Incarnation: A vision of design from its origin

This thesis examines design through a lens that is both historical and practical. Today, design is often treated as a tool for solving commercial problems, but this view is only a small part of its longer history. From the late nineteenth century through the twentieth century, designers worked with a wide range of aims—social, political, aesthetic, and speculative. Their work shows that design has never been limited to market needs.

To understand this broader field, the thesis proposes a simple idea: design can be understood as a practice of incarnation. In this account, design is not about expressing a theme but about giving it material existence. A concept becomes real either in the designed object itself or in its user. This view helps clarify how design differs from expressive art and why the two sometimes overlap.

Several of my own works are presented as case studies. Each project begins with a theme—such as consolation, solemnity, continuity, or compound vision—and explores how that theme can be made real in form or in use. Through these examples, the thesis shows how design practice as incarnation can move from a theoretical account to a concrete method.

By recovering the plurality of design’s past and by articulating a clear account of incarnation, this thesis argues for a more expansive understanding of what design can do today. Rather than serving only commercial purposes, design can once again become a field that engages ideas, reshapes lives, and opens new possibilities for the future.