Crafting a Design Signature Book: A student exploration grounded in design awareness

Abstract

This technical report documents the Design Signatures Book Design Research Group (DRG), a ten-week cohort that met in Spring 2026 at the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering. Facilitated by Cindy Atman and co-facilitated by René Capella, the DRG served both as a learning experience for the four-participant cohort and as a structured testing ground for ideas in a forthcoming public-facing book on design signatures, the characteristic patterns and commitments that distinguish an individual designer's process. The DRG unfolded in three parts. In Weeks 1 through 3, participants oriented themselves to their own design processes through retrospective design postcards, models of design activity, design awareness questions, and an introduction to design process resilience. In Weeks 4 through 9, participants shifted from designers to readers and contributors, taking up a different lens each week the book might use to frame its content: reflection, social justice and equity, theories as frames, narrative psychology, the form and function of the book, identity development, and ambiguity. Week 10 returned the cohort to their evolving design signatures and a final synthesis. The report compiles weekly postcards and reflections, book-facing and personal writing, a three-part final synthesis, and curated book recommendations. It is organized in two registers: a week-by-week account of the DRG, and individual participant contributions presented in full. The DRG offered the book project an early read on how the design signature concept lands with a thoughtful audience, and surfaced patterns about audience, framing, and format that the book can carry forward.