Design and society: innovation through appropriation and adaption

'To strive for a culture framed on great design is itself a fundamental innovation imperative.' Here, Guest-Editor Mark Burry poses the difficult question of how innovation might be achieved at a wider cultural level. How can society effectively seek to demand great design with confidence and authority? Burry looks specifically at the role of the design commissioner and the challenge of creating an overarching design system, as exemplified by the figure of Frank Pick, who in the first half of the 20th century steered London Underground's design identity, developing its enduring, highly distinctive graphics and architecture.