Designing Global Designers. New Trends for Italian Design

This paper starts from the first results of a research co-funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR 2005-2007) investigating the relationship between Made in Italy and China. In particular the paper describes an emerging trend in design research which is dedicated to the analysis and support of the current transformation of design studios and professions within internationalisation processes and global markets. The research carried out interviews to companies and design studios of Lombardy Region that have relationship with China and analysed what kind of services institutions are supplying to the Italian System for its internationalisation. The authors interpret these experiences and put forward some reflections about the necessary future development of design education and research. They interpret Design Universities as important actors of the Italian design system that should cooperate with Institutions to stimulate adequate design policies for internationalisation and to educate the future global designers.