TED RESEARCH: ABOUT

Today, we are more likely to read about the eco developments at Marks and Spencer and Gap in terms of production, manufacture, and customer services, than we are to hear about what the designers in the studio are doing. In these eco conscious times how are textile designers working differently? What can they do to design better textiles?

At TED we have for a number of years been inspired by the Design Council’s research which showed that if designers make informed and appropriate design decisions at the beginning of the chain, then the environmental performance of any product can be improved by up to 90%. TED’s position is unique in research terms. Whereas other research projects look to the manufacturer or producer to ‘clean up their act’, the TED Project wants to challenge the designer to design textiles that have a reduced impact on the environment at the outset. We have been developing seven design strategies Over the last ten years TED has been developing a set of practice-based ecodesign strategies that we believe will help textile designers with this challenge. The outcomes of these research projects have been shown at prestigious venues and events like Well Fashioned: Eco Style in the UK at the Crafts Council Gallery, London; From Waste To Wear at the Science Museum in London; the Eden Project in Cornwall; and at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris.