Publications

Books

  • Reflections on design history and design studies 1999 to 2016 : celebrating the ICDHS, 10th anniversary (co-editors: Anna Calvera and Helena Barbosa), Aveiro : UA Editora – Universidade de Aveiro, 2016
  • Art and Design at Brighton 1859- 2009: From Arts and Manufactures to the Creative and Cultural Industries, co-edited with Philippa Lyon, University of Brighton, 2009
  • From Art School to University: art & design at Brighton 1859- 2009, exhibition catalogue, University of Brighton, 2009
  • Image, Power and Space: Studies in Consumption & Identity (co-editor Alan Tomlinson), Aachen/Oxford: Meyer & Meyer, 2007
  • Oxford Dictionary of Modern Design, Oxford University Press.
    • Editions: 2004 (hardback), 2005 (online), 2006 (paperback), 2016 (Oxford Quick Reference Online)
  • Icons of Design: the Twentieth Century, co-editors: Volker Albus and Reyer Kras, 2000 (hardback), 2004 (paperback), Munich/London/New York: Prestel
  • Twentieth Century Design, Oxford University Press, 1997 (hardback) 1997 (paperback), 2010 Korean edition, 2012 Chinese edition
  • Design and Cultural Politics in Post-war Britain: Britain Can Make It Exhibition of 1946, co-edited with Patrick J Maguire) Leicester: University of Leicester Press, 1998 (hardback), 1998 (paperback)
  • Twentieth Century Ornament: decoration from 1900 to the present, New York/London;Rizzoli/Cassell, 1997
  • From Art School to Polytechnic: serving industry and the community from Brighton – 1859 to 1986, (co-authored with Suzette Worden), Brighton Polytechnic, 1986
  • The Industrial Designer and the Public, London: Pembridge Press, 1983

Book contributions

  • ‘Whose object is it, anyway?’ chapter in Alice Semedo, José Bartolo, Sandra Sendra (eds), Design Objects: Muzealisation, Documentation and Information, Porto: CITEM (Centro de Investigaçao Transdisciplinar Cultura, Espaço e Memória), 2023
  • Forward for Tevfik Bacioglu, On Design, London/New York: Bloomsbury, 2023
  • Foreword for Harriet Atkinson, Verity Clarkson, Sarah A Lichtman (eds), Exhibitions Beyond Boundaries: Transnational Exchanges through Art, Architecture, and Design 1945-1985, London/New York: Blooomsbury, 2022
  • ‘International Design Organizations as Global Design Advocates: Romance, Reality and Relevance?’ chapter in Jeremy Aynsley, Alison Clarke, Tania Messell (eds) International Design Organisations: Histories, Legacies, Values London/NewYork: Bloomsbury, 2021
  • History and Design History: Myths, Memories and Reality’ in Fedja Vukić, Iva Kostešić (eds), Lessons to Learn? Past Design Experiences and Contemporary Design Practices’, Zagreb: UP12M Books, 2020, 17-27
  • ‘Finnish Design and the Heritage Industry’ chapter in MODERN LIFE: Finnish Modernism and the International Dimension, Helsinki: Parvs, 2017, 205-216.
