QUESTIONS EVERY MASTERS OF DESIGN STUDENT SHOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER by Garnet Herts:
1. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
What is the design problem? What are you going to solve? Was there something that you were unsatisfied with that led to you doing this research? What design work do you hate? What do you want to improve and why?
2. WHO CARES? Does the world need this? Why? Why should people care about this problem? Who is your audience? Where is your audience located? Have you communicated with them or know them?
3. WHAT IS THE EXISTING WORK? What have other people done about this problem? What is your ‘literature review’ around this topic and what did it find? Why is the existing work not sufficient? What are the gaps and unanswered questions in the published literature around this particular design problem?
4. WHAT IS YOUR PROJECT PLAN? What are you going to do about this problem? Explain your approach and how you plan to directly address this problem in detail. What is the timeline or plan of how you will consistently move forward? Is the plan feasible? What resources will it need to be successful, and are these resources available?
5. TEACH YOUR DESIGN METHODS. What practical and material design processes and techniques did you use to build your work? Did you learn anything valuable about your studio tools, techniques or methods? Explain these methods like a teacher, in a way that other designers can learn from you.
6. EXPLAIN EXPECTATIONS vs. RESULTS. What did you expect to find when you started out this research? How does this compare to what you actually found? In other words, how do your results differ from your expectations? How do these two things differ? What shifted this or made this different?
7. EXPLAIN FINDINGS IN 2 SENTENCES. What does this mean? What are your core conclusions and take-away points? After all the work you have gone through, what are the most important things you have learned?
8. EXPLAIN YOUR DESIGN IMPACT. What are the implications of your work beyond your own personal journey? What communities are impacted by your work? How does this research contribute to the field of design? How does this work help the world be better? Who in the world is helped by this research in design? How do you know that it will have a significant impact on the field of design beyond your personal journey?
9. EXPLAIN KNOWLEDGE MOBILIZATION. How will this work be disseminated beyond this graduate program? Where or how are you going to publish or exhibit this work? Will this work be disseminated online, at conferences, in galleries, through videos, workshops, as a commercial product or as a startup looking for VC investment?
10. WHAT IS YOUR FIVE YEAR PLAN? What do you honestly think you will be doing in five years? Alternately, how do you think this project would proceed if you worked on it consistently for five more years after you graduate? For example, what would this research look like if continued through a PhD or a startup company?
1. What is the Problem?
The design problem addressed in this research is the fashion industry’s neglect of the clothing hanger as a critical, yet often overlooked, component of sustainability. While much attention has been paid to textile innovation and ethical production, the hanger remains an emblem of “hidden waste,” contributing to plastic pollution, unsustainable material use, and a throwaway culture. This research challenges the invisibility of the hanger in sustainable design discourse and seeks to reimagine it as a meaningful, poetic object capable of supporting garment longevity and cultivating care in both form and function.
The inquiry began with a broad question:
How might an archival study of clothing hangers—those everyday objects we use constantly but rarely think about—combined with insights from natural patterns, inspire the design of sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives while equipping emerging designers with tools to integrate circular design and environmental awareness into the fashion industry?
How might an archival study of clothing hangers—those everyday objects we use constantly but rarely think about—combined with insights from natural patterns, inspire the design of sustainable, eco-friendly alternatives while equipping emerging designers with tools to integrate circular design and environmental awareness into the fashion industry?
This question laid the foundation for exploring the intersection of historical inquiry, ecological principles, and design education. The intention was to investigate not only how sustainable hangers could be prototyped, but also how the process and outcomes could serve as a pedagogical and curatorial model—potentially manifesting in installations, exhibitions, and an editorial handbook aimed at emerging designers.
