Material Meaning: An Investigation into How Meaning Is Organised and Interpreted in Industrial Design Practice

Abstract

This paper reviews a pilot interview method, intended to investigate what meaning making is in industrial design practice. It is the second part of a PhD study on how meaning is organised in industrial design practice, and after design, when the product has transitioned into the possession of a user. Key literature on design, meaning, and practice is briefly considered, followed by a review of 3 semi-structured interviews with industrial designers, focused on discussing firstly a product they have designed, and secondly an object they own. The research takes a material centric approach, tracing the journey of the artefacts, rather than the designer. The artifacts become the focus for discussion of designers’ meaning making practices, and sketching is incorporated as an embodied method to get at a more layered, complex picture. Following the objects helps to ground reflection in the objects’ materiality, and dwell in the connections and relationships.