In an increasingly competitive world as educators we are becoming more aware of the need for design students to be actively encouraged to work together on projects rather than graduating as individual designers whose experience has been a singular linear path through education. This paper explores an experimental approach to design whereby individuals co-create design work and subsequently analyse then reflect on the results before beginning to further develop their design ideas. The project initially facilitates arbitrary layering of different individual’s patterns overlaid on one another in textile prints. This experience is subsequently built on through analysis of this haphazard layering. Collaborative prints are created through considered layering with each layer authored by different individuals but brought together as a whole pattern by teams or couples of students. In this intervention by breaking down the ownership of each component designs become a shared resource and whilst this proved a contentious issue at the outset the barriers of physical emotional intellectual and artistic ownership were quickly demolished during the workshop. For this project negotiation and collaboration were a necessity in order to move on with a richness of results both visually and educationally not always possible to achieve as a lone designer.
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