Exploring the Effect of Cultural Inspiration Distance and Timing on Designer’ Creativity in in Targeted Cultural Creative Design Pattern

Abstract Cultural creative design activity and education involve the application of cultural inspiration. This study examines the impact of cultural inspiration distance and timing on designer’ creativity in Targeted Cultural Creative Design Pattern (TCCDP). Four design novice groups attended the cultural product design experiment with a combination of distance (far or near‐cultural inspiration) and timing (receiving inspiration at the beginning or during design). Each participant produced multiple ideas and one final concept based on a given product theme. The results showed an Interaction Effect between distance and timing on idea quantity, with timing having a greater impact on far‐cultural inspiration (FCI) than near‐cultural inspiration (NCI). Exposure to FCI generated the most ideas at the beginning, while during design, the opposite was observed. Exposure to NCI generated a similar idea quantity in both timing. Distance displayed a Main Effect on concept quality, with exposure to NCI achieving higher quality (novelty; feasibility) final concept than exposure to FCI. It was also found that generating more ideas did not necessarily result in higher quality; a more effective strategy might generate a small number of ideas (about 5), and subsequently deepening and optimising the ideas. These findings are helpful to understand the role of cultural inspiration in cultural creative design education and practice.