What if Lab aims to facilitate longlasting partnerships between design studios and organisations.
Societal challenges require new answers and a different way of thinking. That is where designers come in. At What if Lab, we bring together design studios and organisations to combine the expertise, networks and resources needed to achieve change. Designers get the chance to work on challenging issues, organisations get new perspectives on opportunities for the future. Together, we develop the society of tomorrow.
One of the most powerful questions ever asked. The foundation of science and innovation. “What if” challenges the existing logic with which we look at problems. By focusing on this question, boundaries are shifted, and solutions emerge from a new perspective
What if Lab is a platform where collaboration between designers and clients (industry, governments and institutes) is activated and facilitated. A platform that focuses on creative thinking for the design of our common future. What if Lab allows organisations to explore how design methodology can support them in developing and researching solutions for complex issues (in the long term).
Basically everything around us has been designed, from the jeans you are wearing to the website you are looking at right now. But design is not exclusive to products or tools, processes are designed too. Good examples of this are the way we live together or how we deal with our waste.
Designers shape the future. By developing processes, methodologies and scenarios, they find targeted answers to complex societal challenges. The role of visionary and innovative designers in society cannot be underestimated.
In a What if Lab, a tangible outcome is not the only thing that counts: the process, the collaboration and especially the doing are important component parts of the value that What if Lab represents. During the What if Lab, an organisation offers designers outside an opportunity to look at daily practice inside the organisation. Because designers are specifically trained to question the status quo and think in terms of possibilities, they can easily unearth new insights and opportunities. The What if Lab structure and the design methods employed by the designers offer employees and organisations a new perspective.
Dutch Design Foundation (DDF), the organisation behind What if Lab and Dutch Design Week, organises various events and projects with and for designers every year and supports them in their daily practice. As such, we are in contact with thousands of designers and design agencies, each with their own areas of expertise. From within this group, we seek and select parties who can support the organisation with their expertise, background and motivation. Based on a clear briefing, introductory meetings, sessions with experts or a master class, design studies then get to work. Throughout the process, research and concepts come together, and ideas are validated and further refined on the basis of feedback from the client. This process is supported by the What if Lab, through a ‘Lab Manager’ and/or a digital dashboard specially developed for the What if Lab. At the end of the What if Lab, designers present the results, and clients can test the potential and impact for their organisation.
As the What if Lab, we are a matchmaker and facilitator, we ensure that the right parties meet, and we have designed various processes in which clients and designers get to know each ether. Clear briefings and agreements, a transparent timeline, open calls and scouting, process supervision and fair remuneration for the participants are the building blocks that underpin all projects.
Alter the What if Lab, the client will have found a good partner in the design studio concerned for further development of the project. During the What if Lab, they came up with a suitable concept, scenario or prototype together, allowing them to take the next step. With this, the What if Lab objective has been achieved, a good basis for independent collaboration between clients and designers.
What if Lab is there for everyone who believes that everything could be better, more beautiful or more efficient and sees an opportunity in every problem? What if Lab connects designers, companies, governments and service organisations.
Because there are several types of What if Labs, there is a form to suit many organisations. The diversity of clients from former design challenges amply illustrates this. What if Lab challenges have been posted by Sweco, ReumaNederland, ABN AMRO, VNG, NS/ProRail, Fokker Elmo, Leolux, Marathon Eindhoven, Province of Noord-Brabant and the National Police in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and Safety.