Practice-based research is about let illustrators to explore their research topic, “the researcher needs to make things as part of the process. The research is exploratory and in embedded in a creative practice”(Guantlett, 2014). The research area are very diverse; reading books, considering other people’s creative works, developing philosophy/theory around these observations. They have to “engaged in an exploratory creative process in order to explore their research question.”(Guantlett, 2014) to make things and experiments.



Creative research methods uses the audience to produce works. It is a valuable evaluation tool, “capturing and visually displaying different people’s opinions and experiences of a project.”(Kindon, S, Pain, R and Kesey, M, 2008). Also it is great way to provide a focus for a discussion.

Example of creative methods are:
- Discussion boards or posters to give a opportunity to the audience to give responses.
- Postcards to give a opportunity to the audience to give a feedback.
- Voting systems, quizzes
- Disposable cameras

Practice-led research means lead primarily to new understanding about practice, “concerned with the nature of practice and leads to new knowledge that has operational significance for that practice.”(Lawson, 2012). It is important to have a discourse as it will “leads to well-thought research, and emphasis on experimentation”(Lawson, 2012) to give you a proper contextualisation in your work.



Benefits of doing participatory research is that you are research a subject that is relate to the real world contexts and support the people by spread their experiences and knowledges to the world. Collaborating with the subjects will help you to understand more about its real world impact, “has potential to create relevant, meaningful research findings translated to action”(Lagoon and Jacques, 2010) and support to solved the complex problems/questions. It’s important to pick the right research methods to ensure you are values authentic and meaningful participants in the research. The research methods are data collection, data analysis, interpretation, dissemination and enacting change.

How do professional research? What did they use to research?

Practice-based research:

Creative research methods:

Practice-led research:

Participatory research: