Abstract
The controlled provision of stimuli during idea generation is considered effective to boost creativity in early design phases. As the interest for sustainable product development and circular design is growing, this paper represents a first attempt to explore the use of inspiration sources in sustainable design. The provision of stimuli ascribable to sustainability and the introduction of environmental objectives in design briefs were supposed to increase novelty and compliance with Circular Economy principles in generated ideas. A design experiment involving 34 junior designers was set up to the scope; the participants’ individual creativity was assessed too. The outcomes reveal that the sustainability clues present in stimuli and design briefs failed to increase the circularity and novelty of the generated ideas; the same applies to the combination of novelty and creativity. A role is seemingly played by individual creativity, although no significant effects could be demonstrated statistically. A possible reason for these results could be the spontaneous orientation of the youth toward sustainable principles, which makes the inclusion of environment-related hints unnecessary. While creative and sustainable design have not found a shared strategy despite the expected benefits, the use of stimuli was unsuccessful in this research to find a common ground.