Design for additive manufacturing: Supporting intrinsic-motivated creativity

Abstract

Emotional aspects and designers’ motivations in Design For Additive Manufacturing are rarely studied. Still, as they can influence creative behaviors, it is worth of interest to draw some bases for a relation between designers’ motivations and the field of Additive Manufacturing. This paper aims at identifying the motivations that push designers to deal with AM in their practice. We have highlighted that they experience some extrinsic motivations: Technical improvements, economics and social environments pressures. We also noticed that creative designers, apart from AM, usually experience some intrinsic motivations and, moreover, that it exists an ideal state to generate creative concepts: the Flow. To support creative designers in DFAM in reaching the Flow, we then identified 4 key levers through the potential of AM: the newness of AM processes, the needed skill of 3D modelling, the investigation of new shape grammars and finally the opportunity of embodying concepts into physical objects. To benefit from this potential, we assume that designers’ intrinsic motivations should be supported: we identified three required conditions. The first one is the use of a proper vocabulary i.e. the expression Additive Manufacturing instead of 3D Printing. The second one is the development of a design process which integrates a creative approach. The third condition is the use of AM objects as experience triggers during creative sessions to arise positive emotions.