Nikki Clark

My research is extremely topical and looks at another side of packaging design which is not usually considered. TV and Media have recently portrayed packaging as a bad thing which endangers the wildlife living in our oceans.

However, this is not packaging’s fault, unfortunately it is us as humans who are not responsibly disposing of our waste and not valuing the materials that are used for packing our food and products. Packaging plays an important part in the preservation, protection and promotion of products across the globe, it would cause more harm to remove all packaging. What we need to do is better understand the behaviours of people using food packaging so designers can create packs which we will dispose of responsibly.

Post 16 Education: A-levels Design Technology, Art & Geography

Higher Education: Art Foundation at Rugby College; BA (Hons) Industrial Design and Technology at Loughborough University

I enjoy being creative, but also get great satisfaction from solving real life problems. Design allows me to combine both to develop solutions to our everyday needs using creative thinking.

Nikki’s experience as a student

I thoroughly enjoyed the four years I spent completing my degree. The course I took was very structured with a timetable a bit like school, but we were definitely treated as adults in class. I loved the variation of my course, one day I was learning electronics and material science, another day I would be learning techniques to style products and being creative making things in the workshop. Sometimes the project work was completed on my own, other times I worked as part of a team.

I spent my third year out in industry on placement. This was extremely valuable and introduced me to many leading brands and influenced my decision to pursue a career in packaging.

Nikki’s Career

Currently in my final year of my PhD back at the School of Design & Creative Arts.

After completing my Bachelor’s Degree (BA) I spent 10 years in the food packaging industry. I firstly worked for a food carton manufacturer where I was their Creative Designer. I developed a design team there, an innovation centre and trained in Marketing. I grew with the business over the 8 years, experiencing many changes within the industry which have been very useful in my career. I then spent a year managing a Marketing team for a plastic food packaging manufacturer before taking the opportunity to complete a full time PhD.

My current research is looking at how people dispose of food to go packaging used out of the home. This will support packaging designers to develop solutions which hopefully will be disposed of responsibly by the public, reducing the negative impact packaging has on the environment.

This will support packaging designers develop solutions which will be disposed of responsibly by the public, reducing the negative impact packaging has on the environment.