  • Taking Stock and Looking to the Future: The ICDHS in 2016’ in Reflections on design history and design studies 1999 to 2016 (see Books above, Aveiro : UA Editora, 2016
  • ‘Ilmari Tapiovaara from a British perspective’ in Aila Svenskberg (ed.) Ilmari Tapiovaara: Life and Design, Helsinki: Design Museo, 2014, 142-146
  • Advertising and Design Culture’ (Chapter 28, Section III: Science Fiction as Culture) in Rob Latham (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 364-382
  • ‘On Empires and Peripheries of Design History’ in Design Frontiers – territories, concepts, technologies, ICDHS 2012 8th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies, Sao Paolo: Editora Blucher, 2014, 454-457
  • ‘The European Province and Its Significance for Design Histories’ in H Barbosa and Anna Calvera (eds), ICDHS Conference Proceedings: Tradition, transition, trajectories: major or minor influences, UA Editora: Aveiro, 2014, 713-17
  • ‘Design 2012: Where has it come from? What is it? Where is it going?’, Chapter 2 in Jirí Pelcl, Design: Od myšlenky k realizaci/ From Idea to Realization, Prague: VSUP v Praze
  • ‘Urban Visions: Design and the Welfare State’, Chapter 3 in Christopher Breward & Ghislaine Wood (eds), Design in Britain: Innovation in the Modern Age 1948-2012, London: V&A, 2012
  • ‘Imagination and Industry, Creativity and Constraint: Jiří Pelcl and Czech Design 1982-2012’, sole catalogue essay for The Incredible Lightness of Being: Jirí Pelcl – Czech Design exhibition premiered at the University of Brighton, Prague: VSUP v Praze, 2012
  • ‘Mrs Thatcher and Postmodernism and the Politics of Design’ in Jane Pavitt & Glenn Adamson, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990, London: V&A, 2011, 238-241
  • ‘Twentieth Century Tudor Design in Britain: an ideological battleground’, in T C String & M Bull, (eds) Tudorism: Historical Imagination and the Appropriation of the Sixteenth Century, Proceedings of the British Academy, Oxford University Press, 2010
  • ‘Design History at the Periphery’, in T. Balcioglu, and G. Baydar (eds] Tasarım Tarihinin Ötekileri (The Others of Design History), İzmir: İzmir University of Economics, 2010, 6-23 
  • ‘Post 1945 Industrial Design Perspectives – Slovenia and Iskra in a changing world’ in Barbara Predan and Cvetka Požar  (eds) (2009) ISKRA: 1946-90, Non-Aligned   Design, Ljubljana Architecture Museum/Pekinpah Association, 2009
  • Brighton School of Art: from Victorian origins to the twenty-first century’, Chapter 1 in Philippa Lyon & Jonathan M Woodham (eds), Art and Design at Brighton 1859-2009: From Arts and Manufactures to the Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Brighton, 2009, 29-174
  • ‘The ‘Art College’ Basement: some recollections’, Chapter 5 in Philippa Lyon & Jonathan M Woodham (eds) Art and Design at Brighton 1859-2009: From Arts and Manufactures to the Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Brighton, 2009, 265-285
  • ‘Britishness in Design, Material Culture and Popular Artefacts’ in Alan Tomlinson & Jonathan M Woodham (eds), Image, Power and Space: Studies in Consumption & Identity, Aachen/Oxford: Meyer & Meyer, 2007, 135-63
  • ‘Foreword’ in Zap Art- Twenty Five Years of Cultural Innovation (2007) Zap Art, Brighton, in conjunction with Brighton: Queenspark Books, 2007, 8-12
  • ‘Entre Plusieurs Mondes: Le Site Britannique’, in Rika Devos & Mil De Kooning (eds), L’Architecture Moderne À L’Expo 58: ‘Pour Un Monde Plus Humain. Fonds Mercator/Dexia Banque, 2006, 246- 261
  • ‘Charles and Ray Eames: bridging industrial and post-industrial design’, in Designer Hall of Fame: Charles and Ray Eames, Gwanju Biennale 2005, South Korea, 62-6.
