46 The Good Guide to Creative Practice

Heitor Laforga presented The Good Guide to Creative Practice, a student-led initiative developed during the MA in Design for Change. Conceived as a practical handbook for students, the Good Guide integrates ethical, sustainable, and inclusive principles into creative education, making complex issues accessible and actionable.

Developed collaboratively with fellow students and staff, the Good Guide is structured around three pillars: People (ethics and inclusion), Planet (environmental sustainability), and Technology (responsible use of digital tools). It provides clear explanations, reflective prompts, and links to further resources, enabling students to consider the social and ecological impacts of their practice.

The team benchmarked existing resources, conducted expert interviews, and surveyed students, finding that first-year cohorts showed particularly strong engagement with sustainability. This feedback shaped the guide’s tone and format, ensuring it resonates across creative disciplines. Since completion, it has been integrated into IADT’s first-year induction, hosted on the Public Design Lab site, and expanded with thematic toolkits funded through the N-TUTORR project.

Mr Laforga emphasised that the Good Guide is about agency: helping students feel their decisions matter and that they can embed values-driven approaches in their work. By providing simple entry points into what can feel overwhelming, the resource promotes critical thinking, inclusivity, and responsibility in creative education. Its success has led to continued uptake and recognition, with students and staff using it as a practical reference for aligning creative practice with the SDGs and ESD principles.

About the author

name: Heitor Laforga de Araujo Monterio

institution: Institute of Art, Design and Technology

Heitor Laforga de Araujo Monterio is an interdisciplinary designer and researcher, an alumnus of the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, and one of the creators of The Good Guide.