Symbola Foundation, Deloitte Private and POLI.design, starting this year with the support of ADI, CUID and Comieco and the patronage of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, today presented the results of the “Design Economy 2020” report, with the goal of increasing awareness of the value of design for the competitiveness of the national production system.
The economy of Design: a photograph in Italy and in Europe
The design sector in Europe has a number of companies equal to about 217 thousand units. Italy, with nearly 34,000 companies, represents about 15.5 percent of the entire community design system, firmly ranking first in terms of number of companies, ahead of Germany and France. The primacy of our country, which offers employment to 64,551 workers with an added value of more than 3 billion euros, is partly attributable to the strong link between design and made in Italy, but is also characterized by an excessive fragmentation of the national entrepreneurial structure . This last factor explains why, despite a record in terms of the number of companies, Germany and the United Kingdom record a level of employment and a turnover higher than the Italian ones. In fact, all EU countries recorded a sales volume of 27.5 billion euros, and Italy alone feeds 14.8 percent, in third position behind the United Kingdom (24.5 percent). and Germany (16.4 per cent), but largely ahead of France (9.2 per cent) and Spain (4.6 per cent). The Italian industrial sectors that make greater use of Design are: furniture wood, clothing and automotive.
In Italy, the gap between micro-enterprises and large companies is deep: freelancers and micro-enterprises (less than 100 thousand euros in turnover) still account for more than half of employment (53.4 percent), while companies with a turnover of more than 5 million euros have an employment rate of 8.4 per cent. In our country, therefore, most of the companies are located in the small and micro business segments.
Milan is confirmed as the capital of Design
The main capital of Italian design is Milan: the Lombard capital is capable of concentrating 18.3 per cent of the total output of the sector on the national territory, while Turin and Rome, second and third respectively, account for 8 per cent and for 5.3 per cent. Also on the employment front, Milan has about 14 per cent of the total number of employees. The primacy of Milan is not accidental: two of the most important design collections in the world are located here, that of the Milan Triennale and that of the Compasso d’Oro Museum promoted by ADI, which will be inaugurated by 2020. Milan is also home since 1961 of the Salone del Mobile and the Fuorisalone, one of the largest events in the world dedicated to design.
In second position is Turin, which in 2014 received the nomination of UNESCO Creative City for Design by UNESCO. In the Turin area, events such as Turin City of Design and the presence of big names in car design stand out. Rome’s interest in Design also grew thanks to the link with the fashion sector and the initiatives promoted by Altaroma and Roman Fashionweek.
The impact of “Covid-19” on the work of designers
Interviewed on the consequences of the “Covid-19” health emergency on their operations, 45 percent of freelancers said they had never stopped their business, as it is strongly oriented to the use of digital technologies. However, almost all the designers interviewed encountered economic difficulties linked to a decrease in demand (68.2 percent) and liquidity problems (48.3 percent). The “Covid-19” emergency had an impact on turnover volumes for 39.7 percent of designers, with 23.8 percent of respondents reporting a decline of more than half in revenues at the same period of the year previous one. The disruption caused by the spread of “Covid-19” can however translate into opportunities: the stringent rules of social distancing and the limits to mobility to contain the risk of contagion, could lead to the redesign of public and private spaces in numerous areas: catering (16, 6 per cent), public administration (11.9 per cent), home working (7.3 per cent) and healthcare (6.0 per cent).
