Through a series of projects I aim to help develop new methodologies for design education, while entering into critical discussion about the role and practice of design pedagogy.

Design Inspiration

The main objective of this project was to explore what makes emergent designers critically and commercially successful. Posing the question: Do designers possess a special something in their make up - 'cultural DNA' - that makes them flourish in the contemporary design world? The project focused on the relationship of undergraduate design students’ responses to questions concerning their design inspiration sources from fields including art, cinema, literature, architecture and so on and using this as a means of measuring their level of design awareness.

The research was presented at a leading international design conference and was awarded a best paper award. The paper, which I co-authored with Dr. Paul Rodgers of Napier University, Edinburgh, was subsequently selected for publication in The Design Journal.

TLC

I have acted as a curator and critic for Glassbox, a leading Scottish design collective. I authored the introductory essay for their exhibition catalogue and jointly authored a paper discussing a series of collaborative design projects and the resultant impact on their research and teaching philosophy, presented and published in a number of international peer reviewed conference proceedings

Future Plans