The value of designers' creative practice within complex collaborations

This paper reports a case study investigating the productive value of designersu0027 creative practice within complex academic-industrial collaborations in which a designeru0027s practice had a formative role. Adopting a pragmatic approach, collaboratorsu0027 experiences of this project were reconstructed through interviews and ‘annotated timelines.’ Collaborators were found to value the designeru0027s work in responding to their particular concerns whilst also opening up new possibilities. This paper discusses how such benefit is attributable to the ‘designerly thinking’ of skilled designers, shifting the focus of work from problem-solving to problematisation and enabling participants to collectively formulate concerns, roles, and potentialities. The paper concludes that designersu0027 creative practice can enable collaborative projects to build upon and transcend participantsu0027 expertise and expectations through ‘creative exchange.’