The Crucial Role of Design in Nation branding

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - May 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Nation branding, although widely discussed in SL, might still be a new term for many of our readers here. So, let’s start by discussing what it means exactly. Nation branding is developing and managing the international image of a country. The same way a person’s ‘reputation’ has a tremendous effect on his/her career and personal life, the national brand of a particular country has a remarkable influence on its exports, tourism, foreign investment attraction, political and economic influence abroad as well as its potency to attract skilled workforces from across the world.

So how does design affect this immensely important sector? There are several contributing factors to successful nation branding identified by expertslike Simon Anholt. Many of these factors can be directly improved through the design value addition. Let’s discuss how.

Tourism; known as a direct contributor to nation branding, depends largely on design to enhance the experience of a visitor to Sri Lanka. From the point where they step on to the airplane the food presentation, outfit worn by the air stewardesses to the souvenirs available, need to be looked at with a design eye. For example, we have linked young designers who work with rural artisans to provide unique, Sri Lankan design solutions for the national airline’s inflight catalogue; their work is now part of a collection of gift items that cleverly communicate the essence of SL and are immensely popular among the passengers. From there, the next crucial point of contact is the hotel spaces; here, we have seen major hotel chains like Jetwing, Mount Lavinia, John Keells and many more, beginning to rely on Interior designers to design engaging spaces that portray the richness of SL and new designer brands like ‘Nithya’ to design uniforms for hotel employees while more have been commissioned to produce uniquebasketry, cutlery and crockery for them etc.Why? Because the idea of good tourism is to weave a story of fantasy–the kind of story that a traveller would want to live; so, from interior design, to product development and uniforms, design has started playing a crucial role in successful storytelling for the tourism industry.

The next important factor where design contributes to nation branding comes in with the product sector –ie- Exports. Here, an important factor called the ‘country-of-origin effect’ comes into play. This simply means that consumers’ attitudes and purchasing decisions are influenced by products origins. I also believe that the quality of an imported product, in turn, influences a consumer’s attitude towards the country mentioned in the ‘made in…’ label. For example, our apparel industry manufactures some of the best fashion brands in the world. This has played a role in making the name ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ synonymous with high-street, designer brands. Now, our industry is taking this a step further by establishing in-house design houses and starting to export design services too – so perhaps in the future, when we’re in a position to have the label ‘Designed & Made in Sri Lanka’, our national branding will expand to people seeing us not only as a responsible manufacturer, but also as a true design hub. Design is not only important for apparel; other industries like contemporary craft, tea packaging, cinnamon packaging and jewellery will also benefit with the design value-addition and this will take us a long way in nation branding.

Lastly ‘Talent’ or the human resource we present to the world makes a huge impact on nation branding. Along with presenting political, scientific etc. leaders to the world from SL, we also need to present creative icons from SL. The groundwork we do in design education matters a lot for this. Recently, we sent a graphic design graduate to represent SL at a prestigious typographic conference in India and he received a standing ovation for his design project that aimed to create racial harmony. Last year, the first ever SL delegation was invited for the iconic London Fashion Week…so we’re seeing all the signs for many design superstars emerging from SL as our envoys for creativity to the world. This is unique contributor to nation branding, from design.

The reason why we’re discussing the weighty topic of nation branding in a design education column is because the availability of design education and creative thinkers is one of the biggest advantages a country could have in maintaining its national brand. And if we are to implement correct and effective methods of nation branding, it is important to create public awareness on what contributes to it. This is how we as a nation can work together and prompt our governments to take the right actions that will benefit us all.