Big Design Challenge

What are the big issues facing people in your community? This was the question we asked citizens of Cornwall for Cornwall’s Big Design Challenge.

Visit the Big Design Challenge Cornwall website…

The Big Design Challenge invited local people to come forward with new ideas for tackling problems in their own communities. We developed fun and innovative ways to get people involved in the decisions that matter on a local level. We also  to developed some practical tools  to start the process of becoming an entrepreneur so that more people can become practically involved in turning the big issues we face in society into future business opportunities.

Supported by the Technology Strategy Board and in line with the Government’s vision for a Big Society, the challenge was managed by local service design consultancy SEA Communications. Sea succesfully engaged with people in communities across Cornwall to establish the most common problems and to set a number of specific challenges for them to respond to.

The Big Design Challenge brought citizens and communities together with designers and social entrepreneurs to ‘co-design and develop’ their ideas – introducing citizens to innovation and understanding how new social ventures and business opportunities can be achieved - empowering people throughout Cornwall and beyond. The challenge ran across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, building on the highly successful Eco Design Challenge another Dott project in Cornwall, where young people worked with professionals to co-create their own solutions to the problems of climate change.