CLASS 02 | FEBRUARY 14 | DESIGN EDUCATION TODAY

 

 

 

CLASS FOCUS

A look at where design education is today and how is it being addressed. Discuss "AIGA|Adobe Defining the Designer of 2015; AIGA Design Educators Conference, "New Contexts/New Practices"; NASAD White Papers as design education baseline; education as a spectrum with different; splintering of options, positions, ways o addressing and means of education delivery.

 

READINGS

The following readings offer a variety of perspectives on the status of design education today. Here's a document that I created comparing these different perspectives side-by-side.

 

The first group (4 readings) presents some significant statements regarding the status of design education by a variety of governing bodies. Read these to become familiar with current dialogs.

1. International Council of Graphic Design Association, ICOGRADA Design Education Manifesto 2011. page 4, 6-10

2. Adobe|AIGA, "Defining the Designer of 2015"

3. Excerpts from "Restarting Britian: Design Education and Growth," report by the Design Commission, London, 2011

4. AIGA/NASAD Briefing Paper, "Desgree Programs and Graphic Design: Purposes, Structures, and Results" undated.

 

A view from the design press:

5. DK Holland, "Blow Up the Design School: Part 1" and "Blow Up the Design School: Part 2" Communication Arts, Interactive Annual 2011

 

A more critical perspective:

6. Dori Tunstall's "Trans-Modern Consciousness: Mapping Value Systems and Model for Graphic Design Education," ICOGRADA Education Newtwork Conference, 2009: Design Education and Innovation.

 

See also AIGA/NASAD Briefing Papers

 

 

PRESENTATION/SHARING

Louise Sandhaus, "Design Education Today,"January 20, 2011, PRINT Master Class

 

 

 

 

ASSIGNMENT FOR NEXT WEEK:

FEBRUARY 22: DESIGN EDUCATION TOMORROW

 

READINGS:

The following readings present 3 distinctive looks at where design education might go. Each argues, speculates, or reports based on their particular concerns, interests, areas of research, and indvidual experiences. All of these individuals is fairly young and represents fresh veiwpoints coming from a new generation of design thinkers and all represent a legacy of the kind of thinking that CalArts fosters — directly (Anne and Deborah as CalArts alumna) or indirectly (Stuart).

 

A note from Stuart Bailey regarding his 3-part reading: "the three parts have titles deliberately designed to form a long composite sentence, Towards a Critical Faculty / (Only an Attitude of Orientation) / From the Toolbox of a Serving Library. the first is mostly a collection of excerpts which amount to an overview of past, present future art/design school models, as well as an attempt to work out what "design thinking" is supposed to mean. the second tries to identify the sort of qualities/skills a new approach might work toward, and mostly consists of my paraphrasing a handful of thinkers from other fields. and the third amounts to a proposal for what we did (or meant to do) in Banff last summer, a reconsideration of a Bauhaus-proxy foundation course based on deconstructing a Photoshop-proxy toolbox."

1. "Towards a Critical Faculty," A short reader concerned with art/design education compiled by Stuart Bailey for the Academic Workshop at Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York

Winter 2006/7

2. "(Only an Attitude of Orientation)," Another pamphlet concerned with art/design education compiled by Stuart Bailey

as a sequel to “Towards a Critical Faculty”

Edited and published by Off

ice for Contemporary Art Norway,

Oslo, winter 2009/10

3. "From the Toolbox of a Serving Library," A third pamphlet concerned with art/design education compiled by Dexter Sinister in conclusion to “Towards a Critical Faculty” Published by The Banff Centre and The Serving Library, Summer 2011

 

4. Anne Burdick, "The Future of Design Education, PRINT, April 2011, issue 98

5. Anne Burdick, "Design Without Designers," talk presented April 29, 2009 at the School of Design Strategies at Parson The New School for Design, New York

 

The following academic paper by CalArts, alumna and current PhD in Design, looks at graduate design education in terms of theory of education as an "ecology of habits" that focuses on the design of the teaching environment. The paper is based on the outcome of a study she did of 4 different prominent U.S. graduate design programss. This paper also a rare example of research completed by someone from within the field of design rather than an "outsider" look in or at "us."

6. Deborah Littlejohn, "Anticipation and action in graduate design programs: Building a theory of relationships amon academic culture, professional identity and the teaching oenvironment in design education" delivered at Hong Kong Doctorate in Design Conference, 2011