As a Senior Tutor within the Vehicle Design programme, Sam Livingstone is responsible for arranging a series of lectures, visits, group critiques and tutorials centric to different critical perspectives and professional practice within vehicle design. He also supports students on concept definition and design research, and coaches on design presentation, specifically for examination.
His professional practice outside of the college is focused primarily on consulting in automotive design research – delivering robust support for the creative process – with recent clients including Audi, SAIC, Volvo, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai and KPMG.
Livingstone is also a judge for the World Car Design of the Year (part of WCOTY), a juror for the If Design Award, part of the award panel for the Louis Vuitton Concept Classic and Associate Editor of Car Design News.
Sam Livingstone has a first degree in Product Design and a second degree in Design Strategy and Innovation.
His professional background is in Product Design, Marketing and then Automotive Design Research. In 1997 a position was created for him as Design Strategist at Daewoo Motor Company (now part of General Motors), answering directly to the Design Director.
Since 2000 he has been a consultant, first for a Frankfurt-based consultancy, design.net AG (now part of the Peter Schmidt Group), and then for the UK-based company Car Design Research Ltd.
His consulting work is predominantly for design groups of major automotive OEMs, but also includes other vehicle companies, automotive suppliers and creative agencies. Typical projects include developing new vehicle concept definitions, authoring automotive and non-automotive design trend reports, creating bespoke design evaluation processes, and working around the interface between design, brand and customers. Recent clients include Audi, SAIC, Volvo, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai and KPMG.
Livingstone was also a contributor and then director of Car Design News from 2001 and 2005 respectively, and is now an Associate Editor contributing occasional design reviews and critical essays on car design.
His writing has also been published in Form Magazine, Advanced Driving, the annual publication Automobile Year and Innovate, the RCA magazine for business partners.
Within Vehicle Design Sam Livingstone has been a Visiting Tutor since 2001, a Personal Tutor since 2003 and has had responsibility for professional practice within the programme since 2004. He instigated the annual Design Night Dinner, and has managed it since 2005. In 2009 Livingstone was made Senior Tutor and now has responsibility for arranging a series of lectures, visits, group critiques and tutorials centric to different critical perspectives and professional practice within vehicle design.