  • ‘Eurooppalaisen ja Amerikkalaisen Art Decon Ornamentiiikasta’ in Art Deco 1918-1939: modernia eksotiikkaa, Designmuseo, Helsinki, 2005
  • From Pattern to Abstraction’ in T Benton, C Benton, G Wood (eds) Art Deco 1910-1939, London: V&A, 2003
  • ‘Postmodernism’ in Noel Riley & Patricia Bayer (eds), Elements of Style, Mitchell Beazley, 2003, 482-505
  • ‘A British Perspective’ in Vernacular Mirror: 20C Design Collection, ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design), Seoul, 2001
  • ‘British Design History from an International Perspective’ in Helena Dunin-Woyseth and Jan Michl (eds), Towards a Disciplinary Identity in the Making Professions: The Oslo Millennium Reader, Oslo School of Architecture, 2001
  • ‘Recent Trends in Design History Research’ in Anna Calvera (ed) Historíar des de la Perifèria, Historia I Historias del Disseny, University of Barcelona, 2001
  • ‘A Brand New Britain?’ in Jane Pavitt (ed) (2000) brand.new, V&A/Princeton University
  • ‘The Council of Industrial Design and the Co-operative Wholesale Society’ in Judy Attfield (ed), Utility Re-Assessed – The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design, Manchester University Press, 1999
  • ‘Design Research, Design Practice’, in Gary Crossley (ed), Practice-based Doctorates in the Creative and Performing Arts and Design, Farnham: SIAD, 1999
  • ‘Design and the Role of the State’, in Judy Attfield (ed) Utility Re-Assessed – The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design, Manchester University Press, 1999
  • ‘Britain Can Make It and the History of Design’, Chapter 2 in Patrick Maguire & Jonathan M Woodham , Design and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain: Britain Can Make it Exhibition of 1946, University of Leicester Press, 1997
  • ‘The Politics of Persuasion: State, Industry and Good Design at the Britain Can Make It Exhibition’, in Patrick Maguire& Jonathan M Woodham (eds), Design and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain: Britain Can Make It Exhibition of 1946, University of Leicester Press, 1997
  • Putting the Industrial into Design: Early Problems Facing the Council of Industrial Design’, in Patrick Maguire & Jonathan M Woodham (eds) Design and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain: Britain Can Make it Exhibition of 1946, University of Leicester Press, 1997
  • ‘The Consumers of the Future: Council of Industrial Design Educational Strategies for Schools from 1944 to the late 1950s’ in Linda Sandino & Jane Pavitt (eds), The Camberwell Collection: Object Lesson, Camberwell College/London Institute, 1996
  • ‘Design, Industry and Propaganda: British Exhibition Policy at Home and Abroad in the Nineteenth Century’ in M Ganci & M Giuffrè (eds)Dall’Artigianito all’Industria: L’Esposizione Nazionale di Palermo del 1891-92, Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria, Palermo, 1994, 301-18
  • ‘Women, Design and the State in the Interwar Years: A Case Study of Elizabeth Denby and the Council for Art & Industry’, in Jill Seddon, & Suzette Worden (1994) Women Designing: Defining Design in Britain Between the Wars, University of Brighton, 1994
  • ‘Ornament and Industrial Culture: Design and Meaning in the 20th Century’, in Industrial Design: Reflection of a Century – 19th to 21st Century, Flammarion (English and French editions), 1993
  • ‘Ceramic History’ in Hazel Conway (ed), Design History: A Student Handbook, Allen & Unwin, 1987, 38-57
  • ‘Interview with Lord Reilly” in Penny Sparke (ed), Did Britain Make It? London: Design Council, 1986
  • ‘Design Promotion 1946 and After’ in Penny Sparke (ed), Did Britain Make It?, London: Design Council, 1986
  • ‘The Post War Consumer: Design Propaganda and awareness’ in Nicola Hamilton (ed) Design Since 1945: From Spitfire to the Microchip, Design Council, 1985
  • ‘British Art in Industry 1935’ in Design and industry: the effects of industrialisation and technical change on design, N Hamilton (ed), London: Design Council, 1980, 39-44

Articles

  • ‘Design in a changing world: MacDonald Gill’s large-scale decorative North Atlantic Map in the Queen Mary’s 1st class dining saloon, 1936’, Revista Brasiliera de Design da Informação/Brazilian Journal of Information Design, vol.16, no.2, 2019, 169-183
  • ‘Cultural Diplomacy and Design in the Late 20th and 21st Centuries: Rhetoric or Reality?’, (co-authored with Michael Thompson (Connect), Design and Culture, July, 2017, 225-241
  • Woodham, Jonathan; ‘The European Province and Its significance for design histories’ in Tradition, Transition, Trajectories: major or minor influences? [ICDHS 2014 – 9th Conference of the International Committee for Design History and Design Studies]. São Paulo: Blucher, 2014, 713-718
  • Kinneir, Jock’ (1917-1994), typographer and signage specialist, Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2014  
  • ‘Formulating National Design Policies: An Exchange of Letters’, Design Issues, vol. 27, no.1, 2011, 83-88
  • ‘Formulating National Design Policies: Recycling the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’?’, Design Issues, Vol. 26, no. 2, 2010, 27-46
  • ‘Local, National and Global: Redrawing the Design Historical Map’, Journal of Design History, 18 (3), 2005, 257-267
