2015 ⁄ 16
School
of Design
has transformed into a world-leading
programme, which has become known
for its emphasis on design for a rapidly
changing urban and technological
environment as well as design and
sustainability. Professor Harrow is soon
to publish a practitioner’s history of
automotive design.
Dean of School
Professor Dale Harrow
Appointed Dean of the School of Design
in 2011, Dale Harrow was Head of RCA
Vehicle Design from 1999 to 2014.
This followed a career as an active
design consultant for many automotive
and design companies, specialising
in cars and motorcycles. During his
tenure, Vehicle Design at the RCA
The School of Design engages with design
on multiple levels: as a cultural and societal
activity, and as an innovation process where
design can deliver new products, new services
and new ways of running or creating businesses
– or even new ways of doing business.
The School offers programmes in Design
Interactions, Design Products, Global Innovation
Design, Innovation Design Engineering, Service
Design and Vehicle Design. These programmes
range from the highly conceptual to the deeply
practical; however all share a strong culture
of experimentation, innovation and debate
within differing approaches and curricula. Their
shared aim is to provide a dynamic and vibrant
environment that encourages risk and originality,
diversity in thinking, opinions and ideologies.
Programmes collaborate and innovate with
industry partners (often global corporations),
other academic institutions and with experts from
the worlds of science, technology, engineering,
business, society and culture. Through this, a lively
environment is created where interdisciplinary
projects flourish and develop; it underpins
learning, teaching and research, and the School
of Design brings together teams of staff with
reputations for world-leading research, teaching
and collaboration with industry, commerce and
the public sector. Individual students are assisted
with bursaries and prizes related to their activities
as well as sponsored internships, work placements
and research projects. Student work is exhibited
at the College, in local venues and in prestigious
museums and galleries in London and abroad.
Staff — Programme staff are highly regarded
practitioners, who ensure that practical application
is relevant, and who are academically qualified
to provide a critical context for the discipline.
For further information on staff, including research
interests, exhibitions and publications, please visit:
rca.ac.uk/staff
Applications are welcomed from — Any
qualifying graduate or significantly experienced
professional interested in how innovation and
design can improve the lives of people, society
and the economy at leadership level in
international contexts. You should have a degree
in art, design or a relevant discipline. Equivalent
professional experience may be counted instead
of a degree. For College-wide and programmespecific requirements and details on relevant
degrees considered please see:
rca.ac.uk/entrance-requirements
School of Design
‘Our approach to teaching design reflects
a passionate belief that the discipline – in
its many forms – is both complex and
constantly moving forwards. New designers
have to be better informed to meet future
challenges.We make sure that they are.’
– Innovation Design Engineering Gus Desbarats
(The Alloy), James Dyson, Virginia Gardiner
(Loowatt), Isabel Lizardi (Bare Conductive),
Nick Munro, Maryam Nabavi (Idea Couture),
Mark Sanders (MAS Design Products),
Richard Whitehall (Smart Design)
– Service Design Iban Benzal (Capita), Amy Lee
(Ministry of Justice), Sebastian Nause-Blueml
(Smart Design), Roman Schöneboom (Fjord,
part of Accenture), Julia Schrot (Engine),
Kate Wakely (IDEO), Tae Young Kang and Kyunsik
Yoon (Samsung)
– Vehicle Design Pratap Bose (Head of Design Tata
Motors), Sonja Dahl (Senior Programme Manager,
Innovation Skills at Nesta), Thomas Ingenlath
(Senior Vice President Design, Volvo Car
Corporation), Sergio Loureiro da Silva (Interior
Design Director, Chery Motors), Marek Reichman
(Design Director at Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd),
Frank Stephenson (Design Director, McLaren
Automotive), Nick Talbot (Head of Design and
Innovation, Global at Tata Elxsi), Giles Taylor
(Design Director at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars),
David Woodhouse (Design Director at Lincoln
Motor Company)
MA Design Interactions: Bioplastic Fantastic: Between Products and Organisms, Johanna Schmeer
of its graduates’ achievements. Alumni from the
RCA form part of an international network of creative
individuals who have shaped and continue to shape
the culture surrounding all of us – from the landscape
of our cities and the way we communicate to the
furniture and appliances in our homes, and from the
clothes we wear and the films we watch, to the work
we experience in galleries.
