Brunel Design Celebrates its 40th Anniversary with a Major “Focus on Brazil” Event, part of the official UK/Brazil Season of Culture. Brunel x Brazil: Talks and Exhibitions, co-organised with the Brazil Design Centre (Centro Brasil Design), will include a showcase of the contemporary design scene in Brazil and the connections between Brunel Design School and the Brazilian professional and academic design communities; the presentation of an Innovate UK award to a Brunel Design alumna and two exhibitions of next-generation student design talent.
Brunel Design marks its 40th Anniversary with a landmark event: “40 Years of Global Design Education and Research at Brunel University of London: Focus on Brazil,” on Tuesday, 27th January 2026.
The event, to take place at Brunel’s Eastern Gateway and Beldam Gallery, will highlight the Brunel Design School’s international outlook by forming part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture. The cultural season, a collaboration between the British Council and Instituto Guimarães Rosa (IGR), under the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commemorates the 200th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between the UK and Brazil through a wide range of cultural exchange activities from August 2025 to June 2026.
The afternoon and evening will comprise three sessions: a celebration of Brunel University’s rich design heritage, a deep dive into Brazilian design and its creative links with Brunel Design School and a two-exhibition display of student design work.
Part 01: 40 Years of Brunel Design (16:00-17:00)
The celebration will be opened by Professor Andrew Jones, Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University of London, with a welcome talk about the 40th Anniversary of Brunel Design in 2025 and an introduction to the University’s 60th Anniversary in 2026. This session will also feature a Purple Plaque presentation to Bella Reid from Innovate UK, as well as two insightful talks by distinguished Brunel Design School alumni.
Part 02: Brunel x Brazil: Design for a Changing World (17:00-18:30)
This session will focus on the Brazilian design and the Brunel Design School’s collaborative work with Brazil. The session will be introduced by Dr Busayawan Lam, Head of Brunel Design School.
The speakers online will be Leticia Castro, the Executive Director of Centro Brasil Design, who will present the centre’s prestigious international Design for a Better World (DFBW) Award and a series of winning entries over the past few years, Dr Gisele Raulik Murphy, a Partner in the Brazilian design agency DUCO Design and an alumna of Brunel Design, who will reflect on her journey from being a design student at Brunel to managing a creative business in Brazil and Dr Bruna Petreca, Reader in Human Experience and Materials, Centre for Materials Science & Culture, who will talk about the sustainable fashion in Brazil.
The session will conclude with a panel discussion titled: “Design/Research: Brazil-UK,” exploring the current state of design and design research in Brazil and the links with Brunel Design School and the UK. The panel will be moderated by Professor Vanja Garaj and feature the Brazilian design leaders Cesar Pieri (Automotive Designer) and Patrick Speck (Industrial Designer), alongside the academic research experts Dr Ricardo O’Nascimento (Royal College of Art), Dr Paula Westenberger (Brunel Law School) and Dr Fabrizio Ceschin (Brunel Design School).
Part 03: Exhibitions (18:30-20:00)
The evening will culminate in two exhibitions:
01) Industrial Review Evening (Eastern Gateway Atrium): The annual exhibition of the graduate work in progress by the final-year undergraduate students on the Brunel Design School’s BA Industrial Design, BSc Design and BSc Product Design Engineering programmes.
02) Portfolio Review (Beldam Gallery): A dynamic exhibition of the developing graduate projects by the final-year students on the BSc Digital Design and BSc Visual Effects and Motion Graphics programmes.
The event will be attended by a representative of the Brazilian Embassy in London.
Reported by:
Hayley Jarvis,
Media Relations
hayley.jarvis@brunel.ac.uk