Created in 1983 on the initiative of the ministers responsible for industry and culture, to contribute to the bringing together of culture, research and industry, and having become entirely private in 1993, the APCI, in collaboration with its members and its partners, develops tools and group actions that provoked the economic, social and cultural aspects of French design in France and abroad.

The APCI is aimed at:

• Designers in order to encourage them and help them improve in an overall and intuitive approach complementing those of specialists, to implement behaviour analysis, relations with objects, spaces and services, and the evolution, to develop future planning action, carry out a permanent watch which focuses on technology and knowledge transfers.
• To companies that have only had minor contact with design in order to incite them to take the risk of innovative creation that stand out from the crowd.
• To companies who already use design to reinforce future planning action.
• To public and private design consultants.
  
• To researchers looking for outlets for their research or research themes.
• To politicians responsible for the quality of public areas.
• To teachers of all disciplines.
• To design consultants.
• To purchasers.
• To the general public.