The campaign to promote Leicestershire’s cluster of design businesses has published the Design Leicestershire book.

The book is the centrepiece of a £260,000 drive, funded by Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council, to raise awareness – locally, nationally and across the world – of the creative capability to be found in Leicestershire.

The 300-plus page publication was revealed at a launch event in Leicester, in front of more than 200 people from design companies, Leicestershire’s three universities and the public sector.

Design Leicestershire will also seek to be a gateway for design buyers to discover the design suppliers in Leicestershire and Rutland via its website www.designleicestershire.com which contains a searchable directory and downloadable PDFs of the book’s chapters.

Sir George Cox, the former chairman of the Design Council and the author of the Cox Review of Creativity in Business, was the launch event’s key speaker. Sir George, who contributed the book’s foreword, said: “Good design and innovation are more important than ever, especially in a tough economic climate. The Design Leicestershire book illustrates what a wealth and diversity of talent there is available and I hope businesses and other organisations will take full advantage of that.”

Shirley Pearce,  the vice-chancellor of Loughborough University, which is delivering the Design Leicestershire project, said: “Design Leicestershire is an outstanding opportunity for our designers to demonstrate their skills and abilities to a global audience. This book is a tremendous publication, and particularly so because of the breadth and depth of design talent it reveals in Leicestershire and Rutland. The book also showcases the outstanding research and commercial collaborations of our three universities. I am delighted that Loughborough is playing a key role in Design Leicestershire.”

Paul Atkinson, the design director of Leicester-based Atkinson Design Associates, chaired the book’s editorial board of designers and architects. Paul Atkinson said: “The book launch is a very exciting moment in the Design Leicestershire journey, however it should be seen as the beginning of a new  phase of cooperation between Leicestershire design companies rather than the end of an editorial process.”

2,500 copies of the book have been printed. The book will be distributed to buyers of design in the UK and used globally by UK Trade & Investment through the British embassies around the world.

www.designleicestershire.com