Institute of Art and Design research groups
Design and New Product Development
Design and New Product Development is a multidisciplinary research group. Working across all the schools of design within the Faculty, it embraces Product, Furniture and Interior Design; Fashion, Contour Fashion and Footwear; Design Crafts, and Social Dimensions of Design.
The group was formed to perform pioneering research – empirical, theoretical, collaborative and practical – in both established and emerging domains. Special research interests include:
- Additive manufacturing in design
- Design for industry
- Medical products and devices
- Innovations in packaging
- User informed design
- Retail, consumers and technologies
- Resource-efficient design
- Historical, cultural and future issues in design
The Design Unit
The Design Unit is a highly innovative, design-based research group with a strong track record of research-informed New Product Development (NPD), design implementation strategies and knowledge Transfer (KT) enterprise activities.
Areas of expertise:
- Product/Industrial Design
- Design implementation strategies
- Design for Manufacturing (DfM)
- Advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD)
- Design for 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing
- User Centred Design
- Sustainable Design
- UX design
The Design Unit has a 25-year history of research-informed NPD, collaborating with a variety of industrial partners – both large and small. We have generated a portfolio of over 160 successful projects and have developed over 120 effective design solutions.
Design Unit Staff
- Prof. Guy Bingham – Director
- Chris Whittaker – Senior Lecturer
- Krishan Parmar – Senior Research Fellow
- Lee Paxman-Clarke – Research Fellow
- Emily Hancock – Research Associate
Contact the Design Unit:
Prof. Guy Bingham
Director of the Design Unit / Professor of Design
VJP 3.13
E: guy.bingham@dmu.ac.uk
Fine Art Practice
Researchers in the Fine Art Practices Research Cluster engage with a broad spectrum of contemporary Fine Art practices and debates. We have particular strength in photography, painting, sculpture, moving image and printmaking. Researchers have recently worked with the Tate in St Ives and London, exhibited in Chicago, and shown in Athens and Kassel as part of documenta 14. We currently supervise students in:
- Fine Art research by practice
- The arts and wellbeing
We are interested in hearing from prospective PhD students in the following areas, which align with our areas of research expertise:
- Fine Art research by practice
- Art and the working class avant-garde
- Art and feminism
- The making of meaning in material practice
- The arts, social value and wellbeing
Fashion and Textile Research Group
Professor Jinsong Shen, Professor of Textile Chemistry and Biotechnology
Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH
T: +44 (0)116 257 7558
E: jshen@dmu.ac.uk
Textile, Engineering and Materials Research Group (TEAM)
TEAM was established in the early 1990s to undertake research in textiles.
Textile research is, by its very nature, multi-disciplinary and this is reflected in the wide range of projects undertaken. The group seeks to improve materials' performance and processing through applied research in four inter-related areas:
Textile Products and Processing
High performance technical, medical and military textiles|
Nanotechnology for enhanced performance
Industrial textiles, protective clothing and composites
Enzymes and Sustainable Technologies
Environmental and social assessment
Application of biotechnology
Re-use, re-manufacture and recycling of textiles
Agriculture and Natural Fibres
Plant fibres from non-food crops
Process engineering for plant fibre extraction
Processing of protein fibres and textiles
Material Performance and Design
Predicting the performance of fibres, yarns and fabrics
Bespoke software packages for yarn and fabric design
3D textile design
Contact TEAM:
Professor Jinsong Shen
Professor of Textile Chemistry and Biotechnology
Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH
+44 (0)116 257 7558
jshen@dmu.ac.uk