Welcome to the Design Practice Research (DPR) Case Studies. This resource has been created by the Design Practice Research Group at Loughborough Design School in response to the on-going debate about the nature and contribution of visually creative design practice to academic research. The aim of the DPR Case Studies is to provide examples of PhDs from around the world in which the researcher engaged in the practice of a visually creative design discipline to support data collection.

This open access resource provides an overview of PhDs that necessitated and/or facilitated the researcher to engage in practice to support data collection. In addition to aims, objectives and research questions, the overview includes insights into the rationale for the inclusion of practice; how this differed from commercial practice; and the experience of the researcher as a practitioner before commencing the PhD.

A key feature of the DPR Case Studies is the inclusion of images of the design process plus final outcomes. Design disciplines currently represented in the case studies are fashion, graphic, industrial, interior, silversmithing/jewellery, textile and transport.

Fashion Design

• Sooyung Yang | Download PDF
  A creative journey developing an integrated high-fashion knitwear development process using computerised seamless V-bed knitting

Graphic Design

• Alison Barnes | Download PDF
  Realising the geo/graphic landscape of the everyday: A practice-led investigation into an interdisciplinary geo/graphic design process

• Eujin Pei | Download PDF
  Building a common language of design representations for industrial designers and engineering designers

Industrial Design

• Michael Dickinson | Download PDF
  D=EQ A triptych of designed objects which explore the relationship between text and artifact, theory and practice
  
  
• Mark Evans | Download PDF
  The integration of rapid prototyping within industrial design practice
  
  
• Miles Park | Download PDF
  Product life: Designing for longer lifespans
  
  
• Owain Pedgley | Download PDF
  Industrial designers' attention to materials and manufacturing processes: Analyses at macroscopic and microscopic levels
  
  
• Matt Sinclair | Download PDF
  The specification of a consumer design toolkit to support personalised production via additive manufacturing

Interior Design

• Birger Sevaldson | Download PDF
  Developing digital techniques: Investigations on creative design computing

Silversmithing and Jewellery

• Sarah Silve | Download PDF
  Textiles in three dimensions: Investigation into processes employing laser technology to form design-led three-dimensional textiles

Textile Design

• Janette Matthews | Download PDF
  Textiles in three dimensions: Investigation into processes employing laser technology to form design-led three dimensional textiles
  
  
• Rachel Philpott | Download PDF
  Structural textiles: Adaptable form and surface in three dimensions
  
  
• Cathy Treadaway | Download PDF
  Digital imaging: its current and future influence upon the creative practice of textile and surface pattern designers

Transport Design

• Robbie Napper | Download PDF
  Designing route busses: from bespoke to mass customisation

Design Practice Research Case Studies have been compiled by the Design Practice Research Group at Loughborough Design School.

If you would like to work with us or contribute a case study, please contact the Design Practice Research Group Leader, Dr Mark Evans (M.A.Evans@lboro.ac.uk).