Over time, through deeper reflection, personal observation, and engagement with nature, the research evolved. The scope expanded from simply producing sustainable alternatives to plastic and metal hangers, to embracing a more poetic, philosophical, and systems-based exploration of care, materiality, and metaphor. The name of the project, Re-Hang, reflects this shift. It combines the ideas of “rethink” and “hang,” referencing the object of study while inviting a fresh, reflective approach to sustainability. The “re-” prefix alludes to key ecological themes such as reuse, recycle, and reimagine—while the title itself remains versatile for future applications, such as exhibit branding or a handbook title.
This evolution led to the development of five refined research questions. These questions maintain the project's practical grounding in material and ecological design, while expanding its philosophical and experiential dimensions:
What does it mean to ‘hold with care’ in design—physically, emotionally, and environmentally?
This question anchors the project’s poetic, material, and ethical inquiry and threads through every level of the design practice.
This question anchors the project’s poetic, material, and ethical inquiry and threads through every level of the design practice.
How can sustainable hanger design guided by nature-connected methods prolong garment life and reduce waste in the fashion industry?
This question links the research to real-world impact while embracing a poetic process.
This question links the research to real-world impact while embracing a poetic process.
How might an object-centered design approach reshape our relationship with materials, form, and care beyond human-centered frameworks?
This inquiry challenges conventional design paradigms and opens space for a more-than-human perspective.
This inquiry challenges conventional design paradigms and opens space for a more-than-human perspective.
In what ways can discarded or undervalued materials be transformed into functional, poetic pieces that honour organic shapes and the imperfections of nature?
This reflects a core interest in wood, material reuse, and the aesthetics of imperfection.
This reflects a core interest in wood, material reuse, and the aesthetics of imperfection.
How can the metaphor of the hanger as a holder reveal hidden systems of support, transition, and care within design, environment, and everyday life?
This final question brings together metaphor, systems thinking, and tangible design intervention.
This final question brings together metaphor, systems thinking, and tangible design intervention.
Together, these questions address a design problem rooted in invisibility, disconnection, and waste, offering an alternative model that brings together sustainability, material intelligence, poetic inquiry, and emotional engagement. They reflect a shift from merely designing sustainable alternatives to engaging with deeper values embedded in design practice: how to hold, how to care, and how to sustain.
2. Who Cares?
This research addresses a design problem that holds relevance across multiple interconnected audiences—each with a stake in shaping a more sustainable and mindful fashion industry. The world needs this inquiry because it challenges the invisibility of small but impactful objects like clothing hangers, which, though ubiquitous, contribute significantly to environmental degradation through their materials, production, and disposability. By centering the hanger as both an object of study and a metaphor for care, structure, and sustainability, the research invites a deeper cultural and ecological reflection on design practices.
The primary audiences for this work include:
Emerging designers and design students—particularly those interested in sustainable fashion, material experimentation, and systemic thinking. This group is actively seeking models of practice that bridge poetic inquiry, environmental responsibility, and design innovation.
Sustainable fashion practitioners and material designers—individuals and studios working at the intersection of ecology, aesthetics, and ethical production. These professionals are located across urban centers, especially in hubs like Vancouver, Victoria, and other design-forward communities where the sustainable fashion movement is growing.
Cultural institutions and educators—those involved in exhibition design, archival studies, and design education, who may use this work as a tool for teaching, showcasing, or expanding design discourse around material intelligence and emotional sustainability.
Industry collaborators—including apparel companies, retail designers, and product developers who are reevaluating their impact and seeking innovative approaches to integrating circular design principles into their production systems.
The research is grounded in both personal and professional relationships with these audiences. Through current work as a graphic designer at DUER, a Vancouver-based performance apparel company, there is direct access to design teams, material developers, and sustainability strategists. Engagement has also begun with local woodworkers and product designers through early-stage collaborations with Vancouver-based studios such as Origins Studio. In addition, outreach has been conducted to museums, archives, and material researchers—including the Fashion History Museum and McCord Stewart Museum—to build an interdisciplinary network around the project.
