White Papers by Rebecca Earley
Trash-2-Cash, 2018
Trash-2-Cash was a European collaborative research project funded by the European framework progr... more Trash-2-Cash was a European collaborative research project funded by the European framework program Horizon 2020. The project was granted to 18 partners from 10 European countries and investigated new sustainable chemical regeneration and recycling technologies for textile waste, applying a design-driven material innovation methodology. The project ran from 1 June 2015 to 30 November 2018.
This report describes how the Trash-2-Cash (T2C) project has been formulated and developed using a design-driven process to achieve material innovation in a specific context and taking into account specific processing technologies, disciplines and competencies. Mainly it is focused on how the interdisciplinary and knowledge sharing approach has been mediated by design, involving the implementation of an experimental and exploratory applied methodology. The main aim of the applied methodology has been to integrate design inputs, fed by life cycle, consumer behaviour and manufacturing expertise, into materials R&D in order to contribute towards closing a specific innovation cycle.
A group of facilitators and design researchers (named “Methodology Team”) supported the development of the interdisciplinary process, and the contents of this report represent the perspective of the facilitators. The whole process has been observed, monitored and studied in order to elicit some final recommendations for future Design-Driven Material Innovation (DDMI) initiatives. A sum up of these recommendations is presented in this paper, the full research analysis and results are included in a confidential report titled “D3.7 – Knowledge for the Applied Methodology”(1) .
The first part of this paper introduces the T2C project and the DDMI methodology, both in relation with the project and as a general concept. A final process scheme completes this part, representing a generalisation and conceptualisation of what occurred during the whole DDMI process. Twelve interdisciplinary workshops have been a key asset to set up and develop the interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge-sharing among the different competencies involved in T2C project; they have been crucial for the development and implementation of the applied DDMI methodology.
The relevance of the workshops is such that most of this white paper is dedicated to the description of what happened during these meetings, how they have been designed, and what tools have been used. The conclusive third part of the report presents the final recommendations: the DDMI Recommendations Map comprising 32 core recommendations derived from the research as a whole, relating to four themes: Project, Knowledge & Information, People & Roles, and Tools. These are mapped to the general T2C process scheme. The circularity and Life Cycle Thinking represent the other body of knowledge related to the DDMI process in T2C, included in the third part the main findings (2).
The report contains several footnotes that refer to other project reports and deliverables, most of them are confidential, i.e. accessible only to the members of the project consortium and of the European Commission Services. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study.
The authors tried to generalise and conceptualise the information contained in this white paper in order to provide useful information, inputs, and insights to organisations and professionals interested in replicating the methodology in other fields, industries, technology fields, beyond those explored in theT2C project. It is also hoped that other researchers can adapt this knowledge to the circumstances and context of the projects they are planning or working on.
Journal Articles by Rebecca Earley
The Design Journal, 2019
This paper argues the need for material design researchers to take risks; to work beyond the conf... more This paper argues the need for material design researchers to take risks; to work beyond the confines of their usual disciplinary remit. It proposes that the use of a podcast-first approach for a communications work package helped to build the collaborative relationships between scientists and other experts, in a research programme which had multiple trans-disciplinary challenges. The argument presented here is for textile design researchers to take a risk and work aurally as well visually and in written form, to create impactful practices. The paper analyses a podcast series made within a circular design project, using feedback from partner questionnaires to reflect via an action research framework, to ascertain how the episodes progressed the collaborations; building bridges between partners. The paper concludes with recommendations for how making podcasts can be used to build more successful collaborative projects, as well as benefitting the expanded practice of design researchers in social contexts.
Materials Open Research, 2022
Background: The problem of difficult-to-recycle textile waste is an ongoing challenge. One of the... more Background: The problem of difficult-to-recycle textile waste is an ongoing challenge. One of the issues is the lack of exchange between the recovery sector and design/manufacture of recycled materials. This paper seeks to addresses the gap in knowledge between sorting (in recovery) and blending activities (in manufacture), expanding current design strategies towards textile recovery. To achieve this, the research explores sorting practices of wool/acrylic blends in the mechanical wool recycling industry and applies this knowledge to the design of new yarns. Methods: A bricolage of methods was used to conduct this research in three parts. First, an overview of a previous study by Author1 is presented from which this research builds. Second, field research using conversation methods with the owner of a closed wool recycling company was conducted centring around their material archive. Thirdly, practice research was conducted in a spinning facility where Author1 applied knowledge from part 1 and 2 by designing four recycled yarns. This was supported by interviews with a sorter and recycler to expand on the findings. Results: Four methods of sorting and the sorting grades/thresholds that are found in the wool recycling industry are outlined, and five methods of recycled blending historically used in the wool recycling industry are established. This knowledge (sorting methods/grades and recycled blending techniques) were applied in practice and from the methods employed, the relationship between sorting in recovery and recycled blending in manufacture was established across three themes: fibre quality, fibre type and fibre colour. Conclusions: The paper concludes that understanding the link sorting and blending provides the foundations for a 'Design for Sorting' methodology. When lessons from each theme (quality, type and colour) are combined, this enables fibre value to be retained in
Journal of Physics, 2022
The fashion/textiles industry presents enormous challenges in reducing energy consumption. Impact... more The fashion/textiles industry presents enormous challenges in reducing energy consumption. Impacts from every stage of the garment's lifecycle need to be considered-extraction, production, use and disposal-and these vary according to fibre type, textile/garment finishing and construction, retail/use contexts, and end-of-life options. The sector has grown exponentially in the last few years and is predicted to continue to grow: "In 2019, global fibre production was around 111 million tonnes. Fibre production has more than doubled in the last 20 years and is expected to increase by another 30% to 146 million tonnes in 2030 if business as usual continues." [1:6]
The Bridge: National Academy of Engineering, 2020
What will fashion look like in 2070? During the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, I considered wh... more What will fashion look like in 2070? During the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, I considered what fashion might look from the consumer’s perspective in five years’ time . The ‘new normal’ is changing the way we see the world, and increasing our broader understanding of the important part fashion and clothing plays in the connected, global, ecological future we are facing. This short essay looks even further ahead, taking three garment types and exploring how they might be made and used in 50 years’ time, drawing on insights from multiple research projects and partnerships at Centre for Circular Design.
