Nurturing Intuitive Methods of Creation

Author: Saskia van Kampen

Abstract

The role that intuition plays in design is essential to the process of making and innovation. But can intuition be taught? If intuition works on a subconscious level how can students harness it or even talk about it in a classroom environment or within the industry? How do we as designers put what we do into words? The struggle for designers to objectively articulate the process of making has led to what Peter Dormer in The Art of the Maker describes as a sharp decline in the status of craft knowledge due to its lack of intrinsic value (Dormer 1994, 25). Intuition can become a crutch, a barrier to innovation and an impediment for designers wishing to access a space of critical discourse. If we can employ a vocabulary that articulates the intuitive process it will enable more analytical teaching and thinking.

Keywords: Intuition, Pedagogy, Design, Methodology, Risk, Failure, Process