VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.

Abstract

The happening of textile design decisions depends to a significant extent on the designer’s framework of the design theme as concept of development. Contexts of textiles based on different markets provide textile designers with the appropriate psychological design information interaction and awareness of the aesthetic design. The individual’s design contexts are an influential factor in the cognitive characterisation of design, and often design decisions are influenced by the resource areas in the surroundings and in the situation of the textile designer himself in order to extend effective decisions of inner design. This study aims to explore the inside-thoughts of textile designers from different educational backgrounds in making design decisions when they explore in the textile design process. Textile design students from the University of Leeds in UK and the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in China were selected for interviews. In order to conduct a full comparative study, textile education and literature in the UK and China were reviewed to gain insight into the structure of textile design in different cultures for further in-depth interviews. To ensure consistency in the comparison of the research, the study went into the final season of each university and conducted timely interviews with students. In order to gain insight into the minds of textile students designing in different contexts, the study conducted semi-structured interviews based on the design work developed by the students and their areas of expertise. The contribution of this study is to provide insight into textile education and educators’ understanding of students’ design communication and design decisions when developing design work in different contexts. This will illuminate how the differing contexts in which textile teaching and learning takes place affects students’ values and critical internal differences.