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 2019
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to discuss how organisational complexities influence the design... more Purpose: The aim of this paper is to discuss how organisational complexities influence the design of circular business models, which have recently been introduced as a new panacea for aligning the interests of business with the needs of the environment. Design/methodology/approach: The Service Shirt, a new garment concept, is used as an illustrative case example for demonstrating some of the organisational complexities of making circular business models operable. The shirt was developed through a series of design workshops for the fashion brand Fashion Alpha. Findings: The analysis highlights multiple challenges emerging when a fashion product with a significantly extended lifecycle passes through different users, organisations, and business models. It is concluded that it is difficult to talk about a circular business model (singular) as circular economy solutions depend on the contributions of multiple stakeholders with business models. Practical implications: The findings illustrate how fashion companies interested in the circular economy fundamentally have to rethink conventional approaches to value, organisational boundaries, and temporality. Originality/value: Drawing on a case example from the fashion industry, the paper demonstrates the organisational complexities linked to the design of new business models based on circular economy thinking, as these require the coordination of actions between autonomous actors driven by different logics regarding value creation, value delivery, and value capture.
The Design Journal, 2016
The paper is based on a training programme given to researchers in the Textiles Environment Desig... more The paper is based on a training programme given to researchers in the Textiles Environment Design (TED) project at the University of the Arts London (UAL). The programme took place over three years (September 2010 to October 2013) whilst the researchers were engaged as consultants and researchers for Hennes and Mauritz (H&M) and the Sustainable Fashion Academy (SFA) in Stockholm, Sweden. The project was developed as part of the Mistra Future Fashion research consortium, which aims to bring scientists and designers together to find sustainable and profitable industry solutions. The TED’s TEN sustainable design strategies for textiles and fashion was the framework for the Sustainable Design Inspiration (SDI) work at H&M – a broad and holistic approach to redesigning products including materials, process, systems, services, consumer behaviour and activism.
Intersections, Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice, 2018
To achieve a circular textile industry - one that has closed complex resource loops at all stages... more To achieve a circular textile industry - one that has closed complex resource loops at all stages of the lifecycle - collaboration is required between diverse stakeholders. Working with people from a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, training, professions, with different languages can be extremely challenging, and progress when working together for the first time can be slow. Traditionally, textile designers have been a silent link in the industry supply chain, but with the new challenges that collaboration brings that role is expanding. The research presented here poses this question: could textile designers play a more influential role, by using their unique methods and skills to support new collaborations working towards an industry where waste is more often utilised as a resource?
The study focusses on practice-based design research undertaken by the authors -one with a background in textiles and the other in materials communication - to support the formation of effective working relationships between participants in the multidisciplinary consortium project: Trash-2-Cash. A series of experiments were conducted using photography, visual data mapping, silent meditation and drawing to bring participants closer together by focussing on faces.
The authors conclude by proposing this approach as a new method for enabling shared understanding in a multi-disciplinary setting, starting with participants' portraits and using design practice to build connections between the people within the collaboration. The authors suggest that this method inform internal communication and facilitation tools as well as external communication of the collaboration as part of a wider strategy to engage external non-specialist audiences in the work being undertaken. The approach may be of particular interest to research projects where designers are working with other disciplines for the first time.
