Simone Ridyard

Senior Lecturer
Interior Design

I am a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and until recently (2017-2022), I was programme leader for BA (Hons) Interior Design. My background is professional. I worked as an architect for 20+ years, specialising in interior architecture and I see my main responsibilities as delivering core skills of interior design, such as spatial awareness, planning strategy, also freehand drawing, and visualisation skills. Thereby, complementing the imaginative, expressive and conceptual responses that students develop alongside these more pragmatic skills, and in 2022 we achieved as a course one of the highest NSS (National Student Satisfaction survey) scores in the Faculty. Through longstanding professional connections, I have been able to facilitate strong links between our programme and the wider creative industries. I have taught both second and third year, and I am currently academic lead for first year. I am the main admissions tutor and international lead for the programme, working closely alongside the department international lead. I have previously been TNE (Trans National Education) link tutor for BA (Hons) Interior Architecture at First City University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have undertaken several visits to SE Asia. Working closely with our international office, these visits include agent training, portfolio surgeries and facilitating workshops with schools and colleges. These visits also allow me valuable research ‘on location’ time I was external examiner for BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design at Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur (validated by University of Lancaster) 2019-2022, which compliments my interest in TNE / international work. I am currently external examiner for BA (Hons) Interior Architecture at First City University, Kuala Lumpur and BA(Hons) Interior Design at University of Chester.

Whilst on a teaching exchange at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore in 2012, I discovered the global urban sketching community and have been actively engaged with Urban Sketchers ever since. I set up Urban Sketchers Manchester in the same year, and my first book Archisketcher was published in 2015 by North Light in the US and Quarto in the UK. My research is concentrated around reportage and on location, in-situ drawing. You May Look at a Building, my collaboration with the writer Phil Griffin, reporting on the redevelopment of St Peter’s Square in Manchester, was shortlisted for the inaugural UWE / Moleskine Reportager Awards in 2015.

I have internationally recognised profile as an architectural illustrator and before Covid-19, I taught drawing workshops specialising in understanding of perspective. Archisketcher has been used widely by schools and colleges to inform the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level drawing curriculum. Ongoing research includes developing subject content more aligned to higher education and has potential impact on how architecture and interior design drawing is taught on HE programmes. Pedagogically my urban sketching drawing practice has influenced teaching of drawing skills to my students, and I am considered an ‘expert’ in perspective drawing.

In recent months I have collaborated with Winsor & Newton and Derwent on publicised art campaigns and in collaboration with The Big Draw, UK. In 2022, I represented the City of Salford as part of the International Network of Michelin Cities delegation at the world’s leading travel illustration exhibition; Rendez-vous du Carnet de Voyage, in Clermont-Ferrand. I sit on the editorial board of Mancunian Books and my work has been featured in the Sunday Observer News Review and on The Guardian website. Illustration clients include Marketing Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Manchester, Selfridges, Hotel Costes (Paris), Westbank Corporation (Vancouver) and Virgin Atlantic Airways. You can find me @simoneridyard on Instagram