Art and Design Commons^™

The Telling Line: The Relationship Between Cognitive Style And Fashion Design Sketching, Mary K. Culpepper

Creative Studies Graduate Student Master's Theses

This mixed-methods exploratory study addresses a gap in the literature by testing for links between cognitive style and the gestalt of sketches produced by college-level fashion design students. Students’ cognitive styles were appraised with the FourSight assessment, a measure of problem-solving preference gaining use in design schools. Then participants sketched fashion designs to complete a design brief. Panels of raters trained in FourSight reviewed the sketches to assess the cognitive styles of the sketchers. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant degree of interrater reliability, while qualitative analysis indicated emergent themes of selection, attitude, and innovation that aligned with FourSight types. The …