Local group Gendall revamps website for Dott Cornwall

Falmouth-based consultancy Gendall is designing a new website for Designs of the Time Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which the consultancy hopes will ‘engage designers and the community’.

Dott is a collective programme instigated by the Design Council, Cornwall Council and University College Falmouth, which aims to tackle social or economic challenges, and involves local communities in design solutions.

Gendall won the work in a three-way credentials pitch and aims to complete the site by February. The consultancy has already designed a website for Dott photography and design programme Dott Shots.

Paul Davies, digital director at Gendall, says the challenge for the main Dott site will be in representing different stakeholders, which include education policy-makers, the media, designers and design groups.

Social media will be integrated into the site to encourage people to upload their own content and create dialogue, Davies adds.

Content and design will have to be very functional, Davies says, and the site will be designed as a legacy for the Dott programme, which is set to run until the end of 2012.

Andrea Siodmok, programme director at Dott, says that content from projects may be linked to the sites of partners the Design Council and University College Falmouth.

The newly built site, which may enlist the help of children and students at local schools and colleges, ‘will enable different communities to become advocates for design, and will be a brilliant legacy for Dott and an environment for people to engage with community projects in the future’, says Davies.