Dale Harrow is Professor of Vehicle design at the Royal College of Art, a global centre of excellence in automotive design education with a near 100% record in student transition tp professional practice, which he has directed for the past eight years. The Department was recently nominated for a Queens Award for Excellence in Education and has recently been awarded a major research grant to develop ‘mobile healthcare’ in collaboration a number of academic and industrial partners. He is currently supervising Phd and other research students.

He has worked as a design consultant with many companies, lectured world-wide on the subject, and frequently acts as a judge at international events and competitions. He is currently working to support the curation of the biejing Automotive Museum scheduled for the 2008 Olympics. His redesign of The London Taxi Cab significantly improved acess for disabled and visually impaired users, and was awarded Millinnium Product status by the Design Council. In 1988 he designed he designed the Norton paramilitary motorcycle for police use which led to a national standardisation of specifications. This was followed in 1989 by the Norton Sportbike which won Designweek magazine ‘Best Product Design’ and ‘Best Design of the year’ awards.

He is committed to design education and has been at the Royal College of Art since 1989. He became Head of the Vehicle Design Department in 1999.  He has also taught at Cardiff University and has acted as External Examiner to a number of industrial design and vehicle design degree courses including Sheffield, Huddersfield, and Northampton Universities. Currently he is lead examiner at Central St Martins post graduate industrial design course and a member of the validation panel for design degree courses. Dale’s approach to teaching reflects his belief that the discipline is complex and moving forward and new designers have to be better informed to meet future challenges. He is keen to explore the changing city, technology and new commercial opportunities to develop new design solutions within an established design culture. Always keen to raise the intellectual debate about vehicle design and has lectured internationally on the subject. He is researching the origins and history of automotive design.

He has lead workshops at the Design Museum and has also acted as a judge at international events and competitions. He is frequently interviewed by the media and regularly acts as a commentator. He presents regulary for the media and has recently co-presenting a 10 part TV series Ultimate Cars for the Discovery Channel. Dale has collaborated with the British Council to promote investment in UK design in Japan and China and Korea and has recently collaborated with a Korean Motor manufacturer on design and brand strategy.

Dale is a Fellow of the Royal College of Art, The Royal Society of Arts and a Freeman of the City of London in connection with his role within the Coach and Coach-harness makers Guild. BBC Top Gear identified Dale at the eighth most important person in the automotive industry (George Bush was no.1 and Bin Laden no. 13!) in December 2003. Autocar Magazine published ‘Top 100 most Influential Brits’ in May 2004 and identified Dale as number 33 amongst a handful of designers.