Foreword

David Kester foreword

Great design is sometimes heroic and sometimes humble. In Dott it is humble. Over the past five years the Design Council’s Designs of the Time programme has been about championing the role of designers as the handmaidens of local community innovation.

In 2007, I was awestruck at the Dott Community Awards in the North East to see the ambition and imagination that was released by bringing national and local designers together with community innovators. Three years on it is gratifying to see how so many of those early ideas have taken root. For instance, a small project involving a local Alzheimer’s Society group and the designers at Think Public has been taken up nationally benefitting thousands of people with the condition and their carers.

In 2010, it is exciting to see new projects in Cornwall that are set to deliver lasting change on the ground and that may also hold out exemplars for other communities and national policymakers, too. I was delighted to hear that Lord Wei, the Government’s Big Society champion, recently invited the designers and community leaders from the Pengegon estate to hear more about how they have built a collective vision for their new community centre and its services. Maybe Cornwall and its experience of design and community innovation can spur new thinking on how we all make localism a reality.

Cornwall was a natural choice for Dott. It has a strong creative heritage and identity as well as a lively design scene. It also has ambitious communities and leaders intent on addressing social problems, such as long-term unemployment, and driving a future based on sustainable living and enterprise. The fact that the programme has worked well and delivered results is down to the many people on the ground that have made this work. Of course, as ever, leadership has been key.

Cornwall Council threw away the rule-book when it set up Dott Cornwall as social venture with the Design Council, University College Falmouth and the Technology Strategy Board. Kevin Lavery, the local council’s chief executive is a powerful champion for the role of design and innovation in delivering new thinking at a time of huge change and financial pressure. His team continue to increase their chances of longterm success by strengthening the links between their services and the local talents in design, technology and education.

The other two remarkable leaders are Andrea Siodmok and Robert O’Dowd. Together they have run Dott Cornwall and brought it to an exciting conclusion with the Intersections Conference at the Eden Project. Designers have so much to offer local communities as they re-think places, spaces and services for the future. Where better to debate and consider this than the gardens of Eden.

Key Players

Kevin Lavery, Chief executive, Cornwall Council

It is rare for local authority heads to champion design and innovation in quite the way that Kevin Lavery has done. His support of Dott Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has helped to encourage new thinking locally against a backdrop of immense social change. The council’s involvement with Dott has meanwhile joined up the dots between education, technology and design through dealings with University College Falmouth, the Technology Strategy Board and Cornwall Design Forum, among others.

Robert O’Dowd, Executive director, Dott Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

Robert O’Dowd’s appointment as executive director of Dott Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly raised a cheer among those who experienced Dott 07, the Design Council-backed initiative which encompassed Newcastle and Gateshead in the North East. He made a big impact in cocreation there as executive producer of the venture, working alongside Dott 07’s programme director John Thackara.

With extensive experience in business and creative development, O’Dowd combines a passion for design and a strong reputation in management, he has worked in a diverse range of entrepreneurial environments, notably in broadcasting as one of the original directors of Classic FM and group enterprise director of GWR Group plc. He also lists chief executive of Real Health (UK) and of 180 Solutions (UK) on his CV. His next move is to head up Bangor University’s new £36m Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, designed by architect Grimshaw, a post that he takes up in April.

Andrea Siodmok, Programme director, Dott Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly

Andrea Siodmok studied industrial design for her first degree. Add to this a PhD in virtual reality and design consultancy in interactive media, websites and interface design and you start to understand her importance to Dott Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. She combines creativity, making and a deep appreciation of communication platforms.

Her continuing role as a visiting fellow at the University of Northumbria and PhD supervisor in co-design methods for social innovation brings an understanding of education. But she also has a firm grasp of dealing with ‘politicians’ and the public sector. In her previous role as programme leader and chief design officer at the Design Council, she was responsible for developing new design strategies for Government departments including the Department of Health and Home Office, setting up the council’s ‘Design Bugs Out’, ‘Designing Out Crime’ and ‘Public Services by Design’ initiatives.