This body of work matters because it does not merely propose an alternative hanger design—it repositions the act of design itself as a relational, ecological, and poetic practice. It offers tools for reflection and transformation in a field where speed and disposability often overshadow care and intentionality. For audiences navigating the complexities of sustainable design, Re-Hang becomes a catalyst for inquiry, conversation, and change.
3. What is the Existing Work?
While sustainable fashion has seen significant innovation in materials, supply chains, and repairability, the design of clothing hangers remains a relatively unexamined area within both academic literature and industry practice. Most existing work on fashion sustainability emphasizes textiles, production ethics, and garment life cycles—but rarely considers the afterlife of garments in everyday use and storage. This omission leaves a crucial gap: how can storage tools such as hangers support sustainability goals, particularly in the context of garment longevity, fabric integrity, and circular design thinking?
A review of contemporary sustainable fashion brands and their strategies highlights this absence:
DUER: Performance-Driven Sustainability
DUER is a performance apparel company that integrates sustainable natural fibers (such as TENCEL and merino wool) with functional synthetics to create garments built for long-lasting wear. Their sustainability strategy focuses on the use of low-impact materials and emphasizes durability to reduce overconsumption. However, while DUER actively promotes garment longevity, there is currently no public initiative addressing how storage solutions—like hangers—might support that mission. In retail and in practice, DUER continues to use standard plastic or wooden hangers that do not reflect the brand’s sustainability values. The lack of attention to how garments are held, stored, and cared for—especially in relation to structured or technical fabrics—reveals a design gap that this research aims to address.
DUER is a performance apparel company that integrates sustainable natural fibers (such as TENCEL and merino wool) with functional synthetics to create garments built for long-lasting wear. Their sustainability strategy focuses on the use of low-impact materials and emphasizes durability to reduce overconsumption. However, while DUER actively promotes garment longevity, there is currently no public initiative addressing how storage solutions—like hangers—might support that mission. In retail and in practice, DUER continues to use standard plastic or wooden hangers that do not reflect the brand’s sustainability values. The lack of attention to how garments are held, stored, and cared for—especially in relation to structured or technical fabrics—reveals a design gap that this research aims to address.
ANIÁN MFG: Circular and Recycled Fashion
ANIÁN centers its practice on circular economy principles, using recycled natural fibers, particularly post-consumer wool, and avoiding virgin synthetics. The brand’s garments require thoughtful care and maintenance to uphold their longevity, but guidance is limited to basic washing instructions. There is no exploration of how storage systems, such as hangers, could contribute to preserving garment structure—especially for heavier materials like wool. A hanger designed to support ANIÁN’s fabric weight and respect its biodegradable ethos could enhance their closed-loop philosophy and offer an additional layer of consumer education and brand alignment.
ANIÁN centers its practice on circular economy principles, using recycled natural fibers, particularly post-consumer wool, and avoiding virgin synthetics. The brand’s garments require thoughtful care and maintenance to uphold their longevity, but guidance is limited to basic washing instructions. There is no exploration of how storage systems, such as hangers, could contribute to preserving garment structure—especially for heavier materials like wool. A hanger designed to support ANIÁN’s fabric weight and respect its biodegradable ethos could enhance their closed-loop philosophy and offer an additional layer of consumer education and brand alignment.
Arc'teryx: High-Performance, Technical Sustainability
Arc’teryx positions itself as a leader in technical performance, repairability, and long-term durability. Through initiatives such as the ReBird™ Program, the brand emphasizes product lifespan and material innovation, including eco-conscious waterproofing and recycled synthetics. Despite this strong sustainability focus, Arc’teryx’s in-store presentation and garment storage still rely on high-end wooden, metal, or plastic hangers—none of which reflect sustainable innovation in display systems. These choices reveal a missed opportunity to align everyday garment handling and retail display with the brand’s environmental commitments.
