[20][21][22][23] The Design Council was incorporated as a registered charity by royal charter in 1976,[5][24]: 12  although it continued to operate as a non-departmental public body.

[24]: 50 In December 1994 it was restructured,[23] resulting in a functional change from being both an advisory body and a provider of goods and services to a primarily strategic mission “to inspire the best use of design by the United Kingdom in the world context, in order to improve prosperity and wellbeing”.

[20][25] On 1 April 2010 it incorporated a subsidiary trading company called Design Council Enterprises Limited[26] to transact “fundraising activities that are not primary-purpose charitable activity.”[27] On 1 April 2011, it ceased to be a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and became an independent registered charity, although it continued to receive grants from the department.

[31] Sir Gordon Russell, who was heavily involved in the 1951 Festival of Britain, examined ways to reform the education and training of new industrial designers.

[36] It was suggested in 1995 in Business Strategy Review magazine that the awards made suitable benchmarks, contributing to industrial competitiveness.