CROSS Magazine Issue 06 | Page 16

Professor Sugiyama on Service Design Professor Sugiyama is the initiator of the International Service Innovation Design Conference 1) Wh a t w a s t h e i d e a b e h i n d t h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f t h i s conference and what was your expectation? I c a m e t o t he re al i z a ti on for t he ne ed t o es tab li sh t he discussion platform when I discovered the enormous number of design graduate students, especially in Korea and Taiwan. The role of design has also shifted from contributing mostly to the manufacturing industry in the 20th century, product design, to service. With the awakening to the domination of service industry in the world’s economic activities has sparked the need for design to find the ways to contribute to the service industry. This conference was organized with the vision to highlight the importance of design, not only in business, but also in service. 16 6