In recent years, a series of design-based programmes and business developments have helped evolve attitudes to design in the North East. The Dott 07 (Designs of the Time 2007) project has helped people in the region to explore the possibilities of a more sustainable existence, and now its successor, Designing Demand, is helping SMEs to make more effective use of design as part of a year-long initiative.

Working at the forefront of both projects is Nick Devitt. His involvement in these important regional developments comes as a result of two decades dedicated to the idea of design as an integral part of life.

Another of many projects which Nick has helped to initiate is Big Ideas, an organisation which aims to stimulate people to generate ideas and then to turn them into reality, which he developed in conjunction with the North East Business and Innovation Centre in 2003.
“I’d always been interested in ideas and innovation, but one thing that annoyed me while I was a student was that no one actually taught you or gave you any kind of training on how to generate and develop ideas.

With this in mind I helped to develop the four modules that are used in Big Ideas, which make up a model of how you can take an idea and turn it into reality, whether it is a commercial proposition or just something you want to do.

“The key phase is ideas generation, being able to give people the ability to generate ideas critically when they need them - not three hours later or while they’re laying in the bath at 11 at night thinking ‘I wish I’d thought of that’.”

Having built up Big Ideas, which continues to flourish and now focuses mainly on the education sector, Nick decided to move on to other projects in 2006, and set up his own company, Devitt Limited, when he was approached to develop and deliver the ECO Design Challenge as the education strand of Dott 07 and then also became assistant director of the complete Dott 07 programme.

“Designing Demand, another Design Council initiative, came about in the thick of Dott 07. Together with an old colleague, Robert Bewick, and associates from the North East BIC, I quickly became involved with the delivery side of that project as well.

“Designing Demand has a business focus, where as Dott 07 was very much at the community and social innovation end of design – for example, we may have put a designer with the Alzheimer’s society to see if they could come up with new services for people suffering from dementia.

Designing Demand is more commercial, design associates are going in and working with the directors of businesses to come out with a potential benefit – be that a new product, a new service, new identity, new branding… It’s an exciting project which is attracting a whole variety of different businesses, from boat builders to health service providers.”

Looking to the region’s future, how does Nick see the impact that projects like Designing Demand and Dott 07 can have eventually manifesting itself?

“I think with Dott 07 and now Designing Demand, it’s about the projects and the amount of people who’ve got involved, people who’ve started working together that wouldn’t ordinarily have worked together; people that have used designers that wouldn’t ordinarily have used designers. Already some of them are coming back and saying they’ll never do a project again without involving some kind of design element.

“These projects will help to develop the economy in the region, because more people will have developed a wider appreciation of how effective responsible design can positively affect their business and their daily life.”

For more information on Designing Demand, visit www.designingdemand.org.uk