Barcelona Design Centre is now Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation
After more than 50 years, the Barcelona Design Centre begins a new phase under the name of Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, a transformation that reinforces its role as a promoter of entrepreneurial creativity. This change allows the foundation to broaden its scope as an international benchmark for the creative economy.
A renewed vision and mission
The Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation is born with a clear vision: to position Barcelona as a global benchmark in business creativity and the creative economy, consolidating it as the city of ideas.
Its mission is to organise, structure and empower Barcelona’s creative economy, collaborating with the professional and business community to develop its ecosystem and demonstrate the value that creativity brings to any business. With this objective, the entity works to promote the city as a pole of attraction for creative talent and interdisciplinary innovation, capable of responding to global challenges from the potential of its local strengths.
To visualise the birth of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation, a new corporate identity has been designed and a new strategic plan has been developed that will outline the entity’s lines of action in the coming years.
Enric Jové, new president
Enric Jové has been appointed as the new president to drive this new phase. Jové is a benchmark in the marketing and advertising sector, with a long track record in promoting creativity and innovation. A promoter of startups, he stands out for his leadership in the development of new projects related to the creative economy.
He is a member of the board of directors of Tech Barcelona and collaborates in various projects that promote digital transformation and creativity in different sectors.
Jové has been recognised with several awards throughout his career, including the National Communication Award from the Generalitat de Catalunya for his work on awareness campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also been awarded the Prize of Honour for his career by the Association of Marketing and Communication of Catalonia.
Impact of the creative economy in Barcelona
Barcelona is a city of talent and creativity, with a powerful creative industry ecosystem that makes it one of its main assets. The core of this industry in the city generates more than 10,000 million euros and 43,000 jobs, according to the latest figures from Barcelona City Council.
The creative industries not only generate economic value, but also have a profound social and cultural impact. This sector acts as an engine of innovation, working across disciplines such as science and technology to transform traditional businesses and open up new opportunities for the future.
With a historical trajectory rooted in design, the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation now integrates creativity in all its breadth, positioning it as an essential element to enhance differentiation and generate value in any sector or market, favouring the growth of the creative economy.
A new name, a new international horizon
The transformation into Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation reinforces the foundational character of the entity, places creativity at the core of its activities and projects its international character, responding to the growing demand for creative innovation on a global scale.
The entity is working on a value proposition to attract global professionals and companies, capital and emerging talent that wants to grow in a unique ecosystem to the city.
The entity is working on a value proposition to attract global professionals and companies, capital and emerging talent that wants to grow in a unique ecosystem to the city.
In this new phase, beyond design, the foundation is broadening its focus to continue working with sectors such as gastronomy and incorporating others such as video games and music, with interdisciplinary projects that bring together local talent and global opportunities. In this way, it reaffirms its commitment to Barcelona’s creative ecosystem and the development of a sustainable and competitive creative economy.
Strategic proposals for the future
The Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation is committed to two major initiatives: The first is the Barcelona Design Week®, one of the most important creative festivals in the city, with the epicentre of activity at the DHub and several Associated Venues. In 2025, the festival will reach its 20th edition, consolidating Underground BDW, an innovative format that combines a fair and a collective exhibition to discover disruptive creative proposals, as one of its main activities.
The second key initiative is the Inspired in Barcelona® Platform, a new digital space that redefines the way the creative community connects. This interdisciplinary platform aims to be a meeting point to promote cross-sectorial projects, attract local and international businesses and give visibility to different creative profiles. From independent professionals to large companies, the platform offers an opportunity to build a global, diverse and inclusive community that reflects the impact of creativity in multiple sectors and markets.
With this proposal, the foundation is committed to creating a space where talent can exchange ideas, tell their story and collaborate on innovative projects that connect disciplines.
On the other hand, Inspired in Barcelona® will continue to be an itinerant platform for participation in international events to give visibility to the creative community, promoting business opportunities in global markets.
In addition, this year the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation is launching a new podcast channel, where professionals from different disciplines will share their vision on how creativity drives transformation and innovation in a globalised world. This new format is presented as a window of inspiration and reflection for all those interested in the potential of creativity.
The foundation will continue to lead the Design and Creativity Cluster, which has 133 members, including companies, creative agencies and training centres, with an aggregate turnover of more than 6,000 million euros and more than 30,000 workers.
All these initiatives are clear examples of the foundation’s mission to energise the creative economy and strengthen the professional and business ecosystem. We want to consolidate our position as the largest concentration of creative talent in Barcelona.
The entity will continue to enjoy the support of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Barcelona City Council and the DHub, where it has its headquarters, as well as the Generalitat de Catalunya as life trustees, and its main patrons such as Roca, Simon, the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, HP, Jungle and NTT Data.
