Pratt Institute’s Design Management program recently launched the fifth issue of CATALYST: Strategic Design Review, a quarterly magazine whose mission is to stimulate thinking and encourage conversation about the role of strategic design in defining an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable future. In addition to the print release of the latest issue, the website CATALYSTsdr.com contains full article text and regularly updated content.

The fifth issue is titled “Designing Wellbeing: For All and Each” and explores how the strategic design of products and processes can create economic value while enhancing wellbeing. The magazine features an interview with Whitney “Anna” Walker, CEO of Anna Sova and founder of the Antique Drapery Rod Co., regarding environmentally and socially responsible business practices. The latest issue also features articles on wellbeing, social innovation, and policy in Europe; community wellbeing at state-of-the-art, LEED-certified entertainment venue Brooklyn Bowl; and the Rainforest Alliance’s approach to wellbeing through the creation of sustainable business standards.

CATALYST was founded to encourage dialogue among leaders in design, business, and social innovation who are interested in the role of strategic design in creating economic value, advancing equality, and assuring environmental stewardship. The publication’s articles emphasize the value of applying the creative design process to the solution of complex challenges that are often outside the realm of traditional design disciplines.

CATALYST takes the mission of Pratt’s Design Management program to the greater public across the boundaries of design, strategy, and social innovation and features the work of practitioners and thinkers from around the world and across design disciplines.

“In addition to enabling strategists across design disciplines to optimize the value of strategic design, this issue of CATALYST: Strategic Design Review makes apparent that creating economic value can also create well-being for individuals, community, and our shared world,” said Mary McBride, chair of the Design Management program.

CATALYST’s comprehensive website at CATALYSTsdr.com houses article content, archived issues, a blog that has had over 10,000 hits, exclusive Web content, team biographies, case studies, and a forum for discussion. The printed version is available for purchase through MagCloud at http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/106071.

CATALYST is operated under the leadership of Holly Burns, Giselle Carr, Dante Clemons, Aditi Mukherjee, Kevin Rorick, and Adam Zoltowski, under the guidance of Mary McBride.

Pratt’s Design Management program was created to bridge the disciplines of design and strategic business management. The two-year Master of Professional Studies program provides an executive education more focused than a Master of Business Administration on the special needs of design leaders managing design firms or design teams in creative industries. It provides training in leadership, team building, strategy, finance, marketing, and operations skills necessary to effectively lead a design department or to run a design business. The importance of ethical design intelligence as critical to sustainable advantage is a hallmark of the program. It was listed as one of BusinessWeek’s top 30 design programs in the world in a special September 2009 issue.