"Clients want the attic, not Mayfair. They want to be with the people who do the work, not with suits. This is they time of austerity. Small is the new big."

This is how design industry legend Michael Peters began his session at our February breakfast, adding that the industry needs to have a cataclysmic shake-up. "Designers," he said, "are the catalysts of the future."

He identified various problems in the industry including terrible art schools, the unreliablity of research and mediocre talent, then argued that clients want to learn from and talk to creative people: these are problems that the industry has created and it's up to the industry to solve them.

What Peters wanted to see was a remoulding of the design industry to improve creativity and innovation. This would mean not only reforming art schools, but also designers becoming forecasters of future trends, working with clients in small environments to improve profitability and success in the long term. He also talked about the need for a body of excellent designers to help clients know which are good and which are not.

On the subject of money and fee structure, he said that clients will spend money, it's up to the designers to ask and to see ourselves as 'ringmasters'.

Peters finished up by talking about what he believes is the future: the virtual agency (indeed, many attendees - including the organisers - work this way already). "Designers," he concluded, "are the untapped oil of the future."

In the discussion afterwards, members talked about the failure of design education and of our design institutions (particularly the Design Council) and Michael said that he hoped Designer Breakfasts can help designers and clients in terms of innovation, creativity and profitability. There was also considerable interest among less experienced designers about building up confidence to talk to clients.