The paper advocates for a greater emphasis on critical thinking and critical writing by describing and discussing the rationale and implementation of the Design Essay assignment, an applied example of how practice and reflection combined can help students to be more critical, while simultaneously developing writing skills fundamental to their success in and beyond university education. The paper includes initial insights stemming from a qualitative study involving faculty and students from the Product Design, and Furniture and Product Design programs at a higher education institution in the East Midlands region of the UK.