  • Gardner, (Leslie) James (1907–1995), designer and graphic artist’, Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  • ‘Braddell [née Busse], Dorothy Adelaide (1889–1981)’ designer and decorative artist’, Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  • ‘Scott, Douglas William (1913–1990), industrial designer and educator’, Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  • ‘Design and everyday life at the Britain can make it exhibition, 1946: ‘stripes, spots, white wood and homespun versus chintzy armchairs and iron bedsteads with brass knobs’, Journal of Architecture, 9 (4), 2004, 463-76
  • ‘The Design Archive at Brighton: serendipity and strategy’, Art Libraries Journal, 29 (3), 2004, 15-21
  • ’Building on the past, looking to the future: design history in the Twenty First Century’, Design History Workshop Journal (Japan), issue no. 1, 2003
  • ‘The Festival of Britain and the Council of Industrial Design: Educating the Consumer in Postwar Britain’, Crafts Magazine, September/October, 2001
  • ‘Designing Design History: From Pevsner to Postmodernism’, Working Papers in Communication Research Archive, Vol 1 (1): Digitisation and Knowledge, 2001
  • Essays on the ‘Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels 1925’ and ‘Exposition International – Arts et Métiers 1937’, Modernism’ (8000 words), and entries on ‘Donald Deskey’ and Betty Joel’ in Joanna Banham (ed), Encyclopaedia of Interior Design, 2 volumes, Chicago/London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997
  • Le Dictionnaire International des Arts Appliqués et du Design, Paris: Editions du Regard, all British entries co-authored with Sarah Hardaker, 1987
  • ‘Managing British Design Reform I: Fresh Perspectives on the Early Years of the Council of Industrial Design’, Journal of Design History, Vol 9, no. 1, 1996, 55-65
  • Managing British Design Reform II: The Film “Deadly Lampshade”: An Ill-Fated Episode in the Politics of ‘Good Taste’ in Journal of Design History, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996, 101-115
  • ‘Redesigning a Chapter in the History of British Design: The Design Council Archive at the University of Brighton’, Journal of Design History, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1995), 225-229
  • ‘Resisting Colonization: Design History has its own Disciplinary Status’, Design Issues, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring, 1995, 22-37.
  • ‘Fact, fiction and fantasy: design in Brighton between the Wars’, Southern History, vol. 16, 1994, 152-179
  • ‘Establishing a Permanent Collection: The Centre de Creation Industrielle’, Journal of Design History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1993), 55-57
  • Invited contributor to debates on ‘Disseny i llibertat en el procés de creació de formes’ in Special Issue on “Diseño, Herramento de Futuro”, Temes De Disseny, no 8, April, 1993
  • ‘Images of Africa and British Design Between the Wars’, Journal of Design History, Vole 2, no. 1, 1989, 15-23
  • ‘British Modernism: Illusion and Reality’, in Anty Pansera (ed) Tradizione e Modernismo: Design 1918-40, L’Arca, (1987), Milan
  • ‘Escape from the Imitation Game’ (Hong Kong), Design Magazine, May, 1986
  • ‘Designs on Britain: A New Mythology’, Designer, November 1986
  • ‘Design and Empire: British Design in the 1920s’, Art History, June 1980

Conference Papers

  • ‘History and Design History: Myths, Memories and Reality’, virtual presentation, ICDHS 12 Conference, Zagreb, 2021
  • Video presentation for World History of Design Inaugural Ceremony and Conference: Margolin, Design History and China, Guangdong University of Technology, 20 December, also broadcast to an audience of 10,000 on Chinese media platform, 2020
  • ‘Meeting the Past, Experiencing the Present: Some thoughts on design history’ (keynote) for The Past as a Catalyst for the Future: Historical Knowledge in Design Education and Research, Symposium in honour of Professor Pekka Korvenma’s forty years as a university teacher in Finland, Aalto University, Helsinki, May 2019
  • ‘Design and Design History in Post-Brexit Britain: Looking Forwards, Looking Backwards’, in Back to the Future, the Future in the Past, Proceedings of the ICDHS10th + Conference in Barcelona, 358-362
  • Projecting Britain through Design: The London Olympics of 1948
    (“the Austerity Games”) and the London Olympics of 2012 (and ’Big Society’)’, keynote at the Design of the Olympics Symposium organised by the Design History Workshop Japan/Institute for Research in Language and Culture, Tsuda University, Tokyo, held at Musashino University, Tokyo, 2018
  • ‘Whose Object Is It Anyway? keynote at the Objetos de design:  Musealização, Documentação e Interpretação/ Design objects: Musealization, Documentation and Interpretation international conference supported by the University of Porto, the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, CITCEM and others, 2017 
  •  Contributor to ICDHS Committee Round Table (public) at the 10th ICDHS Conference in Taiwan which explored the theme ‘Making Trans/National Design History’. It was organised in collaboration with the Taiwan Design Centre in Taipei as part of the Taiwan’s Year of Design. Invited as Honorary Program Chair for the Conference together with Professors Anna Calvera (Barcelona) and Victor Margolin (Chicago). Featured in two of the three plenary discussion sessions, 2016.
