Karen Wuytens
The development of a reflective design model to describe and support the diversity in the process of designing jewellery and objects.
Whithin jewellery design there is an existing trend to use alternative materials instead of the traditional precious metals. These new materials require the use of new techniques and can therefore lead to surprising, new forms, but also to other, various design methods. In this PhD, I try to develop a new and transparent design model with enough space for the diversity in design processes between different designers. The aim is to develop a design language, which can be used for making explicit these different design processes. Therefore my artistic research is based on a literature review of design models from other disciplines (architecture and product developers), the study of existing materials databases, and the organization of workshops and focus groups with a selection of designers of jewellery & objects. Moreover, this conceptual framework will be carefully tested and developed using my own artistic practice. In this practice respectively, material, technique, form and function will be questioned and result in a series of jewellery & objects. In this way there is a constant interaction between the reflective and practical part of this research. The conceptual model also forms the basis for a design database called DoDesign, an EFRO- project in collaboration with Design Platform Limburg.
Promotor: Dr. B. Willems
Co-promotor: Dr. D. Huycke
Artistic Promotor: Prof. H. Hermsen
Keywords: Design model – jewellery – objects – diversity – design process