D for design and D for Dundee

He is wearing jeans and a zip-up top. "You've clearly dressed with that in mind," I suggest. He looks blank for a moment before the penny drops. "No, small buttons on screens. In terms of user interfaces."Ah. I think this qualifies as the generation gap. "Thinking about it," he adds, "tiny buttons on a shirt would be really annoying too."

Today is brought to you by the letter D. D for design. D for digital. And D for Dundee. Even if we are currently some 60 miles or so south of that particular Scottish city. In Edinburgh's Hill Street Design Studio - home to a graphic design studio, a milliner, a jewellery maker and a bridal studio among others - a group of Scottish designers (and the odd ancillary worker) are having their picture taken. As they pose for the camera it's clear that what we have here is a snapshot of contemporary Scottish design. Gathered together are the aforementioned software engineer, a graphic designer, a games designer, a jeweller cum 3D modeller, a designer artist, a representative of Glasgow School of Art's digital design studio and a member of the V&A Dundee's education staff.

We've brought them together to celebrate the launch of the V&A's first Scottish exhibition, Design in Motion. The motion in question will be provided by the Travelling Gallery's bus. From next week it will begin its journey to more than 70 Scottish locations over 17 weeks to show the work of a number of Scottish designers, some of whom are now in this building. It's a journey that begins in Dundee of course.

For all the inevitable harrumphing headlines and column inches that followed the recent announcement that Kengo Kuma's flagship building will now cost £80.11m rather than the original £45m price tag, the V&A Museum of Design in Dundee represents a significant moment for Scotland's design community and for the city in which it will be built. "I think it's going to have a huge impact on Dundee as a city," says Sophia George, a 24-year-old games designer originally from Norfolk but now based on the Tay. "When I talk to Dundonians they're all very excited about it. They see it as a stepping stone for the city to become even better than it already is."

Graphic designer Martin Baillie, the man responsible for the graphics for the Design in Motion exhibition, is of the same mind. "I think it should hopefully just help shine a light on what people in Scotland are doing and what Scotland is capable of. I think even the ambition of the whole project is inspiring. There's a lot of things going on in Dundee, but the V&A has become the figurehead of the regeneration. I'm from Dundee but moved to Edinburgh when I was 18. The placed has changed quite a lot. There's always been a huge amount of incredibly capable people but the city is just incredibly confident now and people are getting noticed. And hopefully in design a similar thing could happen."

If nothing else it should make Scotland's design heritage and contemporary design more visible. As Joanna Mawdsley, the V&A's learning manager points out, all too often in schools and colleges the designers who get namechecked are European and American. "Obviously you have Charles Rennie Mackintosh referenced. Occasionally Timorous Beasties. But most of the time it's 'Scottish Design? What?'"

There is not even one design festival in Scotland, points out artist designer Geoffrey Mann. "We have craft festivals. We don't have a big statement piece."

And yet Scotland's design history - with Rennie Mackintosh as its most famous representative - is deep and rich. Why isn't it as familiar to us as, say, Scandinavian design? "Is that not a Scottish thing?" suggests Glasgow School of Art's Frank Calikes. "As Scots we don't blow our own trumpet enough. That's something the V&A will help us to do."

Of course Scottish design culture suffers from the inevitable gravitational pull of London. As Ann Marie Shillito, jeweller and co-founder of 3D modelling tool company Anarkik 3D, points out, Scottish design has a strong basis in art schools and universities, but all too often once they've graduated designers will go elsewhere. "When I go down to London people are surprised we are based in Scotland," she admits.

No surprise then that two of the best-known designers included in the Design in Motion exhibition are fashion designer Holly Fulton and aerospace engineer-turned-jewellery maker Lynne MacLachlan, both of whom are based in London.

Still, Baillie and Shillito both believe that being based in Scotland may offer designers more freedom and more space to be creative on your own terms. "I work for myself, I get to choose my hours and I quite like the pace of life," argues Baillie.

And in some areas, it should be said, Scottish design is thriving. And that takes us back to Dundee, long a seedbed for Britain's games industry.

Ask this disparate collection of Scottish designers to name a Scottish design classic and it's striking how many of them immediately think about games design. That's partly a reflection of the youthfulness of the group perhaps, but also of the innovation to be found in the games arena.

"I would go back to the Lemmings game," says Geoffrey Mann. "A Dundee-based Scottish company and it was such a simple chain of thought. Get this phallic looking thing to the end without having it die. Such a basic game and so addictive. And it was at the forefront of everything."

Why, you might ask, does any of this matter? For some - in industry and elsewhere - design is, too often, seen as an add-on. But that, designers point out, is the problem. Because everything is designed. You are surrounded by it. "Pressing a button on your TV to switch it off, the alarm going off in the morning, textiles, sitting on this rickety chair. Someone designed it," says Mann. "Hopefully not a Scottish person."

Which brings us back to where we started and the designs that bug us. Joanna Mawdsley's is tin teapots. "You go to a cafe and they have those little tin teapots and they're really hot to hold. The lids never close and they all spill out and you lose half your tea. That's really bad design. Why can't you have a nice ceramic teapot with a really well made spout?"

We may not think about it but we all are affected by design. We only notice it when it goes wrong. When it pushes your buttons. Tiny or not.

Design in Motion launches in Dundee on Friday and then tours the country until June. For more details visit http://www.vandadundee.org/