MISSION STATEMENT

TED was set up in 1996 as a research cluster involving design practitioners at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. Staff and students work collaboratively and on individual projects. The main aim of TED is to look at the role that the designer can play in creating textiles that have a reduced impact on the environment and to provide a toolbox of designer-centred solutions.

Today, green issues feature highly on many agendas and increasingly designers are realising the environmental impact of their creative decisions. They have a crucial role in improving the environmental profile of textile production, whether the designer is freelance, whereby their contribution is often the catalyst for international, mass-scale production, or as a small-scale designer-maker.

Research shows that if designers make informed and appropriate design decisions at the outset, then the environmental performance of any product can be improved by up to 80%. Whereas other research projects look to the manufacturer or producer to ‘clean up their act’, TED wants to challenge the designer to create textiles that have a reduced impact on the environment. Since 2003 this research has centred around the TED Resource which is an open access facility that houses a collection of fabric and clothing samples, press cuttings, academic papers, research projects and case studies for students, designers and researchers.

TED has developed a series of possible strategic solutions to assist designers in their decisions. Some are materials and process based including; low toxicity/organics, new technologies, design for recycling and biomimicry and some consider more conceptual approaches such as; lifecycle thinking, fair-trade and ethical production, short life/long life textiles, design for low launder and systems and services design.

TED is the first research project to apply these types of eco design concepts to textile design in such an innovative way. Most of the concepts have been adapted from other design disciplines, such as product design or architecture, as there has previously been no theoretical eco design framework developed by the textile design community.

There is no single solution to the environmental and social problems that designers, industry and consumers are faced with. In light of this, the eco design strategies we have developed are all interlinked and form a web of possible solutions. TED hopes to offer designers a toolbox of design approaches that are individually tailored to their needs, which can act as signposts for them on the journey towards a cleaner and more healthy industry and planet.