Abstract
This paper investigates how designers utilise the past as part of the design process which stands as an under explored facet of design practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews (��=11) with professionals from both design and memory institution contexts—galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) that support design heritage in service of the public—we examine what aspects of the past designers engage with, including which pasts. Further, we identify under explored patterns in how the past is accessed, interpreted, and deployed as part of practice. Our thematic analysis of interviews surfaces three core findings: (1) history is used by designers as a tool to shift and deepen practice; (2) tensions in the way designers acknowledge history as a part of design practice; and (3) design communities as (in) formal facilitators of historical awareness. We contribute to design studies by foregrounding the complex, uneven ways the past is mobilised in contemporary design, and call for new frameworks to support historically conscious design practice.
Keywords
Design practice; Design methods; Design history; Empirical studies
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.29
Citation
Anderson, I., Doherty, S.,and Matthews, B.(2025) "We are all historically constructed": Situating the past in designerly practice, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.29
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 2 - Design Futuring
"We are all historically constructed": Situating the past in designerly practice
This paper investigates how designers utilise the past as part of the design process which stands as an under explored facet of design practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews (��=11) with professionals from both design and memory institution contexts—galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) that support design heritage in service of the public—we examine what aspects of the past designers engage with, including which pasts. Further, we identify under explored patterns in how the past is accessed, interpreted, and deployed as part of practice. Our thematic analysis of interviews surfaces three core findings: (1) history is used by designers as a tool to shift and deepen practice; (2) tensions in the way designers acknowledge history as a part of design practice; and (3) design communities as (in) formal facilitators of historical awareness. We contribute to design studies by foregrounding the complex, uneven ways the past is mobilised in contemporary design, and call for new frameworks to support historically conscious design practice.