RSA Design Directions

Dott is collaborating with the Royal Society of Arts on a National design competition open to design students in Universities across the UK and Europe.

We have developed a brief entitled ‘Design for Social Inclusion’ in this year’s Design Directions Competition. The challenge we have put to the UK’s brightest and best students, is to design a product or service for a group of people of their choice, who are currently excluded from mainstream design practice. Dott believes that many people, for lots of different reasons, do not have their needs considered by designers, yet have needs and problems that are equally – if not more – worthy of well-designed solutions.
 

Update:

25th May 2010: The Winners are Revealed!

Bethan Jones, Billy Steele and Clover Stevens of Kingston University were the winners of the Dott Cornwall / Design Council Award of £2,500, for their project titled 'Shift'. "Shift is a desirable, tangible and rewarding design to help care leaver feel socially included as well as inspired and engaged."

A clipping from the RSA Design Directions Website.

The judging panel comprised of: Chair: Lord Best OBE, Alice Casey (Development Manager, Public Service Innovation Lab, Big Green Challenge, NESTA), Emily Campbell (Director of Design RSA), Mary Rose Cook (Founding Partner, UsCreates), Aviv Katz (Senior Service Designer, The Innovation Unit; Associate, Engine) and Andrea Siodmok (Programme Director, Dott Cornwall).

They commented that "it was not an easy task to meet all the demands of the brief, and also produce a strong concept, design and presentation. Some entries had good research, others demonstrated a high level of co-design. Several of the finalists remarked that they had changed the way that they approached design as a result of working on the project, and would be carrying this forward into their future careers."

There were five project finalists in this brief and The RSA created opportunities for mentoring sessions with service designers to expand and develop their ideas; following this, the finalists presented their work to a group of senior design producers involved with Dott Cornwall who gave them feedback for taking their projects forward.

Visit the RSA Design Directions website, and take a look at the winning idea here…

26th March 2010: Think Tank Presentations

During the 'Inspired at Bedruthan, Think Tank' event, a number of students working on the RSA project presented their work to various designers. The students had the valuable experience of receiving feedback on their projects as well as gaining new contacts and creating networking opportunities.