





































 

14 

 
 
 
 
 
https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J 
 
ISSN 2184-6995 
 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 
International License. 

 

  

 

 
 
Toward societal transformation through design storytelling: A case study 
of brand design in the mineral water industry in Finland 
 
Yasuyuki Hayama, Francesco Zurlo 
 
Published online: November 2022 

 
To cite this article:  
Hayama, Y., & Zurlo, F. (2022). Toward societal transformation through design storytelling: A case study of 
brand design in the mineral water industry in Finland. Discern: International Journal of Design for Social 
Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 3(2), 14-27. 
 
 
  



 

15 

Toward societal transformation through design storytelling: A case study 
of brand design in the mineral water industry in Finland 
 
Yasuyuki Hayamaa, Francesco Zurlob 

 
aPolitecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. yasuyuki.hayama@polimi.it 
bPolitecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. francesco.zurlo@polimi.it 

 

Abstract 

The world today is facing the urgent need for fundamental transformation in the ‘Anthropocene’ era. 

However, even if consensus has been formed around the need for transformation, what constitutes 

fundamental changes and how these changes occur are researched and debated across multiple disciplines, 

including design studies. Recently, in the design field, transition design has been proposed as a new area  

of design practice, study and research. Transition design is based on long-term visioning and recognition  

of the need for solutions rooted in new, more sustainable socioeconomic and political paradigms. This 

study explores the role of design storytelling in steering and navigating a societal transformation. Using  

a critical single case study method, this study analyses the fundamental elements of transformation that 

emerge from each component of design storytelling. A mineral water company in Finland was selected  

as the purposive single case. It is a specific type of private organization that intends to bring about  

a societal transition through optimum use of design storytelling. The findings illustrate that the 

components of design storytelling, which use societal change as their innovative business proposal, 

distinctively match the components of societal transformation. Design practices that leverage visual and 

verbal elements edit and weave a new relationship between the sociotechnical landscape, regime and 

innovation proposed by the company. We believe that this paper makes two main contributions. First, the 

authors emphasize the potential role of design as a deliberate change process for societal transformation. 

Second, through the cross lens of societal transformation and design storytelling, the storytelling and 

narrative approach of societal transformation by design is underlined. 

 

Keywords: Societal transformation, Transition design, Anthropocene, Design storytelling, Narratives  

of change, Designs for the pluriverse 

 

Introduction 

In the ‘Anthropocene’ era, the world is increasingly faced with the urgent need for fundamental changes 

(Steffen et al., 2007). Contemporary environmental problems, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity 

and resource depletion (clean water, oil, forests, fish stocks, etc.), are human-driven issues that raise 

concerns about the future of Earth’s environment and its ability to provide the services required to 

maintain a viable human civilization. The global change phenomenon represents a profound shift in the 

relationship between humans and nature. While a variety of terms have been applied to describe this 

fundamental shift, the term “transformation” is becoming institutionalized in the vocabulary of the 

scientific and policy communities (Feola, 2015). 

 

Recent contributions by large studies regarding societal transformation have emphasized the deliberate 

change process, which encompasses the possibility of steering or navigating, if not fully managing, the 

process of change (Feola, 2015). In this context, several concepts of the change process have been 

emphasized, such as consensus-building through visioning (Beddoe et al., 2009), transition management 

(Grin et al., 2010) and social learning (Park et al., 2012). Owing to the essential need to evoke imagination 



 

16 

and pose alternative worldviews, the power of narratives has been considered to be at the crossroads  

of future studies and narrative studies regarding societal transformation and narratives of change (NoC) 

(Wittmayer et al., 2019). Like the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff & Kim, 2013), NoC can 

generate a shared sense of belonging and community identity that leads to actions and creates meaning 

based on a common outlook on social reality and the desired future (Pfotenhauer & Jasanoff, 2017). 

 

Meanwhile, aligned with this argument, research has been proposed in the design discipline on transition 

design or design for transitions as a new area of design practice (Irwin, 2015). Transition design is based  

on long-term visioning and recognition of the need for solutions rooted in new, more sustainable 

socioeconomic and political paradigms. Furthermore, as a more radical and complete overhaul of design 

processes is needed, Escobar (2018) insists on the need for an ontological reorientation of design. Fry and 

Nocek (2021) echo this perspective by arguing that design practice needs to become unrecognizable to 

itself in order to imagine a successful solution to climate change. 

