For a long time, the world of design clung to the idea that aesthetics and utility (which in design language imply form and function) should stand apart from emotion. Design was a place of reason where clean lines and practical solutions ruled, and feelings seemed an afterthought if they were considered at all. As the Collectible Design Week 2025 (Belgium Edition) opened its doors to the exhibitors, the only thing echoing throughout the Vanderborght Building in central Brussels was the emotional weight of design.
It began with Christopher Dessus moderating a talk on ‘Feeling Design,’ with Sophia Taillet and Grégory Lacoua as guest speakers. The trio engaged in a long discussion on how someone writes, speaks, and thinks about design today. The conversation explored how emotions shape the creative process, influence storytelling, and define how designers experience objects.
Having followed the discussion closely, I decided to reach out to designers and exhibitors at COLLECTIBLE Design Week to pick their minds on how emotions influence design and understand how one articulates the intangible in design, and why it matters.
Pauline Leprince, the guest exhibitor at COLLECTIBLE 2025, who collaborated with Bellerose for the ‘Scenography 2025’ installation at the fair, tells me, “I believe we have long tried to protect design from emotion, as if it needed to be preserved in a kind of coldness, an analytical distance, to be right or useful. But what we create, what we touch, what we bring into existence, always emerges from an inner overflow, an impulse, a fracture sometimes from a sense of lack.”
The Parisian designer further asserts her point, “For me, emotions are the primary material of design. When I create, I’m not trying to tell a story in a literal sense. I try to make an absence felt, a tension, and a tenderness to reveal what moves through us in a way that is almost primal. So yes, I believe that emotion shapes everything: the way we conceive an object, the way we name it, the way we offer it to the world. And beyond that, it shapes the way the object will look back at us.”
Leprince words are indeed a grim reminder that design isn’t just technical, it’s personal. It’s about going beyond making the idea of objects and instead crafting experiences, spaces where others can also feel those emotions. This philosophy was evident in her installation of draped fabrics that she exhibited at the fair. Using recycled denim provided by the Belgian brand, Pauline crafted a dynamic installation of draped fabrics, playing with tension and movement to redefine the space.
Leprince wasn’t the only designer weaving emotion, expression, and raw materials into her work. I saw Stefania Russo & Søren Betak doing the same. Exhibiting the Pelikan lamp crafted using the 3D printing method with biomaterials at COLLECTIBLE 2025, the co-founders of Russo Betak, seconded Leprince’s thoughts, noting how design has grown beyond just solving problems.
“Today, design transcends functionality, becoming a vessel through which designers unfold their narratives. During the design process, the decisions we make—from the materials we choose to the forms we shape—reflect our perspective on the time we live in and how we feel about it. The meaning we embed in our work may not always be immediately apparent, yet we hope that it will, in one way or another, influence the way people attach meaning to it,” Russo & Betak inform.
Design wasn’t just being celebrated at COLLECTIBE 2025 for what it does, and how it looks, but also for how it makes someone feel. To get more thoughts on it, I reached out to Sofia Alvarado the owner of Fi, who was exhibiting a piece from her Brutante collection.
Sofia positions design and art as two inseparable expressions of the same creative impulse. “Each artist is free to express themselves in the way they feel most comfortable,” she says, highlighting the freedom that drives creativity. “For me, freedom of expression is a birthright and is fundamental in the artistic creative process in design. Design isn’t boxed in by strict rules anymore, it’s a fluid space where form and function blend into something artistic. And anything that’s artistic ought to be emotional,” Sofia concludes.
Mati Sipiora, another exhibitor, also shares the same frame of mind. “My design philosophy blends craftsmanship, storytelling, and emotional engagement. Influenced by my upbringing in a metal workshop, I see design as a dialogue between material and maker. My retrofuturistic aesthetic, inspired by the 1980s and sci-fi, evokes curiosity and joy. I believe bold colors and forms create tension, forging emotional bonds between objects and users. For me, design isn’t just functional—it tells stories and sparks imagination. By prioritizing durability and timeless appeal, I encourage conscious consumption, ensuring objects are not just used but deeply experienced and valued,” he states.
In today’s polarized world where designers are overwhelmed with signs, symbols, and fleeting narratives, a debate of whether emotion should form the core of design continues. As we move past the COLLECTIBLE 2025 Brussels Edition, it is clear that the future of design is not just about what we can see or touch, but also about how it makes us feel. Designers are no longer just creators of objects, they have emerged as storytellers, poets, and emotional architects, if you may.
If designers are to be heard, they refuse to build something for the sake of creating. Design, in this context, becomes a place for poetic resistance, where we confront our vulnerabilities and express what is often left unsaid. Whatever the case, the emotional weight of design is not a burden to be borne but a richness that adds depth and meaning to the world around us.
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