Deyan Sudjic, the doyen of the international design world for so long, is contemplating the few months remaining before he relinquishes his position as director of the Design Museum in London. Next month, after a 14-year reign, he will be superseded by art critic Tim Marlow. But far from retiring, Sudjic will take up the position of emeritus director, responsible for maintaining “connections with high-profile donors”. As someone who has been at the forefront of design for so long as a curator, writer and commentator, Sudjic has extensive contacts to draw on in the ever-present pursuit of cash for cultural institutions. During a conversation at his office, he drops the name of Zhang Xin, CEO of building developer Soho China, who he is to meet in Beijing this month; talks of “bumping into Alan Yentob”, the ex-creative director of the BBC; reminisces about having dinner with the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass; and describes visiting Stanley Kubrick’s family to prepare for the Design Museum’s recent blockbuster exhibition of his work. He is reticent to say more, presumably because careless gossip might ruin the chances of private patronage. His networking, after all, is necessary to “grow the museum and push design up the value chain”. Sudjic, whose views on the changing role and rapid growth of museums across the world are sought-after, says that “China’s not really there yet in terms of design,” although he cites Herzog & de Meuron’s M+, Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture slated to open in 2021, as an outstanding example of quality architecture. He also points to Ecco Design, founded by Eric Chan, who was named the World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer by the Hong Kong Design Centre in 2010, as one of many exciting contemporary practices, and he is also looking forward to visiting the Power Station of Art in Shanghai for the first time (and its current Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition). His own portfolio of exhibitions at the Design Museum include the work of British fashion designer Paul Smith, as well as the remarkable Ferrari collection and the critically acclaimed show for costume couturier Azzedine Alaia. Such a high-flying world of celebrity, he says, is a world away from his brief “experiment” as dean to the faculty of art, design and architecture at London’s Kingston University early on in his career. Since being lured away from academia – to which he says he was ill-suited – he hasn’t looked back. His career has helped to shape the culture of the modern museum. Nowadays, he says, “museums are responding to a dematerialised world”, meaning that the technological revolution of the last 25 years has pushed these institutions to change the way they do things. [Design] is one of the very few things that explores subjects from a range of perspectives. In fact, design is often simply about asking questions rather than providing answers Deyan Sudjic But the rise of virtual technologies and mixed-reality experiences has not destroyed the raison d’être for a physical museum. His own museum is a case in point and sums up Sudjic’s confidence and business acumen. In 2006, when he became director of the Design Museum, he was acutely aware that visitor expectations were changing. The previous director had famously stated that “the best ideas always start with an HB pencil and a sheet of plain paper”. But Sudjic knew that “design students had been reading [the socially responsible design writings of] Victor Papanek, and they were influenced by [the ethical philosophy] of Philippe Starck”, and simply relying on functionality, comfort and the aesthetic pleasures of design objects was no longer enough. For him, design had to become a more responsive process. His stewardship has steered the museum programme towards more inclusive design, and wider audience participation. Architecture, urbanism and design have all been his lifelong passions. Sudjic first became interested in the art of branding and cultural identity when he noticed that his family’s native currency (his parents were émigrés from the former Yugoslavia) featured pictures of peasants while Britain’s featured Queen Elizabeth. “It was an early lesson about the power of design,” he says. Since then he has enjoyed a career that seems to be the embodiment of that early observation, pushing the importance of design as an ambition as well as a social and political expression. His first professional foray into the world of design began in 1983 when he co-founded architectural magazine Blueprint . He moved to edit Domus magazine in 2000, became a correspondent for The Observer newspaper that same year, directed the 2002 Venice Architecture Biennale and continues to contribute extensively on architecture and design in national newspapers, books and the broadcast media. Three years ago, Sudjic oversaw the £82 million (US$110 million) relocation of the Design Museum from a rather remote location to its current prestigious site in London’s upscale Kensington district. Far from the museum dematerialising into oblivion, it has become a fashionable point of contact with the physical world of objects, enjoying an increase in footfall from 12,000 to 600,000 a year. Sudjic proposes that design “is one of the very few things that explores subjects from a range of perspectives. In fact, design is often simply about asking questions rather than providing answers.” That said, he views today’s new generation of ethical designers much more favourably than the narrow “moral crusaders” of Britain’s Victorian-era design ethos. As Sudjic heads off to Milan to start researching fashion giant Prada for his final show as director, the Design Museum is surely hoping that his contact book will remain invaluable in keeping the shows coming and the cash flowing.