Aesthetic experiences and design creativity: an ethnographic study of a wool felting design workshop

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationship between aesthetic experiences and design creativity in a wool felting design workshop. For this purpose, a design ethnographic approach was adopted to investigate how a group of fashion design students’ internalised and narrated their aesthetic experiences and emotions related to their physical and social surroundings during their design creation journey. The findings yielded indicate that design creativity and innovativeness are shaped by individuals’ bodily experiences with the textile materials and the design environment. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between aesthetic experiences and creativity, and offers important insights into the structure and content of fashion design practices and design education aimed at promoting innovation.

KEYWORDS:

• Creativity
• design experience
• design ethnography
• aesthetic experiences
• wool-felting design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).