Design Research, Design Strategy, Design Innovation, Design Management, Collaborative Design Practice, Future-focused Design Practice, Material-led Design
Kirsty is design academic within the Innovation School, teaching across the Product Design undergraduate programme and responsible for leading the final year of the BDes Product Design and the Master of European Design (MEDes) pathways.
Over ten years at the GSA, Kirsty has established a proven track record for initiating, leading and developing innovative collaborative design pedagogical models and studio projects, which offer unique learning experiences for final year students and provide unparalleled learning and innovation opportunities to the partner organisations and the communities of practice who participate. Kirsty’s role in leading collaborative design projects has also operated externally as Institutional Lead for the international Masters collaboration between The Glasgow Schmore...
Kirsty is design academic within the Innovation School, teaching across the Product Design undergraduate programme and responsible for leading the final year of the BDes Product Design and the Master of European Design (MEDes) pathways.
Over ten years at the GSA, Kirsty has established a proven track record for initiating, leading and developing innovative collaborative design pedagogical models and studio projects, which offer unique learning experiences for final year students and provide unparalleled learning and innovation opportunities to the partner organisations and the communities of practice who participate. Kirsty’s role in leading collaborative design projects has also operated externally as Institutional Lead for the international Masters collaboration between The Glasgow School of Art and Audencia Business School in France. Additionally, her involvement in the evolution of the post-graduate taught programmes within the Innovation School has strengthened the school’s emerging identity externally by developing approaches to teaching practice and learning through academic, public and private sector partnerships which utilise collaboration as the raw material for design-led innovation.
Over the past decade Kirsty has directed and led student projects in partnership with national and international organisations such as the Hitachi Corporation, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and The Centre for Civic Innovation at Glasgow City Council. She has established and maintained relationships between the Innovation School and the University of Glasgow for the past five years; working in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Sciences for four consecutive years, with academics from the university’s schools of Education and Social Sciences, and with senior stakeholders from the Malawi Ministry of Health, the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Prior to joining the GSA, Kirsty worked as a Design Director at Nokia operating across Europe, Asia and the USA, where she was responsible for the creation and leadership of a design research team which operated globally for the organisation generating insights which directed the company’s portfolio strategy around the world. Previous to this Kirsty worked in Fashion Design as a designer at Paul Smith Ltd in London before moving into Automotive Design, joining Hyundai Motors based in the European satellite design studio in Frankfurt, Germany. The senior level at which Kirsty operated within her commercial design career, and the global professional network she actively maintains within the design industry has fuelled her teaching practice at the GSA and continues to pioneer new, contemporary and real-world learning experiences for students within the Innovation School.
Research interests:
Innovation in Collaborative Design Teaching and Learning; the development of new design pedagogical models, projects, communities, and practices which explore collaborative learning across academic and real-world contexts.
