Creativity in craft led design: the Tools are the rules
DS 73-1 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Design Creativity Volume 1
Year: 2012
Editor: Duffy, A.; Nagai, Y.; Taura, T.
Author: MacLachlan, L.; Earl, C.; Eckert, C.
Section: Education and Practice
Page(s): 317-326
Abstract
The co-evolution of new forms with specified tools characterises craft led design. Formal views of design and creativity may be characterised by the manipulation of the rules of a knowledge domain. This paper proposes that tools are one form of rules, and the selection, modification and invention of tools corresponds to the definition, transformation and creation of spaces for exploration in accordance with Boden‘s framework of creativity and other accepted creativity literature. Evidence from interviews with designer-makers who work directly with tools demonstrates this phenomenon. Finally the discussion proposes that knowledge from the results of this study could enhance the creativity of designers working in craft-led design by providing an explicit rationalisation of a particular design process of which they may have been previously unaware.
Keywords: craft, rules, tools, transformation, emergence, synthesis, prototyping