Exhibition 'This is Humin' - Design Flanders Gallery from 30th March

THIS IS HUMIN

30 March – 22 May 2011
DESIGN FLANDERS GALLERY
Kanselarijstraat 19, B-1000 BRUSSELS (near the Saint-Michael Cathedral)
Open: Tuesday to Friday from 12 AM to 5 PM, Saturday and Sunday from 1 PM to 5 PM. Closed on Mondays and public holidays (24-25 April and 1 May 2011).

Those who took the initiative of the ambitious Flemish project ‘Humin’ can look back with pride at their success story. The city of Genk, Designregio Kortrijk and Flanders InShape have put their best foot forward with the support of Europe and Flanders to provide the necessary resources so that this unique project is given every chance of success.
Within the framework of the Humin project, 30 companies and 20 designers were given an exceptional opportunity to discover and develop design and innovation methods. The project started in May 2009 and is now reaching its pinnacle.
Humin helps companies to increase their competitiveness by getting them to focus on “People-centred Innovation”, i.e. to put people at the centre of enterprise and innovation. Humin’s purpose is, together with managers of participating companies and their closest colleagues, to put ‘top level’ designing methods at the heart, i.e. at the operational management level, of their companies.
Thirty SMEs from all over Flanders committed to take part in the project. They were given the opportunity to attend professional workshops organised in collaboration with Richard Eisermann (Designing Demand) and were supported individually by 20 experienced specialists in design who took training to become ‘design coaches’. Their job consisted in providing the companies with new insights and strategic advice, but not with design expertise per se. Each company worked at its own pace according to its own possibilities and available capacity.

The companies are happy with their results and are very pleased with the innovative changes that are taking place in their companies.