Designing with and for meaning

Abstract

In today’s fast-paced and complex world, furniture designers navigate a growing tension between self-expression and collective needs, functionality and emotion, individuality and responsibility. Finding balance within this spectrum has become increasingly challenging, as the field faces both external pressures and internal expectations for originality, responsibility, and purpose. Yet, while the concept development phase holds immense potential to anchor meaning and direction, existing furniture design theory offers little actionable guidance for it. Leaving this stage solely to intuition risks missing opportunities for innovation in furniture design.

This thesis explores how research-based strategies can guide and empower furniture designers during the concept development phase to embed meaning for both creator and user. It argues that meaning-making can serve as a central lens for navigating the complexity of contemporary design—connecting personal reflection with societal relevance and transforming normative urgencies into creative opportunities.

A mixed-method inquiry combining a systematic literature review and a research-through-design study led to the development of FRAMES—a flexible system of operating modes, thinking modes, and tools presented as guiding questions and worksheets. Drawing from Human-Centred Design, Flow Theory, Emotional Durability, the Semantic Turn, and Meaning-Driven Innovation, the system supports designing with and for meaning.

Findings reveal two interrelated dimensions of meaning: one anticipatory—embedded in context and user—and one reflective—cultivated through awareness and intentional thinking. Together, they reposition furniture design from functional problem-solving or pure self-expression toward a meaning-making practice that fosters emotional, cultural, and long-term sustainability