Design Against Crime

Images and publicity material about the work conducted by UAL Research Centre Design Against Crime

Lorraine Gamman

Research Interests

3D/industrial design, Graphic Design/Packaging, User-centred (interaction) design, Fashion Product Crossover Design, Crime; designing products, places and systems against crime, disorder, drug abuse and terrorism, Gender,Visual communication, Consumer culture in the post-modern context

Current Research

There are two strands to my research profile. The first is the most significant (0.8 of my time) and linked to the newly created University of the Arts, Design Against Crime (DAC) Research Centre, which received designation status in July 2005, which develops the work of the Design Against Crime Research Initiative at Central Saint Martins, that I set up in 2001. I am currently the Director of the DAC Research Centre and involved in developing business and research links as well as externally funded to work on "drug related crime in shopping environments" by the Home Office (project concludes in 2006), and with Adam Thorpe, externally funded by Transport for London (TfL) in 2005-6 to develop further practice led design research into bike theft, started originally with funding from the Arts Humanities Research Council (2004-5).

Since 2001, I have collaborated with the Design Council/ Home Office who funded me to produce a resource for designers interested in designing out bag theft In the Bag (2001 - reprinted in 2002, and 2004) and distributed both nationally and internationally as part of fourteen DAC exhibitions including: Stop Thief - Secure Design Doesn't Have to Look Criminal (Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001, Designers Block), Don't Tempt Me (I Saloni, Milan and Primavera, Barcelona 2001) and Secure Design for Safer Travel (I Saloni Milan 2002, Victoria 2003). During this period I have also delivered numerous practice led externally funded anti crime research projects including Karrysafe - anti theft bags and accessories, funded by the Design Council 2001-2 and Grippa - concept proofing and testing of anti theft furniture accessories and design process documentation, funded by an Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Innovation Award 2004-5 and by matched funding from Westminster and Islington Councils. I have also been involved in creating publications that explain design against crime as a practice based research activity and which offer a model of the design against crime iterative research process (Crime Prevention and Community Safety Journal - co-editor of special issue 'Seeing is Believing' with Dr. Tim Pascoe and co-author of 2 articles and book review, published in November 2004 by Perpetuity Press ('Seeing is Believing: Notes Towards a Visual Methodology and Manifesto for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design' with Dr. Tim Pascoe; 'Bike Off! Tracking the Design Terrains of Cycle Parking: Reviewing Use, Misuse and Abuse' with Adam Thorpe and Marcus Willcocks; 'Design Out Crime? Using Practice-based Models of the Design Process' with Dr. Tim Pascoe; a book review of 'Travel Advisory: How to Avoid Thefts, Cons and Street Scams While Travelling' by Bambi Vincent and Bob Arno). Co-author of the article 'Thinking Thief', RSA Ingenia Magazine, with Ben Hughes, May 2003).

The second strand to my research profile (0.2 of my time) is linked to much earlier work on gender, representation, and the body as well as packaging. In the last RAE period I have written a number of critical essays on connected themes for books published by Routledge and Rutgers University Press (UK and USA). I have worked on Smoke Free London - tobacco point of sale material scoping study and have contributed (with Sean O'Mara) to the Encyclopaedia of Clothing and Fashion, (Charles Scribner's Sons, September 2004). I am presently writing up a single authored book on soap powder packaging (Clean Dreams) to be published by Middlesex University in 2007 (which develops the catalogue work of the exhibition I co -curated for the Design Museum in 2001-2 "Dirty Washing - the Hidden Language of Soap Powder Packaging").

Marcus Willcocks

Research Interests

Design; public sphere; context; use; informal appropriation; environmental interactions; space, streets; city; details; social space; social innovation; design against crime; activity support; industrial, communication, systems and service design; evaluation.

Current Research

My current research pursuits remain primarily within activities allied to the Design Against Crime Research Centre, headed by Prof. Lorraine Gamman, plus other activities outside of DACRC, which are often connected and feed in to this work, but also relate to the activities of the Socially Responsive Design hub (SRVD) headed by Adam Thorpe, for example.

My specific design and research focus has emerged from my interest to investigate design’s place in public space and related social territories. Particularly, to explore opportunities for innovations in response to informal interpretations and unanticipated uses of these contexts.

Within DACRC and SRVD this has most recently translated into my preparation of external funding bids for the ‘Flushed with Innovation’ and ‘Graffiti Dialogues’ projects. These are associated to research I am already undertaking, together with Gamman, Thorpe, and others on the DACRC team in addition to external partners, looking into design responses and creative solutions that seek to address (a) the issues of street urination and public toilet provision in the twenty first century (‘Flushed with Innovation’) and (b) the creative and criminal conflicts linked to the practices of graffiti and street art (‘Graffiti Dialogues’), respectively. The latter of these projects has already also expanded with an Enterprise Project in collaboration with the Southbank Centre, engaging many stake-and duty-holders connected to the control or creation graffiti practices near the site. In addition, I have this past academic year continued to be involved in research and development on existing AHRC funded activities including the Design for the C.21st Bikeoff 2 project, for research into innovations for bicycle parking and cycle security. (2006-9, now largely concluded. See www.bikeoff.org) and Grippa 2 (2007-10) developing anti bag-theft research and associated furniture and accessories designs for bars and restaurants, with user testing trials conducted so far in venues in London and Barcelona. The ‘Stop Thief’ chairs (developed by Gamman, Piper and Willcocks, DACRC) have additionally now been licensed to major Danish furniture manufacturer Dan Form, who have produced production tooling. These activities and collaborations are diverse, yet each represents forms of investigation into the designed environment and design innovations that can influence change in perceptions and responses among different user groups in everyday society.

Adam Thorpe

Research Interests

Vexed Generation design partnership wearable technology Design Against Crime range for Karrysafe and Design Council, exhibited internationally

Current Research

Current research activates include "Bike Off", a web-based research project that seeks to generate anti-theft strategies for bicycle parking design and implementation (www.bikeoff.org), the initial stages of which received small grants funding from the AHRB in 2004 and PauLA ( Product Authenticity and Labour Assurance Scheme), a new research project that intends to explore the relationship between the production and distribution of counterfeit goods and labour malpractice, with a view to combining product protection and consumer assurance in relation to the labour standards under which products are manufactured.