Usually a notebook, lined or unlined, that contains sketches, swatches, clippings, and writings. Consider it a mute thinking partner: a constantly-evolving repository of ideas, half ideas, non-ideas, and abandoned ideas. Or perhaps as an archive speculation, iteration, and/or discovery. As a tool, it is where fashion design concepts are first visualized. As a frontier, it is where the design process often begins. Over time, the design journal assumes a grotesque form, quite literally bursting at the seams with matter and overflowing with unrealized hopes and dreams. A cherished object, the design journal is a constant companion to the designer.
See also: accumulation.