A program of Design Ready, Business Immersions provides funding support to a Victorian small to medium enterprise to receive hands on design expertise to solve an identified business challenge and improve performance.
Business Immersions exemplify how design best-practice is used to create innovative, profitable products and services to improve competitiveness, export performance and drive business growth.
Why participate?
Research indicates that program participants that have undertaken a Business Immersion have the opportunity to:
- Open up new local or export markets
- Meet the competitive demands of existing, dynamic markets
- Improve processes to become more competitive
- Attract investors.
The process
A Design Victoria facilitator brings together a Victorian small to medium enterprise and a professional designer, generally through the referral services of Australian Graphic Design Association or Design Institute of Australia.
An initial Discovery phase provides the opportunity for research and further development of the design brief and the design response. The outcome of the Discovery phase is a fully research brief and a design response is costed to address the business challenge. Up to $5,000 is provided at this stage.
During the Immersion phase, this supports the implementation of the design response, to the agreed outcome, as detailed in the design brief. The amount of funding provided for the Immersion phase is flexible, within budget constraints and a company contribution may be negotiated at this point. The timeframe is also flexible, depending upon the nature of the scope of works to be undertaken.
Share the learning
Design Victoria works with both parties to produce a case study for each project. These are published to build awareness of the importance and impact of design to Industry and best-practice in design management.
The case studies track the project at six monthly intervals for a two year period. A business may request a temporary embargoe on the published case study if it can be demonstrated that publishing would unfairly disadvantage the business success.
Who can participate?
A business may self-nominate or be referred to the program. Design Victoria has established selection criteria in line with the Victorian Government’s identified priority sectors.
To be eligible for Design Victoria’s Business Immersions program, the business must be a small to medium enterprise located and registered in Victoria. Potential candidates must successfully pass a Victorian government financial assessment.
For further information please contact the Design Ready Manager.