Design: Databases

This resource comprises a collection of over 170 richly illustrated books with practical tools, guidance, and inspiration for practice-led visual arts courses. It covers a range of fields including design and illustration, fashion and textiles, architecture and interiors, film and media, marketing and advertising, and photography.

This online index is the premier source of information for all aspects of design and crafts, from textiles and ceramics to vehicle design, advertising and sustainability. The database covers journal articles, exhibition reviews and news items from 1973 to the present.

ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) is a database for the study of modern and contemporary art. Covers all art forms, including fine art, digital art, crafts, design and photography. Features full abstracts and indexing from art journals published from the late 1960s onwards. Also incorporates book records, including those drawn from the collections of the Tate Library and the Bibliothèque Dominique Bozo, Musée LAM.
 

EBSCO's Academic Search Premier is a multi-disciplinary database that provides active full text for more than 3,100 journals, including active full text for nearly 2,750 peer-reviewed titles. The database also includes more than 70,000 videos from the Associated Press. This collection of videos is updated monthly and includes footage from 1930 to the present day. 

Essential for understanding Black history and culture, this online resource allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent.

A Black Lives Matter learning resource, featuring a collection of articles from the digital archives of over 50 different publications.

An archive of full text scholarly journals focussing on the subject areas of performing arts, architecture, art, education, women's studies, film studies, language and literature, linguistics, and music.

Please note current issues of journals are not included.

This platform provides online access to over 2,000 full text journals across many different subject areas, including Literature, History, Sociology and Social Policy, Criminology, Mathematics, Environmental Science and Sustainability, Physical Science and Information Science.

A key online database for global business and economics topics, including thousands of full text journals, company news, country/industry reports and trend reporting. ABI features key business and economics periodicals such as The Economist. 

EBSCO released a new Business Search Interface (BSI) in July 2025. This new interface makes business research more intuitive and efficient. Students and staff can easily browse leading business journals and magazines, search specific topics and easily locate country economic data, company profiles, industry information, and market research. 

EBSCO's Business Source Ultimate is an indispensable resource for business students. The database offers access to more than 3,500 active full text journals, including many peer-reviewed publications. It spans various business topics, from current trends to historical information and global perspectives. The resource also includes important video collections, such as a new collection of videos from Academy of Management.

Mintel provides detailed market research reports on a wide range of UK market sectors. This includes Market Intelligence, Leisure Intelligence, Retail Intelligence, Financial Intelligence and other industrial reports. Mintel also includes information on demographics and trend drivers.

Please note: you may not reproduce or otherwise use the Mintel website or any information therein as an input for any artificial intelligence system ("AI system").

Statista is a global business data platform. The resource includes insights and facts across 600 industries and 50+ countries. Use it for market, company and country research topics.

Forecasting and trend analysis for style, fashion and design; includes fashion image library and online space for personal creative development.
Insight provides market intelligence and analysis of trends in consumer attitudes, marketing, retail experience and innovation.
Lifestyle & Interiors provides insight, updates and forecasts into interior design, inspiration, and retail intelligence in the lifestyle, hospitality and interiors industries. "You have been given access to the content of WGSN for your own personal, non-commercial and information purpose only. You must not share or distribute such content across social media and any other external platforms.
It is important that you understand that your access and logins are limited to you as an authorised user of De Montfort University and any breach in the use of their content may result in prosecution, damage claims and loss of access to everyone else in the institution."

An archive (1897 to 2005) of the weekly British culture and lifestyle magazine, Country Life, focusing on fine art and architecture, the great country houses, and rural living. Every page is fully searchable, and reproduced in full color and high resolution. Country Life Archive presents a chronicle of more than 100 years of British heritage, including its art, architecture, and landscapes, with an emphasis on leisure pursuits such as antique collecting, hunting, shooting, equestrian news, and gardening.

To access The Fashion & Race Database (FRD) as a first-time user, you will need to verify your status as a DMU student or staff by logging in with your university Single Sign On account. You will then be asked to register a personal account with the resource by using your DMU email address. You will also have to accept the content provider's terms of use before your registration is processed.

To ensure that only valid DMU students/staff have access to The Fashion & Race Database, the provider requests that all registered users re-initialise their personal FRD accounts annually. This is a one-time step each year. If you are a registered FRD user and see a "Subscribe Now" blocking message, please re-initialise your account by visiting the FRD/DMU registration start page. This will ensure continuing access to FRD as an active member of DMU's community.
You can find more information about registering for access by visiting the following The Fashion and Race Database library FAQ.

The Fashion and Race Database is a dynamic learning platform that examines the history and impact of race in the fashion system and our everyday life.

To access the online resource, please click on the Log in via your University or Institution link and then select De Montfort University. You will then be prompted to enter your DMU Single Sign On username and password.

The Subculture Archives is an educational and cultural research resource of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles, and sounds that forged them. From Rave, Punk, Rockabilly to Grime. From the world's leading collection of youth culture history.

The collection incorporates photographs, ephemera, objects and oral histories celebrating our shared youth culture history.

A complete searchable online archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution colour page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names.

Definitive site for all publications from British Standards Institution, with bibliographic information for more than 39,500 documents.

To download and print PDF documents from British Standards, you are required to have the FileOpen plug-in installed on your device. You can still view documents online without the plug-in.
You can download the FileOpen plug-in from the FileOpen website.
To download, please save the document to your device first, and then open the file.

DMU registered staff and students (authorised users) may print one hard copy and may download one single electronic copy of any of the Documents (the Permitted Copies). The Permitted Copies may not be used to build a hard copy or electronic reference collection that exceeds 5% of the total Documents under our subscribed products. The Permitted Copies must be destroyed or removed when our subscription to BSI ends and/or on completion of your degree programme and/or contract (whichever applies). Authorised Users may copy up to 10% of the content of any of the Documents for use in another document for other authorised users. All copied content must contain the phrase “Copyright BSI Standards Limited © {Date} (where {Date} is the Date of the copying).

Extensive range of full-text documents covering all aspects of the building, engineering, design and construction process.
Use this resource for essential technical and regulatory information from organisations such as RIBA, BRE, CIRIA, Concrete Society etc. Also includes Building Regulations, Eurocodes, the Metric Handbook and many ebooks.

Watch, record, create clips, search for upcoming TV and radio programmes by title or keyword, compile favourite shows into playlists and share them with others. On and off campus: Requires your Single Sign On username and password (the same as for MyDMU and email). Only available in the UK.

Kanopy provides access to critically-acclaimed movies, thought-provoking documentaries, award-winning foreign films and lots more.

When off campus, please click on Visit the Montfort Collection and then the Log in to Montfort link. You will then need to enter your DMU Single Sign On account to access the Kanopy site. If you have previously logged in as a DMU registered member then you may not be required to sign in again.

For any titles that are not immediately available to view on the Kanopy site, please complete the Kanopy request form. This will then be reviewed by the relevant subject team to see if a purchase can be approved.

You can watch Kanopy titles on a number of different mobile and TV apps. You can find more information about these different Kanopy apps through the Kanopy support pages.

To access UK national and regional newspapers through the Lexis+ platform, click on the Content tab from the Lexis+ homepage and then select Newspapers.

Please note: LexisNexis terms and conditions do not permit the uploading of Lexis content into third party applications, including artificial intelligence technologies such as large language models and generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT, Bing, Google Bard and Harvey).

ProQuest Central brings together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Language and Literature, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, as well as core titles in the Performing and Visual Arts, History, Religion, Philosophy, and includes thousands of full-text newspapers from around the world. 

Newspapers selected from the British Library's collections, including the Leicester Chronicle, from 1840-1900.