This paper discusses a new approach to conceptual design. The presented methodology is based on the structure of meanings in the design process. The search and evaluation of meanings form the foun-dations of developing this structure of meanings. In order to facilitate the use and operation of the mean-ings, the WordNet lexical database is used. An ex-isting visualization of WordNet is used for the pro-cess of meaning search. The WordNet::Similarity software for the measure of the relatedness of mean-ings in this database is the basic tool used for the evaluation process. The concept of similarity is con-cerned with the degree of interconnections between different meanings. Such search and evaluation tech-niques are later on incorporated into our methodol-ogy of the structure of meanings to support the de-sign process. The measures of relatedness of mean-ings are developed as a convergence criterion for ap-plication in the evaluation processes. Further on, our methodology for the structure of meanings is used to construct meanings in a given example of shape. All the steps of the design methodology, including the search and evaluation processes involved in develop-ing of the structure of the meanings, are elucidated. This design example is discussed to clarify possible implications of the design methodology. Finally, the paper presents directions for developing and further extensions of the proposed design methodology.