"Design decisions shape the processes behind the products we use, the materials and energy required to make them, the ways we operate them, and what happens to them when we no longer need them." John Thackara - Dott 07 programme director.
Writer Will Mapplebeck followed the Dott team to chronicle the events of our off-site trip. Here's Will's account of what happened.
The Kick Off
Ten established designers gather in North East England. Their mission is to help plan and execute Dott 07, a design festival taking place throughout the region during 2007.
The vision behind Dott 07 is a simple one, to make people aware of the role design plays and how it can and does make a real difference to their lives.
Dott 07 will showcase the benefits of all different disciplines of design, from service to product.
Service and Product
WHAT comes into your head when you think about design?
Perhaps you think of those design classics that remind us of a better age when UK manufacturing led the world. For example, the seductive lines of an E-type or the familiar safety of a bright red phone box.
You probably don't think about how design influences how the bins are collected or how your local supermarket organises its deliveries. How, in fact, design improves people's lives (or not, if it's done badly).
One of the first things I learned on the Dott Kick Off Workshop was that designers don't just design stuff (a discipline known as product design), nowadays they design processes and services as well.
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