13-20 September 2020

Design Action

DESIGN ACTION celebrates creative activism. This digital showcase and events programme highlighted the work of London College of Communication’s Design School, as students and staff anticipate new futures in an uncertain world.

As the global pandemic causes us to rethink everything, we reconsider the Design School model and test our Manifesto against the shifting requirements of a changed world.

DESIGN ACTION featured a range of projects and work in progress from the School’s dynamic and collaborative community.

We questioned cultural, technological and disciplinary boundaries and confronted the social, systemic and ecological challenges of our time.

The programme included:

An emerging research platform which explores the shifting definitions, debates and practices of graphic design
A look at professional design practice in the wake of COVID-19
An exploration of new ecological systems and tools
A vision of the world in 2030 based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals
An interaction design communication which rethinks concepts of audience participation, presence, and space.

U-Turn

Ian Carr’s U-Turn is an audio-visual graphic work which focuses on the literal and abstract nature of ‘the u-turn' as a concept, its place within the creative process, and the ways in which it can be seen as an act of protest and ultimate move to a new front.
Discovered Spaces

Discovered Spaces is a collaboration between MA Interaction Design Communication students on the theme of ‘Connection’. With a hybrid participatory format of both on- and offline elements, the work explores new ways to stay connected while relearning the possibilities of interaction design and ways its relevancy can evolve during times of crisis.
Testing Times

Hosted by Sian Cook’s online archive of HIV/AIDS graphic ephemera, Testing Times is a reflection on language and health messages. This work draws comparisons between HIV and COVID-19 as two viruses with similar challenges but an opportunity for testing to break patterns of infection for both.
In the course of time

Developed in Microsoft Teams, made in bedrooms and photographed on windowsills and kitchen tables, In the course of time is a group portrait of makers in isolation as 2 technicians and 9 students from LCC create a remote publication in Lockdown.

DESIGN ACTION is part of London Design Festival.

London Design Festival logo in red

Graduate Voices: Seowon Park

We chat to BA (Hons) Design for Branded Spaces graduate Seowon Park about her creative practice and the inspiration behind her major project.
Graduate Voices: Elaine Zhang

We chat to BA (Hons) Design for Branded Spaces graduate Elaine Zhang about her practice and creative journey since graduating from LCC.
Bookshelf Picks: Karl Foster

Illustrator and Senior Lecturer Karl Anderson Foster shares some of the seminal works that have shaped his work, philosophy and creative approaches.
London College of Communication introduces doctoral research exhibition, Unfolding Narratives 2

We explore work-in-progress projects from 7 PhD students at London College of Communication.
See all Design School stories