About Designplus

What are our aims?

We aim to:

create connections between businesses and universities
develop and demonstrate enhanced ways of working in collaborative projects
tap into and harness the significant resource of student project work
build a sustainable platform for business and university design-based collaboration
widely communicate what we do to inspire good practice.

How do we do this?

We facilitate collaboration and connections based on design interests, emerging challenges and pooled resources.

Designplus has been leading events, facilitating projects, offering professional development courses and matchmaking people with a shared interest in the power of design since 2004. We don’t just want to talk about these things, but to make a practical impact. Collaborations so far have included work with GSK, Marks & Spencer, University of the Arts and IDEO. We also work with individuals, start-ups and consultancies.

Designplus is partly funded by a government initiative to promote innovative practice between universities and industry. At a time of unprecedented social, economic and environmental challenge we can harness a capability and force for innovation by bringing together the worlds of business and academia.

Who are we?

Designplus is a design-based initiative within Westfocus, developing collaborative projects and partnerships with businesses.

Westfocus is a network of seven West London universities, of which Brunel, Kingston and Westminster have significant design interests, covering everything from architecture to fashion, illustration to digital media. Designplus capitalises on the exciting opportunity to use these design assets for collaborations in business-related areas of research expertise, for example materials engineering or consumer psychology.