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Composite of four images related to design. A miniature doll sculpture being held between two fingers; Pressed flowers on a black background; a graphic print of two arrows and a tire, one pink and one black; a yellow house with a patterned door in a court

Centre for Design History
  • Centre for Design History
  • What we do
  • Join us for study, work or visit
  • Who we are

Welcome to the Centre for Design History

The Centre for Design History applies a cross-disciplinary research perspective to understand how design in all its forms has shaped things, spaces and actions across time. 

Our approach extends to research across other arts and humanities, the social sciences, engineering, health, and community engagement. A wide social and economic impact develops through our links with the cultural sector, particularly museums and art galleries, government and voluntary sectors and creative businesses. Our research in design history makes an important contribution to cultural life and wellbeing in areas such as heritage, sustainable design, housing and dress histories.

 

PhD applicants - find out more about studying within the centre

Contact the centre regarding membership enquiries, doctoral study, research collaboration or to receive regular updates on our news and events.

CentreforDesignHistory@brighton.ac.uk


 

Blue street graffiti of an X on the pavement and sharp shadow line from railing

What we do

Sepia tinted image of a march in rural setting with males dressed in woodland clothing and carrying rustic banners and lances. Kibbo Kift from Bella Pollen research.

Join us for study, work or visit

Hand dyeing thread pink on a loom with hand pigments

Who we are

Discover our latest research activity
Visit our blog site for work-in-progress, events and opportunities.

Discover our research in detail
Explore our centre on the university's database of research and knowledge exchange.

Head and shoulders portrait of Dr Claire Wintle

Dr Claire Wintle, Director of the Centre for Design History

An introduction to the Centre for Design History from the director, Dr Claire Wintle.

Welcome to the Centre for Design History. We bring together more than 50 University of Brighton specialist historians, practitioners and researchers to understand how design in all its forms has shaped things, spaces and actions across time. We conduct research and enterprise in partnership with designers, artists and makers, as well as local, national and international arts, culture and heritage institutions. 

Researchers at the Centre for Design History apply a cross-disciplinary perspective to examine the production and consumption of visual and material culture – images and things – in their widest social and cultural contexts across diverse histories and geographies.

We are committed to taking global perspectives on how colonial and post-colonial narratives of design have been constructed and to consider what voices and practices these exclude. We contribute to an ‘expanded field’ of design history that embraces the conjunction of professional and non-professional practices; digital and analogue artefacts; the de-centring of design practice away from the singular object to complex ecologies, objects and systems, the role of design and material culture in everyday life, and the embedding of design thinking into management and organisational processes.

 

Our history and future at the Centre for Design History

The University of Brighton contributed significantly to the initial development of design history as a formal discipline in the late 1970s. Since then, it has been a leading institution for research and teaching in the subject, which is provided at all levels of the curriculum and by internationally recognised experts. The university has long been an international leader in postgraduate research in design history, with a thriving MA and PhD community, and it is the home of the internationally renowned University of Brighton Design Archives. The University of Brighton has created the platform upon which many leading professionals have built their careers in academia, archival practices, museums and other cultural and heritage organisations.

We continue to push the boundaries of research in the design history subject area, opening up new areas for research. Our current research focus is on decolonial approaches in our specialist strands:  Design Activism; Fashion and Dress History; Museums, Archives and Collections; Sustainability in Design; Transnational Design Histories. We develop our thinking and practices in dialogue with international colleagues and institutions through the establishment and development of new projects, publications and creative forms of engagement including curated exhibitions. Our members include scholars, archivists, curators, designers and museum and heritage professionals.

We welcome new collaborators at all career stages. We provide supervisory support for PhD design history candidates and host international visiting researchers. Contact us at CentreforDesignHistory@brighton.ac.uk for research consultancy and partnership across all our broad areas of design history expertise.

 

Dr Claire Wintle

 

News from the Centre for Design History

CDH on the University of Brighton news pages

Professing what’s popular: New audiences for Annebella Pollen’s 'Nudism in a Cold Climate'

Film title still. Reads le nudisme à la britannique. Black and white image features three male naked croquet players.