Graduates from the School go on to work
for multinational corporations, design consultancies,
academic and industrial research labs, and –
increasingly – to set up their own design studios.
Well-known alumni include:
– Design Interactions Nelly Ben Hayoun (Nelly Ben
Hayoun Studio), Matt Brown (Apple), Will Carey
(IDEO), Revital Cohen (Cohen Van Balen),
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Anab Jain (Superflux),
Hiromi Ozaki, aka Sputniko! (MIT Media Lab)
– Design Products Tomoko Azumi, Paul Cocksedge,
Simon Hasan, Thomas Heatherwick, Alex Hulme
(Barber Osgerby), Roland Lamb (ROLI Seaboard),
Peter Marigold, Florian Ortkrass (Random
International)
School of Design
Alumni — The Royal College of Art is rightly proud
Design Products The Design Products
programme, led by Dr Sharon Baurley, recognises
that design is an activity that fundamentally shapes
the world and influences the processes of change.
The Design Products programme is about
creativity for purpose – educating students to be
design-thinkers, who address real-world challenges
through balancing high levels of creativity and
technical capability with contextual insight. The
programme takes a pluralistic approach to product
design by exploring it through a number of design
cultures – ‘design through making’, ‘design for
manufacture’, ‘object-mediated interactions’,
‘design as catalyst’ and ‘exploring emergent futures’
– underpinned by a set of contextual themes.
Students conceptualise and validate ideas by
canvassing, provoking, challenging and questioning
people, places and things through crafted artefacts.
Through team and individual projects, involving
external partners and tutored by practising
designers and design researchers, students
determine their own personal design culture while
building a portfolio of work. Graduates are creative
catalysts and visionaries who go on to lead in design
consultancies and to set up their own design studios.
Collaborative projects include Fortnum &
Mason and Formlabs, and there are opportunities to
exhibit in London and elsewhere.
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/designproducts
Dunne, the Design Interactions programme explores
new roles, contexts and approaches for interaction
design in relation to the social, cultural and ethical
impact of existing and emerging technologies.
Projects, which are often speculative and
critical, aim to inspire debate about the human
consequences of positive and negative technological
futures. Students work closely with people outside
the College, designing for the complex, troubled
people we are, rather than the easily satisfied
consumers and users we are supposed to be. Project
outcomes are expressed through media including
prototypes, performance, video and photography.
Design Interactions offers a multidisciplinary
environment: students have backgrounds in
interaction design; digital media; fine art; product,
graphic and furniture design; architecture; life
sciences; biotech; social sciences; and computer
science. With access to a network of world-leading
experts and scientists working in nanotechnology,
synthetic biology, robotics and neuroscience,
students curate and exhibit their work in international
museums, galleries and festivals. World-class,
design-led research, with funding from UK research
councils and the EU, also opens up opportunities for
industry collaborations with companies such as Intel,
Microsoft Research, Philips Design and Vodafone.
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/interactions
MA Design Products: Polo, Dustin Jessen
Design Interactions Led by Professor Anthony
MA/MSc Global Innovation Design: Sketch Book of Ideas
Led by Professor Miles Pennington (RCA) and
Professor Peter Childs (Imperial), the Innovation
Design Engineering (IDE) programme is a leadingedge, creative product development course that
involves experimentation, design, engineering and
enterprise activities. Students work at the centre
of complex, demanding projects with an emphasis
on prototyping and proving propositions. The
programme requires a wide range of design skills and
thinking; industrial design techniques, manufacturing,
mechanical engineering, design research, usercentred design and sustainability among others.