Arc’teryx positions itself as a leader in technical performance, repairability, and long-term durability. Through initiatives such as the ReBird™ Program, the brand emphasizes product lifespan and material innovation, including eco-conscious waterproofing and recycled synthetics. Despite this strong sustainability focus, Arc’teryx’s in-store presentation and garment storage still rely on high-end wooden, metal, or plastic hangers—none of which reflect sustainable innovation in display systems. These choices reveal a missed opportunity to align everyday garment handling and retail display with the brand’s environmental commitments.
Gaps in Existing Work | The review reveals several key gaps:
Storage as Sustainability: Little to no attention has been paid to how hangers affect the long-term health and usability of garments. Fabric deformation, stress points, and improper storage all contribute to reduced garment lifespan—a contradiction for brands promoting durability and repair.
Material Intelligence in Hangers: While clothing materials have evolved significantly, hanger materials remain stagnant, often relying on mass-produced plastic or hardwood with minimal ecological consideration. There is a need for biodegradable, shape-conscious, and emotionally resonant alternatives.
Consumer Education through Everyday Objects: Brands are not currently leveraging hangers as tools for storytelling, education, or reinforcing values of care, slowness, and environmental mindfulness. The potential of the hanger as a vehicle for communication remains untapped.
Design Discourse: Academic literature largely overlooks hangers as a subject of design inquiry. This project contributes to filling that void by drawing connections between material practices, object-centered design, and poetic inquiry.
By focusing on the humble hanger, this research opens a new space within sustainable fashion—one that challenges the invisibility of support structures and repositions them as active agents in fostering environmental and emotional durability.
4. What is Your Project Plan?
The Re-Hang project proposes a multi-phase research and design approach to address the overlooked role of clothing hangers in sustainable fashion. The objective is to explore and prototype ecologically responsible hanger designs that embody the values of care, longevity, and poetic material intelligence. The plan unfolds over four months (May–August 2025), structured around iterative exploration, fieldwork, prototyping, and synthesis.
Phase 1: Initiation & Dual Journaling (May 2025)
This phase focuses on setting the foundation for both analytical and intuitive inquiry. Two parallel journaling practices will begin:
An artifact observation journal, involving the collection, sketching, and photography of vintage and existing hanger designs.
A workplace self-ethnographic journal, documenting language, decisions, and concerns within the researcher’s role at DUER, a sustainable performance apparel company.
The phase will also include a solo overnight hiking trip to begin walking-based inquiry and reconnect with natural materials and forms. Early visual mind maps will be created to investigate themes such as holding, structure, and support.
Phase 2: Explorations in Context (June 2025)
This phase deepens engagement with both the fashion industry and the natural environment. Key activities include:
Interviews with sustainable fashion practitioners and material designers to understand current storage solutions, material limitations, and possibilities.
Continued field journaling and solo hikes, with an emphasis on photographing and observing wood formations and natural joints.
Collaboration with local fabrication studios (e.g., Origins Studio) for early experimental prototyping.
Engagement in cultural ethnography, particularly around animism and spiritual relationships with trees, informing a nature-connected approach to materiality.
Phase 3: Prototyping & Synthesis (July 2025)
The third phase focuses on tangible output and real-world testing:
Creation of 30 experimental hanger prototypes using collected, found, and repurposed materials.
Testing of these prototypes in both domestic and professional settings to assess performance, garment compatibility, and emotional resonance.
Ongoing journaling and walking to support reflective evaluation.
Analysis of material-performance patterns and documentation of aesthetic, practical, and symbolic insights.
Phase 4: Presentation & Reflection (August 2025)
The final phase centers on communication and future planning:
Compilation of research findings into a visual and textual narrative, blending journals, photography, diagrams, and reflections.
Development of a public presentation format (open critique, exhibition, or workshop-style review).
Articulation of a research framework to guide the project into thesis year, outlining key methods, values, and directions.
Feasibility & Resources
The plan is highly feasible and builds upon both internal and external resources already in place. Key resources include:
Access to professional design networks through the researcher’s employment at DUER.
Partnerships with fabrication studios and local material experts, including preliminary discussions with Origins Studio.
