Chartered Society of Designers

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Chartered Society of Designers

The Society that helps designers. CSD is the world's largest chartered body of professional designers and is unique in representing all design disciplines.

Governed by Royal Charter and also a Registered Charity

08/10/2026

Ian Callum’s work is familiar to many people who may not know his name.

He styled the Aston Martin DB7 before spending two decades leading Jaguar’s design team. During that time, vehicles including the XF, F-TYPE and I-PACE gave him opportunities to develop Jaguar’s design across saloons, sports cars and electric vehicles.

CSD awarded Ian the Minerva Medal for his contribution to automotive design. He now continues his work as Design Director at CALLUM.

Our latest Designers You Should Know carousel takes a look at his career. Which designer would you like us to feature next?

06/10/2026

When Craig Lister MCSD prepared his Chartered Designer submission, he found that his CV no longer described the work he actually did.

As Creative Partner at Stocks Taylor Benson, his role extends beyond the projects in his portfolio. He mentors designers, helps shape strategy, manages client relationships and contributes to decisions about the business.

Craig’s reflection is a useful one for experienced designers whose responsibilities have grown gradually over time. In TheDesigner, he talks about what the Chartership process helped him recognise and why he decided to pursue it.

Read Craig’s story: https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/more-than-a-portfolio-a-chartered?r=6kafc1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

01/10/2026

Becoming a Chartered Designer prompted Craig Lister MCSD to do something he hadn't expected: rewrite his CV.

As Creative Partner at Stocks Taylor Benson, Craig's role has developed considerably over the years. Alongside his creative work, he mentors designers, helps shape strategy and contributes to the commercial direction of the business.

Preparing his Chartership submission gave him an opportunity to recognise the full extent of that experience, including the responsibilities that had become such a familiar part of his working life.

In our latest TheDesigner feature, Craig reflects on his decision to pursue Chartership, what he learnt about his own career through the process and why professional recognition matters to him.

Read the article: https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/more-than-a-portfolio-a-chartered?r=6kafc1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

28/09/2026

Thomas Heatherwick’s work is difficult to place within a single design discipline.

Since founding Heatherwick Studio in 1994, he has worked across objects, transport and architecture, from the Rolling Bridge and London 2012 Olympic Cauldron to the New Routemaster and major international developments.

What connects these very different projects is an interest in how something is made and how people will experience it.

Our latest ‘Designers You Should Know’ looks at Thomas Heatherwick and a career that has moved between scales without settling into a single category.

24/09/2026

What can a 1905 letterpress teach a designer working today?

For Craig Lister MCSD, Chartered Designer, understanding how things are made has always been part of understanding how to design them.

His curiosity has taken him through letterpress, printmaking, signwriting and animation, with each experience influencing the way he approaches his work today. He sees the same principle in the designers coming into the profession: software proficiency matters less than the thinking behind it.

“Understanding the craft allowed me to evolve it rather than replace it.”

In our latest TheDesigner feature, Craig talks about learning by doing, why experience is something we actively build throughout a career and the value of understanding a process before finding ways to make it faster.

Read ‘Built through curiosity’ in TheDesigner.

https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/built-through-curiosity?r=4duxw7

23/09/2026

Behind each of the speculative projects in our Nottingham Trent University CEP Spotlight is a very personal way of approaching design.

For Yelyzaveta Shayner Assoc.CSD, a project needs to begin with a subject that genuinely matters to its designer. That personal connection sustained the development of ‘Forced Resonance’ and its exploration of emotional numbness.

Leia-Morgan Buckley Assoc.CSD believes every design begins with a sketch, however quick or unresolved. Research and experimentation then give the initial idea somewhere to go.

Lia Proctor Assoc.CSD learned not to hold too tightly to her first solution. Being open to feedback and recognising when a project needed to change direction ultimately made her work stronger.

Their reflections offer an insight into the thinking behind the finished spaces, as well as the lessons they are taking from Nottingham Trent University into the next stage of their careers.

Read the full CEP Spotlight in TheDesigner: https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/cep-spotlight-nottingham-trent-university?r=4duxw7

Nottingham Trent University

14/09/2026

Nottingham in 2086 provided the starting point for three very different final-year projects at Nottingham Trent University.

Yelyzaveta Shayner Assoc.CSD explored emotional numbness through an architectural intervention built around sound and fear.

Leia-Morgan Buckley Assoc.CSD transformed a split-level car park into an urban agriculture centre where ecological systems determine how the space works.

For Lia Proctor Assoc.CSD, the same imagined future became the setting for an underground environment dedicated to preserving banned vinyl records.

Although speculative, each project uses the future to examine concerns that already shape how we design and experience spaces today.

Our latest CEP Spotlight introduces the three Interior Architecture and Design graduates, the ideas behind their work and what receiving the CSD CEP Student Prize has meant as they begin their careers.

Read the full feature in TheDesigner: https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/cep-spotlight-nottingham-trent-university?r=4duxw7

27/08/2026

One last taste of summer, from the CSD archive.

As the season begins to shift, we’re looking back at how designers have captured summer through illustration and print, from a moment of leisure depicted by Glynn Boyd Harte to the colourful July 1972 cover of The Designer.

The styles may have changed, but that sense of movement, escape and possibility still feels familiar.

Swipe through and tell us: what feels new, and what never really changed?

25/08/2026

Becoming a Chartered Designer gave Craig Lister MCSD something he hadn't expected: a reason to stop and take stock.

In our latest TheDesigner feature, Craig reflects on becoming a Chartered Designer, the value of recognising the career you've built and why professional standards continue to matter as design evolves.

Read the full interview here:

https://charteredsocietyofdesigners.substack.com/p/built-through-curiosity?r=4duxw7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

24/08/2026

This September, CSD members can shape the nature of their Society.

The Society’s 50th AGM will be followed by an EGM, where members will consider and vote on the first substantial revision of CSD’s Byelaws since 1976.

It’s your professional body, so come along and have your say on its future.

And afterwards we’ll celebrate 50 years of our Royal Charter with refreshments overlooking the river at Tower Bridge.

📅 Wednesday 16 September 2026, 2:30pm – central London

Corporate Members (MCSD and FCSD) in good standing can attend but please register by emailing [email protected] before COB on Wednesday 9 September.

Read the full details and meeting documents in the CSD Members’ Area:
https://www.csd.org.uk/members-area/

Address

1 Cedar Court, Royal Oak Yard, Bermondsey Street
London
SE13GA

Telephone

+442073578088

Website

http://www.csd.org.uk/

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