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Textile Lab: Connecting Design Innovation with Manufacture

This paper presented at the 8th EAD Conference – RGU, Aberdeen, April, 2009 analyses the Textile Lab project as a case study focusing on the role of design innovation in relation to the challenges facing today’s Scottish textile manufacturing industry.

The paper explores a case study where Steed was competitively selected by Scottish Enterprise, the main economic development agency in Scotland, through a tender process to co-ordinate and manage Textile Lab, a seed funded initiative (£31,000) by Scottish Enterprise to encourage Scottish textile businesses to experiment with product, or market diversification through new partnerships, collaborations and research. The objectives included exploration of the strategic use of a design methodology to facilitate new thinking for the repositioning of Scottish textiles within a world context and, to facilitate a more meaningful dialogue between academia and business. A methodology was developed for mapping the creative process in each of the case studies involved. The study provided a mechanism by which traditional textile manufacturers could collaborate with international designers. This included a number of transnational collaborations, one between a Japanese designer and machine manufacturer to explore the potential of 3D knitting for the international luxury cashmere market.

A presentation of this case study was given at In The Loop 2 Knitting: origins and evolutions, Lerwick, Shetland, Sept 2010 http://www.southampton.ac.uk/intheloop/intheloop2010.shtml. Three white paper confidential reports for Scottish Textiles, Scottish Enterprise were commissioned for the study over the year period 2006 – 2008 on the benefits to the companies in relation to increased sales and turnover; contribution to the wider Scottish textile community and the changes made through the study in company culture towards design-led activity. This research output informs a current development of a Scottish Textile Innovation Centre proposal (circa 10m) funded by the Scottish Funding Council where Steed is part of a HEI task force.