1. INTRODUCTION

Human language is filled with meanings and these are connected to the purposes, persons, cultures and contexts within which we communicate. Definitions are central to our communication in daily life and to how we operate as designers. We carry with us and use definitions we have learned in a variety of settings and needs. We define words all the time, through the other words they are joined together with in our speaking and writing.

We use definitions of words in contexts, in use and through interaction. We define what we mean by words in relation to other ones and to other people, ideas and actions. In this sense language is a living, breathing and changing creature that we inhabit and develop. This applies also to our design educational professional interests and activities.

2. ON ‘DESIGN LANGUAGE’

Meaning comes from words in use and from different views connected to purpose. The definitions we arrive at may differ. Think of whether they are ones you know come from friends, school and family or if they arise through your specific interests and membership in a group or an activity. Design education is one domain in which we circulate given meanings and definitions of words and explore the generation of new ones. All these words come to mean something because of how they are taken up and the contexts in which they appear and are applied. 

In study and researching design, we engage in learning processes that also introduce us to specialist terms in the different domains of design, such as interaction of product design. Definitions form a key part of how we use language to create a sense of a shared community of expertise and how we work. We work with and to definitions and meanings drawn from design professionals and practice. 

We also employ terms and concepts in research that are defined through detailed processes of clarification. In practice based inquiry, we shape new design specialist language through experimentation, cases and field studies. 

New words and concepts may enter into our design language form practice or by being generated anew, or coined. These new items need to be defined. Their definitions may take time to be refined so that it is accepted or incorporated, and applied with a shared sense of  meaning. All of these elements of using language to define meaning contribute to a wider ‘design language’.

3. DEFINITIONS, DESIGN AND FUTURES

We use definitions in design all the time. They are drawn from professional practice, from general use but also from specialist vocabularies. At times we absorb these terms and use them in our studies and work. They are part of how we learn to become professionals who can talk and write about our designs and their making, application, use and implications but we also need to look at what they do and how they influence our thoughts, design and understanding.

ACTIVITY #1 : UNPACKING KEY WORDS

There are three words – design, futures, literacies – that are central to the FUEL4DESIGN project and the LEXICON. This activity focuses on them.

1. Take a sheet of A3 paper.

2. Gather four people around a table, or go through these steps on your own.

3. In CAPITAL letters, in the middle of the page write DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES.

4. Allocate one of the following words to each person: DESIGN, FUTURES and LITERACIES. Each person is to take care of their word in the steps that follow.

5. The fourth person is to observe the activity as a whole and later will be asked to join up what has been done. They take the role of walking the group through what comes next.

6. Take a sheet of A4 paper.
For each of the 3 items, list the key elements of what you include that defines your word from a) a general view and b) a design view.

7. Compare you definitions with:
a) a main standard dictionary (print or digital)
b) a specialist definition (from one of your course articles, books or websites)
c) with the information provided in ON DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES

4. UNDERSTANDING RELATIONS BETWEEN WORDS

This section asks you to look further into the definitions and relations between the three central words: design, futures and literacies. It’s important that you understand these as connected words, where meanings arise through how we place emphasis on the different ways they can be read as a term as a whole. We approach this by introducing what we call the MATRIX OF DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES.

ACTIVITY #2: UNTYING A MATRIX

1. Print and read the MATRIX OF DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES.

2. Which of the questions do you think you can answer most easily? Which do you feel the least sure about answering?

3. Sit at a table and cut out all the sections in the matrix.

4. Make two piles (each with a set of the words in bold: DESIGN, FUTURES, LITERACIES).
Place the questions in a second pile

ACTIVITY #3: FILLING OUT THE MATRIX

Let’s now move into filling out the matrix a little.

1. Sort the items into their three piles once again. Take the question pile.

2. Write an answer on the back of each question item.

3. Add all the answers to a pile with the answers face up and shuffle them.

4. One by one, place each answer in the middle of the table.

5. What question do you think each item is answering?

6. Check your answer with the question on the reverse side.

5. REFRESHING DEFINITIONS

When working with language and DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES and FUTURES DESIGN we need to be aware of how the language we are accessing and adopting, applying and circulating is influencing our own thinking and work as well as the wider discourse or communicative arenas and expression they populate and promote. All of the Units the LEXICON and its ESSENTIALS need to be seeing the wider context of the frameworks, world views and philosophies they use and to which they contribute. This is supported by the PHILOSOPHICAL PILLS. This section therefore engages you in an additional round of critical reflection and rewriting.

ACTIVITY #4: ELABORATING ON WRITTEN ANSWERS

Next we look more deeply into answering the questions posed.
1. Place all the items with the questions face up.

2. For each item, read the question, turn the item over and write the question above your earlier notes/responses.

3. For each item now list more information by going online and searching for any related sites, materials, resources and publications that you think relate to a) a question and b) your notes

ACTIVITY #5: REFLECTING ON DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES

Finally, it’s time to look back on what you have done and noted. The aim is that you reflect on what you began to note and what you have arrived at by extending your own thoughts into selective gathering of definitions and related resources on DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES

1. Print out a new clean copy of the MATRIX OF DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES and cut up the elements as before.

2. Drawing on your earlier notes and your new web searching, write a new list of notes on the back of each question item.

3. Depending on how you are working, compare these notes with what you(other persons/groups noted originally.
4. See how what you have noted reads in connection what is covered in ON DESIGN FUTURES LITERACIES

Morrison, Andrew. 2019a. “Design Futures Literacies.” Keynote at the 2019 International DEFSA Conference, Design Education Forum of Southern Africa, Cape Town, VEGA Campus, 9-11 September 2019.

Morrison Andrew. 2019b. “Anticipation and design.” Invited lecture, Imagining Collaborative Future-Making, Malmö University, Malmö, 12-13 November 2019.

Sheridan, Mary, and Jennifer Rowsell. 2010. Design Literacies. London: Routledge.

Ward, Matt. 2019. “Critical about critical and speculative design.” SpeculativeEdu. https://speculativeedu.eu/critical-about-critical-and-speculative-design/

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