Rodd and Olfactory Experience to develop innovative new concept to improve life with dementia

We are pleased to announce that Rodd and partners Olfactory Experience have been selected by the Department of Health and the Design Council as one of 5 successful teams to develop innovative product and services to improve the quality of life for those living with Dementia.


The announcement was made today by the Department of Health and the Design Council which will award the teams a share of £360,000 to design and develop prototypes of their ideas.

A million people in the UK will be living with dementia by 2012 and one in three of us who live to 65 will have some form of the condition. The 'Living Well with Dementia' project aims to develop the next generation of products and services, drive innovation and stimulate the market, in a bid to improve the quality of life for those with dementia, their families and carers.

Our proposition 'Scent Clock’ is a home scent-device to stimulate appetite and enhance nutritional status in dementia. The device will look to increase the likelihood of eating, reducing the issues of weight loss, dehydration, fatigue and malnutrition that people with dementia experience.

We will blog about the project as it develops, with final prototypes unveiled in the Spring.

Culture Shock

The first post from Rodd in a little while and this time it is courtesy of our latest addition to the team, Hiroyuki Tanaka. ‘Hiro’ is a visiting designer from Japan who is working with us on a project.


As you would expect we are continually trying to unravel the intricacies of our respective cultures and this is a great offering from him which highlights some of lesser known facts about Japanese life.



Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Trading Places: Ten Year of the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge at the RCA

To celebrate ten years of the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge, the Helen Hamlyn Centre is organising a special exhibition at the Sackler Centre for arts education at the V&A in spring 2010, sponsored by the Department of Work and Pensions.

This exhibition, entitled Trading Places: Ten Year of the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge at the RCA 2000/10, will be held from 19 April to 16 May 2010. A special creative industries night will be held at the Sackler Centre on 27 April in partnership with the DBA and V&A to celebrate the show.

The Trading Places exhibition will then travel to Boston's Institute for Human-Centred Design in autumn 2010 for a showing before an American audience.

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