 

While consensus has been reached on the need for fundamental changes to address these issues, what 

these specific changes should be and how they should be implemented remain a subject of intense debate 

across the academic spectrum (e.g. Feola, 2015). This study explores the potential role of design 

storytelling in steering and navigating a societal transformation. Specifically, the authors believe that design 

can play a fundamental role in societal transformation by narrating an alternative story. Design storytelling 

and proposing new worldviews involving social, symbolic, physical and material changes have the potential 

to lead to fundamental societal changes, which will create a new relationship between the sociotechnical 

landscape and the value propositions that social innovation initiatives pose to society. Hence, this study  

set out to answer two research questions: 1. How can design form the elemental factors of societal 

transformation? 2. How can design storytelling play a role in societal transformation? 

 

Mineral water consumption and environmental and sociopolitical impacts 

To tackle the research topics, this paper focuses on the issue of mineral water consumption. Water 

constitutes one of the most crucial natural resources on earth for all creatures, including humans and other 

species. The issue of mineral water consumption is rife with ethical considerations – who owns and can  

sell water and who gets to consume it – which may become even more critical in light of increased water 

shortages. With the major shift in interest from human-centred design to design that seeks harmony with 

more-than-humans (e.g. Forlano, 2017), including with nature itself, it would be extremely significant to 

consider the role of design with regard to water consumption, in particular by reconsidering the most 

primordial and fundamental act of life, water consumption. From the larger perspective of the discussion  

of transitional design and the ontological reorientation of design, this paper intends to be a catalyst  

for broader rethinking of our daily consumption activities and their environmental, social and  

political implications. 

 

Methodology 

A single case study serves as the foundation of our paper (Yin, 2009). This critical single case study was 

guided by the purposive single case selection approach (Edmonds & Kennedy, 2016) to collect the most 

relevant data regarding the roles of design in prompting elemental factors of societal transformation and 

the roles of design storytelling in transformative change. The case study was developed and defined 

through the following sub-steps: deciding the unit of analysis and selecting the case, collecting the data, 

analysing the data and synthesizing and interpreting the findings. 

 



 

17 

First, the unit of analysis was set. The methodology consisted of analyses of changes in the fundamental 

patterns, elements and interrelations of value systems for current dominant brands in a specific market, 

the transition to a new brand and the roles of design storytelling in leading to that change. Therefore, the 

unit of analysis (Yin, 2009) consisted of fundamental elements of societal transformation, which involves 

societal, symbolic, physical and material changes (Feola, 2015); thus, a focus on those key elements by  

a new brand entering a specific market leads to a societal transformation among dominant brands in that 

market. Based on this unit of analysis, a mineral water brand, LAHQUA, from Finland was selected as the 

critical single case; the brand intended to inspire a societal change in consumption through the power  

of design storytelling. 

 

Second, the data gathering involved adopting multiple sources of information/evidence for data 

triangulation. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews and documentation provided by the design agency, 

Hangar Design Group, which supported the mineral water brand, represented the primary sources of 

information. The selection of interviewees aimed to gather information regarding the various perspectives 

on the project for societal transformation by design. The design director who led the design project and the 

PR manager knew that the mineral water brand was aiming to make a societal transformative change in 

water consumption. The data were combined with the researcher’s observations from a site visit to the 

design agency, as well as external documents to ensure data triangulation. 

 

Third, after the data were collected, the data were analysed and synthesized to construct a discussion  

of the findings. The steps were as follows: summarize the data collected, analyse the interviews and 

documentation, triangulate the data and interpret the findings. This process consisted of content analysis 

to identify elements of societal transformation and the roles of design storytelling from a theoretical 

perspective, as described in the following paragraphs. 

 

To analyse and synthesize the findings from the case study, conceptual frameworks were set, namely, 

elements of societal transformation for pursuing sustainability (Feola, 2015) and the role of stories and 

narratives in social change processes (Wittmayer et al., 2019). 

