Ian is the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, and also the chair for the MA/MFA in Design for Sustainability, MA/MFA Interdisciplinary Design Studies, and MA/MFA User Experience Design.

His research interests lie in climate action, material practice and making-as-thinking. His award winning collaborative work with ocean plastic on the west coast of Scotland has been widely published, and, bringing this work upstream, he is a member of the Detroit River Coalition. Since 2020 he has collaborated with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History on the d.Tree Studio, an atelier exploring urban lumber and climate justice.

He is active in Detroit’s sustainability sector and currently a member of the City of Detroit Waste Diversion Advisory Committee. Ian has been in involved in the organization of several research conferences, and was co-chair and submissions chair for Design for Adaptation: Cumulus Detroit 2022, an international design education conference focusing on the role of design in the climate crisis. 

View Ian’s online portfolio

Professional Experience

A maker-researcher and designer, Ian has worked in both practice and academia for more than 30 years. He started his career as a designer and maker of furniture, and developed an interest in sustainable design in the late 1990s. He has published numerous papers on sustainability, creativity, and design education, and while in Detroit has been involved in the curation of several exhibitions on the role of creative practice in addressing climate change.

Ian has undertaken numerous commissions and exhibited work across the UK (including at London Design Week and the Lighthouse in Glasgow), China and the US. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh: his thesis explored making as knowledge. 

Having lived and worked in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 20 years, he relocated to Detroit in 2019.

Significant Publications, Presentations and Exhibitions

AWARDS

2023 International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) Service Design Award – Impact to Society: d.Tree Studio

2018 Materials Today: Elsevier 3D Printing Grand Challenge Innovation Prize: $10,000 (with Vettese, S., Vones, K., Allan, D. 3D-printing

‘Ocean Plastic’ – fostering children’s engagement with sustainability

RECENT PUBLICATIONS 

2023 Making with Ocean Plastic: Towards New Experimental Making and Material Outcomes (pp.83-96), in Collective for Design (eds. Miaskowska, M., Aston, J.H., and Varzim, M.), PiCoDe. (isbn 978-989-53907-3-1)

2022 Two Institutions, Three Trees, Twelve Makers: Curriculum Co-Design for Sustainability, Climate Justice and African American Material Culture (with Tom, L.). Cumulus Conference, Detroit (2-4 Nov)

2019 Material Reality to Materiality: Ocean Plastic and Design Research (with Vones, K.). AHRC Design for Change symposium, London, (9 Dec)

2019 Improvisation: Autonomy, Heteronomy and Wilful Naïveté. EKSIG (DRS) 2019 Conference, Estonia, (22 Sept)

2019 Designing New Ways to Make use of Ocean Plastic, The Conversation, July 2019 

2018 3D-printing ‘Ocean Plastic’ – fostering children’s engagement with sustainability (with Vettese, S., Vones, K., Allan, D), Materials Today (winner $10K Elsevier Innovation prize)

2017 The Isle of Harris Fish Slice: Industrial Crafting with Ocean Plastic, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (21-22 Sept)

2017 Making as Growth: Narratives in Materials and Process (with Speed, C.), Design Issues, Volume 33, Number 3 Summer 2017

2015 Design Practice into Design Research, Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (24-25 Sept)

2015 Diverting Textile Waste from Landfill with Design-Craft Objects (with Iliopoulou, T.), Making Futures Conference, Plymouth (24-25 Sept)

2015 Critical Making with Aluminium Sandcasting, Creative Practice Conference (Making Research, Researching Making) – Aarhus, Denmark (10-12 Sept)

2015 Convergence in Industrial and Craft Processes in UK Undergraduate Product Design Courses, Cumulus Conference, Milan (3-7 June)

PRESENTATIONS / RESEARCH WORKSHOPS

2023 Panel Discussion: Sustainability is in a Design Crisis, Sustainable Urban Design Summit, Detroit (9 Nov)

2020 Resources on the Shore (with Vones, K.). Presentation (remote) at 30th International Orkney Science Festival (3 Sept)

2019 Narratives of Waste: An exploration of material transformation through 3D printing (with Vones, K.). Research workshop at RTD 2019, Delft, (19 March)

2019 Transforming Plastic Pollution into a Lesson on Sustainability (with Vones, K.). Presentation (remote) at Global Citizens Week, Vancouver Island University (5 Feb)

2017 Anthropometry Revisited: A Homage to Yves Klein (with Galama, F.). Poster presentation at Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object, Coventry (8 Dec)

2017 Aluminium Sandcasting: Waste Moulds from Waste. Research workshop at RTD 2017, Edinburgh (21 March)

CURATED EXHIBITIONS

2023    d.Tree Studio #2 at Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, US. 20 July – 10 Dec. (project co-lead and contributing curator)

2023    World Ocean Day Exhibition at Belle Isle Aquarium, Detroit, US. 9 – 18 June (co-curator)

2022    d.Tree Studio at Center Galleries, CCS Detroit, US. 18 Mar – 1 Apr. (project co-lead and co-curator with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History)