Behaving as a designer: This is a prompt for an art teacher who wants to explore ideas to promote ‘designerly thinking’ in some of her art lessons. She wishes her students to have the option sometimes to behave as designers as well their normal role to behave as artists. The AI programme was Claude.

The AI generated example is from Midjourney – but it fails to recognise the theme and is too prescriptive to be very useful. The prompt used for the images is at the bottom of the page.

This is the prompt:

You are an experienced teacher of design. I am an art teacher in an English secondary School. I want to introduce more opportunities for my students to behave as designers  and use ‘designerly thinking’, in some of my lessons. Can you describe and explain five different ways of approaching this design task ‘design a fancy dress costume for a teenage party which has the theme being grown up’.  Your answer for each approach should include a rationale and explanation consisting of 3 paragraphs. The style should be suitable for my 15 year old male and female students. After each of the five design approaches can you include a sequenced list of activities that my students might follow to complete the task.

This is the response from the AI programme Claude:

Design Approaches for “Grown-Up” Themed Costume Project

I’ll outline five distinct design approaches your students could use to tackle the “design a fancy dress costume for a teenage party with the ‘being grown-up’ theme” assignment. Each includes a rationale, explanation, and sequence of activities.

 

User Centred Approach

User-centered design starts with understanding who will wear the costume and what “being grown-up” means to them personally. This approach encourages students to think deeply about identity, perception, and how clothing represents who we are or aspire to be. It’s less about making something that looks good and more about creating something meaningful and authentic.

The strength of this approach is that it connects design to personal expression. Students must reflect on their own understanding of adulthood and how they might represent this visually. This process helps them articulate their values and thinking about growing up, making the design work more relevant and engaging.

By considering practical constraints like comfort, mobility, and social context, this approach also introduces real-world design considerations. Students learn that good design isn’t just creative—it’s functional and responsive to genuine human needs and desires.

Activity Sequence:

1. Interview 2-3 people about what “being grown-up” means to them
2. Create a user persona describing who will wear the costume (could be themselves or imaginary)
3. List 5-10 key characteristics of adulthood from the persona’s perspective
4. Brainstorm visual symbols that represent these characteristics
5. Sketch 3 initial costume concepts based on these symbols
6. Get feedback from peers on the concepts
7. Refine the chosen design with attention to wearability and comfort
8. Create a final design with material suggestions and construction notes

Future-Focused Design Approach

This approach asks students to imagine what “being grown-up” might look like in the future, encouraging them to blend current adult symbols with futuristic elements. It’s about forecasting trends and envisioning how careers, responsibilities, and adult identity might evolve in 10-20 years.

Future-focused design develops critical thinking by challenging students to analyze current trends and project them forward. It requires research into emerging technologies, environmental concerns, and social changes that might reshape adulthood. This process teaches students to look beyond immediate contexts and consider broader societal patterns.

This approach naturally incorporates sustainability and innovation as design principles. Students must consider how materials, functions, and aesthetic choices might reflect future-conscious thinking—perhaps incorporating adaptable elements, sustainable materials, or tech-enhanced features that speak to evolving definitions of responsibility.

Activity Sequence:

1. Research current trends in technology, work environments, or social structures
2. Create a mood board showing what “adulting” might look like in 20 years
3. Write a brief scenario describing a day in the life of an adult in the future
4. Identify 3-5 key activities or responsibilities adults might have in this future
5. Sketch costume elements that would support or represent these activities
6. Incorporate at least one interactive or transformable element in the design
7. Consider sustainable or recyclable material choices
8. Create final design renderings with annotations explaining futuristic elements

Material Exploration Design Approach

This hands-on approach centers on experimentation with unconventional materials to represent adult themes. Students might transform everyday office supplies, household items, or work-related objects into wearable art that comments on adult responsibilities and routines.

Material exploration pushes creative boundaries by forcing students to think beyond fabric and traditional costume materials. Working with limitations (like using only items found in a workplace or home office) challenges students to see ordinary objects in new ways and develop resourcefulness—a very “grown-up” skill in itself.

