordic universities.

2026	Tasks to perform during the indicated time periode by the secretariat
1.Jan.- 28 Feb	The Secretariat will arrange video calls with the contact persons at the Nordic design departments to discuss NYDN’s plans for the year and possible projects by the departments that could interesting to presented on NYDN as part of the engagement and communication strategy of NYDN
1. Jan.- 31. Dec	The secretariat will produce, publish and distribute 1 newsletter, 7 posts and 7 reels for social media per week communicating about student projects and collaborations initiated and/or presented on the NYDN platform following the engagement and communication strategy.
1. Jul.	A NYDN Steering Group video call is held to assess the results of NYDN 6 months through the year.
15. Aug – 31. Aug	NYDN projects of the year are assessed based the assessment criteria and the online scoring system of the platform by the NYDN Jury in collaboration with the NYDN Jury
15. Sep.	The 45 projects that are nominated for the New Nordic Designers Award are revealed through the communication channels of NYDN and the partner organisations.
16. Sep – 31. Oct.	The exhibition and video’s of the 15 winners of New Nordic Designers Award are prepared.
1. Nov. -15 Dec.	The 15 winners of New Nordic Designers Award are revealed at the opening of the yearly exhibition of the winners of the New Nordic Designer Award. The exhibition is planned to be open for 1 and a half months each year at a different venue and Nordic country.
14. Nov. – 1. Dec.	The secretariat assesses the results achieved during the year and prepares for the coming year based on the conclusions drawn. As part of this process the following two strategies are updated: 1) NYDNs engagement strategy that will activate and motivate students and departments to communicate and interact through the NYDN Platform, 2) NYDN’s communication strategy. A plan for how to improve NYDN’s platform and application is also developed.
2. Dec.- 3. Dec	A combined physical meeting between NYDN Steering Group and Jury is held. At the meeting all the above material is presented, discussed and decided upon.
	The comments and decisions agreed upon are implemented into the material and plans presented and discussed at the meeting in the days following the combined meeting.
16. Dec.	The invitation to participate in NYDN in the new year sent to the design departments at Nordic universities.
2027	Tasks to perform during the indicated time periode by the secretariat
The plan is to continue NYDN in 2027 and in the following years based on the same year cycle just better and better.