Overview and Core Activities
The work the Centre carries out, how each strand connects to practice, and how projects move from brief to shared knowledge.
An overview of the Centre
The Centre for Competitive Creative Design works across four connected activities: applied projects with practitioners, research into how design is judged, education for emerging designers, and incubation of early ideas that need testing before they reach the market.
Each activity feeds the others. Lessons from a live brief shape a research question, and a research finding is then tested again in a project.
How a project moves
Every engagement starts with a written brief that names the competitive set. The team agrees what success would look like before any concept is developed, which keeps later debate grounded.
Concepts then pass through comparison rounds. Weak options are retired openly, and stronger ones are refined against the same criteria. The final stage is a short account of what was chosen, why, and what remains uncertain.
Development stages
Stage one
Framing the brief
Define the audience, the alternatives and the measures that will decide the outcome.
Stage two
Comparative testing
Place candidate concepts side by side and record where each one succeeds or fails.
Stage three
Refinement
Revise the strongest options and test them again against the same criteria.
Stage four
Shared account
Publish the reasoning, method and open questions so others can build on the work.
Core activities
- Applied projects that compare live design options with clients
- Research into criteria, evidence and judgement in creative work
- Education modules on testing and explaining design decisions
- Incubation support for early concepts needing rigorous evaluation
Students, practitioners and partners can take part in any of these activities. Details of current programmes are available through the research and education pages.
Measuring what matters
Outcomes are judged on whether the chosen design performs better than the alternatives considered, and whether the reasoning behind the choice can be understood by someone who was not in the room.
An outcome that cannot be explained is difficult to repeat.
For partners who want to start a conversation about a brief, the contact page describes how to begin.