Output details

Meaning Making

This research continues a 15-year thread of Gant and Dean’s research that explores material language and the value and identity of ‘plastic’ (malleable) materials and composites. It tests the hypothesis that waste materials embody, and can communicate, material narratives which, when applied, can imbed products with greater meaning, narrative and value(s). The research is predicated on the basis that meaningful, valued materials and products can promote and nurture sustainable attributes, including communicating complex messages of sustainability or ethics in accessible ways to consumers, helping to market and popularise ‘more sustainable’ products and materials, providing authentic user experiences, extending product life-spans and forming user attachments.

The design methods were tested and data was gathered at an industry exhibition at the PUMA headquarters in London. Over 100 professional designers from a range of commercial apparel, product and lifestyle brands, including PUMA, Adidas, IDEO, Prada and WGSN, were presented with materials and products that applied methodologies which reveal, exploit and enhance inherent, embodied or constructed material meanings and narratives. Industry participants were asked to evaluate the methods according to their meaning, value and applicability for their industry. The data was then disseminated at the ‘Praxis and Poetics’ conference (Baltic, 2013) and ‘Making Futures’ conference (Plymouth, 2013). The exhibition and accompanying presentation at PUMA HQ was recorded and broadcast internationally to staff of the PUMA group and to its parent company, the PPR Group (PPR own a number of other brands including Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Stella McCartney). The event and materials also featured in a WGSN article (WGSN is the world’s leading trend forecasting agency, disseminating their articles to an audience of 74,000 fashion, automotive, surface design, interiors, technology, and visual merchandising experts, and product designers and brand managers for companies such as Apple, Walmart, Nike and Levis). SEE DIGITAL OUTPUT.