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Kathryn Coates

Principal Lecturer

Nottingham School of Art & Design

Staff Group(s)
Graphic Design

Role

Kathryn is the Principal Lecturer in the Department of Design and Digital Arts and leads the subject area for Graphic Design, Illustration and Motion Graphics. She teaches on the final year of the BA Graphic Design programme. Key aspects of her role include designing and delivering innovative future facing curriculum with her team, excellence in the student experience, and maintaining and building new relationships with professional bodies and industry partners to ensure currency and to enhance student’s future employability.

Career overview

Prior to joining NTU in 2008 Kathryn worked for The Times Supplements as their Deputy Head of Design (1996-2006), she then took over the role of Art Editor for The Times Higher (2006-2008). Alongside these roles Kathryn was a visiting lecturer and an independent freelance Graphic Designer.

Research areas

Kathryn’s research interests relate to editorial design and interpretation (the book as artefact), the role of experimentation and failure within the creative process, and new directions in information design. She is currently working on an exhibition proposal ‘a work in process’, a collaborative show that investigates, explores and maps approaches to the creative process with a view to informing pedagogies of the future.

External activity

  • Member of the International Society of Typographic Designers (MISTD) and assessor of ISTD student awards.
  • Fellow or the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
  • Reviewer, Bloomsbury Books.
  • External Examiner, BDes (Hons) Graphic Design, Ulster University, Belfast School of Art

Publications

An introduction to information design, Laurence King Publishing, 2014 ISBN 978-1-78067-338-7.

Press expertise

Kathryn's areas of expertise are:

  • Illustration
  • Graphic design

Course(s) I teach on