Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)

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The Historical Evolution of Design Subjects: From Craft Unity to Digital Re-integration

Authors
Yanming Ge1, *
1Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China
*Corresponding author. Email: guypsy@163.com
Corresponding Author
Yanming Ge
Available Online 31 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_74How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Design Subject; Participated Design; Design Democratization
Abstract

The core value of design lies in coordinating the demands of multiple stakeholders. A review of design history reveals its main thread is a continuous reorganization of the relationships between its core subjects: the designer, the maker, and the user. This paper traces their trajectory from a unified whole in the pre-industrial era, through the profound social division triggered by the Industrial Revolution, to the dissolution of subject boundaries driven by information technology. This progression is not a simple return but a profound reconstruction of design subjectivity and value judgment systems under different techno-economic paradigms. This paper analyzes the historical evolution of the relationship among these three subjects, from unity to separation and then to re-integration. By analyzing the shift towards participatory design and the challenges posed by AI, this paper reveals that the “democratization” of design brings new challenges to professionalism and ethics. It concludes by exploring how the professional designer’s role will evolve towards that of an “enabler of meaning,” an “initiator of critical dialogue,” and an “integrator” in a future of reintegrated subjects.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
31 December 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-511-9
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_74How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanming Ge
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - The Historical Evolution of Design Subjects: From Craft Unity to Digital Re-integration
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 640
EP  - 645
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_74
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_74
ID  - Ge2025
ER  -