Dean Stanford-Palmer
Senior Lecturer Design
Summary
I have enjoyed and benefited from a rich and diverse career and returned to higher education following a ten-year career in the police service.
In 2008, I had the opportunity to work with a highly regarded furniture designer maker Chris Tribe. This creative design-and-make partnership gave me the confidence to join a small design collective in Sheffield, which undertook private commissions and prototyping work.
I later began my own design + make furniture design practice and workshop. I have undertaken several commissions for discerning clients and enjoyed the collaborative aspect of these relationships.
I have combined my professional practice activities with my part-time teaching commitments at SIA for the last 9 years.
Teaching
Product, Furniture and Interior Design Subject Group
Product and furniture design
Research
I am part way through a MA (product design) at SIA and I am enjoying the opportunity to reflect on my own design practice, design intent and teaching, in a wider and more critical context. I am particularly interested in critical and speculative design and exploring how design can be used (Malpass, 2017) to mobilise debate and inquire into matters of concern through the creative processes that exist when designing objects.
Design as a form of critique is really important and special - Dunne and Raby (Malpass, 2017)
I am also engaged with material research and exploring opportunities to better utilise a range of materials (including post industrial waste) that offer a more sustainable alternative to those presently predicated on a reliance on Petro-chemicals.