Annebella Pollen has an eye for cultural history with popular appeal. Her work on naturist cultures has found fans around Europe - and at the local Bevy pub.

University of Brighton Design Archives receives £315,000 funding

Staff at the Design Archives

The University of Brighton Design Archives will receive £315,000 from the Research England Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund.

'Art on the Streets': Film success brings the bombsite exhibitions of wartime Britain to life

Film poster for Art on the Streets with large title and bombed roofless building with white dove icons in artwork. Logos for AHRC, Four Corners films and University of Brighton.

Design historian Dr Harriet Atkinson's research into art on the streets in 1943 is the impetus behind a successful Four Corners film narrated by Michael Rosen.

'You're Dead to Me': Three of our PhD students take Radio 4 research placements

BBC Radio 4 show You're Dead to Me banner image with Norman and Anglo-Saxon knights on mock Bayeux Tapestry background

History-focused PhD students at the University of Brighton took three highly competitive placements for research roles on the popular Radio 4 show.

Photo album returns out of the blue to light up a family history

Harriet Atkinson photo album story - pic of her mother

The story of a richly evocative long-lost photo album that made its way back to the family of a Brighton academic has been featured on the BBC.

New book reveals all about Britain's historic nudist movement

Film title still. Reads le nudisme à la britannique. Black and white image features three male naked croquet players.

The eye-opening history of naturism in 20th century Britain is spotlit in a new book by University of Brighton's Dr Annebella Pollen, published on 3 December.

University of Brighton academic receives prestigious £100,000 prize

Photography and Its Mysteries Science for Children by Charles R. Gibson, London Seeley, Service & Co 1925

Dr Annebella Pollen has been awarded a £100,000 Philip Leverhulme Prize, which she will use to fund a new study into the history of photography by children.

Brighton academic sheds light on Historic England lockdown photo project

Picturing Lockdown - credit to Historic England Archive - photographer Shireen Bahmanizad

University of Brighton's Bella Pollen has teamed up with Historic England to explore pictures taken by the public during the first 2020 lockdown.

Brighton archives celebrate Festival of Britain 70th anniversary

Image from Festival of Britain anniversary feature by Harriet Atkinson

Two archives at the University of Brighton are highlighting material from the iconic Festival of Britain, marking its 70th anniversary this summer.

Brighton meets Brazil for international design history collaboration

Centre for Design History logo

The Centre for Design History is to collaborate with a leading Brazilian university on a project to develop academic design writing skills in the Global South.

Displaying 1 to 10 of 12 Next Previous |

 

 

Our researchers write for

Logo for news service The Conversation

  • Rebel youth: How Britain's Woodcraft folk tried to change the world: Annebella Pollen
  • How the humble blouse got women out to work and revolutionised a city’s manufacturing: Suzanne Rowland.
  • Love’s ruin? Victorian Valentines rival our modern age for cynical cruelty: Annebella Pollen
  • Why Louis XIV would approve of fashion at the Oscars: Marie McLoughlin

 

 

News and events from our blog site

 

Event | Workshop with Mathilda Tham

Join us for an afternoon workshop with Mathilda Tham organised by CDH’s Sustainability Research strand leads Sally Sutherland and Chantal Spencer, and programmed as part of the University of Brighton’s Global Challenges Week (2-5 December 2024).

About Us | How the Centre for Design History understands ‘Design’

This is the Centre for Design History’s statement on how our researchers think about ‘Design’, and how we understand our work At the Centre for Design History, we research ‘design’ in its broadest, most inclusive forms.

Event Series | CDH PhD Student Workshops 2022-2023

Each month, the CDH host a workshop for PhD students and recent graduates.

Event Series | CDH IOTA II Seminars 2022-2023

We are pleased to announce a new series of CDH research seminars entitled IOTA II (image-object-text-analysis).

Read more from our research centre blog site

 

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