Support from academic advisors and archival institutions, including responses from the Fashion History Museum, McCord Stewart Museum, and City of Vancouver Archives.
Material access, including recycled and scrap wood, donated hangers, and tools for documentation (camera, journaling kits).
Field research support, self-directed and informed by previous experience in solo hiking and nature-connected design practices.
This multi-strand approach directly addresses the problem by integrating industry-based insight, natural material exploration, and poetic practice into a cohesive design research process. The project balances rigor with openness, making space for new insights, tensions, and possibilities to emerge.
5. Teach Your Design Methods
This project engages a set of intentional, layered design methods that combine material experimentation, poetic inquiry, and critical observation. The aim is not only to prototype sustainable hanger alternatives, but to develop a framework book—a handbook for designers that teaches values of holding, care, and intentional design. The book will document methods, reflections, and insights drawn from this research, serving as a practical and poetic guide for emerging and practicing designers.
The methods below are offered as both a process for this project and a learning tool for others.
1. Dual Journaling: Observation + Reflection
What it is: Two parallel journaling practices—one focused on material observations, and one focused on design culture.
How to do it:
How to do it:
Keep an artifact observation journal with sketches, photographs, and notes on existing hanger forms, noting material qualities and signs of wear.
Maintain a self-ethnographic studio journal within a work context to document language, decisions, and tensions in real-time design processes.
What it teaches: How to surface the invisible frameworks of design—what holds us, what we overlook, and where values are embedded.
What it teaches: How to surface the invisible frameworks of design—what holds us, what we overlook, and where values are embedded.
2. Walking-Based Inquiry and Field Material Collection
What it is: A reflective practice that uses movement through nature as a method for sensory and material engagement.
How to do it:
How to do it:
Go on solo hikes with a journal and a camera. Observe natural holding structures—tree joints, curved limbs, rock balances.
Collect found materials that resonate with ideas of support and balance.
What it teaches: That observation and movement can lead to profound design insights. Design becomes less about invention and more about response to natural intelligence.
What it teaches: That observation and movement can lead to profound design insights. Design becomes less about invention and more about response to natural intelligence.
3. Material Experimentation and Prototyping with Found Objects
What it is: A hands-on process using discarded or organic materials to build early prototypes.
How to do it:
How to do it:
Use accessible tools (hand saws, clamps, hemp rope) to test how wood or other biodegradable materials can hold garments without damaging them.
Embrace the irregularity of the material, working with it instead of imposing form.
What it teaches: That waste materials have aesthetic and structural potential—and that imperfection can be a principle of care.
What it teaches: That waste materials have aesthetic and structural potential—and that imperfection can be a principle of care.
4. Ethnographic Listening and Informal Interviews
What it is: Conversational research with material designers, garment makers, and sustainability experts.
How to do it:
How to do it:
Initiate informal interviews, listening for values, patterns, and unspoken needs.
Document findings as fragments, quotes, or narrative reflections—these may inform chapters in the framework book.
What it teaches: That design is not solitary. Listening reveals needs and ideas that formal research may miss.
What it teaches: That design is not solitary. Listening reveals needs and ideas that formal research may miss.
5. Mind Mapping and Conceptual Diagramming
What it is: A method for organizing abstract and material concepts into visual systems.
How to do it:
How to do it:
Build maps around key terms like support, care, transition, or structure.
Use the maps to generate design prompts, prototype ideas, or section structures for the handbook.
What it teaches: That ideas become clearer when seen in relationship. Mapping is a form of design thinking.z
What it teaches: That ideas become clearer when seen in relationship. Mapping is a form of design thinking.z
These methods form the foundation for a proposed handbook for designers—a framework that goes beyond how-to guides, and instead invites readers to reconsider what it means to design with care. The book will integrate research, fieldwork, prototyping, and reflective practices to create a resource that teaches how to hold—objects, materials, systems, and values—with intentionality and ecological consciousness.
