Dott 07

Stretching from Northumberland down through Tyne & Wear and County Durham to Tees Valley in the South, North East England has a strong heritage around design and innovation.

Tyneside is one of the birthplaces of the modern age. Here, key aspects of the industrial revolution were born that changed the world. Innovations from the North East paved the way for technological developments in transport, communications and mass production which today we take so much for granted.

An abundance of natural resources initially stimulated the growth of industry on Tyneside. Coal had been mined in the area since the fourteenth century; this stimulated the development of the world's earliest railways in the North East during the 1700s. Coal also enabled the development of industries like chemicals, glass and soap which were  demanded by the growing population of industrial Tyneside.

The expansion of industry in the region was driven by such great industrial pioneers as George Stephenson, William Armstrong, Charles Parsons and Joseph Swan. George Stephenson (1781-1848) is often referred to as the 'Father of the Railways'. In 1824 George, with his son Robert, formed an engineering business and workshop in Forth Street Newcastle, specifically for the building of locomotives. Their innovations culminated in the construction of Stephenson's most famous locomotive, The Rocket.

Dott 07's office is located in one of the industrial sheds, now named The Robert Stephenson Centre. "The first rail in the railway age" sits next to the web team's office.

NewcastleGateshead Quayside, which runs along the banks of the River Tyne, is now one of the biggest cultural and leisure quarters in Europe. It is home to three of the region's most familiar landmarks: Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Lord Foster’s Sage Gateshead, and the award–winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North, the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, the Alnwick Garden, and the Tees Barrage at Stockton–on–Tees are just a few of the other internationally renowned landmarks in North East England.

Local enthusiasm ensures the success of North East events. The Great North Run is the world’s largest half–marathon, and New York–based artist Spencer Tunick encouraged over 1,000 volunteers to get involved in a landmark piece of contemporary art on Tyneside. He persuaded them to strip off and form part of his largest ever UK installation.

With ’Fashion at Belsay’, Newcastle and Middlesborough’s Mela, the Stockton International Riverside Festival, and the arrival of MIMA, Middlesborough’s £19.2million Institute for Modern Art, in 2006, this vibrant region has a huge amount to offer both residents and visitors.

The region’s academic institutions also play a major role. Teesside University is developing new centres for digital technology and Northumbria University boasts such former students as Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Vice President of Industrial Design, fashion designer Scott Henshall, and Tim Brown, now CEO of IDEO. Northumbria’s new Design School, due for completion in 2007, will be the physical hub that supports a transformation of design education in the region.

The Dott 07 philosophy is that design can be used as a tool for renewal by communities and stimulate change. North East England is the natural first Dott partner. It has already placed design at the heart of innovation in service–critical environments such as hospitals, airports and a new, integrated public health transport system pilot in rural Northumberland.

Design Destination

"With design placed at the heart of the region’s economic regeneration we believe the time has never been better for North East England to capitalise on the power of design to create a more dynamic regional economy," explains Alan Clarke. "Dott 07 will enable us to promote and nurture creativity in diverse communities and to further develop our world–class cultural venues, leading educational establishments, and pioneering businesses, to build a strong and prosperous region for the future."