Dott has collaborated with the Royal Society of Arts on a national design competition open to design students in Universities across the UK and Europe.
The Design for Social Inclusion brief in the 2010 Design Directions Competition challenged the UK’s brightest and best students to design a product or service for a group of people 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.
Bethan Jones, Billy Steele and Clover Stevens of Kingston University won the £2,500 award for their project called Shift which used design to help care leaver feel socially included as well as inspired and engaged. Find out more about Shift on the RSA Design Directions website
The judging panel comprised of
- Chair: Lord Richard 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
- 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."