Over 25 years working at the UAL, Winchester School of Art and now Ravensbourne University, I have championed an approach that puts students at the centre of a dialogue between education and professional practice. I have set up collaborations with the likes of Apple, Sky Creative, Barclays, Deloitte, The O2, Mozilla, De La Rue, The Mill, Mother, JKR, Sennep, Moving Brands and ustwo. These projects challenge the inherent inertia of the academy to enhance learning and build resilience beyond graduation.
 

In 2012, I initiated and chaired ‘Alt/ShiftUAL’, a platform to promote ‘constructive collaboration between the creative industries and design education’. This conversation was hosted online via a blog and website, on Twitter and as part of two discussion events hosted by leading digital agencies, LBi and ustwo. Conclusions from the project were published by the National Society for Education in Art & Design. Since then I have continued to question and develop pedagogic practice related to graphic and communication design and in 2016 & 2017, I was a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Graphic Design Educators Network.

 

I am also the co-author of ‘Communication Design, Insights from the Creative Industries’, an overview of emerging creative practice published by Bloomsbury. The peer-reviewed journal, ‘Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education’ referred to this publication as “an important book and one that deserves a space on the shelves of communication design students, educators and practitioners” and US design innovation specialists, Zeus Jones, described it as “the definitive guide to modern branding.” The book has been translated into Spanish by Promopress and I have been asked to talk about the project at leading universities in the UK and abroad.

 

In 2017 I joined the team at Ravensbourne and working here has allowed me to really explore the potential of my network, creating a series of projects that I believe genuinely challenge where education ends and professional practice begins.

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Read more about this on my blog and in the case studies that are featured on this website.