Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC)

Description

Founded in 1884, the Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) became a registered charity in 1962 and was awarded a Royal Charter in 1963. Its mission is sharing knowledge and stimulating interest in colour, and it works globally, with worldwide membership, as a centre for networking and community engagement amongst the coloration industry.

It offers coloration courses and qualifications, which it describes as internationally recognised, and reports being the only organisation in the world able to award Chartered Colourist status. Its educational provider members, among them art and design schools, take part in its coloration education programmes, and their students enter its International Design Competition. It offers bursaries of up to 500 pounds.

At Perkin House in Bradford it holds its Textile Collection, launched there in February 2026, which it describes as more than 50,000 artefacts, journals, books and treasures spanning the evolution of dyeing and textile printing, from 19th-century dyers’ notebooks to the Turkey Red Collection; it is cataloguing the collection. With Wiley it publishes the peer-reviewed journal Coloration Technology.

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Currently active

Yes

Offers funding

Yes, this infrastructure provides funding in the following categories:

Founding year

1884

Contact details

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Categorisation

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Partner Infrastructures

Colour Technology Research Group

The Colour Technology group focuses on the imaging, measurement and appearance of colour for design and manufacturing applications. Colour is a naturally multi-disciplinary topic and the diversity of … read more about Colour Technology Research Group

Leeds

Partner Universities

De Montfort University

Leeds Arts University

London Metropolitan University

Loughborough University

Manchester Metropolitan University

Nottingham Trent University

University of Leeds

University of Manchester

University of the Arts London

Additional Partnerships

ASBCI; FESPA UK Association; Huddersfield Centre of Excellence; Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists; Stroudwater Textile Trust; Textile Institute; UKFT; AATCC, United States; CPMA, United States; ETAD, Switzerland; VDMI, Germany; South African Dyers & Finishers Association, South Africa; SDCANZ, Australia and New Zealand; Massey University, New Zealand; National College of Art & Design (NCAD), Ireland; Raffles College of Education, Singapore; School of Communication & Design (RMIT Vietnam), Vietnam; School of Fashion Technology (SOFT), India