Katam Al-Falou
Akaiza Mota
Sonia Sarkissian-Ohanessoglou
Jimin Seo
Professor Clare Johnston is the head of the Textiles programme at the Royal College of Art and a consultant in colour and textile design for fashion and interiors. Clare’s current research as leader of the RCA Materials for Living hub explores the way materials extend across all design practice and connect design to material science. Clare is a board member of the Material and Design Exchange (MADE), which is part of the UK Materials Knowledge Transfer Network linking the creative industries to science and technology. She was an adviser on the Materials Knowledge Transfer Network exhibition MADE in the Future (Milan, 2010) and took part in the mission to the Netherlands Designing out Waste in 2011.
In 1972, while studying Printed Textiles at Birmingham College of Art, Clare Johnston won the RSA Textile Prize and met her first employer, textile designer Pat Albeck. She subsequently worked with Veronica Marsh, Walker Rice Textiles and Nigel French Design Consultancy. She set up her own textile design studio in 1979, collaborating with many UK and international labels including Liberty, Yves Saint Laurent, Cacharel and Diane von Fürstenberg.
In 1986 Clare Johnston became the principal lecturer and course leader at Brighton Polytechnic. She returned to the fashion business in 1990 as colour and fabric designer for the Marks & Spencer womenswear design team. In 1998 she was appointed head of design at Liberty of London where she was responsible for all Liberty brand design including the launch of the Liberty International Ready-to-Wear Collection. Her close working relationship continued with Liberty until 2004. Clare has been colour panellist for Global Publishing The ‘Mix’ fashion colour books, and continues as member and regular contributor to the British Textile Colour Group.
Clare Johnston has been a colour and design consultant for companies such as B&Q, Crown Paints, Akzo Nobel China, Carphone Warehouse and Nitya Fashions, Paris. She is currently working with Skopos Interior Textiles.
Clare Johnston undertakes many other roles and responsibilities in relation to textiles. She has judged design competitions such as the Shanghai Fashion Federation Award, the OXO Peugeot Design Awards and ESMOD Fashion Competition in Berlin. Clare Johnston frequently gives speeches and presentations at international conferences, including SDC Colour Conference (2003), Textile Institute World Conference in Shanghai (2003), Future Days Conference in Stockholm (2005), Create Colour Symposium in Belfast (2008) and Colour in the Work Place for Bene Interior Colour Meeting (2008). She also undertakes numerous external UK and international educational activities, such as academic adviser to the Institute of Textile and Clothing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, external examiner for BA Textiles at Ulster, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea School of Art, Glasgow School of Art, Loughborough and Ravensbourne.
In September 2010 Clare took part in the Tsinghua/RCA Summer School in Beijing on Designing for an Ageing Population and attended the Young People’s Materials Lecture Competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She also gave a lecture on Textiles at NARA University.