It encourages all to tackle real-world issues involving
advanced technical, design and social parameters.
We believe that design is a verb not a noun.
IDE is a double Master’s joint course with
Imperial College London, offering an MA (RCA) and
MSc (Imperial). Students are fully enrolled at both
institutions. There is a vibrant creative studio space
for all MA/MSc students and a research studio,
both situated at the RCA. IDE is home to a diverse
and international mix of students, who have the
opportunity to work with major companies such as
Ford, Coca-Cola, Airbus, BBC, Unilever, Vodafone, LG
and Pernot Ricard. International student modules are
organised annually; recent visits include India, Japan,
Korea, Thailand, China and Ghana.
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/ide – ide.rca.ac.uk
Innovation Design Engineering (IDE)
Miles Pennington (RCA) and Professor Peter Childs
(Imperial), Global Innovation Design (GID) is a
unique, transnational Master’s design initiative that
brings together major centres of design, culture,
enterprise and industry, and a world-class design
collaboration between internationally renowned
academic institutions. Each partner brings distinct
expertise and complementary approaches to design,
engineering, technology and business with an
emphasis on international design and innovation.
GID offers a new global style of learning, and unique
educational and cultural experiences designed to
meet the changing needs of enterprise in the twentyfirst century.
The programme is full time and runs over a
period of two calendar years. There is currently
a single route through the GID Master’s – London,
New York and Tokyo. In this route students study
at partner institutions in their first year: first the
Pratt Institute in New York and then Keio University
in Tokyo. The London-based second year of the
programme is spent in a shared vibrant creative
studio at the RCA, with access via Imperial College to
a world-leading technology environment. GID is a
joint Master’s programme between the Royal College
of Art and Imperial College London and offers a double
Master’s degree: MA (RCA) and MSc (Imperial).
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/gid
Global Innovation Design Led by Professor
is the world’s leading centre for vehicle design
education and research. Pioneering new design,
innovation and approaches for our mobile futures,
the programme creates an environment where that
future will be discovered.
Vehicle Design is a complex subject, concerned
with aerodynamics, environmental impact, materials,
ergonomics, legislation, production, safety and
technology. Three pathways – Urban Flow, Automark
and Inside Out – help to define and focus individual
routes of study and exploration. The programme
seeks to combine innovation with practicality,
marrying experience and practice to creative
thinking, in a climate of informed opinion, supported
by in-depth research, creative cross-disciplinary
experience, teamwork and academic excellence.
This two-year MA programme is the only
established and dedicated postgraduate course
in Vehicle Design in the world and has an enviable
graduate employment record. Our PhD level research
activities form a significant part of the programme.
The programme offers industrial relationships
through sponsored projects, internships, portfolio
reviews, trips and bursaries/awards, including:
Bentley, Citroën, EXA (aerodynamic software), Fiat,
Ford, Honda Motorcycles, Hitachi Rail Europe, Jaguar,
Land Rover, Toyota and Umbro.
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/vehicle
Vehicle Design The Vehicle Design programme
Service Design programme offers a two-year MA in
Service Design as well as opportunities for MPhil
and PhD research. The programme is delivered in
association with Imperial College London. Students
are immersed in the unique interdisciplinary
environment of the RCA’s School of Design, as well
as digital technology and management disciplines
of Imperial College’s Department of Computing,
alongside its prestigious MBA programme.
The programme deepens students’
appreciation of how design can transform the
experience and value of services, making them
compelling to users, as well as attractive and
profitable for the organisations that deliver them.
It educates students in the very latest tools and
techniques of service design, and explores as well as
stimulates research in this field.
The MA combines lectures, workshops and
projects, grounded in empirical evidence drawn
from ‘real world’ practice as well as theory. Students
undertake group and individual projects that tackle
the different domains of public service provision,
consumer and business services, in partnership
with leading service sector companies and public
sector organisations. Recent projects include UK
Government’s Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice,
the NHS, Mind, Fiat, Sainsbury’s and Samsung.
