Emma Jones

Emma is a Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Product and Furniture Design program, currently teaching across all three levels of the course. Before joining the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Media as a full-time member of staff in January 2022, she was a Specialist Lecturer in the Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, delivering 3D design communication modules in industry-leading CAD modelling software.

Prior to joining the University as an academic member of staff, Emma was a project coordinator for furniture contractors HF Contracts, where she was responsible for the planning and completion of client requests through collaboration with external suppliers, financial managers, and joinery and upholstery sectors. She also worked as a freelance designer for BCU linked, socially-conscious start-up company ‘Super8 Hydration’, where she identified and implemented improvements to existing children’s health and hydration products, packaging, and social media content.

Through her teaching role across all three academic levels, Emma supports and provides students with practice-based areas of investigation, visual inspiration, academic resources, digital and physical research material, and industry contacts relating to various elements of sustainable design and education.

Emma is highly driven by the topic of sustainability and the role that design can have in realising this. Her research and practice have focused on how design can evolve away from consumerism and overconsumption towards a more sustainable society, with her research thesis “Pedagogy for Environmental Consciousness” being highly commended (in the top 10% of research papers) in the Global Undergraduate Awards. Her environmental, educational children’s game “Bees, Trees, & Factories” won a 2020 New Designers award, and she is currently liaising with several educational toy companies for market production and release.

Emma’s current research focus examines how design can support the ecological education of young people, and she is working on a PhD proposal utilising design methodology to develop both creative and general curriculums through the design of ecologically educational resources, tools, and/or toys.