 

Through a literature review covering a wide range of arguments regarding societal transformation, Feola 

(2015) depicted transformation as a process of structural change, that is, a change in the fundamental 

patterns, elements and interrelations in a system. Feola emphasized that pursuing sustainability requires 

the involvement of social, symbolic, physical and material changes. Hence, the focus of this case study  

is a company pursuing a sustainable alternative worldview, so that the theoretical focus can be applied 

through the elemental factors of the social, symbolic, physical and material changes that the company 

proposes to the market. 

 

Meanwhile, in the context of a story’s role in societal transformation or NoC, Wittmayer et al. (2019) 

insisted on three roles of narratives: changing frames, identity-forming and meaning-making, and guiding 

practice. The new frames that social innovation initiatives put forth in their NoC have the power to 

encourage actors in the relevant sphere to reconsider their behavioural practices and influence personal 

and collective identity formation, which would lead to practical actions toward change. Hence, this study 

applied NoC as a theoretical lens to analyse the case and find out how design can lead to storytelling for  

the sake of societal transformation. 

 

 

 



 

18 

Results 

The collected qualitative data show the potential power of design to guide a brand in formulating new 

elemental factors for sustainable social transitional purposes, by deconstructing the existing elemental 

factors and reconstructing them into an integrated whole. Our analysis also showed that design storytelling 

can potentially lead to a sort of societal transformation through offering an alternative framing, providing 

meaning and guiding the actions of targeted people. 

 

Design decomposes elements and reconstructs an integrated whole for societal transformation 

The first component resulting from the case analysis is relevant to the use of design. In conceiving new 

products and services, designers are required to “reframe” the problem (Dorst, 2011), change the meaning 

of the product and the reason for buying it (Verganti, 2011) and put new cultural messages and symbolic 

value into products and services (Ravasi & Rindova, 2008). As the brand aimed for a transformative 

behavioural shift in water consumption, the case analysis indicated that the brand and the design firm  

had a strong intention to “reframe” the problem. The design director said the following: 

 

“We started reasoning, giving ourselves the mission to transform or create this brand, which  

is a brand that does not exist. It is a startup; treat it as a love brand, as something very close  

to people. So, it’s a design/packaging project, but actually, we did a strategic project on how this 

brand can be perceived by people. Therefore, we defined a little bit the fact of being a game 

changer as a core element, a game changer from a philosophical point of view but also a visual 

point of view”. 

 

Starting from the gap analysis between the market and the target users, the design firm and the brand 

concluded that they should aim to become a “game changer” in the market and not just design new 

packages, like the usual branding projects aiming for better commercial success do. The current natural 

mineral water market is dominated by global players who historically focused on polyethylene 

terephthalate (PET) bottles. On the other hand, there is an emerging ethical type of consumer who aspires 

to live a healthy lifestyle but is also conscious about the welfare of the planet. To bridge the gap between 

the current state of the market and the unsatisfied desires of “conscious citizens”, the design teams 

reframed the project’s objective from a design/packaging project to a game changer. The aim was clearly 

reframed to change people’s mindset and behaviour toward natural water consumption, by providing them 

with a new option that matches their desire for a more sustainable way to live and consume, allowing them 

to be sensible and care not only for their own health but also for the planet. Hence, the design teams first 

concentrated on story construction works, that is, the decomposition and reconstruction of story elements 

from the philosophical and visual perspectives. 

 

The design director said the following in the interview: 

 

“The aurora, for example, is not there in any other country compared to the competitors. Therefore, 

we took that as a building block [...]. We enucleate the various elements”. 

 

In this way, leveraging on “building blocks” that the brand can potentially speak and wear, the design team 

deconstructed the elemental factors and reconstructed them in several dimensions. Through the 

theoretical view above, the elemental factors were analysed, as shown in Table 1. 

 

First, as for the social aspects of transformation, the social mission that the brand pursues is a sustainability 

challenge, specifically, reducing the environmental impact of plastic packaging. Most extant mineral water 



 

19 

brands rely on using plastic packaging. As a result, the daily consumption of natural water has a major 

social and environmental impact globally. The brand intentionally focused on this issue and tried to change 

the social elements of the packaging to have less environmental impact. 

