Techniques for Design Thinking
Today we had a tutorial on Design Thinking that really inspired me and made me question who I actually am as a designer. After a few afternoons with tea and James Morrison music, and sportswear-american football-chocolate talks with my housemates, I finally came up with the three words that described both my presonality and my designer alter-ego.
I analyzed one of them with the help of five coursemates, using conversational thinking and brainstorming. Timelessness was one of the words I relate to the most, so I chose it for a start. Explaining my ideas exactly as they are in my head was a bit of a challenge, as my brain usually works quite messy, but I finally made it. After five confusing minutes in which I was trying to get my ideas across to Georgia, Fanny, Dominic and Elitsa, I actually found out that this conversation made the idea of timelessness sound much more clear in my own head as well.
I have always known I didn’t want to make disposable clothes, I always had this concept in my head for garments that endure in time but I cannot observe timelessness just in terms of quality and durability (which are obviously a must). I found myself giving really sentimental examples from my childhood which made me realize that this is what I want my clothes to be about – emotion, affection, stories, memories.
Apart from function and comfort, the idea of durability in time itself also suggests memories and relation to people, past and moments. I can give my housemate, Josh, as an example – he still keeps his Toy Story cup, which he got when he was born, and also puts his baby duvet around his shoulders every single morning. That made me discover I am also just like that – last year I took my dad’s old jumper to university, not so much to keep my body warm, but mainly to keep my heart warm (it still smells like him and reminds me of one Christmas three years ago), my sister Eli also took our mom’s leather jacket, because she wore it on one of the best trips we had together and I would never forget it.
After summing everything up and brainstorming everything in my notebook, I realised most of the words were related to both the physical and the emotional comfort a person might get from wearing a certain piece of clothing. After all our clothes do tell stories and hold memories. Think about that next time you put on that shirt you wore when you visited Paris, or the jumper your got from your friend on a rainy day. Feels nice, doesn’t it?
Image source: bossfight.co, gobeyondthesky, rebel-performance