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/servicedesign
MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering: Silk Leaf Capable of Photosynthesis, Julian Melchiorri
Service Design Led by Dr Nick de Leon, the
MA Service Design: Active Values, Marion Ferrec and Kate Wakely
[email protected]
[email protected]
rca.ac.uk/design-research
Research Students: MPhil and PhD — We welcome
applications for MPhil/PhD study, for postdoctoral
research and from visiting scholars whose research
interests are close to our own.
As a research student in the School of Design,
you may be designing an innovative object or system,
or your research may prioritise the conceptual
or historical. Research topics range from the strongly
needs-focused – such as designing new forms of
medical equipment, to the more speculative – such as
considering the philosophy of computer games.
Research students normally enrol as MPhil
candidates and then proceed to PhD. Occasionally,
applicants may be admitted as PhD candidates. In
either case, the programme extends over three years
full-time, and a minimum of five years part-time.
All research students attend the cross-College
Research Methods Course in their first year,
supplemented by research methods provision within
their chosen programme. Unlike PhD study in
some countries, research at the RCA is primarily led
by personal enquiry, not by taught courses.
All UK doctoral applicants to the School of
Design are eligible to apply for LDOC scholarships,
funded by the AHRC, which can pay fees and a
stipend. A small number of these scholarships are
available each year, on a competitive basis. LDOC
scholarships for non-UK EU students pay fees only.
Research in the
School of Design
MA Vehicle Design: Seyan Individual Urban Mobility Concept, Henri Peugeot
School Research Leader: Professor Stephen
Boyd Davis — The School of Design is home to
internationally significant research by its staff and
students, much of which is practice-based. The six
teaching areas of the School – Design Interactions,
Design Products, Global Innovation Design, Innovation
Designing Engineering, Service Design and Vehicle
Design – represent a wide range of approaches to
research, from the industrially orientated to the highly
speculative. The School is home to SustainRCA,
developing sustainability across the College, and
RapidformRCA, the digital manufacturing and rapidprototyping centre. We have a close relationship with
Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.
Our research ranges from individual projects
by world-leading designers to large team projects
with other institutions including international
companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Tata, Tussauds
Group and Philips, with academic partners such
as Imperial College London, the Victoria and Albert
Museum, Science Museum and Natural History
Museum, and government bodies such as the
Technology Strategy Board, Transport Systems
Catapult and Future Cities Catapult.
Students are also able to use workshops and have
access to an impressive range of facilities across
the College, from glassblowing to textile weaving,
to printmaking, to photography and moving image
studios. There are also technical workshops that run
throughout the first year on 3D modelling, electronics
and programming, filmmaking and prototyping.
Facilities
Research: Into Your Hands Are They Delivered, Studiolab project, Tobias Revell
Every student has personal desk space along with
access to a wide range of facilities. The Schools’
shared workshops consist of a main workshop
covering plastics, woodwork, metalwork, welding
and fabrication, paint spraying, and a synthetic
clay workshop and resin facility. Equipment
includes a five-axis mill, vacuum formers and laser
cutters, as well as the rapid-prototyping facilities of
RapidformRCA.
RapidformRCA provides a range of rapidprototyping and digital manufacturing solutions for
use by students throughout the product development
cycle. Applications of the technology can enable
design verification and communication, and produce
form, fit and function models, rapid-manufactured
components and high-quality models. The
department has Sensable Haptic Devices and Z Corp,
hand-held laser scanning with scan registering and
clean-up software. Apple Mac-and PC-based 2D and
3D modelling programmes are also available.
School
[email protected]
For more information about
the School please go to
rca.ac.uk/school-of-design
Admissions
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7590 4444
rca.ac.uk
Facilities: Design Products Studio, Photograph by Richard Haughton
Design Interactions
Design Products
Global Innovation Design
Innovation Design Engineering
Service Design
Vehicle Design