Circular Transitions, 2018
As the field of circular textile design emerges, researchers are questioning what skills designer... more As the field of circular textile design emerges, researchers are questioning what skills designers will need to enable the new systems, processes and products to successfully loop back in to subsequent lifecycles. Circular textile design differs from traditional textile design because it asks the designer of the textile to not only create a new material, but to prioritise the use and end-of-life of the product at the outset. This requires the designer to not only understand more about the processes of production, use and disposal, but much more about the people in these new systems too. In this article, the author draws upon first-hand experience of evolving from the making of circular textiles, to supporting others to make circular textiles. Reflecting on the leadership role of being the Director of a University research Centre (UrC), the article goes in search of a model to generate and share the insights derived from developing from a textile design researcher to a leader. The methods involved a form of triangulation using the recognised attributes for success of a high-performing research unit (HEFCE 2015), along with leadership signposts created by an experienced corporate manager (Baron 2016), with reflections by the author on the experiences at the UrC across a 5-year period. Working with input from Baron, the author extended her research practice to include an autoethnographic study, from which questions and key insights are extracted. These insights were then used to redesign the HEFCE model. The transferrable Whole Circles model presented at the end of the article proposes that textile designers seek to ensure they have a good understanding of themselves as people, so that their leadership style is empathic and grounded. It also proposes a 3-dimensional form which supports the growth of other researchers to lead in their own expertise areas.
Since 2011, the authors have been developing creative and playful sustainable design workshop too... more Since 2011, the authors have been developing creative and playful sustainable design workshop tools to understand, develop and share knowledge and ideas with other designers. These tools originated through practice-led research methods, involving prototyping, to explore and consolidate research theories. By translating design strategies into both realised artefacts and tools for engaging others through design, the authors have continuously transformed practice and theory in the field. More recently the theory has become focused on the starting point of 'circular models for design', in particular, designing for lifecycle speeds. This paper discusses some of the tools used for exploring 'product longevity' and 'circular', resulting in further insights for future design, including the current understanding of 'longevity' as both a product and a material consideration, with two seemingly opposed strategies. The authors research groups' primary methodological approach is through designing and making textile/fashion artifacts to generate new theory; in order to share this approach and support others outside of the group to use making as a key research method they often design and facilitate workshops and create tools, which are then shared via the project website. In this paper tools developed specifically to design to extend the life of a fashion textile product are discussed and the creative outcomes generated are presented. The playful tools generated playful ideas and by reflecting via field notes on these industry workshop outputs the authors here offer a set of tools to support designing sustainable and circular textiles for long life.
In this paper postcards from the EU funded Horizon 2020 Trash-2-Cash (2015-2018) project-complete... more In this paper postcards from the EU funded Horizon 2020 Trash-2-Cash (2015-2018) project-completed by workshop participants – are presented in three tables with a focus on how they contributed to the building of communication channels, shared understanding and methods in this inter-disciplinary consortium work. The Trash-2-Cash project aims to support better waste utilisation, improve material efficiency, contribute to reduction of landfill area needs, whilst also producing high-value commercial products. Novel materials will drive the generation of new textile fibres that will utilize paper and textile fibre waste, originating from continuously increasing textile consumption. The inter-disciplanarity of the participants is key to achieving the project aims – but communication between sectors is challenging due to diverse expertise and levels of experience; language and cultural differences can also be barriers to collaboration as well. Designing easy and accessible, even fun, communication tools are one of the ways to help build relationships. The cards reviewed were used in Prato (November 2015), Helsinki (February 2016) and London (November 2016). This paper concludes with insights for the ongoing development of the project communications work towards the Design Driven Material Innovation (DDMI) methodology, due to be presented at the end of the project in 2018.
The Design Journal: Design for Next, proceedings, 2017
This research aimed to discover more about circular design opportunities;; in particular, what pr... more This research aimed to discover more about circular design opportunities;; in particular, what products should be created to travel quickly through a cycle, and which ones should travel slowly. Whilst much has been written about design for product longevity most of it focuses on pioneering SME's rather than larger industry stakeholders. Current Industry tools provide quantitive information to evaluate a complex range impacts, but speed of the lifecycle is not considered. In order to address this lack, workshops were designed to use four typologies derived from previous LCA research – a polyester shirt, an outdoors jacket, a t-shirt and some jeans. 24 redesigned concepts were created over a four-month period with 56 industry stakeholders, explored through materials, business models and user mindsets lenses. The resulting concepts created speed-based insights which extended beyond individual garment scenarios, to include systems and user perspectives towards a more progressive view of product cycles for fashion.
Book Chapters by Rebecca Earley
Design Materials and Making for Social Change From Materials We Explore to Materials We Wear, 2023
Design Materials and Making for Social Change spans the two interconnected worlds of the material... more Design Materials and Making for Social Change spans the two interconnected worlds of the material and the social, at different scales and in different contexts, and explores the value of the knowledge, skills and methods that emerge when design researchers work directly with materials and hold making central to their practice. Through the social entanglements of addressing material impacts, the contributors to this edited volume examine: homelessness, diaspora, migration, the erosion of craft skills and communities, dignity in work and family life, the impacts of colonialism, climate crisis, education, mental health and the shifting complexities in collaborating with and across diverse disciplines and stakeholders. The book celebrates the role of materials and making in design research by demonstrating the diverse and complex interplay between disciplines and the cultures it enables, when in search of alternative futures. Design Materials and Making for Social Change will be of interest to scholars in materials design, textile design, product design, fashion design, maker culture, systemic design, social design, design for sustainability and circular design.
