Design + Making and Materials

RESEARCH THEME

Design + Making and Materials is one of three strategic research themes in Northumbria School of Design, which cuts across all of our core areas of design expertise.

Our design research on making and materials concerns materialities, the cultural value and benefits of making in society, and the effects emerging technologies and materials may have on design, making and craft practices.

Research in this theme cuts across the whole range of design disciplines – product, industrial, interaction, service, textile, interior, and fashion – using their disciplinary knowledge and maker expertise to explore the application of new and advanced material technologies and entrepreneurial design making. Our activities brings the act of making to centre-stage of design research, focusing on its artefacts, processes, and practices and recording and reflecting research through design projects. The outcomes of our projects include descriptions of technical applications, methods, processes and insights emerging from designing, as well as the actual products and artefacts. These descriptions help us to better understand the opportunity of design making research to address particular problems and contexts of concern.

Please see the projects below for examples of our Design + Making and Materials research.

1-ArtScience-Hybrids-Steve-Gibson

Art/Science Hybrids

Square13

Bauhaus Open Studio

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bespoke

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Breaking the Binary Oppositions of the Interior

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China’s Creative Communities

63-Chronotopic-Cartographies-cc_thumb3_Andrew-Richardson

Chronotopic Cartographies

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Colour Trans:Form:Ation the Application of Knit as Knowledge

CC-Featured

Community Conversational

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Connected High Street

38-Crafted-Futurescrafted-futures-4_Elizabeth-Gaston-1024x1024

Crafted Futures

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Critical Theory and Interaction Design

CuttersContext-Featured

Cutters Context

40-deep-discoveries-thumbnail_Jo-Briggs

Deep Discoveries UX/UI Design

DesignBeyondCraftsmanship-Featured

Design Beyond Traditional, Contemporary and Digital Craftsmanship

2-Digital-Originals-Jo-Briggs-1

Digital Originals

DrawingALine-featured

Drawing a Line

61-Emotional-Objects-Ellen-Sampson-Portfolio-2019-small_Page_03_Im_Ellen-Sampson

Emotional Objects

Ongoingness-featured

Enabling Ongoingess

EnhancingProductDesignQuality-featured

Enhancing Product Design Quality through Crowdsourcing

78-Envisioning-Fashions-Invisible-Woman-Screen-Shot-2021-03-30-at-10.35.55_Ann-Marie-Kirkbride

Envisioning Fashion’s Invisible Woman

Ephemera-Featured

Ephemera

9-Establishing-Trust-through-Storytelling-1_David-Parkinson-1-1-1024x1024 (1)

Establishing Trust through Storytelling

expcensec-featured

Experience Centered Security

Fashion-Journalism

Fashion Journalism Practices

funology2-featured

Funology

Enticatype-featured

Hand Thought

HeritageAfricanFashion

Heritage in Contemporary African Fashion

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Hybrid Digital-Physical Objects

ImmersiveExperiences-featured (1)

Immersive Technology Applications

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Inflection

Interactive-Newsprint

Interactive Newsprint

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Interioractive

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Izzy Gizmo

JordanianTShirt-featured

Jordanian T-shirt

LegacyLost-featured

Legacy of the Lost (Textiles)

LetsStart-featured

Let’s Start

LocalisedSpatial-featured

Localised Spatial Experiences

LoveAftrDeath-featured

Love After Death

Makampa-featured

Makamap

Warrington_in_use

Making Things Up

MappingWordsworth-featured

Mapping Wordsworth

47-Mediating-Trust-thumnail_Jo-Briggs

Mediating Trust: Co-creative Making Workshop Resources

NewSaintCuthbertsBanner-featured

New Saint Cuthbert’s Banner

DesignForDementia-Feature

A Design-Led Enquiry into Parametric Product Design for Dementia Care

25-Placing-in-AgeDSCF4473_Jayne-Wallace

Placing in Age

PlayingOut-001b

Playing Out with IoT

PolicymakingHCI-Featured

Policymaking and HCI

ProbingRtD-Featured

Probing into Research through Design

QuietDesign-Featured

Wearable Technology from an Apparel Designer’s Perspective

Research-and-Design-Fiction

Research and Design Fiction

RTD

Research Through Design conference

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RTD Comics

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Spatial Diorama

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Speculative Enactments

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Suits and Subcultures

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Sun, Sex, and Style in Smart Cinema

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The Design of Poetic Things

GlassElectric-featured

The Glass Electric

The-Lens-the-Mirror

The Lens, the Mirror and the Frame

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The MIT Museum Glassware Prototype: Visitor Experience Exploration for Designing Smart Glasses

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The para-disciplinary role of Design

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The Speculative Gaze

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The Trust Map

Tools4EL

Tools for Everyday Life

66-Transforming-the-sequential-process-Dress-layplan_Alana-James-1024x1024

Transforming the sequential process of fashion production: Where zero-waste pattern cutting takes the lead in creative design

52-Transnational-fashion-storytellingGlover_Thumbnail_Catherine-Glover-1024x1024

Transnational Fashion Storytelling

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Unblocking the Circular Economy

UXRIandAI-featured

User Experience, Design Innovation and AI

68-What-Do-We-Know-0.2_Ellen-Sampson

What Do We Know Through Making And Wearing Clothes

WomenWhoClimb-Featured

Women Climbers and Their Clothing

Worn-Cover

Worn

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