By turning process into pedagogy, this project shares not just outcomes, but a way of working—one that makes space for care, multiplicity, and connection in the design studio and beyond.
6. Explain Expectations vs. Results
At the outset of this research, the initial expectation was to identify a gap in sustainable product design—specifically the under-addressed issue of clothing hangers—and to prototype functional, biodegradable alternatives using natural materials. The project was envisioned primarily as a material exploration and sustainable design challenge: the goal was to research hanger forms, evaluate their environmental impact, and offer physical prototypes aligned with circular design principles. It was expected that the research would focus largely on form-making, material substitution, and industry-aligned solutions.
However, as the project unfolded, the findings evolved beyond these expectations. The research began to reveal deeper themes of care, structure, support, and emotional resonance—not only in the hangers themselves but in the design process as a whole. What emerged was an understanding that the hanger is not just a tool for storage, but a metaphor for the values and systems that underpin how design functions within society. The project shifted from being solely product-driven to becoming a layered inquiry into how design can hold—both physically and metaphorically.
This shift was shaped by several key developments:
Walking-based inquiry and solo time in nature illuminated how natural systems embody support and impermanence in ways that are intuitive, poetic, and structurally sound. These observations reframed the hanger as a symbol of relational design rather than just utility.
Journaling and workplace ethnography revealed invisible tensions within commercial design practice—pressures around speed, aesthetics, and branding that often override ecological values. These insights encouraged a more reflective, critical approach to how sustainability is enacted (or bypassed) in real-world contexts.
Interviews and research with industry peers and cultural institutions highlighted a collective blind spot around garment care, storage, and material afterlife—confirming that the issue is systemic and cultural, not just technical.
As a result, the project's scope expanded. Rather than stopping at the creation of sustainable hanger prototypes, the outcome now includes the development of a framework handbook for designers—sharing methods, reflections, and values that arose through the process. This move from object-making to knowledge-sharing represents a fundamental shift in the project’s purpose: from solving a discreet product problem to proposing an alternative model for thoughtful, care-centered design.
In essence, the original expectations were technical and outcome-focused; the actual results are conceptual, layered, and systemic. This evolution not only deepened the research but clarified its broader purpose: to use the humble hanger as a lens for reimagining how design can be slower, more connected, and more attuned to the invisible structures we rely on every day.
7. Explain Findings in 2 Sentences
Designing with care means paying attention to what holds—physically, emotionally, and ecologically—and recognizing that even the most overlooked objects, like hangers, carry the potential to embody and teach values of sustainability, support, and relational thinking. Through this research, it became clear that meaningful design is not just about the materials we choose, but about the systems we uphold and the quiet gestures—like holding, preserving, and honoring—that shape how we live with objects and with each other.
8. Explain Your Design Impact
The impact of this research extends beyond a personal exploration of sustainability; it offers a new lens for approaching design as a relational, intentional, and ecologically attuned practice. By reimagining the humble hanger—an object often dismissed or overlooked—this project challenges designers to reconsider the hidden systems that shape both material culture and environmental outcomes. The implications reach across disciplines, particularly within sustainable fashion, product design, and design education, by offering a framework for how to design with care, slowness, and critical reflection.
Communities impacted by this work include emerging designers, design educators, fashion practitioners, and material researchers who are seeking to deepen their understanding of circular design and expand their toolkit beyond efficiency and aesthetics. Through the proposed handbook and exhibition-based tools, this research shares accessible methods, prompts, and provocations that can influence both how design is practiced and how it is taught. It contributes to the broader field by re-centering value systems in design—asking what it means to support, to sustain, and to hold, not just in objects, but in communities and ecosystems.
This work helps the world by encouraging a shift from extractive, speed-driven approaches to those rooted in care, reuse, and environmental respect. It helps designers—especially those working in systems of mass production—to pause and re-evaluate the emotional and ecological weight of their decisions. It helps educators bring in poetic, ethical, and nature-connected methods into their studios. It helps brands imagine alternatives to default materials and overlooked processes.