Prtaxis and Poetics, Research Through Design; Cummulus, 2013
The artifact is a set of ten cards entitled TED’s TEN, developed by the research group Textiles E... more The artifact is a set of ten cards entitled TED’s TEN, developed by the research group Textiles Environment Design (Chelsea College of Art and Design, UAL), a group of education and practice based design academics investigating sustainability in the textile and fashion industries. When used together, the cards can serve as practical guidelines to examine, survey and highlight the problem of sustainability and the role of designers in change and innovation. They present visual evidence of strategic thinking.
Each card identifies a significant, critical area for attention in the lifecycle of the product and suggests a strategy for analysis and change; approach and resolution; consideration and action, acting as a tool to overcome the barriers to improvement. Developed with a focus on textiles and fashion, they have a potential role in generating strategic concepts for the design process generally. They offer a persuasive prototype from design research and are a research tool in themselves, whose relevance becomes clear when used to facilitate design workshops.
The cards promote group workshop discussions in game-play and role-play formats. They are offered as a range of entry points for positive research-led engagement from the practical to the idealistic.
In this paper we fuse design thinking and the sociology of translation, particularly Callon’s fou... more In this paper we fuse design thinking and the sociology of translation, particularly Callon’s four moments of translation (1986), creating an analytical framework to explore organizational barriers to change towards sustainability in the textile and fashion industry. Drawing on design thinking we propose to add a fifth moment to Callon’s framework to highlight the value of iterations or “overlaps” (Callon, 1986) in processes of change. The paper, which is co-written by a textile design researcher and a PhD student with a background in cultural studies, is based on a case study of a workshop series developed and delivered by Textiles Environment Design (TED) at Hennes & Mauritz (H&M). Based on an analysis and discussion of the workshop series, we argue that design thinking, especially through its use of design tools, has the potential to make the challenges and opportunities related to processes of sustainability change tangible and thus more actionable at individual and organizational level. We further argue that the framework established could facilitate a more nuanced understanding of organizational barriers to change towards sustainability and also bestow the field of design thinking with additional analytical concepts to explore its methods and communicate its potential value to processes of change.
The TED research cluster at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, is ... more The TED research cluster at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, is a collective of practice-based design researchers whose main concerns are the consideration of the role that the designer can play in creating textiles that have a
reduced impact on the environment and to provide a toolbox of designer-centred solutions. The cluster involves both staff and students in projects that apply ecodesign theories to textiles practice, with the aim of generating artefacts and theories that will aid designers in creating ‘better’ materials, products, systems and improved social well-being. This essay uses three recent TED projects to illustrate how some of the TED members are creating new textiles, dialogues, and enterprises that are all inspired and guided by the TED cluster and its open, pedagogic and collaborative structure.
Future Textile Environments, Brink, R. and Ullrich, M. (eds.) University of Applied Sciences, HAW College Hamburg, 2010
The TED research cluster at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, is ... more The TED research cluster at Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, is a collective of practice-based design researchers whose main concerns are the consideration of the role that the designer can play in creating textiles that have a reduced impact on the environment and to provide a toolbox of designer-centred solutions. The cluster involves both staff and students in projects that apply ecodesign theories to textiles practice, with the aim of generating artefacts and theories that will aid designers in creating „better‟ materials, products, systems and improved social well-being. This essay uses three recent TED projects to illustrate how some of the TED members are creating new textiles, dialogues, and enterprises that are all inspired and guided by the TED cluster and its open, pedagogic and collaborative structure.
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White Papers by Rebecca Earley
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/16225/pdf
This report describes how the Trash-2-Cash (T2C) project has been formulated and developed using a design-driven process to achieve material innovation in a specific context and taking into account specific processing technologies, disciplines and competencies. Mainly it is focused on how the interdisciplinary and knowledge sharing approach has been mediated by design, involving the implementation of an experimental and exploratory applied methodology. The main aim of the applied methodology has been to integrate design inputs, fed by life cycle, consumer behaviour and manufacturing expertise, into materials R&D in order to contribute towards closing a specific innovation cycle.
A group of facilitators and design researchers (named “Methodology Team”) supported the development of the interdisciplinary process, and the contents of this report represent the perspective of the facilitators. The whole process has been observed, monitored and studied in order to elicit some final recommendations for future Design-Driven Material Innovation (DDMI) initiatives. A sum up of these recommendations is presented in this paper, the full research analysis and results are included in a confidential report titled “D3.7 – Knowledge for the Applied Methodology”(1) .
The first part of this paper introduces the T2C project and the DDMI methodology, both in relation with the project and as a general concept. A final process scheme completes this part, representing a generalisation and conceptualisation of what occurred during the whole DDMI process. Twelve interdisciplinary workshops have been a key asset to set up and develop the interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge-sharing among the different competencies involved in T2C project; they have been crucial for the development and implementation of the applied DDMI methodology.
