Design Futures: A retrospective – 20 years of Design Impact

Design Futures exhibition image
In association with Lab4Living’s Research England Expanding Excellence in Research Award

In celebration of Design Futures’ 20th anniversary – an exhibition of selected projects conducted by Sheffield Hallam University’s packaging and product design group.

Design Futures is a team of award-winning product and packaging designers and researchers at Sheffield Hallam University. Design Futures’ work, informed by the latest research methods and practice through close links with Lab4Living and the Art, Design and Media Research Centre, provides an important pathway for research impact.

Through frequent collaborations with Lab4Living, Design Futures is helping people to live longer, happier and healthier lives by developing new packaging and product solutions.

Human-centred design is a core principle. Designs informed by research insights about people invariably create more appealing and effective products and packaging.

Designers can help to generate novel ideas – they can also help to realise them. Visitors will see how design and innovation can make things better for users, grow businesses and create jobs.

Sustainability is crucial to all of us. On display will be products and packaging that use alternative materials, processes, and development approaches to create significant environmental benefits.

Many of the projects involve companies in the Sheffield City Region and demonstrate a sustained commitment to supporting regional businesses through Knowledge Exchange – others show Design Futures’ national and international collaborations through research council funded projects and consultancy.

In this exhibition, discover some of the challenges that many organisations and companies face and the creative ways in which design can respond to help grow our economy, protect our planet, and support our communities.

The exhibition will take place in Lab4Living’s White Building, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, from the 4th April to 22nd April 2022. The exhibition will be open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00 – 12:30 and 13:00 to 15:00 during that period.