 

In keeping with the change of social mission that the brand focused on, the other three elements, namely 

the symbolic, physical and material aspects, were also organized to align with the social mission. For the 

symbolic aspect, the brand tried to compose a symbolic logo with several keywords, such as source, water, 

nature and recycle. These keywords, placed alongside iconic images, were dedicated to inspiring change  

in consumption behaviour and were expressed as symbols of a “purpose-driven brand”. The symbolic logo 

was developed as a core storytelling element. 

 

The physical aspect of the brand has focused on the origin of the water produced by the brand. In this 

aspect, the source was stressed as being “from the planet not from the laboratory”. Indeed, the source  

of the water carefully selected by the brand is Lahti, the location of Finnish Lakeland and the country’s 

leading environmental city. The water source has remained untouched since the ice age and is surrounded 

by green forests and fresh air, which are ranked among the purest in the world by UNICEF (Green Lahti, 

2021). Leveraging on purity, the cultural background of water consumption in Finland involves people 

valuing healthy hydration and physical well-being. The core value of the product is the pure water source. 

 

Finally, the packaging materials were strategically selected to symbolize the social mission of the brand, 

namely an innovative, sustainable, recyclable, biodegradable, forest-based and paper-based material 

derived from certified sources. The brand selected the best available technologies aiming for maximum 

product quality and sustainability. LAHQUA spring water is packaged at the source in a newly purpose-built 

sustainable factory equipped with modern state-of-the-art machinery. The factory packages the water with 

certified renewable raw material which is 94.9 % forest-based, fulfilling global food safety initiative 

benchmarking (i.e. Global Food Safety Initiative-benchmarked FSSC 22000).The production is carbon 

neutral and “naturally circular” with the cartons and forest-based plastic caps sourced from responsibly 

managed forests. Its high-quality packaging ensures natural water conservation using vacuum pressure 

technology and aseptic materials. The packaging is mostly made of biodegradable, forest-based renewable 

materials from certified sources. When it came to designing the packages, the design team took advantage 

of these facts in order to communicate these brand values and to make clear the priority mission to 

develop the manner of production and consumption in a naturally circular way. 

 

As these different elemental factors were decomposed, the design teams reconstructed the story  

as an integrated whole. The director emphasized this as follows: 

 

“You see, this is a creative branding hypothesis. This is a symbolism that is also in the logo 

storytelling, so all the values here I find in the design of the logo. But you see, also in the way of 

writing, in the way of representing, for example, the graphics. Here there are already combinations 

of elements that start from the idea, start from the strategy and transform it into something visual 

and creative”. 

 

“You see that even here the whole thing, the packaging, the bottle, the logo, the way of writing; 

everything contributes to give this storytelling narrative that we are talking about”. 

 

This integration was analysed as a proposal for a holistic website (Image 1). All the elemental factors, such 

as the societal, symbolic, physical and material components, were integrated into one holistic website.  



 

20 

This is a way to awaken potential customers’ thoughts on ethical consumption using visual and verbal 

design languages as a consistent storytelling format. 

 

“This, for example, is the website. This is a complete project. We start from a concept, we dissect it, 

we define the values, the mission, and then we transform it into a series of creative touchpoints that 

all come together—so it also means different people because there is the photographer, there is the 

creative, there is the video maker—contribute to give an identity and then to build storytelling [...] 

The strategic part, the definition of the ‘strategic hat’ is important because then everything 

becomes coordinated and coherent”. 

 

Here, it is worth noting that the director underlined the importance of storytelling and the strategic part of 

the design project. This implies that the role of storytelling and the strategic view of coordinating the story 

as a coherent whole were essential parts of the design activities that aimed for a societal transformation.  

 

Table 1: Analysis of the elements of change. 