Its significance lies in its multivalent approach—grounded in both theory and practice, both introspection and collaboration. It stands to make a lasting contribution not only by offering sustainable prototypes, but by modeling a design ethos that is critical, generous, and deeply human. By translating research into shareable tools and frameworks, the work invites others into the conversation, ensuring its impact moves beyond one individual and into a wider network of designers committed to change.
9. Explain Knowledge Mobilization
Making Knowledge Holdable
This research will be mobilized through a combination of editorial, experiential, and educational formats designed to reach a range of design communities, from emerging students to industry professionals. Central to this dissemination is the creation of a framework handbook—a printed and potentially digital publication that translates the project’s findings, methodologies, and poetic inquiries into accessible tools and prompts for designers. This handbook will serve as both a reflective document and a pedagogical resource, aimed at integrating values of care, circularity, and relational design into design education and practice.
In addition to the handbook, the project is envisioned to take form as an installation or gallery-based exhibition, showcasing the hanger prototypes alongside process sketches, field notes, and photographic documentation of walking-based and material explorations. This exhibit would offer a tactile, immersive experience that invites audiences to interact with the design process and reflect on the unseen systems of support embedded in everyday life.
To reach broader audiences, the work will also be shared through:
Conference presentations focused on sustainable design, systems thinking, or poetic practice in design research (e.g., Cumulus, DesignTO, or the AIGA Design Educators Conference).
Online platforms, including a project website that documents the research journey and hosts resources for educators and students.
Workshops or talks hosted in partnership with design schools or sustainability-focused organizations, where participants engage with the methods firsthand.
While commercialization is not the primary objective, the project has potential to evolve into a product-based collaboration or licensable design system for sustainable fashion brands looking to align storage/display methods with their environmental values. This would be explored only in alignment with the project’s ethos of slowness, intention, and material respect.
Ultimately, this work is designed to move beyond the confines of a thesis or classroom, planting seeds across communities, institutions, and design ecosystems where care-centered, nature-connected, and system-aware practices are needed most.
10. What is Your Five-Year Plan?
In five years, the vision is to continue working at the intersection of sustainability, communication design, and material practice, ideally through a hybrid model of studio practice, teaching, and ongoing research. Whether embedded within a design-led organization, an academic institution, or through an independent practice, the aim is to deepen the impact of care-centered design approaches by mentoring emerging designers, collaborating with sustainability-driven brands, and building slow, meaningful creative systems that prioritize ecological intelligence.
If this project were to evolve over the next five years, its trajectory could take one of several forms:
As a PhD research project, the inquiry would expand into a deeper exploration of systems thinking, material culture, and animism in design. This would involve interdisciplinary collaborations across design anthropology, environmental humanities, and Indigenous knowledge systems, with a focus on reshaping how design is taught and understood through values like slowness, reciprocity, and poetic inquiry.
As a community-centered design lab or studio, Re-Hang could become a long-term initiative focused on rethinking overlooked objects in design. The hanger would be the first of many case studies in a broader methodology that investigates how everyday forms hold value, meaning, and systems. This could include residencies, workshops, and community exhibitions that engage people in reimagining their relationship to material culture.
As a commercial or social innovation venture, the project could develop into a sustainable product line or consulting studio that helps fashion brands rethink garment care, storage systems, and sustainability communication. This could include licensing hanger designs, curating installation-based retail experiences, or designing educational content for internal teams.
Over five years, this research would also ideally grow into a living, evolving body of work. Including new volumes of the framework handbook, seasonal design residencies, or even an open-access digital library that shares methods, mappings, and reflections from ongoing material and cultural explorations.
Regardless of the path, the heart of the work remains consistent: to make design more aware, intentional, and relational—to hold better, care deeper, and create systems that sustain not just objects, but people, stories, and the planet.
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