CMF AND SUSTAINABLE DESIGN STRATEGIES: A WORKSHOP TO INSPIRE STUDENTS THROUGH COLOUR, MATERIALS AND FINISHING SELECTION

The growing focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility has created a need for a more integrated approach. Designers require the right tools to evaluate materials based not only on their technical properties, life cycle and ecological impact, but also on their aesthetic qualities. Teaching colour, material and finish selection, as well as the related production processes, is therefore fundamental to the professional development of new designers. These aspects are often left at the end of the creative process, following considerations of form and function. In this context, CMF (Colour, Material and Finish) design is an approach that enables the coordination, selection, and balancing of aesthetic and functional design attributes. The advantages of applying CMF design in today's context are manifold, allowing young designers to address the different levels of product definition: formal, functional, emotional, and, potentially, to leverage the adoption of sustainable design strategies. Therefore, this contribution explores a trial to develop a design tool that guides students through the CMF process by increasing their awareness of the sustainable implications of their design choices. To achieve this, researchers defined a template to guide students towards defining the project's colour, material, and finish characteristics related to sustainable design strategies. The template, tested in a two-week workshop, supports the students in the CMF selection step by step, considering aesthetic-sensorial properties, performance, processability, and life cycle. The efficacy of the format has been assessed through two anonymous surveys, conducted at the beginning and end of the workshop. The activity led the whole class to reflect on the project's depth and focus on selecting colours, materials, and finishes as elements that affect the sustainability of their design choices. At the end of the workshop, most students were happy with the activity and expressed a willingness to reuse some elements of the template. The students emphasised how the template provided a guide for evaluating and justifying design choices while also leading them to reflect on the implications these may have for sustainability. This study demonstrates how integrating CMF design and sustainability can become a powerful educational opportunity, equipping new designers with tools and critical thinking skills for today's and tomorrow's challenges.