The Loughborough Design Press website has been officially launched. Loughborough Design Press (LDP) has been established by Ken Baynes (Editorial Director) and Eddie Norman (Managing Director) in order to support the establishment of a strong discourse surrounding the importance and development of design education. Ken was head of the Design Education Unit at the RCA and Visiting Professor at Loughborough Design School. Eddie is now an Emeritus Professor of Design Education at Loughborough Design School. Although their backgrounds are different (Ken … fine art), (Eddie … engineering), they have reached more or less the same conclusions. One of those conclusions is that there is a need for a specialist publisher in order to ensure that major theoretical works in the area of design education are published.
Specialist Market
We will be pleased to draw attention to works in design education published by other companies. It is a small, specialist market, but it is a highly significant field for human futures and is important that a greater body of published work is available. The DRS / Cumulus conference that takes place in Oslo in May 2013, or the formation of DRS’ Pedagogy Special Interest Group indicate the growing interest.
We are hoping to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by Print on Demand (POD) and eBooks to make important publications available. The internet opens up a variety of more convenient channels for a worldwide audience and LDP aims to use these to the benefit of the global design community. This website also offers the opportunity to keep up to date with developments and updates through the LDP blog page as well as providing information on different authors and searching by topics.
Expertise and Support
We’re being supported in our venture by Kathy Norman (Production Director), Eddie’s daughter and a print industry expert, having been employed in R&D and lean manufacture in the paper industry for many years. Kathy will be responsible for selecting appropriate print companies for POD, and LDP’s sustainability policies.