  • In conversation with Michael Thomson (Design Connect) about ‘Contemporary design and diplomacy – what now?’at the From ‘Soft’ to ‘Hard’ Power? Changing Visions of Diplomacy by Design From 1945 Onwards symposium, University of Brighton, 2016
  • Joint keynote with Paddy Maguire at the ‘Facing the World Differently? Seventy Years On from the Britain Can Make It Exhibition’, international seminar organised by the Internationalising Design History research cluster at the University of Brighton, 2016
  • ‘From Euro-American to Global Perspectives: a Design Historical Journey’ keynote at the 40 Years On; The Domain of Design History – Looking Back, Looking Forward, Open University, Milton Keynes, 2015
  • ‘Design and Science Fiction’ at the Being Modern: Science and Culture in the Early 20th Century Conference organised by the Science Museum London and held at the Institute of Historical Research, London, 2015 
  • ‘Design and Space: Time and Place’ keynote for a scholars’ workshop on dedicated to place-based research and Chicago’s design history held at The Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago on 12 May, 2014
  • Invited plenary reviewer/commentator for the ‘1920-45 Inter-Asia design assimilation: Translations, Differentiations and Transmission’ Symposium, Design Museum, London as part of AHRC-funded project: Translating East Asian Design for the Global World, 2014
  • ‘Design, Histories, Empires and Peripheries’, 8th  International Conference of Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS), Sao Paolo, Brazil; also member of plenary panel session on national design policies and chair of the ‘New Imperialism’ strand, 2012
  • ‘Max Gill’s large-scale decorative North Atlantic Map in the Queen Mary’s 1st Class Restaurant, 1936: design in a changing world’, paper presented to the Out of the Shadows: MacDonald (‘Max’) Gill Symposium at the University of Brighton, 2011 
  • Keynote: ‘Design Peripheries, Hidden Histories and the Cartography of Design’, in Another Name for Design: Words for Creation, Conference Proceedings, International Conference for Design History and Design Studies, Osaka, Japan, 2008
  •  Panelist, Words for Design: A Comparative Study of Design Terminology, Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures/Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, 2008
  • ‘Twentieth-Century Tudor Design in Britain: An Ideological Battleground’, for Tudorism: Historical Imagination and the Appropriation of the Sixteenth Century invited specialist contributor three-day symposium at the University of Bristol, sponsored by the Colston Research Society and the British Academy, 2008
  • ‘Throwaway Society: New Thinking, Old Words?’ one of five invited international contributions for EPSRC Network seminar on the Throwaway Society: Origins, Causes and Consequences, held under the auspices of the Centre for Sustainable Consumption at Sheffield Hallam University, 2008
  • Invited speaker, ‘Experiences in Supervising Doctorates in the Arts’ Symposium on Research in the Creative Arts at Institut voor Onderzoek in der Kunsten, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, 2008
  • Interviewed/sound recording on 18 and 30 July, 2008, by Dr. Sonia Ashmore for the online oral history VIVA project.  One element of this was the Design History Society oral project that had commenced in 2007
  • Expert Panelist, ‘Art & Design in a Modern World’ at inaugural Washington DC Art Fair, Washington Convention Centre, 2007
  • ‘Cool Britannia:  The Branding of the UK through the Arts’, specialist lecture for Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, 2007
  • ’05-06-07’ internationally co-authored design statement resulting from a collective ‘retreat’, facilitated by the editors of Design Issues and published in Design Issues 24 (1): 2008, 91-93
  • ‘Design Today: Its Transformation in the 21st Century’, keynote organized by the Center for Industrial Design Research, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México at the Franz Meyer Museum, Mexico City, 2008
  • ‘Hierarchies and Boundaries: Function and Ornament’, invited speaker and panelist at the Yale Center for British Art Conference on Histories of British Design: Where Next? at the V&A Museum, 2006
  • ‘Charles and Ray Eames: bridging industrial and post- industrial design’, keynote and presentation for Hall of Fame Award in Gwangju Design Biennale 2005: International Conference, South Korea
