A Study of Concept Development in Creative Product Design

Abstract

The imaginative power of human beings is the reappearance and integration of emotional and perceptional experiences. Therefore, if the personal imagination would like to be further developed, the first thing is to enhance agility of emotional experiences and perception. And also the conceptual combination involves joining of two or more concepts to produce a new meaning that satisfies the representation of each constituent concept. Original concepts may emerge from conceptual combination in imagination. New attributes may also emerge from conceptual combination that cannot be explained by each individual concept. The cognitive processes that produce emergent concepts and attributes in conceptual combination may be viewed as a creative process. This research was conducted through a literature review, case studies, and interviews with experts on award-winning works in international design competitions. Through qualitative analysis of these design projects, we identified several paths leading from imaginative constructs to conceptual development in the design process: thematic relationships, intersecting attributes, the transfer of attributes, inherited attributes, causal relationships, analogical relationships, multi-level inclusive relationships, and the interpretation of contrasting meaning. It is hoped that the results of this study will serve as a useful reference in design education, particularly with regard to the development of imaginative and creative capacity.