The relevance of the workshops is such that most of this white paper is dedicated to the description of what happened during these meetings, how they have been designed, and what tools have been used. The conclusive third part of the report presents the final recommendations: the DDMI Recommendations Map comprising 32 core recommendations derived from the research as a whole, relating to four themes: Project, Knowledge & Information, People & Roles, and Tools. These are mapped to the general T2C process scheme. The circularity and Life Cycle Thinking represent the other body of knowledge related to the DDMI process in T2C, included in the third part the main findings (2).
The report contains several footnotes that refer to other project reports and deliverables, most of them are confidential, i.e. accessible only to the members of the project consortium and of the European Commission Services. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study.
The authors tried to generalise and conceptualise the information contained in this white paper in order to provide useful information, inputs, and insights to organisations and professionals interested in replicating the methodology in other fields, industries, technology fields, beyond those explored in theT2C project. It is also hoped that other researchers can adapt this knowledge to the circumstances and context of the projects they are planning or working on.
Journal Articles by Rebecca Earley
The study focusses on practice-based design research undertaken by the authors -one with a background in textiles and the other in materials communication - to support the formation of effective working relationships between participants in the multidisciplinary consortium project: Trash-2-Cash. A series of experiments were conducted using photography, visual data mapping, silent meditation and drawing to bring participants closer together by focussing on faces.
The authors conclude by proposing this approach as a new method for enabling shared understanding in a multi-disciplinary setting, starting with participants' portraits and using design practice to build connections between the people within the collaboration. The authors suggest that this method inform internal communication and facilitation tools as well as external communication of the collaboration as part of a wider strategy to engage external non-specialist audiences in the work being undertaken. The approach may be of particular interest to research projects where designers are working with other disciplines for the first time.
Book Chapters by Rebecca Earley
Each card identifies a significant, critical area for attention in the lifecycle of the product and suggests a strategy for analysis and change; approach and resolution; consideration and action, acting as a tool to overcome the barriers to improvement. Developed with a focus on textiles and fashion, they have a potential role in generating strategic concepts for the design process generally. They offer a persuasive prototype from design research and are a research tool in themselves, whose relevance becomes clear when used to facilitate design workshops.
The cards promote group workshop discussions in game-play and role-play formats. They are offered as a range of entry points for positive research-led engagement from the practical to the idealistic.
reduced impact on the environment and to provide a toolbox of designer-centred solutions. The cluster involves both staff and students in projects that apply ecodesign theories to textiles practice, with the aim of generating artefacts and theories that will aid designers in creating ‘better’ materials, products, systems and improved social well-being. This essay uses three recent TED projects to illustrate how some of the TED members are creating new textiles, dialogues, and enterprises that are all inspired and guided by the TED cluster and its open, pedagogic and collaborative structure.
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/16225/pdf
This report describes how the Trash-2-Cash (T2C) project has been formulated and developed using a design-driven process to achieve material innovation in a specific context and taking into account specific processing technologies, disciplines and competencies. Mainly it is focused on how the interdisciplinary and knowledge sharing approach has been mediated by design, involving the implementation of an experimental and exploratory applied methodology. The main aim of the applied methodology has been to integrate design inputs, fed by life cycle, consumer behaviour and manufacturing expertise, into materials R&D in order to contribute towards closing a specific innovation cycle.
A group of facilitators and design researchers (named “Methodology Team”) supported the development of the interdisciplinary process, and the contents of this report represent the perspective of the facilitators. The whole process has been observed, monitored and studied in order to elicit some final recommendations for future Design-Driven Material Innovation (DDMI) initiatives. A sum up of these recommendations is presented in this paper, the full research analysis and results are included in a confidential report titled “D3.7 – Knowledge for the Applied Methodology”(1) .
The first part of this paper introduces the T2C project and the DDMI methodology, both in relation with the project and as a general concept. A final process scheme completes this part, representing a generalisation and conceptualisation of what occurred during the whole DDMI process. Twelve interdisciplinary workshops have been a key asset to set up and develop the interdisciplinary dialogue and knowledge-sharing among the different competencies involved in T2C project; they have been crucial for the development and implementation of the applied DDMI methodology.
The relevance of the workshops is such that most of this white paper is dedicated to the description of what happened during these meetings, how they have been designed, and what tools have been used. The conclusive third part of the report presents the final recommendations: the DDMI Recommendations Map comprising 32 core recommendations derived from the research as a whole, relating to four themes: Project, Knowledge & Information, People & Roles, and Tools. These are mapped to the general T2C process scheme. The circularity and Life Cycle Thinking represent the other body of knowledge related to the DDMI process in T2C, included in the third part the main findings (2).
The report contains several footnotes that refer to other project reports and deliverables, most of them are confidential, i.e. accessible only to the members of the project consortium and of the European Commission Services. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study. Any way the design research conducted on methodology has been published broadly in academic contexts considering different perspectives and approaches. The list of publications can be found in Annex 4 for further study.
