Design Through Iteration:
How Tools Shape Critical Thinking
Led and Designed by: Lemon Xueli Tang
In everyday design practice, tools are often regarded as neutral instruments for achieving creative outcomes. However, they inherently carry ideological and methodological biases. Design is not merely concerned with how things are made, but fundamentally with why they are made in a particular way. This course invites students to critically re-examine the role and influence
of tools within the design process. Through sustained practice, reflection, and experimentation, it explores
how tools shape our judgments, preferences, and
modes of expression.
This five-day intensive workshop invites students to critically explore unfamiliar tools, materials, and
processes through a practice-based and reflective methodology. From imitation to subversion, students move through a sequence of making, reflection, and experimentation to investigate how tools shape their thinking, authorship, and design process. Students engage in writing, tutorials, and group discussions to deepen their critical awareness and develop unique visual languages.
D1
Framing Curiosity: Tools as Questions
The workshop begins by challenging students to reconsider their understanding of tools not as neutral instruments, but as conceptual agents with embedded ideologies. Through guided discussion and exploratory mapping, participants identify an unfamiliar tool, material, or process to critically engage with across the week. This sets the foundation for tool-based enquiry and individualised research directions.
Key Skills Developed:
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Critical mapping and contextual enquiry
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Research orientation and observational analysis
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Introduction to practice-led research methodologies
D2
Copying as a Method of Understanding
Participants engage in close study and material imitation, using their selected tool to replicate an existing visual or design reference. This reproduction phase is positioned not as mimicry but as a deliberate act of learning and training — a way to inhabit and examine the tool’s bias, precision, and limitations.
Key Skills Developed:
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Material sensitivity and precision through practice
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Deep observation and analytical reproduction
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Framing making as a critical and interpretative act
D3
Misuse,Subverting the Familiar
Through structured reflection, students are encouraged to experiment beyond conventional usage. The tool becomes a subject of deconstruction and misuse — expanded, challenged, and redefined through iterative experiments. Alongside one-to-one tutorials, participants are prompted to question function, gesture, and material logic.
Key Skills Developed:
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Iterative design thinking
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Risk-taking and improvisation
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Writing as reflective practice
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Constructive peer and tutor feedback sessions
D4
Investigating through Making
Students take their hacked tools into the world — engaging with their surroundings through a lens of curiosity and sensory perception. A brief field investigation allows them to document textures, moods, or overlooked phenomena in the environment and return with impressions to reinterpret through rapid visual iterations.
Key Skills Developed:
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Field research and experiential observation
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Translation of sensory data into visual forms
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Rapid prototyping and compositional experimentation
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Collaborative critique and thematic analysis
D5
Synthesis and Symposium
The final day is dedicated to reflecting, articulating, and presenting. Students prepare a short-format presentation in a medium of their choice, showcasing their conceptual journey, design discoveries, and personal growth. The day concludes with a group-led symposium and the launch of Investigating Through Iteration, a curated publication designed to archive and celebrate the week’s collective insights.
Key Skills Developed:
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Creative storytelling and documentation
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Public speaking and presentation strategies
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Visual communication of research outcomes
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Collective publishing and curatorial thinking
