A gendered theory of design(ing)

Design research academia has proposed a multitude of diagrams in an attempt to model the design process and its associated thinking (Dubberly 2005). Circles, diamonds (Design Council 2005), loops and even ‘squiggles’ (Newman 2006) have all been used to symbolise this complex process. Modelling the design process and associated thinking in this way, despite the various geometries used to represent it, emphasises linear cognition on a binary, transactional problem-solution pairing. Though if we, as Kimbell suggests (2012:143), understand design as relational and so generative and matrixial (Ettinger 2006 in Igoe 2013) we move from an epistemology based on a patriarchal, socioeconomic context to one which supports a feminist paradigm where design problems and solutions are co-emergent, the subjectivity of the designer(s) and the time, place and context of the design experience is not disregarded and intersectionality can be recognised.