Laura Knight
Laura Knight
Design, education and research

Hi, I’m Laura

I lead the MA Communicating Complexity at Central Saint Martins (UAL).

The course is built on a decade dedication to creative educational development, with a specific interest in creative data literacy and systems thinking. It empowers students to experiment with the role of visual communication in tackling global challenges.

As a researcher, I focus on the role of the designer in the context of institutions. My current research explore the capabilities of Higher Education Institutions to respond to climate change; specifically the barriers and enablers of creative climate change education. I explore this from multiple angles and designerly interventions.

 

Insitutitioning

designing institutions

〰️

designing institutions 〰️

Recent work exploring creative climate change education at an institutional scale

Transforming Assessment:
How do we meaningfully assess engagement with climate justice in creative education?

Presentation @ Assessment in HIgher Education 2025

Mapping Hope:
How can we leverage institutional frames for climate action?

Presentation @ By design and by disaster 2025

Niti and Nyaya:
Reimagining institutional Climate Literacy

Talk @ central Saint Martins (2024)

Every level a monster:
What institutional factors support climate change education?

Synthesis Map @ Glad Conference 2024

Designing Education

designing design education

>

designing design education >

Thinking Through Making: How do workshop structures help students develop design intuition?

Curriculum design @chelsea college of arts

On workshops: From strategy to process in workshop design

Reflections on workshop design @ ChelSea College of Arts

Drawing process: Why we need to stop talking about THE design process

Curriculum design @ chelsea college of arts

Desire Lines: What happens to signature pedagogies when we follow our students lead?

Studio notes on Visual approaches @ chelsea college of Arts

Reading with Machines: How can we move from uncritical AI consumption to collaborative, critical practice?

Workshop Notes @central Saint Martins

Thinking beyond circles:

How do we develop visual, cross disciplinary design education for circularity?

presentation @ chead Conference 2023

Disrupting Simplicity: What can diagramming reveal about educational space and time?

Workshop @ Graphic Design Educators Network 2019

Drawing on ideas: How does diagramming create safer spaces for engaging with critical texts?

Presentation @ London Conference of Critical thought (2022)

Breaking It Down: How can school teachers use visual methods to make complex ideas accessible to students?

CPD Session with CSM OUtreach

Unlearning What happens when we let student barriers shape studio practices?

Workshop @ GDEN (2019)

Hacking Florence Nightingale: Can we use data drawing to structure more productive studio conversations?

Visual Feedback Strategy @ Chelsea College of Arts

Drawing feedback: How can data drawing support feedback literacy and attainment?

Presentation @ Assessment in HIgHer Education (2023)

Designing Data

Ongoing research on data, data assemblage, and expanding notions of data in creative research

741.6092: How can students interrogate the assumptions embedded in their own library collections?

ongoing research @ University of the arts, London

 

Alternative Atlas: What would a subjective map of Spitalfields tell us?

public workshop @ london design festival (2017)

Beyond the Surface
How do residents experience London?

Public WORKSHOP @ london transport museum

 

Who are the designers in section 741.6092?

Curriculum Design @ chelsea College of Arts

How do graphic design programs define themselves?

analysis of graphic design course descriptions @ UAL

What can data tell us about invisible power structures in universities?

Presentation @ london conference of critical thought

Who are the great white sharks of graphic design?

Reading list research @ University of the arts, London

What happens when use creativity to question the numbers that shape our lives?

Talk @ margate festival of Design (2023)

How can residents use data to shape local development?

Workshop with SahRa Hersi @ Antiuniversity now

What happens when you ground broad urban discourse in hyperlocal data?

Datazine @ Kingston School of Art

Can London’s famous taxi driving exam be visualised?

Data Visualisation @ Kingston School of Art (2016)

 

Designing research

Gentrification in Forest Gate: How can participatory research shift neighbourhood debates from "us vs them" to collective action?

Masters research @ kingston School of Art

Creating Translational Knowledge: What role can visual prototyping play in the research process?

Presentation + Paper @ EKSIG (DRS) 2023, Politecnico de milano

Circular Polyester: What does a circular future for polyester look like?

Journal Article in Sustainability (2023)

Framework: How might we translate a bio-inspired design framework into a visual system?

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Lifecycle Thinking: How do design students visualise complex environmental processes?

Knowledge exchange @ centre for Circular design

Sustainable Facemasks: Visualising sustainable alternatives for PPE

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Biotype: Can we translate bio-inspired design principles into typography?

Knowledge Exchange @ chelsea college of Arts