Design Transforms '23

Design Transforms celebrates student and staff product, industrial and ceramic design work and the social, cultural and commercial collaborations that give purpose to their ideas. Welcome to an exhibition and interactive events that navigate our programme manifesto of design as a practice that transforms. Marking the 10th anniversary of Central Saint Martins Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education, Design Transforms ’23  is a discursive platform to examine our futures. Continuing on a cutting-edge collaboration between Central Saint Martins and UPM that launched earlier in 2023, UPM are proudly sponsoring Design Transforms ’23. The partnership was designed to trigger a radical reappraisal of production and consumption patterns, and to accelerate the transition to renewable circularity. Our Manifesto As Central Saint Martins product, ceramic and industrial design community we work in the world of things, but it’s human needs and connections with the world that engage us most.  Through the materials, processes and techniques of design, our community interrogates what it is to design for positive social impact.  Our programme is dedicated to creative ambition, collaboration and making. We experience design as a practice that transforms: it is anticipatory and adaptive for the benefit of people, industry and the environment. Making We make. To experiment, prototype, prove, materialise, manufacture, to know. To practice the hand, the eye, the technique, the ritual and the heart. Transformation We develop individuals as caring, questioning, attuned and articulate practitioners, aware of the power of design to transform people, things, enterprises, services, systems and the practice itself. Creative Ambition We reject the notion of more of the same and practice to create new opportunities and possibilities that have yet to be discovered. Collaboration We embrace an art school studio model demanding participation, risk-taking and fearless endeavour. Our activity is rooted in relationships, co-creation and collaborative enterprise. Anticipatory Practice We prepare our graduates to anticipate, explore and articulate futures, ready for contemporary production, manufacturing and distribution paradigms that call for proactive, adaptive practitioners.  Community We are more than a university, a college or a programme. We are a community: national and international, past, present and future. Full exhibition run: 11 September – 15 October 2023