Conference Agenda

Embodiment, affect, and symbolic modelling remain underexplored dimensions of designerly identity formation, despite its recognition as a central outcome of design education. While existing research emphasizes cognitive-skill acquisition, little is known about how studio instructors shape identity through aesthetic, relational, and performative means. This study examines the influence of instructors within the socio-aesthetic ecology of the design studio. Using abductive thematic analysis of focus group interviews with teaching assistants across architecture, industrial design, interior design, and fashion design, the study highlights shared cross-disciplinary patterns across international contexts. Findings reveal that instructors shape designerly becoming not only through teaching but also through aesthetic modelling, emotional attunement, and embodied presence. Students internalize designerly ways of being through symbolic cues, language, and spatial rituals. Identity formation thus emerges as both epistemic and ontological, reframing design education as a site of embodied transformation.