We are all Designers

'We are all Designers'

The activity we commonly recognise as design has increased both in terms of its complexity and its reach on a continual basis since the 1950's. Design practice has been expanding continuously and now extends from the details of objects that we use on a day-to-day basis to cities, landscapes, nations, cultures, bodies, genes, nature, political systems, the way we produce food, to the way we travel, build cars or houses and clone sheep (Latour, 2008). With accelerated design activity into the 21st century, it is clear that an increasing number of practitioners across a large and diverse range of disciplines regard their methods as rooted in design practice or are using methods that could be considered designerly (Cross, 2006). It is equally clear that design is expanding its disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, and methodological borders to encompass ever-wider disciplines, activities and forms of practice.

In recent years we have witnessed a rapidly growing phenomenon in 'amateur designers' that includes cake bakers, dressmakers, DIYers, product hackers, and creative hobbyists. Several notable design theorists suggest that this may be because 'We are all Designers' at heart. In their opinion, we manipulate the environment, the better to serve our needs...we select what items to own, which to have around us...we build, buy, arrange, and restructure and all of this is a form of design (Lawson, 2005; Norman, 2005; Papanek, 1985).

It is with this expansion in mind that this Research Networking Project aims to begin the process of mapping the complex inter-connected relationships between communities and practices of non-designers and designers. By 'non-designers' we mean individuals that have had no formal academic education or training in design. This would include, for example, economists, anthropologists, and computer scientists and by 'designers' we mean individuals that have received formal academic education or training in design such as graphic designers, industrial designers, fashion designers, and interior designers. The aim of this Research Network Project is to explore and stimulate new debate around emerging forms of design practice that routinely traverse, transcend and transfigure conventional disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and cultural boundaries. The 'We are all Designers' Research Network Project wishes to explore these fertile new terrains of creative practice, be multi-institutional and include creative and innovative approaches of production and entrepreneurship. It is envisaged that this Research Network Project will involve a number of participants that are themselves routinely traversing, transcending and transfiguring well-established and conventional disciplinary boundaries in their work.

This research network will host 3 intensive workshop events [1. Exploration, 2. Creation, 3. Reflection] that will facilitate debate amongst non-designers and designers around emerging forms of design practice, initiate both qualitative and quantitative mappings of the inter-connected relationships between communities and practices of non-designers and designers, and provide a rich forum for greater interaction amongst the public and other stakeholders in contemporary design practice.

At the end of the three workshops, the participants will have produced a number of group and individual 2D/3D maps that describe emerging forms of creative practice. These maps will illustrate emergent forms of disciplinarity, and boundaries and edges of 'rich' creative territories that may highlight potential areas of future creative practice. The principal investigators will also produce an end of Research Network Project report as well as several journal and conference papers.

Key beneficiaries of this research will be researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers within the design community and elsewhere including those in academia, industry, public and government bodies. The research planned will examine emerging forms of design practice that is characterised by its fluid nature, regularly traversing and transcending disciplinary, conceptual, and methodological borders.

Individuals and groups within the design community and elsewhere will benefit from this research. First, a rich, national network of researchers, educators and practitioners involved in these emerging forms of design practice will be established to explore the important issues. Second, the research will define emerging terrains of creative practice where teams of individuals and groups whose experiences and skills go beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries are operating. The research will impact design education providers (e.g. Universities, Colleges, and Schools), design policy makers (e.g. regional and national governments and bodies - Design Council, RSA, etc.), and practitioners by examining the contributions of specific disciplines within and across disciplinary teams during the planned workshops. The workshops will allow the investigators to gauge the quality of the interactions necessary for new forms of multidisciplinary working. This will facilitate the identification of 'best' mixes of people in multidisciplinary working that will impact on the economic competitiveness of UK creative industries.

The main strategy for addressing impact in this research proposal is through a combination of systematic but imaginative work, which combines creative practice-based research with sound empirically based research. In this sense, impact is primarily addressed through the quality of the research proposed and by the calibre of the proposed research network participants.

The impact of this research will be managed and disseminated via a range of national and international channels. The channels include regional networks for design companies, network participants, subsequent continuing professional development (CPD) workshops, and end of workshop mini exhibitions that will be open to the public. Other channels will include public bodies and agencies, including those represented by the invited network participants who will provide an effective context for the dissemination of the research findings, as well as established and relevant UK based conferences, journals and trade magazines. International channels will include the research project website, international journals and conferences, and other established research and industrial collaborations of the two main investigators.

The project's impact will start immediately once funding has been secured. At this stage the dedicated project website will be built. Information on the proposed workshops will be disseminated to the invited network participants for them to distribute, in turn, to an even wider national audience. More long-term impact will be managed via the development of an exploitation plan throughout the proposed research, exploring opportunities with each of the two Investigators' Commercialisation Departments. Both Northumbria University School of Design and Innovation Design Engineering, Royal College of Art have a strong reputation in design research. Moreover, both institutions are excellent providers of dedicated training, CDP activities, and in capacity building support for commercial, public and third sector design organisations. The potential impact of the proposed research thus extends well beyond commercial contexts to include social, cultural and quality of life contexts. In summary, the range of exploitation channels is very broad, ranging from academia through to SMEs to multinational product and service organisations. Outputs are plan