Ideas

Welcome to the Design Principles and Practices Community

This knowledge community is brought together by a shared interest in the process of design and their conceptual foundations. The community interacts through an innovative, annual face-to-face conference, as well as year-round virtual relationships in a weblog, peer reviewed journal and book imprint – exploring the affordances of the new digital media. Members of this knowledge community include academics, designers, administrators, educators, consultants and research students.

Conference

Members of the Design Community meet at the International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, held annually in different locations around the world. The Design Conference was held at Imperial College London, in 2007; in conjunction with the University of Miami, Florida, USA in 2008; at Technical University Berlin, Germany in 2009; at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA in 2010; and at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy in 2011. In 2012, the conference will be held at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

Our community members and first time attendees come from all corners of the globe. Intellectually, our interests span the breadth of the field of design. The Conference is a site of critical reflection, both by leaders in the field and emerging scholars and practitioners. Those unable to attend the Conference may opt for virtual participation in which community members can either submit a video and/or slide presentation with voice-over, or simply submit a paper for peer review and possible publication in the Journal.

Publishing

The Design Community enables members of its community to publish through three media. First, by participating in the Design Conference, community members can enter a world of journal publication unlike the traditional academic publishing forums – a result of the responsive, non-hierarchical and constructive nature of the peer review process. Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal provides a framework for double-blind peer review, enabling authors to publish into an academic journal of the highest standard.

The second publication medium is through the book series On Design, publishing cutting edge books in print and electronic formats. Publication proposals and manuscript submissions are welcome.

The third major publishing medium is our news blog, constantly publishing short news updates from the Design Community, as well as major developments in the field of design. You can also join this conversation at Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our email Newsletter.