Abstract
This paper reflects on the domains of design problems that experienced Johannesburg fashion designers are faced with daily in order to provide further recommendations for fashion design practice and education. Within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and complex integrated systemic thinking, this paper suggests that it necessary to explore the correlation between practicing fashion designers’ activities and problems with Buchanan’s (1998) seminal proposition of problem framing and placement domains which remains relevant today. These domains are communication, construction, strategic planning, and systemic integration. Traditional fashion design education often emphasizes aesthetics and technical construction before strategically deciding on where the design effort needs to be focused within complex integrated systems. As the fashion industry moves into the Fourth Industrial Revolution this paper asks what problems fashion designers are faced with, to better understand how fashion education needs to adapt. Against this backdrop a Multiple-case study was conducted to observe, compare and describe the communal design activities that experienced Johannesburg fashion designers deal with, using Activity Theory to analyze the complex nature of design. This study found that the biggest challenge faced by experienced fashion designers is their inability to define the complexity of the design problem. The contribution of this paper to fashion design education is to provide a framework for strategic nodes of problem placements and recommend further research for fashion design practice and education development.