 

Elements 
of change 

Facts of the case Implications 

Social  - Sustainability challenge: reducing the 
environmental impact of plastic 
packaging 
 - Long-term sustainable growth 
 - To raise awareness and concern about 
our planet and the future related to  
the emotional and higher benefits of  
the brand  

 - Social awareness and concern 
transformative agent 
 - Emotional attraction 

Symbolic  - Key graphic logo with keywords and 
images: e.g., source, water, nature, 
recycle 
  

 - Graphical and verbal symbolic integration  
 - Simplicity and ease of understanding by 
the average target consumer 

Physical  - Origin: coming from a specific natural 
water source 
- From the planet, not from the 
laboratory  

 - Core product content differentiated from 
other brands 
 - Sustainability and well-being 

Material - Innovative packaging: sustainable 
packaging made of biodegradable, forest-
based renewable materials from certified 
sources 
-Paper-based packaging for general 
consumers and glass bottles for the 
hotels, restaurants and catering 
(HORECA) channel 

- Alternative worldview as a physical 
material itself  
- Variable material solutions for different 
potential customers 

 

 



 

21 

 
 

Image 1: Integration of the elements into a prototype storytelling website. 

 

The role of design storytelling: An engine of alternative framing, meaning-making, and actions 

The second construct derived from the case study relates to the role of design storytelling. 

In the context of societal transformation, Wittmayer et al. (2019) insist that narratives can play  

a fundamental role in the construction of individual and social identities and efforts dedicated to the 

development and communication of collectively shared worldviews. They label them “Narratives of 

Change” (NoC), stating that they can reframe the alternative frame, drive meaning-making and prompt 

actions. To adapt this theoretical argument to the case, an analysis was conducted (as shown in Table 2). 

The following describes the analysis based on each analytic unit from the theoretical viewpoint. 

 

First, the case showed that the design team intentionally reframed conventional thinking by posing critical 

narration and changing the frame through a provocative narrative. During the early phase of the design 

project, the team formed a reframing narrative phrase that challenged current water consumption 

behaviour. After conducting an existing market analysis of the worldwide natural water industry in terms  

of packaging design strategy and practice, the team recognized some key trends and insights into the 

competition. Following the “ethical consumerism” trend and new regulations, existing natural water 

companies were making further “responsible commitments” and supporting charitable causes to raise their 

profile, focusing mainly on “carbon neutrality”, the recyclability of materials, the use of recycled materials, 

energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility programmes. However, many of the dominant brands 

still use plastic packaging, which adversely impacts the environment. The team also recognized that around 

the globe consumers aspire to live a healthy lifestyle, desiring simple products with naturally healthy 

attributes, minimal processing and natural ingredients. They want transparent and traceable ingredients 

that can be read about on the packaging. The design team then issued a sharply critical narration: “Who 

would drink from plastic when they can drink from the source?” (Image 2). The design director recalled  

the following: 

 

“We, for example, say we are different from all the other water producers. The other water 

producers are all inside the plastic bottle icon. We say, ‘No, we're not that, we're completely 

different,’ and we put ourselves in a new concept where the content is more important than  

the container”. 



 

22 

 

 
 

Image 2: Changing the frame and making meaning. 

 

Parallel to the reframing and posing of a provocative narrative, the design team interwove different 

narrative components into coherent narratives, consequently creating new meanings. By aligning the 

factual matters related to the brand, the design team explored relevant and emphatic narrative 

components in everyday life in Finland, the purpose of the brand and the wider contexts of change.  

The factual matters emphasized were relevant to the essential values of the brand, such as “North EU 

Origin Finland Lathi heritage”, “untouched source since the ice age”, “pure quality with balanced mineral 

content”, “innovative packaging” and “sustainable production processes”. Those facts were gathered 

iteratively through a collaborative discourse between the design agency and the client as a team.  

It is notable that by posing hypothetical elements with provisional narratives alongside carefully  

selected images and words, the design team gradually wove the core narrative structures through 

discursive activities. 

 

Thereafter, putting those factual matters at the centre of the structural narrative, other emphatic and 

emotional narrative components were sprinkled throughout the core narrative. For instance, “the everyday 

habit of people in Finland to drink pure water for healthy well-being” “the brand's purpose to dedicate 

[itself] to inspiring change with imagination and creativity” and “contextual stories of emergent needs of 

sustainable worldviews” were the key empathic narratives added to the fact-based structural narrative. 



