The Designers Leap: Boundary Jumping to Foster Interdisciplinarity between Textile Design and Science

Abstract

Creative thinking is an instinctive problem-solving process for designers however, designers alone cannot solve real-world problems. Collaboration between higher education and industry, and across design and science disciplines can create new paradigms of research to address societal and economic challenges. This paper argues from the perspective of fashion and textile designers, for design to be at the heart of the collaborative research process and advocates for co-design, speculative-design and scenario design to be considered as valid methodologies to foster interdisciplinarity. Perspectives on interdisciplinary partnerships across academic disciplines and with industry are typified by two very different reflections of collaborative projects between fashion designers, textile designers, scientists and industrial partners. The paper identifies commonalities and differences between scientists and designers, with particular relevance to textiles, in a bid to understand how they may collaborate more effectively in the context of interdisciplinary work, and the paper further identifies factors needed for establishing common enablers for engaging in co-design. This is an under-explored field and highlights the changing role of the designer, and as such is of value to researchers in textiles, fashion and product design.

Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Textile Coloration, Patterning, and Surface Effects

“…These disciplines find a natural meeting point within textile practice, which tacitly draws on knowledge from each [68]. While it has been noted that engineers and designers rarely meet within commercial settings [52], the need for interdisciplinarity within research and innovation has grown in response to the complexity of current societal challenges [19,25,53]. Within this context, textile design research methodologies have evolved over recent decades to construct bridges between concepts of beauty and utility, aesthetics, and function, which enable the investigation of the imaginative alongside the technical (Philpott 2012), and more latterly toward notions of "quantified design" [25].…”

Children’s Functional Clothing: Design Challenges and Opportunities

“…Creative thinking is an integral facet of the functional apparel design process, transcending the confines of conventional approaches to promote innovative solutions. Nevertheless, in the face of the increasingly intricate challenges confronting global industry and society, relying solely on designers' skills is insufficient [62]. The complexity of contemporary issues, involving environmental sustainability, technological advances and social changes, requires a broader, interdisciplinary approach, especially when designing clothing for children.…”

“…However, interdisciplinary work can often present challenges and conflicts among stakeholders [62]. According to Coulter [64], cases of successful collaborations between fashion design-based disciplines and more scientific disciplines such as engineering are limited.…”

Le processus créatif dans une pédagogie du projet au sein de l’enseignement du design textile à l’école obligatoire en Suisse

“…Selon Coulter (2018), la pensée créative fait partie d'un processus intuitif de recherche et de résolution de problèmes pour les concepteurs. Tout comme la conception, la créativité est considérée comme une activité de résolution de problèmes complexes (Matlin, 2001).…”