The motivation for writing this paper is the growing concern in society towards the amount of
products we produce containing low utility and sustainability. Through emotional awareness the
student can design meaningful artifacts which extend being more than consumer goods. The
hypothesis is that Product Design students designing burial monuments increase their awareness of
emotional and meaningful artifacts, and increase their emotional awareness in the design process.
Twenty students worked designing burial monuments for a stonemasonry. Their design process was
researched trough use of archival studies and participatory observations. The study shows the theme
affected the students emotionally, which again influenced their design process. The research indicates
that designing burial monuments led to an increased emotional awareness for the majority of students
participating in the project
