Co-President & Director of Strategy, Research and Innovation
KerrSmith Design

Casestudy | Creative State Michigan

Helen Kerr has led of one of North America’s pre-eminent, research driven, innovation and implementation companies for over 25 years. With degrees in both Environmental Studies and Industrial Design, her work integrates design, foresight and strategy. Multi-disciplinary approaches to highly complex problems and experimental exploration have been the undercurrent of her career. Helen is also a professor and researcher in the Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation program at OCAD University. She has been principle investigator for foresight projects in the government, healthcare, philanthropic, educational and financial sectors, leading participatory and co-creative processes involving enterprise wide engagement. Her most current project focused on exploring the futures of multi-modal transportation and land use in Southern Ontario for 2071. Helen consulted with the Higher Education Council in Pakistan to introduce integrated design into engineering programmes to achieve more impactful research translation and achieve development objectives. Helen has lectured and written extensively on research, strategy, design and innovation. In May 2012, she was the focus of a CBC documentary film entitled “Great Minds of Design” and was admitted to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts this year.

Presents findings and recommendations of our work have been positioned as a framework for the development of state and regional economic development priorities, strategies and investments to strengthen and grow jobs and businesses across Michigan’s creative and design industries for competitive advantage.