  • ‘An Outsider Looking In: Seaside Deco in Napier from a Brighton Perspective’, Annual Conference for the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ), Napier, New Zealand, 2005
  • ‘From Socialist Aspiration to Bourgeois Consumption: Design, Sculpture and the Crafts in Italy 1946-1956’, invited speaker, Sculpture & Design international symposium, University of Brighton, 2005
  • ‘Britishness in Design, Material Culture and Popular Artefacts, University of Turku, Finland and at the Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki, 2005
  • ‘Branding and Mapping: Design History & Colonization’, Globalization & Representation international conference, University of Brighton, 2005
  • ‘Design History in the Twenty First Century’, inaugural address for the launch of Design History Japan organized by Design History Workshop Japan (established 2002) and featured in the first issue. International symposium sponsored by Saitama University and the British Council, 2003
  • Expert commentator for The Reunion: Festival of Britain, BBC Radio 4, 24 and 29 August, 2003
  • ‘Design and Everyday Life at Britain Can Make It, 1946’, invited contribution for the Lessons in Living: Post-War Model Homes Conference, University of Ghent, 2003
  • ‘The ICOGRADA Archive: ‘Lost Histories’ and Future Prospects’, presented to the ICOGRADA XX Assembly, Nagoya (58 nations represented), 2003
  • ‘Local-doing, National-defining, Global-redefining:  Disciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity and Reinvention?’ plenary and panelist at the Mind the Map: Beyond Borders International Conference on Design History and Design Studies (ICDHS), Istanbul, Turkey, 2002
  • ‘Culture, Politics & Humanities: Designing Design History for the 21st Century’, invited contribution to International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) International Conference Proceedings, Seoul, 2001
  • Contributor to, and signatory of, Seoul Designers’ Charter 2001
  • ‘Brand Mania: from Nation to Education’ at Brand New Conference at the V&A, London, 2001
  • ‘Current Developments’, keynote, at the Doctoral Design Education conference, Glasgow School of Art, 2001
  • Designing Design History: From Pevsner to Postmodernism’ at the Digitisation and Knowledge Conference, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. April 2001.
  • ‘Designing Design, Creativity and Critiques’ keynote paper and Symposium Chair at the Contemporary British Design, Critical Voices in the Culture of Consumption symposium, sponsored by the British Council, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, 2000
  • ‘Nation as Product? New Britain and Branding’, at international Is Everything a Product? Symposium relating to the theme ‘What If….?’ Moderne Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2000
  • ‘The significance of design history in the curriculum’ for the Dokttorsgradprogrammet in Architecture run by the Oslo School of Architecture and Industrial Design in conjunction with the Royal Technical University, Stockholm, the Arhus School of Architecture and the University of Helsinki, 1999
  • ‘Recent Trends in Design History Research’, keynote for the Historíar des de la Perifèria, Historia I Historias del Disseny Conference at the Ist Reunió d’Historiados I Estudiosos del Disseny at Universitat de Barcelona, 1999
  • Writing and Researching Design History’, keynote sponsored by Oxford University Press and Lund Books at the Gothenburg Book Fair/Nordic Museums Fair, Gothenburg, 1998
  • ‘Design Research, Design Practice’, keynote at open Research Seminar on Practice-based Doctorates at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, 1998
  • History of Design, Theory and Practice Seminar Series, Industrial Design Doctoral programme at the Oslo School of Architecture and Industrial Design, 1998
  • ‘Tradition in British Twentieth Century Design’, Museum of Applied Arts, Gothenburg, 1998
  • On-stage conversation with Matti Naar, Marketing Manager IKEA UK Ltd, as part of Swedish Style: Carl and Karin Larsson Study Day at the V&A, 1997
  • ‘The Mini Car: A Symbol of National Identity’, contribution to the City of Birmingham/University of Central England Millennium Lecture Series, 1997
  • ‘Cultural Values, Design History and the Design Council: The End of Value or a Tabula Rasa?’ at the Association of Art Historians annual conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1997
