The Future of Design Support: What Can We Learn From Design Support Experience in the UK, Estonia and Turkey?

This article provides a comparison of design support landscape of three countries: the UK, Estonia and Turkey. The economic and political development patterns and experience of design support within these countries lead to different models of design support. The differences are visible in the levels of support, aims of innovation, available resources and opportunities but also priorities. The way in which these projects/programmes are initiated, operate and sustain themselves vary as well. The article aims to understand the future of design support through looking at the versatile programmes in these countries. It provides a historical background of design support by building on specific programmes in these countries. Based on the knowledge drawn from comparison of histories of support, the paper not only makes suggestions for the development of future of design support models.