A changing world and design education

This article was published as an invited contribution to the special issue dealing with contemporary design issues and strategies ‘in a time when different fields and disciplines are increasingly interwoven, problems in architecture and design often overlap’ (T. Ojari, MAJA editor-in-chief). Other contributors to the main theme of the issue included Per Mollerup, internationally renowned design policy maker from Denmark and Michael Dumiak, design researcher and journalist based in Berlin. Kermik discussed recent developments in the design industry and production from the perspective of hybrid practices of design and craft: ‘Design theoreticians have claimed that the design process in general, but also the role and meaning of products needs to be rethought in order to keep up with manufacturing, where out-dated principles and production chains are being replaced by new rules and possibilities. The transition from analogue technology and means of communication to the seemingly endless liberty of the digital world appears to have caused fundamental changes in both the influence design has as well as how its role is interpreted in society.’ Considerable part of the article was dedicated to recent initiatives in the design-craft curriculum at the University of Brighton supported by examples of student work to illustrate materials-based innovation and research-driven changes in design education.