The authors tried to generalise and conceptualise the information contained in this white paper in order to provide useful information, inputs, and insights to organisations and professionals interested in replicating the methodology in other fields, industries, technology fields, beyond those explored in theT2C project. It is also hoped that other researchers can adapt this knowledge to the circumstances and context of the projects they are planning or working on.
The study focusses on practice-based design research undertaken by the authors -one with a background in textiles and the other in materials communication - to support the formation of effective working relationships between participants in the multidisciplinary consortium project: Trash-2-Cash. A series of experiments were conducted using photography, visual data mapping, silent meditation and drawing to bring participants closer together by focussing on faces.
The authors conclude by proposing this approach as a new method for enabling shared understanding in a multi-disciplinary setting, starting with participants' portraits and using design practice to build connections between the people within the collaboration. The authors suggest that this method inform internal communication and facilitation tools as well as external communication of the collaboration as part of a wider strategy to engage external non-specialist audiences in the work being undertaken. The approach may be of particular interest to research projects where designers are working with other disciplines for the first time.
Each card identifies a significant, critical area for attention in the lifecycle of the product and suggests a strategy for analysis and change; approach and resolution; consideration and action, acting as a tool to overcome the barriers to improvement. Developed with a focus on textiles and fashion, they have a potential role in generating strategic concepts for the design process generally. They offer a persuasive prototype from design research and are a research tool in themselves, whose relevance becomes clear when used to facilitate design workshops.
The cards promote group workshop discussions in game-play and role-play formats. They are offered as a range of entry points for positive research-led engagement from the practical to the idealistic.
reduced impact on the environment and to provide a toolbox of designer-centred solutions. The cluster involves both staff and students in projects that apply ecodesign theories to textiles practice, with the aim of generating artefacts and theories that will aid designers in creating ‘better’ materials, products, systems and improved social well-being. This essay uses three recent TED projects to illustrate how some of the TED members are creating new textiles, dialogues, and enterprises that are all inspired and guided by the TED cluster and its open, pedagogic and collaborative structure.
Fashion textile design has changed rapidly in the last decade. As the climate emergency has gathered pace and become the most pressing issue of our time, designers and educators have been using the remaking and overprinting of clothing in research practices to uncover the new thinking and actions needed to drive and support changes in industry practices. Sustainable and circular fashion textile design offers designers the opportunity to create compelling visions and practical roadmaps to just and equitable cultures, that value people and planet over profit. Designers can build new bridges between the sciences, and between economics, politics and industry – creatively framing emergent spaces for discourse and action – challenging us through new modes of making, thinking and sharing.
Through different approaches to making textiles and remaking second-hand polyester shirts; and through parallel forms of enquiry including workshop facilitation, design thinking, teaching and consultancy, this paper aims to articulate guidelines for textile design and practice researchers in creating materials and systems fit for a more resilient future. The paper demonstrates the different approaches explored in tackling sustainability in practice by focusing the creative brief on different issues when upcycling – adding value through design. The paper considers a set of ten shirts which explored circular design and an extended use lifecycle of 50 years; as well as the use of AI, biobased materials made from agriwaste and the potential for circular clothing to also be ‘local’ in production, use, disposal and regeneration.
Design and methods: Author1 became immersed in the Circular Design Speeds project via an opportunity to relocate to Centre for Circular Design, University of the Arts London. A systemic design approach based on a cross-observation of various practices, places and projects, and the use of visual artefacts, enabled the creation of a rich picture of the convivial complexity within circular design concepts. Author1 used the PPP framework to adapt tools and propose four strategic approaches to support designers in the creation of new circular fashion narratives, integrating local communities through (Re)-Distributed manufacturing (RDM).
Findings: The framework can be used by practitioners when designing places or projects, to raise a more systemic perspective on the local narrative. The resulting visual pictures support designers in understanding WHERE to look for capturing and situating the practice, siting futures practices within local community-based initiatives in new local places; and to systematically assess the trade-offs and tensions behind each concept. For the use of tools, the presence of intermediaries could facilitate the
appropriation and the interaction between the project stakeholders. The paper makes a methodological contribution to design for conviviality in the fashion and textile sector.
Keywords: conviviality, participation, stakeholder mapping, circular fashion, grassroots, business models, redistributed manufacturing, circular speeds, design frameworks, design tools
Here we discuss two of these design prototypes which both explored ‘designing for cyclability’ as a proactive approach to improving the retention of material value within ‘circular fashion systems’. Designing in order to enable fully joined up cycles of material use is the ultimate aim for both approaches, but this ‘speed’ of cycle creates very different challenges on which to make informed and appropriate design choices.
The two approaches are deliberately extreme opposites, with ‘short-life’ closed-loop garments explored as complementary to ‘long-life’ user engagement strategies. Both can ultimately be argued to have an ‘extending’ affect on materials in the value-chain; one by keeping products in use over multiple cycles in perpetuity, the other by extending the single use cycle of a product over time. By exploring this polarisation of ‘speeds and needs’ we aim to gain insights into creating an effective circular materials economy, which acknowledges the complex nature of our current and emerging fashion system.
