Richard Firth
Richard Firth

Dr Richard Firth BDes (Hons) SFHEA

Associate Professor

Biography

Richard has 25 years of professional practice experience delivering multidisciplinary design contracts to national and international bodies including, British Airports Authority, Historic Scotland, Edinburgh International Science Festival, United Distillers, Levi, Babcok International, Historic Monuments Northern Ireland, The National Trust for Scotland. His scope of expertise covers, product design, exhibition design and heritage interpretation, model and set making, plus art direction and concept art for the gaming industry. Richard established his own heritage and interpretation practice (1997 -2010) delivering projects on both a national and international scale.

Richard joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2003 and has programme lead the product programme design since 2008. He has continued to develop new and existing staff mobility and students exchange agreements with educational institutions globally including, Australia, China, Europe, and Scandinavia. He has been a visiting design lecture to design institutions in China since 2008, Norway since 2009, and the Netherlands since 2012.

Richard leads an international design academic staff research workshop called 'work on the move' (established 2012), its aim is to explore and develop new design innovation methodologies. The collective has generated significant impact through its research which is disseminated through conferences and published works. Richard continues to raise the universities international profile through his work with 'Carousel' which is a 'short term' international mobility programme for student and staff exchange facilitated by six international design institutes.

Richard in an external examinier to UK based ad overseas HE product design programmes,
He is interested in using design thinking to further his research in to Dyslexia, Synaesthesia and Autism syndrome. An advocate of craft, making and drawing, Richard has published and exhibited works (through traditional publishing routes and through public engagement and widening participation workshops) on integrating traditional and digital design skills, internationalisation and improvisatory working methodologies.

Richard was very proud to have been awarded the Edinburgh Napier University NSA most inspiring tutor award in May 2015 and is currently preparing an application for PhD through published works.

Research Areas

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Play on: Edinburgh International Science Festival
  • Work on the Move: International pedagogic design research group
  • Mini Maker Fair: Edinburgh International Science Festival
  • Carousel: Short term international student mobility programme
  • Quality streets: South Yorkshire town centre urban renewal team.

 

External Examining/Validations

  • Invited Jury panel member for the assessment of Masters Degree in Design certified by the French minister of Higher Education, Ecole de Design Nantes, France
  • External Examiner at the University of Derby for BA/BSc (Hons) Product design Engineering

 

Invited Speaker

  • 2nd International design week workshop, Ecole de Design Nantes, France
  • International design week: Ecole de Design, Nantes, France
  • Cumulus International Conference for Design Education Researchers Oslo
  • Department of Industrial Product Design Windesheim University of Applied Sciences. Zwolle The Netherlands.
  • University Of Oslo and Akershus University College Of Applied Science

 

Public Engagement Activity

  • Matter Mutts: Immersive virtual reality, The National Museum of Scotland
  • Exploration 15: European Researchers Night RZSS
  • Space Station: Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and Abu Dhabi Technology Development Committee (TDC)
  • The Phantom Entomologist: Edinburgh International Science Festival.
  • Making it: Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and Abu Dhabi Technology Development Committee (TDC) Edinburgh International Science Festival.
  • Zoo for Robots: Edinburgh City Arts Centre.
  • Do Not Press Undo: Edinburgh International Science Festival.
  • Wrapping The City: Edinburgh City Centre

 

Date


33 results

STEAM for generating collaborative, creative, inclusive approaches to immunisation awareness

Presentation / Conference
Healy, C., Macdonald, I., Firth, R., Gray-Brunton, C., Wimbish, D., & Malone, E. (2024, April)
STEAM for generating collaborative, creative, inclusive approaches to immunisation awareness. Presented at ESAI Conference 2024, Maynooth University, Ireland

Using steam to power equality and democracy in vaccination decision making in the face of climate apartheid

Conference Proceeding
MacDonald, I., Firth, R., Healey, C., Malone, E., & McDermott, A. (2023)
Using steam to power equality and democracy in vaccination decision making in the face of climate apartheid. In Design for Adaptation Cumulus Conference Proceedings Detroit 2022 (120-136
Technology and science are often promoted as the answer to the climate crisis, but changing human behavior from a user-centric position requires a humanistic and design thinki...

Using steam to power equality and democracy in vaccination decision making in the face of climate apartheid

Conference Proceeding
MacDonald, I., Firth, R., Healey, C., Malone, E., & McDermott, A. (2023)
Using steam to power equality and democracy in vaccination decision making in the face of climate apartheid. In Design for Adaptation Cumulus Conference Proceedings Detroit 2022 (120-136
Technology and science are often promoted as the answer to the climate crisis, but changing human behavior from a user-centric position requires a humanistic and design thinki...

Supporting and harnessing the reflections of a trans-disciplinary academic team to power HPV education by STEAM

Presentation / Conference
Healy, C., Macdonald, I., Firth, R., Gray Brunton, C., & Malone, E. (2023, March)
Supporting and harnessing the reflections of a trans-disciplinary academic team to power HPV education by STEAM. Presented at Education Studies Association Ireland 2023, Belfast

Using STEAM to power HPV vaccine awareness and advocacy among Irish post-primary students

Presentation / Conference

Raising HPV Vaccine Awareness and Advocacy Through STEAM Workshops

Presentation / Conference

Using STEAM to power HPV vaccine awareness and advocacy among Irish post-primary students

Presentation / Conference

How can scientists and designers find ways of working together? A case study of playful learning to co-design visual interpretations of immunology concepts

Journal Article
Macdonald, I., Malone, E., & Firth, R. (2022)
How can scientists and designers find ways of working together? A case study of playful learning to co-design visual interpretations of immunology concepts. Studies in Higher Education, 47(9), 1980-1996. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.2020745
In UK HE institutions there is a growing realisation and appreciation for academic disciplines to seek research partners beyond their own subject (QAA. 2018. Enterprise and en...

Work on the move: mobilities of creativity and design ideation

Thesis
Firth, R. Work on the move: mobilities of creativity and design ideation. (Thesis)
Edinburgh Napier University. Retrieved from http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2811275
This thesis focuses on the development of original design ‘ideation’ processes (the formation of ideas or concepts) set within the context of both commercial museum and exhibi...

Supporting and enhancing student agency in feedback processes: using a novel feedback tool in the creative industries

Presentation / Conference
Cochrane, R., & Firth, R. (2021, June)
Supporting and enhancing student agency in feedback processes: using a novel feedback tool in the creative industries. Paper presented at Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference 2020, Manchester
This paper focuses on students’ use of a novel programme-focused feedback tool we have developed and utilised across Product Design at Edinburgh Napier University. In the cont...

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