Pennington takes over RCA department

Miles Pennington
Miles Pennington

The Royal College of Art has appointed Miles Pennington as head of the department of industrial design engineering, replacing Tom Barker.

Pennington has been acting head of the department since Barker’s departure last September.

The industrial design engineering course, which is run jointly with Imperial College London, is seeking to change its name – possibly to innovation design engineering. The name change is currently awaiting the RCA senate’s ratification.

‘Industrial design has changed dramatically over the past 20 years,’ says Pennington. ‘We are no longer approaching design as a purely object-orientated activity. The experience, system, service offering – indeed, everything around and supporting the product proposition – is now within the designer’s influence.’

Pennington worked for four years as a designer for Sekisui Chemical Company in Japan, creating a variety of products from kitchenware to prefabricated houses.

He also set up Design Stream in the UK with Charanjit Nandra, creating products and packaging for Unilever, Mars, and Reckitt Benckiser.

Pennington started in his new permanent role this week.

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