About DID
Designed in Devon
Why?
Designed in Devon’, ‘DID’ for short, was conceived over a couple pints and a glass of Shiraz in 2006 and launched at Hotel Barcelona in Exeter in February 2007.
DID exists to encourage the exercise and maintain the standards of design in the county of Devon, preserve and improve creativity and foster, promote and increase awareness of the design industry in Devon, in the South West of England and the rest of the UK.
DID is a network for designers and other design-related professionals such as photographers, copywriters, illustrators, model makers, etc., and broadly for employees, employers, self-employed and students.
Membership
All those who register on this DiD website are considered to be ‘Members’. At present there is no charge membership and this is unlikely to change for some time.
In the future, when the group and its activities have grown so membership becomes a tangible benefit, this may change. But, according to the constitution, only after it has been discussed at an AGM.
(NB. In order to fund some events a charge is sometimes made.)
The Aim
DiD’s main aim, as stated in its constitution is:
“To raise the regional and national profiles of design and its related professions in Devon.”
The Objectives
To achieve this aim we have a (largish) number of objectives:
1. To provide a network for designers and other related professionals; employers, employees, self employed and students
2. To provide a proactive voice for the design industry in Devon.
3. To act as a focal point for information about design in Devon to members and to the wider community.
4. To promote the diversity of design skills and experience available in Devon.
5. To engage and liaise with other bodies for the benefit of design in Devon.
6. To engage and liaise with the design education sector to nurture talent within, and attract talent to, Devon.
7. To share skills and resources.
The Organisation
A Committee of about 18 creatives and representatives from other design-related groups, drawn from all over the county and from a wide variety of specialisms, meets regularly to decide on activities which will help to meet the group’s objectives.
Events, which are a mixture of purely social and ‘educational’, are organised both by the committee and more locally by committee members in their own ‘patches’ such as Exeter, Exmouth and Plymouth. All these activities are promoted using this website and many of the other social networks.
Three members of the DiD Committee sit on the South West Design Forum (SWDF) where DiD is one of six county-based design forums which are represented The SWDF helps to co-ordinate activities between the forums and, more importantly, interfaces with regional and national organisations and sources of funding.
Keeping in touch
We aim to send out an e-newsletter at the beginning of each month alerting members to forthcoming events and to industry news both regional and national. All the information included in the newsletters is also here on the website, so don’t feel you have to wait until you get a newsletter, use the RSS feed.
Some events and news items are also sent using social networks – we have spaces on Facebook and Twitter If you are organising, or hear of, an event which others might want to attend then let us know. Send as many details as possible to secretary@designedindevon.co.uk.
Getting in touch
If you want to get more involved in the running of Designed in Devon or have ideas for events, professional development and the like, do contact us.
In the first instance contact secretary@designedindevon.co.uk. You may then get passed on to either the Chairman or one of the local organisers whichever is most appropriate to deal with your query or suggestion.
The Committee
Korash Sanjideh – Chairman (Plymouth)
Tim Burley – Vice Chairman (Exeter)
Alex Ryley (Plymouth)
Ben Hodson (Ashburton)
Blair Thompson (Exeter)
Bob Marshall – Secretary (Plymouth)
Chaman Kumar (Sidmouth)
Ella Romanos (Plymouth)
Jonathan Alder (Exeter)
Karen Stockdale (Plymouth Media Partnership)
Kathryn Hughes (SW Design Programme)
Maddi Bridgeman (Peninsula Business Link)
Mark Green (Torbay)
Michael Greenland – Createx events (Exmouth)
Michael Krage – Exeter events (Exeter)
Mike Stevenson (University of Plymouth)
Richard Holt (Exeter College)
Steve Tricker (Bideford)
Join Us
If you would like to join a local Design group then you can join here, or go to the individual cluster website.
Gloucestershire Design Network
Somerset Design Enterprise Network
Join nowIf you would prefer to only signup for the newsletter click here