This approach naturally connects to sustainability conversations about reuse and upcycling. Students learn to see value in everyday objects and develop technical skills in transforming materials. The resulting costumes often have a sculptural, statement-making quality that encourages conversation about consumerism and adult responsibilities.

Activity Sequence:

1. Collect items from an “adult” environment (office supplies, kitchen tools, etc.)
2. Sort materials by potential use (structure, decoration, connection, etc.)
3. Experiment with 3 different techniques for transforming these materials (folding, cutting, linking, etc.)
4. Create small material samples showing successful techniques
5. Sketch 2-3 costume concepts incorporating these materials and techniques
6. Test the wearability of key elements with quick mock-ups
7. Refine the design considering comfort and construction feasibility
8. Create a final design presentation including material samples and construction techniques

Character-Based Design Approach

This approach invites students to create costumes representing specific adult archetypes or professions, but with a creative, exaggerated twist. Rather than simply dressing as a doctor or businessperson, students design costumes that tell a story about these roles through amplification, juxtaposition, or visual metaphor.

Character-based design develops storytelling skills by encouraging students to think about how clothing communicates identity and status. They must research authentic details while finding ways to transform recognizable elements into something visually striking and conceptually interesting. This balance of research and creativity mirrors professional design processes.

This approach naturally incorporates elements of theater and performance, helping students understand how design influences behavior and perception. By exploring adult roles through costume, students can playfully examine and sometimes critique societal expectations about adulthood, work, and responsibility.

Activity Sequence:

5. Choose an adult profession or archetype to focus on
6. Research authentic visual elements associated with this role
7. Create a character profile describing personality, background, and unique traits
8. Identify 3-5 symbols or visual elements that could be exaggerated
9. Sketch costume elements that transform these symbols in creative ways
10. Consider how the wearer might move or behave in this costume
11. Incorporate at least one interactive element that reveals something about the character
12. Create final designs with annotations explaining the character’s story

Problem-Solving Design Approach

This approach frames the costume design challenge as a problem to solve: “How might we create a costume that transforms between teenage and adult personas?” Students apply structured design thinking methods to develop costumes with interactive elements, transformable components, or symbolic representations of this transition.

Problem-solving design teaches students to define parameters clearly before generating solutions. They’ll learn to identify constraints (budget, materials, wearability) and opportunities (visual impact, symbolic meaning, interactive elements). This methodical approach mirrors professional design processes across many fields.

This approach naturally incorporates iterative testing and refinement. Students will prototype key elements, gather feedback, and improve their designs based on results. This process teaches persistence and the value of continuous improvement—mature skills that connect directly to the theme of “being grown-up.”

Activity Sequence:

1. Define the specific problem statement (e.g., “How might we create a costume that shows the transformation from teen to adult?”)
2. Research visual symbols of both teenage and adult identity
3. Brainstorm at least 15 possible solutions without judging ideas
4. Group and evaluate ideas based on feasibility, impact, and originality
5. Select and develop 2-3 concepts with rough sketches
6. Create simple prototypes of key interactive or transformable elements
7. Test prototypes with peers and gather feedback
8. Refine the design based on feedback, focusing on both function and meaning
9. Create final designs with technical notes explaining how the costume works

Each of these approaches introduces your students to different aspects of “designerly thinking” while allowing them to engage creatively with the theme of adulthood. You might have different groups try different approaches, or allow students to choose the one that most interests them.

end of Midjourney’s response

This is the prompt for the three AI generated images (below, middle and top). The programme was Midjourney . Various prompts were tried but they were not particularly useful and needed more work.

You are an experienced costume designer for the theatre. I am an art teacher in an English secondary school. I want to introduce more opportunities for my students to behave as designers and use ‘designerly thinking’, in some of my lessons. Can you provide five different designs for a fancy dress costume for a teenage party which has the theme ‘being grown up’. The five designs should be different in style and content. They should all be extravagant and dramatic.