Dan Mclean

He leads curriculum development and academic strategy across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, with responsibility for program design, quality assurance, industry engagement, and the integration of emerging technologies into contemporary design education. His teaching and leadership focus on product development, systems thinking, human-centred design, and the preparation of graduates for complex professional practice in global contexts.

Prior to Adelaide University, Dan served as Program Director of the Bachelor of Design (Product Design) and Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design at the University of South Australia from 2018 to 2025. During this period, he led major curriculum redevelopment initiatives, strengthened industry-embedded learning models, and guided program growth through sustained collaboration with industry partners, professional bodies, and international institutions. He has been teaching industrial and product design continuously since 2002, including earlier appointments as Lecturer (Level B) and Sessional/Fractional Lecturer (Level A) within the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the University of South Australia.

Alongside his academic career, Dan has maintained an active professional practice as an industrial design consultant through Dan McLean Industrial Design. His consulting work spans consumer products, advanced technology, packaging, mobility, research instrumentation, and manufacturing systems, with clients including Apple, Microsoft, Pelican Products, the Australian Wine Research Institute, Scholle Industries, and VAF Research, among many others. This sustained engagement with industry informs his teaching philosophy and ensures strong alignment between academic learning outcomes and contemporary professional expectations.

Earlier in his career, Dan worked in Japan, including as an Industrial Designer at the Sumiko Imai Design Office in Tokyo, specialising in environmental and public infrastructure design, and as an Assistant Industrial Designer at Milai Corporation, an automotive design consultancy serving major Japanese manufacturers. He also held the role of Product Design Coordinator at APC Technology, where he managed the design and production of computing systems for defence, industrial, and commercial applications. These experiences established a strong foundation in cross-cultural collaboration, large-scale design projects, and industry-driven innovation.

Dan regularly contributes to international design education initiatives through invited teaching, workshops, conference presentations, and global academic collaborations across the Asia-Pacific region. He has delivered teaching and workshops in China, Singapore, and Taiwan, and has led numerous international study tours and New Colombo Plan-funded mobility programs for industrial design students. His recent work explores the relationship between traditional industrial design sketching practice and emerging AI-enhanced visualisation workflows within contemporary design education.

Dan is also a board member of the international C-IDEA (International Design Educator Association) organisation, a global network of art and design educators that promotes international collaboration, research exchange, and creative practice across design disciplines.

Through his academic leadership, international engagement, professional practice, and industry collaboration, Dan remains committed to advancing industrial design education that is globally connected, industry-relevant, and research-informed.