Symposium The Design of History and the History of Design


London College of Communication
15 September, 2025



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SpeakerS and Abstracts:

Huda Almazroua
Alberto Atalla Filho
Russ Bestley
Kevin Biderman
Silvia Bombardini
David Cross
Dora Souza Dias
Sam Gathercole
Ian Horton and Ian Hague
Jennifer Hankin
Zarna Hart
John-Patrick Hartnett
Fenella Hitchcock
Abbie Vickress and Sakis Kyratzis
Christopher Lacy
Timothy Miller
Danah Nassief
Jesse O’Neill
Nina O’Reilly
Patrick O’Shea
David Preston
Cheryl Roberts
Rebecca Ross
Antoin Sharkey
Andrew Slatter
Kate Trant
Vanessa Vanden Berghe
Judy Willcocks
Christin Yu



A symposium for UAL’s Design History research community


The Design of History and the History of Design is a one-day symposium that maps research into, through or at the boundaries of design history at UAL. While design history may underpin our teaching across different disciplines, research in design history across UAL is somewhat hidden. This symposium aims to share and make visible the work of researchers (staff and students) at all career stages across all UAL colleges.

Exploring the intersections of historical narrative and design practice, it examines how history is constructed, represented, and mediated through design, and how the discipline of design itself is shaped by its evolving historiography.

The symposium will serve as the starting point for a Design History Network at UAL, bringing together researchers from across the university. It also lays the foundation for a welcoming research community in design history, with potential for ongoing events, collaboration, publications, and curriculum development.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in future activities, please get in touch with the convenors:

Rujana Rebernjak
r.rebernjak@lcc.arts.ac.ukTai Cossich
t.cossich@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Please also sign up for the UAL Design Histories Newsletter




    Kate Trant
    Edward L. Bernays: “The father of public relations”. (Or, when design history meets climate change)  


    This session forms part of an investigation into whether—or how—Edward L. Bernays, “the father of public relations” and pioneer of “the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion”, can be seen as having made a significant contribution to the 20th and 21st century’s level of consumption of consumer goods and therefore to our contemporary “ecological overshoot”. Edward Bernays (b. Vienna, 1891; d. New York, 1995), is possibly most famous—or notorious—for harnessing as a method of persuasion his uncle Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories on the power of unconscious desire. This presentation forms part of a larger project on Bernays, a reconsideration of the established narrative of his work through the 20th century, potentially challenging his received position as a force for good.

    Borrowing from Melanie Keen’s (Director, Wellcome Foundation, 2019–) ‘plotting co-ordinates’ storytelling methodology, I will map connections between five images to interrogate and think through Bernay’s complex narrative.

    I will open with the Merz Institute’s 2023 paper, ‘World scientists’ warning: The behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot’, focusing on its consideration of resource consumption and waste creation. Bernays’ 1947 paper, 'The Engineering of Consent', will form a key component, followed by Vance Packard’s book, The Waste Makers (1960), particularly his three definitions of obsolescence—of function, quality and desirability. A brief outline of Alfred Sloan’s (General Motors) introduction of the ‘annual model change’ to drive US automotive sales will be followed by a look inside Shein’s June 2025 sustainability report.

    Through this process, the project (and this session) poses an overarching question: As design historians, how can—or should—we reframe historical narratives in light of shifting ethical, political and environmental frameworks?"



    — Kate Trant


    With an MA in History of Design from Middlesex University, and a publishing background, Kate has extensive experience in telling stories about the creative arts. Kate delivered UAL's REF2021 impact case studies and is currently working on REF2029. Regularly asked to write and edit texts across UAL for diverse purposes, she wrote its 2024 award-winning submission for The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, celebrating the pioneering work of the University's researchers in social and environmental sustainability in fashion. Kate is developing ways in which UAL’s rich and complex research narratives can be described for different audiences and is currently looking at research impact in the creative arts. Kate is working on a project on Edward L. Bernays, probably best-known for the Torches of Freedom campaign (1929), created to increase cigarette sales to American women through picturing what can be described as early (female) influencers smoking cigarettes in public, as “symbols of emancipation”.