Rachel Studd

Rachel Studd graduated from Winchester College of Art in 1995 with a BA hons in Fashion/Textile: specialism in Woven Textile Design. After working at Humphries Weaving Company as assistant designer and trainee manager and awarded her Licentiate of the Textile Institute she went on to study for her Masters degree at UMIST, in Textile Design Management and Design Technology. Rachel joined the Department of Textiles as a Design Tutor in 1997 during which time she studied part-time for her PGCE in Higher Education at MMU. She became a Lecturer in Design in the Department of Textiles, UMIST in 2001. Principal responsibility was taken by Rachel for the innovation and development of an undergraduate programme in Design Management for Fashion Retail, which is continuing to increase its recruitment and student quality, and she is currently the school Undergraduate Learning Enhancement Officer and Academic Coordinator for Textiles timetabling.

Her research is within the area of Design Communication, specifically concentrating on the development of Visual and Interactive online resources within the creative arts and Trend Translation for the fashion retail sector. Within this research field significant focus is given to the PhD in Trend Forecasting: 'Futurology: A Future Space for Fashion' which is an investigation into forecasting and its techniques, the implications across various industry sectors using fashion as a model and development of a strategic forecasting tool to suggest future forecasting methodologies. Rachel was co-applicant and Project Manager of Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) funded Resource Enhancement Scheme for Digital Archiving - digital resource for textile art, crafts and design. The successful project (currently awarded at the level of 317,000) began in August 2001. The objectives of the project are to create a visual and interactive online resource describing innovative and traditional methods of a wide variety of fabrics will be available to UK students early 2005. Current research is commencing on how to 'touch' materials within an E-Space environment, working with both the Art, Design and Media subject centre and the Materials subject centre on the development of online tools concerned with virtual tacticity.

• Sinha, P. and Studd, R. (2005) Towards an Integrated Fashion and Textile Design Process, submitted for the International Symposium at London College of Fashion in June 2005
• Vazquez, D., Bruce, M. and Studd, R. (2003) A case study exploring the packaging design management process within a UK food retailer, British Food Journal Vol. 105, No. 9, September 2003, p602-617
• Studd, R. and Edwards, V. (2002) Design Communication, International Journal of New Product Development and Innovation Management, Sept - Oct 2002 issue, pp 199 - 211
• Studd, R. (2002) The Textile Design Process, The Design Journal, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp 35 - 49
• Moxey, J. and Studd, R. (2000) Investigating Creativity in the Development of Fashion Textiles, The Journal of the Textile Institute, 91, part 2, issue 2, pp 110-116
• Bruce, M. and Studd, R. (1999) Design Excellence Handbook and CD-ROM for ESF ADAPT