Tools

The TEN Cards

A lightning-fast overview of the design strategies that took our research team many years to develop.

You can buy The TEN cards here.

See more about the TEN cards by clicking here.

TEN Play: Lead Cards

This film introduces one simple way to play with 'The TEN' cards, by taking you through a short reflective exercise, Professor Rebecca Earley explains her own Lead Cards, based on the low-impact, heat transfer textile prints that she produces.

Now, Near and Far Stamps (and the Now Wall)

In this film we presents a series of devices developed whilst working at H&M in Stockholm with the New Development team.

Yes & No Cards

A short demonstration showing a simple way to engage an audience when you are presenting ideas and wish to get instant feedback or stimulate debate.

Postcards In Workshops

This film shows how we use simple postcards in project workshops to improve the way researchers collaborate across disciplines.

Who Made My Uniform

This film gives the overview of the TextileToolbox worksheet that outlines five sessions that can be developed to deliver as educational activities in primary schools. Originally created as part of the first Fashion Revolution Day in 2014, these activities can be adapted to suit students of any age and design discipline.

Thinking Together

If you are giving a presentation or talk and want the group to be more involved then use a sheet like this one to get people to talk to each other at the halfway point, inviting them to have a go at applying some new ideas about sustainability to their work on the spot. It gives you a chance to draw breath, but crucially it allows you to understand what is going on in their heads and so gives you the chance to adapt and edit what you are presenting as you work through the second half of your presentation.

Green Cards

Dr Clara Vuletich created these cards (originally known as the TED Question Cards) as part of her PhD research, when she was helping the team deliver workshops at companies during the Mistra Future Fashion project. They are a great way to do a warm up with a group of people to find common values and beliefs that may then inform the design process or decision-making further down the line.

TEN Play: Audit, Redesign, Refine

These three worksheets can be used with The TEN cards to take an existing product - one that you made or one that you bought - and explore it in order to redesign and improve it. It makes the designer think deeply about each aspect of the product, and then get really creative as they try to improve it. Finally, the task is to articulate the improvements, in order to get better at talking about design and sustainability.

Wardrobe Insights

How can designers relate their own clothing wear/use habits to improving their practice? In this resource sheet we propose ways for designers to look inside their own wardrobes and use their own clothes as a way to generate new design insights. It can be used as a simple warm up exercise, a moment of personal reflection, or can be developed into more rigorous formats to use in research projects.

Speeding Tickets

These cards are a fun way to explore a product and its lifecycle speed. Choose a product and design it to last a short while, and then a longer while. These cards can be used with the Garment Type cards to help you create a specific brief. Play the cards to yourself or a group to really challenge your thinking about why some garments are so fast and what makes others slow.

Lifecyle Map

This worksheet will help you separate out the design questions that exist within the lifecycle of any product. All products have a lifecycle - the materials then production stages; then use, then disposal or reclaim. Use this simple quadrant worksheet to help you identify which decisions go where; and then use the worksheet to make better decisions, to improve the profile and impacts of the product, and make decisions that help it be recovered at the end of life.