‘In view of the complex nature of human beings, we must move in a direction where our design energies and our technological potential are focused on rendering individuals and communities better able to work together and find a way of living better.’ Manzini (2005)ii
The environmental impact of the textile and fashion industry is becoming a mainstream issue. Society is becoming ever more aware of the environmental predicament our planet is in. In the 21st Century we can buy organic food more easily, we recycle and compost our waste more often, and we buy more second hand and vintage clothes than ever before. Yet still an estimated 1 million tons of textiles in the UK go in our bins and into landfill every year.iii Fashions that are designed to last one season take many years to decompose, emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere as they go.
If you are a fashion brand who wants to be part of the circular economy and who has already begun these conversations within the company, then you will know that becoming ‘circular’ is extremely challenging. Brands need to collaborate across multiple sectors – and getting the internal design team to do this can be tricky. At the same time, academic researchers and other experts need to find ways to apply and contextualize their knowledge, if they want to contribute their ideas in an impactful and meaningful way to the creation of a less-impactful fashion industry. This report documents the in-residence project that used a workshop facilitation methodology. It brought together a team of academic design researchers based at Centre for Circular Design at University of the Arts London, and a Swedish fashion brand, Filippa K, for what became known as the Circular Design Speeds project . The workshops were also supported by material and lifecycle assessment researchers connected to the Design Theme in the Mistra Future Fashion research programme.
When we began to plan this research in Spring 2015, it was hard to find information on how to design circular fashion textiles. In the space of the last four years, multiple organisations have created circular design guidelines. The work covered in this report adds to these valuable resources by differing in two ways: it explored how to make design decisions that related not only to recyclability of the product but also to the speed of lifecycle, from ‘ultra-fast’ to ‘super-slow’; it also focused on how to design and deliver the process of bringing a range of academic experts into the same room to work alongside the industry designers, to produce circular fashion products. Both elements of the work really challenged the participants to see circular design as an opportunity to change the industry at a systemic level.
The report sets out the plan for creating and testing the tools to support this ambition. It shows what part of the plan worked well, and what didn’t go so well. It presents the insights created through the pre-workshops which took place before the project began; the methods and tools developed for the project structure itself, and the key ideas that were generated through the delivery, along with feedback obtained through surveys and interviews. The report includes only minimal details about the final fast and slow prototypes, which were launched at the Disrupting Patterns showcase in London in November 2018 and also shown at Stockholm Fashion District in June 2019. You will these detailed on our project website – https://www.circulardesignspeeds.com/ - as well as in the final Design Theme report (Goldsworthy et al 2019), available from the Mistra Future Fashion website .
The report concludes with a model for Circular Design Researchers in Residence – this is the ‘what we would do differently now if we were starting again’ version. We hope this will provide a blueprint for those that might follow in similar footsteps – academic researchers and industry partners from all design disciplines and sectors, working side-by-side in the same room, to make real change through creating new products, systems and processes for our future circular economies.
The project offered the research community in this field a model for practice-based research for the upcycling of textiles. This was an iterative process where by design-led explorations tested existing sustainable design theory, leading to the development and adaptation of appropriate research methods, and creating new models for practice-based research. This in turn lead to the creation of new artefacts which embodied the thinking, and further reflection and redesign methods lead to the proposal of new sustainable design theory.
When the project began in 2005, design practices in textiles recycling were limited to recutting / reshaping / restitching, often giving a somewhat patch-worked aesthetic to the remade product. At the other end of the scale, commercial and technical approaches tended to break the original textile down and remake it into a new fabric. This project embraced both of these approaches, but also sought to question the design decisions that were inherent in this activity. Through the project the researchers sought to both create new design methods for recycling, and also to give the resulting artefacts a new, ‘higher value’ aesthetic.
I’m going to talk about a project that my team’s been working on for the last three and half years and where the self, the designer, our identities, and our sense of our selves in the future emerging landscape is heading."
I’m director of the Textiles Futures Research Centre based at Central Saint Martin’s and Chelsea College of Art, at the University of the Arts London. I’m Professor of Sustainable Textile and Fashion Design. I studied BA Textiles at Loughborough, MA Fashion Textiles at Central Saint Martin’s, and set up my own label on graduation called B.Earley. That was 20 years ago now. I started teaching whilst I was making and selling my fashion and accessories, and over time teaching became research, and then the research and my making switched roles. I’m now a maker that makes to support my research. So a lot of my talk today is about the future of us as makers, as educators, and as academics..."
“We're now at the end of the day and I've been thinking and writing during all the other presentations, and really trying to think about what this is, this slow design thing because I'm sure I don’t know! But I'm here because I've been doing a project that I've been working on for 10 years, so I qualify as a slow designer by all accounts! But I really hadn't taken the time to think about it in too much detail before I started talking to Helen [Carnac] about the Taking Time exhibition, and since then it's really started to come together."
