DESIGN BASED RESEARCH PROCESS FOR TRADITIONAL TEXTILE DESIGN

Abstract

One of the greatest elements forming life style, common cultural being, traditions, customs, habitual manners, conventions, routines and values
system put forth by a nation throughout history, is aesthetic perception. The hand knitting art which reflects and keeps this aesthetic perception
alive, has survived till today changing scarcely its motifs and composition features and taking form under the light of common aesthetical
criteria regarding history and beliefs of the nation. It should be realized that textile is a vast source for designers to deal with textile arts in
purpose of sustaining, prospering and publicizing traditional motifs, since textile is the gist for traditional heritage. The value of the artifacts
should be soughed in the philosophical uniqueness of our culture and the common aesthetic DNA cherished for centuries. Traditional textile
design has a method- free and quietly conducted structure unfortunately. This structure has compressed itself between inner dynamics and
retarded the transformation of present local and cultural elements into universal designs. Furthermore there is no internationally accepted design
method to be used in traditional textile design.
Though not for the traditional textile design, Design Research has been used for long in curriculum development and designing learning
activities as a method having both theoretical and practical background for textile design. Research Based Design, a type of Design Research,
is a method where design is offered and applied during the preparations of learning activities; the difficulties of application is evaluated and
retested and above all this process is based on a systematics. DBR which performs a process for the design of a curriculum with an
understanding of continuous development, not a product design, may clarify many uncertainty designers experience in the field of traditional
textile design. The subject of this study has been chosen as DBR to explain it as a convenient method for the novice and educated designers in
search of a method and for the craftsman who design their own culture based collections. This study also aims to discuss the design algorithm
developed using Reeves model of the DBR for the traditional textile product development.