 

23 

Consequently, those interwoven fragmented narrative elements were integrated into a simple narrative 

phrase: “LAHQUA is your source”. The design director stated the following: 

 

“With that in mind, here’s the ‘big idea,’ the theme of saying, ‘I bring the water source, from 

Finland, I bring it to your home’. Therefore, this product is your spring in some way.” 

 

Finally, in the development phase of the design project, every touchpoint and design element were 

synthesized into an actionable practice to which potential customers could be easily and naturally guided 

(i.e. guided practice). Specifically, all the outcomes were designed to engage potential customers to act 

towards ethical consumption through the simple narrative phrase “Less Plastic Better for Earth”. The initial 

touchpoint that the brand chose was remarkable. The brand decided to launch its exposition on one of the 

most effective occasions to draw international attention to its values of innovativeness and environmental 

friendliness, namely the Finland pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020. The Expo had a powerful underlying 

message of environmental friendliness, and the brand intentionally chose a provocative occasion to 

position itself within the wider context of environmental awareness and succeeded in encouraging 

international leaders to embrace a sustainable world. Furthermore, the innovative packaging line was 

coherently designed with three types of packaging produced: a bag in bag format, an Elopak format and  

a glass bottle for the HORECA channel (Image 3). The brand thoroughly avoided the use of environmentally 

hazardous plastics, instead using paper and glass containers, while tailoring its packaging to the various 

usage scenarios of its users. In addition, other touchpoints and elements, such as the logo, font, 

merchandising and website, were designed carefully to contribute to the emphatic storytelling.  

In conclusion, the design director and the PR manager emphasized the following: 

 

“We have to imagine who will drink this water. We imagine a free person, an international person,  

a person who can have these characteristics. Therefore, in storytelling, we already visualized what 

the target audience could be […] This project has been done, ‘It's now displayed at the Dubai Expo’. 

It's a project very focused on the future, very focused on a new vision of water consumption”. 

 

 
Image 3: Directing actions through the newly designed packaging systems. 

 

These design storytelling practices are intended to trigger change of mindsets and behaviours of target 

users, hence generating user experiences. Generally, it is not easy to change people’s mindsets and 

behaviours. It requires stimulating the imagination, understanding and even creativity of the people 

involved. In this case, the team designed whole user experiences where people can change their mindset 



 

24 

and behaviour step by step as naturally as possible, through leveraging on the power of story, which evokes 

imagination and provides a guide for action and structural uncertainty (Milojević & Inayatullah, 2015). 

Coherently united social, symbolic, physical and material aspects formulate “a good story”, which enables 

the target users to understand the story logic and perceive the verisimilitude of the narrative account, not 

the truth of it (Bruner, 1986). It is notable that once the users take the action to select this brand for 

everyday water consumption instead of other brands that use PET, their small single actions can contribute 

automatically to reducing PET bottle consumption, hence taking a tiny step toward an alternative better 

future in which a “naturally circular” ecosystem is realized. 

 

In summary, this analysis implies that design storytelling aimed at a social transformation toward 

sustainability contributed to reframing the existing view into a new one, making new meaning and 

providing a reason for practical action. In other words, this role of design storytelling can be highlighted  

as creating a new worldview for the general public to take small ethical actions, which may potentially 

accumulate into societal transformation. 

 

Table 2: Analysis of the role of narratives by design. 

Dimension  
of the role of 
narrative 

Key narrative phrase Related design activities  Analysis 

Changing 
frames 

“Who would drink from 
plastic when they can 
drink from the source?” 

Deconstructing current 
standardized water 
consumption behaviour 
through a critical view 
  

Questioning the current 
form of consumption 
through a provocative 
narrative 
  

Making 
meaning 

“THE BRAND is your 
source".  

Weaving factual matters 
(e.g. North EU Origin 
Finland Lathi heritage, 
Pure quality with balanced 
mineral content, 
innovative packaging) with 
emphatic stories from 
everyday life in Finland, 
the brand purpose and 
wider contexts  

Generating new meanings 
through a coherent 
narrative using facts, 
people, the brand and 
contexts  

Guiding 
practice 

"Less Plastic Better for 
Earth". 

