An ambitious plan to leverage the power of design to support Manchester’s 10-year strategy has been launched

As part of the plan, the city intends to work with Manchester’s design community and with public sector and industry partners to develop a detailed “Manchester Design Manifesto”.

The goal of the manifesto will be to help produce better outcomes for all the aims set out in Our Manchester, the ten year strategy adopted by the council in 2015, as well as those set out in other strategies adopted by the city and its neighbours in the Greater Manchester region.

The Manifesto proposal took shape after Design Manchester, which has run an annual design festival in the city since 2013, was asked by the council to investigate how designers, design skills and design thinking could come up with better solutions for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

The resulting study identifies areas that would benefit from the user-centred and transformative impact of design – from industry to education, and from public services to the public realm.

Designers in architecture and transport, services and products, media and digital all have a contribution to make in helping achieve the prosperous, clean, diverse and inclusive metropolis envisaged in Our Manchester and Our People Our Place [the Greater Manchester Strategy].

Speaking at the annual Design Manchester Conference Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, emphasised that design, like technology, is a horizontal driver at the heart of all services and economic sectors.