DesignLink

Unlocking Big Ideas For Businesses Through Design Thinking

Rethinking Big Challenges Through Creative Collaboration

Does your business face a design challenge that needs fresh, innovative thinking? DesignLink is your opportunity to work with highly skilled early-stage creatives to tackle your biggest design dilemmas—at no cost to you.

Rather than small-scale tasks like logo design, we are looking for big, impactful problems—challenges that, if solved, could bring significant change to your business. For example, if your company generates waste materials during production, could they be repurposed into a new product? If you have a workflow bottleneck, could a fresh spatial strategy improve efficiency?

View our Next Steps Guidelines below for more information.

Submit Your Design Challenge
Email us at futureislandisland@qub.ac.uk with a brief description of your design problem by 28 April, 5PM.

Why Get Involved?

Expert Design Thinking for Free
Work with emerging design thinkers who are skilled in problem-solving and creative strategy.

Minimal Time Commitment for Businesses
For less than a day’s effort total, your business could get a strategic proposal response to your big problem. See the ‘next steps’ section for details.

Final Presentation & Next Steps
On June 20th, the teams will present their design responses, giving businesses strategic responses to their problem, with new insights and fresh approaches. There will also be discussions about potential funding opportunities to take the ideas even further. We would love it if you, the business, could attend these presentations.

Fully Funded Participation
Businesses do not need to pay to take part—Future Island-Island is funding stipends for the designers, meaning you get high-level creative input at no cost to you.

What Could This Mean for Your Business?

DesignLink is more than just a workshop—it’s a catalyst for game-changing innovation. Whether it’s unlocking new revenue streams, improving sustainability, or reimagining product design, this initiative gives businesses access to cutting-edge design expertise without the usual barriers.

By taking part, you join a network of forward-thinking companies and visionary creatives who are rethinking the future of industry through collaboration.

Don’t miss the opportunity to turn your design challenges into creative breakthroughs.

About Work Package 3

Mapping Design Ecosystems: A Framework for The Green Transition

The Design Ecosystems work package within the Future Island-Island project is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the complex interdependencies of materials, waste streams, and human behaviours. This research aims to develop a comprehensive and interactive mapping system that visualises the flows of people, process, and artefact, providing a foundation for design ecosystem interrogations.

The project is led by an interdisciplinary team from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and Ulster University (UU), bringing together expertise in urban sustainability, digital mapping, participatory design, and material innovation.

The Team

Queen’s University Belfast (QUB)

  • Professor Greg Keeffe
  • Dr. Sean Cullen
  • Dr. Rebecca Jane McConnell
  • Dr. Emma Campbell

Ulster University (UU)

  • Alison Gault
  • Anna Duffy

Next Steps

Find out more information on what's involved with DesignLink.

DesignLink Information

Rethink your design challenges.

Learn more about DesignLink Information

Deadline 28 April | 5PM

Submit your design challenge today: futureislandisland@qub.ac.uk