Decoding European Creative Skills (DECS) is a project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union led by Elisava along with Eindhoven University of Technology and Fachhochschule Salzburg University of Applied Sciences in order to share with the rest of the design communities our interest in getting to know our profession.
The publication stands out for 'The Future of Creativity', a series of unpublished articles on creativity and education: 'Challenges and Opportunities in Creativity as Executive Education', written by Dr. Albert Fuster and Julia Benini, co-directors of the Executive Program in Creative Leadership ; ‘Meditating turmoil as a creative management model’, by Nicola Montaretto and Axel Gasulla (Domestic Data Streamers); ‘Creativity in an Interdisciplinary Environment’ by Laura Ackermann (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences); ‘New Making Affords New Thinking’, by Dr. Bart Hengeveld and Dr. Joep Frens (University of Technology Eindhoven); and ‘Revising Creative Sustainability-competencies in Design Educations’ by Thomas Ostergaard (VIA University College of Denmark).
Another aim of the book is to present a summary of the activities undertaken during this two-year project, while at the same time thanking all the companies and individuals that have made it possible and that have been an essential part of it for their participation. Among these activities, there is a Creative Skills Dictionary; a collection of best practices based on a series of interviews with a number of design professionals and students in Barcelona, Salzburg and Eindhoven; a summary of the Creative Challenges organized by each of the partner universities, where young designers took part in a week of intense group work.
However, the publication introduces a first overview of results of the Creative Decoding Tool (CDT), an online tool designed by the Elisava Research team with three objectives: 1) to provide an online tool for designers to improve self-reflection on their skills, 2) to offer companies and institutions a tool to assess the incorporation of designers in their teams, and 3) to collect and display real-time data on the competencies of design professionals and students at an international level.