The values underpinning the global textile industry are continuing to transform because of globalisation, sustainability and technological progress. This is enabled by the changes within the discipline of design itself, through the impact of design thinking on business management and leadership (Cooper et al, 2015), a move towards co-creation rather than individual authorship (Sanders, 2013; Sanders and Stappers, 2014), smart technologies (Taylor and Robertson, 2014), and greater attention to how we meet today's social needs through design (Thackera, 2013; Manzini, 2015). This paper is concerned with the impact of transformation upon the role of the textile designer and design educator. Discussion draws on recent design research in Smart Textiles, E-Co Textiles and the sustainability agenda, future craft and designer's thinking, revealing a set of values underpinning the contemporary craft of textile design, facilitating a conversation as to how they relate to the active concept of authenticity.

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Design is being performed on an ever-increasing spectrum of complex practices. As a result there is demand on the articulation of design's application across disciplinary boundaries. This paper explores this context through acknowledging the retained role of design artefacts in engaging complex, collaborative contexts and a developing understanding of boundary objects. This paper expands on notions of design artefacts as boundary objects by offering reflections on existing examples from ongoing design research in the context of health and care innovation. Through the process of framing a design problem, live models are developed as dialogical tools with collaborators to validate and inform design solutions. Such models are argued to act as boundary objects that are not static, but living artefacts open to ongoing scrutiny within the design context, offering an understanding of the value and practice of design artefacts in complex, collaborative contexts.

In times of rapid social, economic, environmental and technological change designers can play a valuable role by applying their creativity to catalyse innovative solutions to address complex problems. As they do so, it becomes apparent they need to ask fundamental questions about what they make, how they make it, and who for. The mindsets and postures of designers often go unnoticed and unacknowledged, but they profoundly influence what is identified as a problem and how it is framed and addressed. This paper draws upon a research project titled 'CO/DEsign', which explores the application of agile co-design methods in an endeavour to understand and identify the most appropriate approach for rigorous analysis. The 'CO/DEsign' project argues that, while it is important to draw upon other disciplines and borrow methods such as thematic analysis, further methods should be developed that better represent and support designers and their approaches.

This paper explores the work in the area of Material Futuresundertaken by researchers at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA). We begin by presenting current debates within the textile sector and outline the challenges of the circular economy. The Scottish Government have established a £17 million fund to catalyse innovative approaches for the circular economy, which support closed-loop systems including collaboration, evaluation of different methods and future material ecologies. We discuss future material ecologies in two case studies in order to extrapolate the ways in which creative and participatory design approaches can be used to stimulate dialogue around the circular economy, broader environmental and economic issues and the socio-cultural implications. We identify six design principles for researchers and practitioners to consider when facilitating circular conversations and the evolving role of the textile designer. We go on to highlight the significance of design-led approaches in strengthening communication, promoting creative action and embedding collaborative ways of working. We conclude by making recommendations for future research and practice and how the insights might be expanded upon to support ethical, responsible and sustainable material futures.