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




    Timothy Miller

    Enacting an Alternative History of Critical Design as Affirmative-Critical Design


    This paper introduces Affirmative-Critical Design as an analytical concept and a practice-based method for rethinking the future of Critical Design. While Critical Design has been defined as opposed to commercial culture and Affirmative Design, the paper argues that a binary between critique and commerce, and reflection and production, limits its relevance and reach. Drawing on overlooked Critical Design histories and a reflective retrospective of my design practice, the paper outlines how critique can be enacted in relation to commerciality and presents an analytical methodology for identifying Affirmative-Critical Design in practice. By revisiting four situated projects, the paper identifies an alternative trajectory for Critical Design that unfolds through strategic commercial entanglement. In doing so, it suggests that criticality can be transformed through design practice, pedagogy, and real-world engagement. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions about practice-based design and proposes Affirmative-Critical Design as a means of enacting an alternative history of Critical Design that unfolds not in opposition to commerciality, but through embedded engagements with it.



    — Timothy Miller


    Timothy Miller is a designer, researcher, and educator with an interest in how design researchers can operate as reflective agents within academic institutions.