I just want to start with offering my summary of what we've listened to so far today and my thoughts on what we can get out of the day. It’s striking how young this is as a design discipline, as a field. You have to bear in mind that things like Kate Fletcher's book only came out in 2008 and that was the very first book that proposed theory in terms of sustainable design in textiles and fashion. So this is an incredibly young, emerging set of ideas."
At TED we've been working with sustainable design since 1996, but at that time all we had to work with were technical reports of dyes and their impacts, and a very kind of ‘hard’ eco approach which was incredibly technical. In the last five years we've started to see emerging ‘soft’ eco design ideas, the more conceptual, social approaches for designers. It was this that Kate's book brought together, proposing that it could actually be really quite fundamentally important to designers to rethink their roles and the way that they work. It took the emphasis away from material quite so much, because at the end of the day we're textile designers, we're adept at choosing materials and colours. But the big impacts when you look at sustainability and the impact on the environment comes from our habit and our use and our (self) consumerism. So it doesn’t matter if we're going to be good designers, if we're still making better products that we put into fast systems nothing's really changing that much..."
As the Design Journal celebrates its 20-year anniversary, the Textiles Environment Design (TED) research group at University of the Arts London marks a similar milestone moment. In this essay I reflect on the journey I have taken as a member of this staff cluster of textile tutors and practicing industry designers. TED was co-founded at Chelsea College of Arts by Emeritus Professor Kay Politowicz and Jackie Herald in 1996. It was formed to cultivate new knowledge about what we then called ‘green’ textiles, so that through evolving our own studio work we could support the students with this important issue emerging in our sector. (At the same time, at Manchester Metropolitan University similar ideas were being pursued by Jo Heeley through her Textiles Environment Network (TEN) initiative.)
Upon discovering that the synthetic materials that I loved to surface and manipulate as a print designer had created significant resource depletion, pollution and environmental impacts, my journey towards sustainable design research began. In contrast to working alone in my Brick Lane studio, the TED group provided an inspiring and informative environment in which to challenge myself both professionally and personally. By 2001 I chose to cease producing commercial textiles and accessories for my label, B. Earley, and instead take up a research fellowship at Chelsea to find new ways to design, make and manufacture materials, before going back into business with a textile collection that was the greenest I could create.
That research fellowship of course turned into a whole new career; for once you begin to scratch the surface of what man is doing to the planet, then there is no simple fix. There would be no easy answers to the research questions I learned to ask.
*Why did you want to develop the Well Fashioned exhibition?*
The fashion industry has been something that has intrigued me for the last 15 years. In 1996 I started teaching at Chelsea College of Art and Design and became involved in a research project there, I became aware of how polluting and damaging the textile and fashion industry was (on a par with the chemical industry)i and once I started unearthing some of those facts it really became quite shocking; I started to think, ‘I’ve been contributing to this pollution both as a maker and as a consumer!’. Since then, I’ve been collecting information and case studies of designers and products and gathering general information about the fashion and textile industry, incorporating it into my practice; making my studio practice and the textiles I use as green as possible and to try and come up with new products that would perform better environmentally. Also whilst teaching I was very aware that I was constantly speaking to new generations of designers who were being taught a great deal about the aesthetics of design, but very little about the environmental effects of those design decisions. Between 80-90% of the total life cycle cost of any product (environmental and economic) are determined by the product design before production even begins.ii This places a huge amount of responsibility into the hands of the designer...
The author has been making ‘upcycled’ polyester shirts since 1999, with each shirt collection exploring different ideas about how designers can create a more sustainable, circular and equitable industry. Bittersweet Shirt (2023) has been re-crafted from a secondhand item to help people connect with nature in their region, and at the same time appreciate how our changing tastes make us waste clothes which can be transformed into something new and culturally relevant.
Bittersweet Shirt Concept. This research enabled the author to act as a fashion microbusiness and test the Herewear Project’s Bio TEN guidelines (Earley & Forst 2023) and the approaches to extending life of biobased products (Earley et al 2023). For this design brief, a local connection was sought to users based in Iasi, Romania, which is where project partner Maibine is based. Wormwood grows in abundance in Romania and has long been used as a medicinal herb for cuts and bruises, to treat indigestion, help with fever and infections, and as a type of insect repellent. It is also used in the liquor absinthe and to flavour other drinks like Vermouth.
Research shows that the fashion and textile industry has already produced enough polyester to clothe the world population, if it were to be reused and recycled. Oil is mined for transportation fuel, and polyester and plastic are made from the cheap waste parts of crude oil, which are not of the quality required to make petroleum. As global economies transition away from fossil-based fuels, we need new bio-based textiles for fashion, that can replace synthetics in our wardrobe. However, we must also reuse what we have already made. In this research design guidelines that were being created for biobased clothing were further tested with used polyester shirts.
Bittersweet Shirt was made with multiple bittersweet elements in the brief: the paradox of polyester and waste; the health and alcohol drinking habits associated with the plant used as decoration on it; the impact of AI on design and cultural economies and practices; and the local and global dynamics of fashion in a time of great political, social and economic unrest.