www. northumbria. ac. uk29 Design Agenda Our design agenda is shaped by an in- depth understanding of people and our deep- seated desire to find workable solutions to complex problems and deliver them in a way that enriches people's lives. At the heart of our approach is our ability to reflect, review and understand the processes undertaken to achieve these results. The following interdependent themes act as key drivers for the School's advancement of design practice and learning through research. We embed them into everything we do, continuously translating this doing into knowledge and making it accessible for a wide variety of audiences, through publications, conferences, exhibitions and events. The themes each have their own Professor or Reader, helping to coordinate and nurture the involvement of our staff and research students. Human- centred Problem- solving Putting people at the heart of our investigations, this theme allows us to develop and apply techniques that identify human- centred problems and deliver empathetic products, services and interactive communication solutions. Design Practice Innovation Through collaboration with industry, we have developed greater understanding and insight into the application of innovation processes and the generation of Intellectual Property. Design Craftsmanship This celebrates the practice and evolution of the craft of designing, through the exploration and application of materials, processes and techniques for artefact creation. Pedagogic Practices This theme focuses on reviewing and improving the capacity of design educators and learners to operate as agents of change in society. Responsible Design Practices Takes a common need for improvement of design practices and focuses on perspectives and practices that include ethics, inclusion, sustainability and resilience. Design Thinking and Dialectic Investigating the relationship between theory and practice, this theme engages with the values and deeper meaning within design and includes areas such as redesigning design, systems thinking, complexity and emergence. Breadth and Expertise We offer one of the broadest ranges of design disciplines under one School in the UK, which enables us to deliver a wide choice of Doctoral Programmes including the traditional PhD, Practice- based PhD, PhD by Publication and the Professional Doctorate or DDP. Equally important is our staff's expertise and zeal for their subject, which means they continuously seek to remain at the forefront of design thinking, learning and practice through interaction with industry and ongoing research. All of which is translated into course content and teaching and also disseminated through conference papers, text books and leading publications such as the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Design Management Journal and The Design Journal.

30School of Design Dedicated Design Centre As part of our commitment to developing new knowledge and directions for design, we also have a dedicated Centre for Design Research ( CfDR), which employs a team of contract researchers, working on projects funded by industry and external sponsors. The scale of our activity generates an exciting mix of live projects with industry and the public sector, which run in parallel with fundamental research and postgraduate programmes. For PhD candidates, this ensures that their own research can be linked- to or based- on direct involvement in our research themes and groups, live commercial projects and close contact with external experts and organisations. CfDR has an enviable track record of PhD completions based on this demanding mix of fundamental and live commercial research projects. Emma Jefferies PhD student profile " Having completed my degree in Multimedia Design at Northumbria University, I applied and was offered a University scholarship to further develop my knowledge around visual literacy in design education. A highlight during the first year of my PhD was receiving an award for a paper presented at the International Visual Literacy Conference in South Africa, this was a big honour and an experience I will never forget. Being dyslexic I have had difficulty engaging in doctoral study, but the PhD community in the School of Design and the Wellbeing Staff at Northumbria University have been extremely supportive. The PhD community itself has been very stimulating and is a joy to be around. I feel that the PhD, as I near the completion of the thesis, has developed my awareness of myself, changing the way I look at problems and engage with different types of research."