Montreal (Canada) – The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) officially welcomed 19 members at the start of its general assembly in Gwangju (South Korea) last month. This list includes three new members who were provisionally accepted in the second half of 2015. They are:

The Canton Fair Product Design & Trade Promotion Center is an initiative of the China Import & Export Fair, the largest trade fair in China. This comprehensive trade expo has been held bi-annually every spring and autumn in Guangzhou since 1957. It attracts over 800 000 Chinese exhibitors and visitors from all over the world annually. In 2011, Canton Fair launched the Product Design & Trade Promotion Center (PDC) and since then, PDC has been working on introducing international design resources into the fair and facilitating effective matchmaking between designers and Chinese manufacturers.

The PDC plays an important role in promoting industrial design among the Chinese manufacturing industry’s key players and aims to provide an efficient service platform in order to develop closer ties between “World Design” and “Made in China.”

Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) is a private university founded in 1969 by five different religious congregations. In 2000, UDEM became the first Mexican university to fill 100 percent of its master’s degree programme faculty positions with doctorate level professors. One year later, UDEM was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to deliver bachelor and master level educational programmes, thus becoming one of five Latin American universities to be a member of the SACS.

In 2011, UDEM inaugurated the Center of Packaging Design Innovation (ABRE), part of the Technological Innovation and Investigation Park in the town of Apodaca, and in 2013 the Roberto Garza Sada Center of Art, Architecture and Design was inaugurated in the presence of its creator, Japanese architect Tadao Ando (Pritzker Prize, 1995), cultural figures, and authorities from the three branches of government.

Universiti Teknologi Mara is Malaysia’s largest university and is proud to have the oldest art and design faculty in the country. The Faculty of Art and Design (FSSR), founded in 1967, was initially known as the School of Applied Arts and was adjoined to the School of Architecture, Planning and Land Survey. It started with three full-time lecturers and two part-time lecturers with 33 students enrolled in the foundation course.

From only three programmes at its creation in 1967, FSSR now offers not only diploma and degree courses, but also Bachelor Honours, Master and Doctorate programmes. The diploma and degree courses offered are in the fields of Graphic Design and Digital Media, Textile Design, Fine Metal Design, Industrial Design, Ceramics, Fashion Design, Photography and Creative Imaging, Fine Arts, Footwear Design and Technology, and Printing Technology. Meanwhile, the courses offered at the Master and Doctoral levels comprise Art History and Cultural Management, Fine Art and Technology, Design Technology, as well as Visual Communication and New Media.

As per the new Constitution approved by the membership at this general assembly, new members will no longer have to be ratified by the general assembly. Starting in the 2015-2017 term, new members will acquire all the benefits of membership as soon as they are approved by the Board of Directors. Click here to learn on how to join Icsid.

Here is the complete list of members joining Icsid in the 2013-2015 term as ratified at the general assembly in Gwangju:

Corporate
Compal Electronics (Taiwan, Chinese Taipei)
Designidea (Denmark)
Eczacıbaşı Building Products Company / VitrA (Turkey)
Tiller Design Pty Ltd (Australia)

Educational
Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (Mexico)
De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (Philippines)
IDEA (France)
Strate, School of Design (France)
Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico)
Universiti Teknologi Mara (Malaysia)
University of Huddersfield (UK)
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, School of Design Studies (India)

Professional
Quanzhou Industrial Design Association (China)

Promotional
The Canton Fair Product Design & Trade Promotion Center (China)
Centro Brasil Design (Brazil)
Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba (Brazil)
Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (Norway)
Shanghai Promotion Center for City of Design (China)
Shenzhen Design Union (China)