The University of Brighton Design Archives is an internationally significant research base with a curatorial team that initiates and promotes collaborative activity through a programme of projects. Founded on a scholarly resource focusing on British design and global design organisations in the twentieth century, we have been contributing substantially to the research profile of the University for over 20 years. The Design Archives welcome scholars and students from many academic disciplines researching the designed environment, the design profession and design practice. As a distinctive component of the University’s research organisation, we work with researchers across the arts and humanities and beyond, particularly through our relationships with the Centre for Design History and the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories.
Since the 1990s we have undertaken a range of innovative projects with a variety of partners including AHRC-funded collaborative doctorates and JISC-funded digitisation projects. In 2010, and again in 2017, the Design Archives were awarded core funding from the HEFCE Museums, Galleries and Collections fund. In 2020 we became an Accredited Archive Service.