  • ‘Populism, Propaganda and Products or ‘Keeping Up with the Groves Family’ at the Ideal and the Real in Design, Design History Society Annual Conference at the University of Brighton, 1997
  • ‘Manufacturers with Taste and Consumers of Discernment: the Illusory Goals of the Council of Industrial Design’ at conference on Museums of Industrial Arts: the Historical Experience and Modern Problems organised by the St. Petersburg State Industrial Arts Academy and the Museum of Decorative and Industrial Arts, 1996
  • ‘Council of Industrial Design Educational Strategies for Schools from the late 1940s to the late 1950s’ at the Education through Design Conference: Craft, Design and Education Practices in the Postwar Period conference, London Institute, 1996
  • ‘A Brave New Brighton: Aspiration and Achievement in the Interwar Years’, invited speaker at the World Congress on Art Deco III, Brighton/London, 1995
  • British Exhibition Policy at Home and Abroad in the Nineteenth Century’ for Dall’Artigianito all’Industria: L’Esposizione Nazionale di Palermo del 1891-92 international conference for the Società Siciliana per la Storia Patria, Palermo, 1994
  • ‘Good Design Propaganda versus Proto-Heritage Industry:  British Design Policy and Identity in the Reconstruction Period’ at the Design and Reconstruction Conference, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1994
  • Social Utopianism, Cultural Elitism & the Council of Industrial Design’, invited speaker at the Utility Reassessed – Design Utopia or Strategy symposium, Winchester School of Art, 1994
  • ‘Car & Countryside: Image and Imagination at the Ocean Hotel, Saltdean’ at the Moving Through Design: the Culture of Transport & Travel, Design History Society Annual Conference, Southampton, 1993
  • Invited international participant in closed seminar on practice in design historical studies, Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1993
  • Platform speaker and panel member for Formes 2000 debate at the Grand Palais, Paris, in conjunction with the Design: Miroir du Siècle exhibition, 1993
  • ‘History, Heritage and Sportsmanship: British design and national projection between the wars’ at the Trading on Design annual conference of the Design History Society, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1992
  • ‘The Design Legacy of the Festival: Misplaced Opinions of the Tastemakers?’ for the Festival of Fifty-One seminar, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 1991
  • ‘Consumer Rights: Who Needs Them?’ (in respect of 20th century American design) for The Guardian Talks symposium on American Rights at the Brighton Festival, organized jointly between Brighton Polytechnic and the University of Sussex. Chaired by Michael White, Political Editor, The Guardian newspaper, 1991
  • ‘Design History and Museums’ paper for Conference organized jointly by the Victoria and Albert Museum and Centre for Continuing Education, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1990
  • ‘Image or Reality: Corporate Identity and the Privatization of Electricity’ paper delivered at Annual Conference of the Design History Society in September, City University, London, 1989
  • ‘The Marketing of Style: Italian Design in the 1950s’ for lecture series mounted jointly by Sotheby’s and the Royal Academy in conjunction with the Italian Art Exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1989
  • British Modernism: An Historical “Leger de Main?”’ as British representative at international design history Congress in Milan in May, on theme Tradizione e Modernismo Design: 1918- 1940, 1987
  • Japanese Industrial Design since 1945: the New Imperialism’ paper delivered at the Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, Brighton, 1986
  • ‘The Hopes and Aspirations of Design Reformers in the 1930s’ at Conference organised jointly by the Design and Industries Association and the Design History Society Vaughan College, University of Leicester, 1985
  • ‘The Success and Failure of Dorland Hall in 1933 and 1934’ at the
  • Thirties conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum in conjunction with The Thirties exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, 1979
  • British Art in Industry’ at the Design History Society Annual Conference at Keele University, 1979