Creating creativity: the organizational manipulation of aesthetics in a web-design department

This paper is a preliminary discussion of qualitative data gathered during a research project recently carried out in a web-design department (dept. X1) of a large IT firm (M.C.S.) based in a rural location in the south of England. The data is still in the process of analysis and consequently the findings presented here are tentative themes that began to emerge during the research process and from the analysis carried out so far. Using narratives centring on four common stories retold to me by many respondents, I explore the extent to which an ‘aestheticization’ programme (undertaken within the department to enhance the creative appearance and ‘feel’ of the department’s office space) has impacted upon the design community within the department. More specifically I am concerned here with the relationship between the newly ‘aestheticized’ physical environment and the designers’ perceptions of their creativity as they worked within it. Consequently, given that this is work very much in progress, this paper is not intended to be a finished theoretically saturated account of creativity itself. Instead, I present the data in conjunction with the theoretical and methodological context of this research project in order to invite discussion, reflection and critical dialogue among participants in this conference track