Since 2009 I have held a permanent, part-time lecturing post in the department of Product Design at The Glasgow School of Art, where I teach across all years of the undergraduate programme and feed into PG programmes in the school of Innovation Design .
Internationally acknowledged innovators in the realm of design teaching, we have long held the view that in the post-industrial age product designers need to engage in the design of services and experiences - digital, intangible etc - as much as tangible artefacts.
Amongst my responsibilities I deliver projects around the themes of brand experience and responsive environments, running live projects with a broad range of clients from different sectors - including Hoover, Belvedere Vodka, Muirhead Leather and Bottle of Ginger to name but a few - in which we take a speculative look into the future to anticipate how the brands in question might respond to emerging trends and shifting markets.
In tandem with 'regular' teaching, I have also led the GSA component of a year-long research project exploring potential applications for speckled computing with Edinburgh University's School of Informatics with students from each of the 4 scottish art schools, and helped to deliver a live project for Toshiba Electronics, Japan, which culminated in a presentation of student work in Tokyo.
For 2 years I was a visiting lecturer on the Product Design course at ECA (Edinburgh College of Art) where I was final year project supervisor for students on both UG and PG programmes, and was also a tutor on the Product Design Engineering course at Strathclyde University for one year, helping students to focus on understanding users and scenarios of use.
I am also an occasional contributor to the core steering group for design teaching within Education Scotland's expressive arts team, and am a keen advocate for the improvement of delivery within primary and secondary education.