An Experimental Study on The Change in Perception of Recognisability of Styles in The Design Education Process

Abstract

Design education is aimed at enhancing visual thinking and creativity while enriching the visual memory of the individual. In this education process, visual images that contribute to the professional development of students are analysed by them and stored in their memories. In this study, experimental research was conducted to measure the change in students recognition of styles through the educational process that shapes the individuals aesthetic and visual perception level. Within the scope of the study, sample size was created with student groups with and without receive design education, and asked them to interpret images that represent styles. Student groups with receiving design education are determined as students of architecture, interior design, and industrial design and the groups who not receive design education are students of the mathematics department. The survey applied to the both groups which consist of the first and fourth-grade students. In the survey study mixed images of two buildings and two industrial designs belonging to seven architects (Antonio Gaudi, Gerrit Rietveld, F. Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Mario Botta, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid) who represent different architectural styles (Art Nouveau, De Stijl, Modernism, Minimalism, Postmodernism, Deconstructivism, Futurism) were given to student groups. The images consisting of 14 buildings and 14 industrial designs were asked to match from students. Based on the findings of previous studies, the main hypothesis of this study is the idea that students who have reached the end of design education can perceive styles differently than students who have never received design education or at the very beginning of design education. While architecture students are familiar with the building images; students of industrial design are familiar with the product design images used in the survey. The idea of the interior architecture students will give more positive results in perceiving and interpreting the images has been determined as the sub-hypothesis, because of they are familiar with both the product design and the buildings. In this study, which is aim to measure the perceptual change of the individuals in the design education process, statistical evaluation was made, and the hypotheses are corroborated with the results obtained. It is foreseen that the study will be a reference for future research.