14 Aug 2015 / The school and employees

That’s our Peter Barker

Design School Kolding has hired a new professional beacon in Industrial Design with international experience.
By Charlotte Melin

If you google the name Peter Barker, you will find a few namesakes of Design School Kolding’s new professional beacon. A pro squash player, a well-respected landscape artist and a professor in Nuclear and Molecular laser Spectroscopy. Design School Kolding’s new Head of Industrial Design also pops up on this list of eminent persons. And our Peter Barker is of course a designer. A decidedly experienced one to boot.

Peter Barker comes from a position as Head of Institute at the esteemed Central Saint Martin’s College in London. He has held this post for the last year, but has many years of international experience from design practice and teaching.

Peter introduces himself with these remarks: “Industrial design and design education have been my professional interest since 1984. Thirty years in the business in the UK, Europe and US have given me a perspective on the world of design that has enabled me to not only enjoy my own career as a designer, but more importantly to guide and advise over 500 young designers at the early stages of their careers. My interests are in user centred design, empathetic studies and the design and design engineering interface. I also have a strong research interest in the design and development of the Mini car, a unique icon of 20th century design.”

Peter Barker graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, before taking a master’s in Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art. He has held the posts of Assistant Professor in Industrial Design at California State University Long Beach and Principal Lecturer and Programme Manager at the Department of Industrial Design at Coventry University. His roles have also included visiting lectureships and external examiner positions at several other universities in England and one in Spain.

Peter Barker is, in other words, a widely respected authority on the design and development of the Mini car, and his research publications cover automotive design and development, automotive design history, and driver fatigue and training.