Synthesizing every brand 
touchpoint and element 
into holistic user 
experiences for people to 
naturally take action 

Prompting a new type  
of consumer behaviour 
through an actionable 
narrative message and 
user experiences 

 

Discussion and conclusion 

This paper explored certain fundamental roles of design and design storytelling that aimed to achieve 

societal transformation. First, design can form the elemental factors of societal transformation by 

decomposing extant elements and substituting them with new multi-dimensional ones. Starting from the 

gap analysis between existing realities needing to be overcome and alternative futures; design decomposes 

current realities into pieces of elements with the power of images and keywords. Thereafter, design can 

reconstruct those newly proposed elements in social, symbolic, physical and material dimensions into an 

integrated whole. Second, design storytelling can fuel alternative framing and meaning-making and lead 

actions as part of a societal transformation movement. In other words, design storytelling can perform  



 

25 

as an agent to convey “Narratives of Change (NoC)” through leveraging the power of story, which evokes 

imagination and provides a guide for action and structural uncertainty. The findings of this paper suggested 

that design can contribute to constituting fundamental changes and that the role of design and design 

storytelling is to steer and navigate societal transformation. Hence, these findings can partially fill the gap 

indicated by Feola (2015) regarding a certain lack of knowledge of what constitutes fundamental changes 

and how these changes can be prompted in multiple disciplines. 

 

Furthermore, these findings can extend the knowledge of transition design (Irwin, 2015) from the 

perspective of design storytelling for societal transformation. As we have seen in our analysis, it is worth 

mentioning the implication of the importance of storytelling and the strategic aspect of design, which can 

guide societal transformation. In addition, our analysis indicated that design could play a remarkable role 

when aiming for societal transformation. Indeed, it should be underlined that design starts the 

transformative practice from the initial deconstruction and reframes the issue and extant elemental 

factors, integrating newly developed elements into a specific whole and then leading to an actionable 

practice in a comprehensive way. Also, the study notably implied that design can be a potential driver  

of “Narratives of Change” or NoC, as the empirical case study showed. More broadly, in relation to the 

argument of the ontological reorientation of design (Escobar, 2018), this study can add an empirical 

contribution, namely that design and design storytelling can possibly perform as a trigger for the overhaul 

of the relationality of people, nature and culture (even if the packaging redesign can surely only scratch the 

surface in terms of sustainable practice). 

 

However, some limitations of this study are worth noting. First, methodologically, although the case was 

selected with specific analytic intention and empirical qualitative triangulated data were used, the results 

and considerations rely on a single case. More case studies or other empirical studies should be conducted 

to certify the findings of the research and generalize them. Second, the case itself was mainly derived from 

a branding design and packaging design project, even though the project team intended to create a game 

changer in the broader context of water consumption and hence become part of societal transition. The 

authors believe that this case should not be interpreted as a case of brand differentiation in commercial 

contexts, but rather as one that can lead to societal change. However, to figure out the potentialities of 

design and design storytelling, diverse types of design projects (e.g. product design, service design and 

product-service system design) should be investigated according to the theoretical perspectives of 

transition design and design storytelling. Third, the theoretical views borrowed from transition studies  

and future studies to analyse the case itself may not be mature, since the topic of research and debate  

in multiple disciplines needs to be developed further (Feola, 2015). 

 

Future work should be expected in several research directions. First, further empirical studies on the role  

of design and design storytelling can investigate the validity and generalizability of the findings. Specifically, 

other case studies or empirical action research could provide supportive findings for the role of design and 

design storytelling in societal transformation. Second, the collaborative aspects of societal transition 

involving different actors could be a meaningful research path. Since societal transformation is a huge 

matter, potential actors could be considered broadly to include innovative private companies, 

governments, citizens and so forth. Therefore, a specific question that could be posed among different 

actors is “How can design storytelling have an impact on societal transformation involving different societal 

actors?” Taking into consideration the urgent demands for societal transformation in the Anthropocene 

era, further research and practice by interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners are awaited. 

 

 



 

26 

Acknowledgements 

We would like to express our gratitude to Mr Michele Bicego, Group Creative Director and Ms. Luisa 

Barbieri, Brand, Media and Communications Director of Hangar Design Group for providing detailed case 

information and cooperating with the interviews. 

 

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