Interest in haptic perception is growing within the food design community due to the expanding knowledge of multi-sensory experiences across the design spectrum. Our aim was to investigate how haptic perception can be explored, defined and illustrated by interweaving our professional experiences and methods that reflect creative strategies from our aesthetic disciplines: industrial design, culinary arts and hospitality. We developed and conducted a series of practice-based research methods starting with three playful ‘aesthetic labs’ (A-labs), followed by the ‘five basic features-method’ (FBF). This resulted in unfolding four distinct ‘haptic attribute models’: the first three are designed for the ‘hand’, ‘mouth’ and ‘nose’ with the gestalt intention to ‘make’, and the fourth model is designed to guide an ‘embodied presence’ session to facilitate ‘awareness’. The configuration and definition of attributes in each model relate to each author’s professional experiences and emotions, which strengthen the connection between our respective aesthetic disciplines. The models serve as creative instruments to inspire a hybrid food design community for food and non-food applications and support practitioners, educators and researchers interested in haptics. We are dedicated to prototype new haptic attribute models to support research in haptics that are rooted in professional subjective experiences and facilitate ways of connecting disciplines within and beyond the field of aesthetics. We invite readers to share insights gained from applying these models to further their development and relevance.