Henrietta Thompson reflects on the year's inventive cultural works and what inspired and enabled artists and designers to create them.

Before we look back at the creative highlights of 2011 let's set some context. This has been a year defined by a quickfire sequence of momentous events across the globe. Natural disasters and seismic social upheavals have taken place alongside an increasing rise to prominence of developing markets as the global economy enters a period of rebalancing. With current affairs in a state of flux, what room, and indeed relevance, is there for the creative industries at all?

As it happens, a climate in which human need is at its most intense has often been where art and design can really shine. Despite the desperate budget cuts that the arts have suffered due to recessionary measures in Europe and the USA, 2011 has been the year in which design, art and culture has been harnessed and leveraged to make a difference.

Art and design has been a means to raise funds, spread messages, solve problems, offer relief, and transform environments on an international scale. Whether it's environmental network Design for Disasters conducting art therapy at refugee shelters in the aftermath of the Thai floods, Issey Miyake's new creative director investing in ancient Eastern craftsmanship in order to support livelihoods in Japan after the earthquakes, or stylish design and concept store Merci in Paris offering up all its profits to children's charities, the message is the same. Well-made design has an impact far beyond luxury items for the living room; it can change people's lives.

Big philanthropic gestures are winning the awards too: Yves Behar won Index:'s 2011 award for life-improving designs for the spectacles he created for "See Better to Learn Better" - a project with San Diego-based lens manufacturer Augen Optics and Mexico's government which sees free eyewear distributed to disadvantaged children. NGOs such as Architecture for Humanity and Cooper-Hewitt's programme, "Design for the Other 90%" have also effected longer-lasting change on the ground than any handout.

The value of new art, design and culture now seems to be in direct proportion to the ethical values it represents. Integrity and authenticity is everything, with social and environmental credibility at the top of the shopping list. For this reason the trend towards basic honesty - which for these purposes could refer to anything homemade, handcrafted, locally produced, artisanal and/or natural - continues to grow and grow.

This can be seen at the Salone del Mobile in Milan where Wallpaper* magazine repeated the successful "Handmade" initiative, and at Art Basel Design Miami where collectors scooped up investment pieces that showed their maker's mark. The resurgence of concern for craftsmanship has exploded at all levels - in interiors, fashion, architecture and product design alike. Luxury furniture maker Silverlining in Britain - is now creating new progressive pieces in limited editions - making the point that in a market where "luxury" is a term applied to a supermarket chocolate mousse, the time has perhaps come to show more people what it truly means.

The direction that art and creativity is travelling in has also changed in 2011. A consumer class in Asia with more aspirations has uncovered a deeper appreciation of art. Asian buyers accounted for 61 percent of the total sales value at auction house Christie's New York, London and Hong Kong wine auctions. From precious jewels to Rolls-Royce cars, the Asian consumer's wealth today is driving luxury goods and bespoke art increasingly eastwards. Hong Kong remains the destination of choice for accessing the Mainland Chinese market, but Singapore's strategic location as a hub for the main art centres of China, Indonesia and India, makes it a bridge between East and West.

Just as consumer geography is changing, their priorities have evolved also. Consumers are increasingly well educated when it comes to the design and production quality of their goods. At London's Victoria and Albert Museum, "The Power of Making" exhibition's visitors were shown how impactworthy good industrial design is. The exhibition shows that irons, cigarette lighters and ballpoint pens are also 'design objects', raising the perceived value of the mundane, the simple, the ordinary. "The Power of Making" had queues running round the block. Its popularity showed the current consumer fascination with manufacturing and materials.

Finally, the world may have lost fantastic fashion designer Alexander McQueen and Apple's visionary CEO Steve Jobs in 2011, but the spirit of individualism in design they pioneered lives on. McQueen and Jobs had much in common. Their work both inspired and enabled artists and designers to see beyond the boundaries of their creative disciplines and market forces and both inspired others to work extraordinarily hard and, crucially, to think for themselves. Each empowered the potential of the individual to create, and to create change, and we can expect to see their legacy within the arts to continue for many more years to come.

As we reach the end of 2011, the creative industries offer not so much a beacon of hope, but thousands of them. The actions of a collective of creative individuals can be moving, inspiring, uplifting and, most importantly, extremely powerful.

Henrietta Thompson is a design writer and curator based both in London and Barcelona. Formerly design and arts editor of Wallpaper (now editor-at-large), Henrietta has also held senior editing roles at TANK, Blueprint, and Dazed & Confused and writes about architecture, design and technology for many publications, blogs and broadsheets alike. She has commissioned and curated several exhibitions both in the UK and abroad, and is the author of five books, most recently Remake It, but the common threads through all her work are a passion for design that creates real and positive change, and a knack for finding utterly lovely and brilliantly talented people with whom to work.