8 April 2012 | Blueprint, April 1984

Nick Butler: the product designer as anti-hero

Nick Butler died in early 2012. Here, in a rare and relatively early interview, he explains why, despite being one of Britain's most successful 20th century designers, he preferred to keep a low profile

7 April 2012 | Design magazine, February 1983

King Miranda: designers as priests at technology's altar

The Milan-based studio gives a master class on how desingers should mediate technology with humanism 6.5MB

2 April 2012 | Blueprint, November 1984

David King: graphic designer, ranged left

When once he art edited the Sunday Times colour supp, David King brought picture after picture of Leon Trotsky to the breakfast-tables of Britain. Nearly 30 years ago, this is his first ever major interview

| Blueprint, late 1986

FHK Henrion: graphics as propaganda in World War II

In the 1940s FHK Henrion did some of the world's most passionate posters; in the 1960s, he helped create the face of post-war Britain. Just four years before his death, I talked to him at his house in Hampstead

29 January 2012 | Design Principles and Practices journal

The craze for design thinking

The historical and social reasons why hip designers talk of little else. Plus: elements of an alternative 127kB

| Design Management Journal

The Next Trend in Design

Given the alacrity with which design managers uphold and then forget about future trends, it's worth asking: Where do such trends really come from? How can we forecast the next one, and be sure that it won't simply be a transient fad? 106kB

29 December 2011 | Campaign, 16 September 1988

How design got High Streed cred

The British High Street began to swing in the 1960s. By 1988, the frothiest year of the Thatcher decade, it really hurtled

24 December 2011 | Blueprint, 1987

The apostle of Cool

Interview with Dieter Rams, the crusading German designer of Braun products and much besides

| Management Today, January 1989

Winter of the wastemakers

High-tech consumer durables have a reputation for falling apart. But planned obsolescence does not account for the problems of repair

10 October 2011 | spiked

Is Britain drowning in too much packaging?

The wrapping that our food, mod-cons and medications come in is not 'evil' - it is a product of civilisation

7 September 2011 | Design Week, 20 April 1990

Straddling both art and design: an interview with Milton Glaser

Milt Glaser put Bob Dylan in silhouette on a memorable poster (1967), and designed the red-hearted I Love NY logo (1975). Now the subject of a Sky Arts documentary, I talked to him 20 years ago

28 April 2011 | Akzo book on colour, forthcoming

Cities and colour

How colour will likely change the urban landscape in future 135kB

20 April 2011 | the next step, 15 July 1988

Remembering Piper Alpha

A year after the explosion at BP's Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, an earlier, much deadlier blast in British waters still has plenty of relevance

13 March 2011 | How To Run A Successful Design Business (Gower, 2011).

Management issues for design businesses

To win through with clients, designers need to master future trends, communicate their ideas with the maximum clarity, do good research, and also closely follow developments in innovation and marketing 102kB

| How To Run A Successful Design Business (Gower, 2011)

The future of design

In new products and services, an orientation to realism and to engineering in its broadest sense will ensure that design's answers are substantive, not superficial 111kB