A specialist furniture manufacturer and an architectural joinery firm are featured in a new Design Council guidebook.

The guide, Inspired Business, spotlights 12 firms and aims to encourage small businesses to recognise the commercial power and financial benefits of the strategic use of design.

Featured is Cheshire-based Renray David Baker, which makes wooden furniture for hospitals and care homes. It has re-established the importance of design and business is booming.

Also spotlighted is Essex joiner Stiltland, which has secured prominent contracts from the New Tate Gallery and the London Eye after using design in its promotional materials to add to identity.

Andrew Summers, Design Council chief executive, said: ‘If this book carries an overall message it is that design is not a mysterious black art practised by a creative few, but a business process that can be managed like any other.’