Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education - Volume 16, Issue 1, 2017

Providing a cohesive language for graphic design, which can be utilized in the production of knowledge and the generation of theory specific to that sub-discipline of Art and Design, is a challenge that is often obscured by the very practical nature of the field. As practice-based problem-solving is at the core of graphic design, application often supersedes meta-level theoretical engagement when it comes to educating undergraduate students. In this article, the underlying structures of graphic design pedagogy are explored through sociology of knowledge theories. We demonstrate how these theories enable the identification and analysis of those underlying structures, both epistemic and social, which influence how knowledge and the knower is constructed, taught and assessed in this sub-discipline. Applying these knowledge-knower structuring theories to analyses of empirical data collected from curriculum documentation and assessment events, we draw comparisons with data generated from formative and summative assessment practices. It is our intention that, through articulating a language of description and providing this example of the application of such methodological procedures for investigating such knowledge, a cohesive language may be shared that holds the potential to better inform curriculum development of the sub-discipline in higher education.

This article describes the design of Timelines, a ten-week, two-hour course to introduce international postgraduate students to the stylistic and cultural influences that enrich western graphic design in a relaxed, supportive environment. The course is the result of a collaboration between a linguist and a graphic design lecturer, and was designed to promote confidence and dialogue through a series of language-based activities addressing issues of internationalism by presenting a broad approach to western design history with an emphasis on intercultural knowledge. Students who may not speak English as a first language can experience very different design cultures to those that they are used to as they begin their postgraduate education at University for the Creative Arts. The aim of Timelines is to equip students with a learning and cultural toolkit to help them to navigate through the first semester of their postgraduate course and help them understand and contextualize the references they will encounter. Students also improve English language skills and critical knowledge so they are able to take an active part in dialogue and discussions. By the end of the ten-week course, students should also be able to formulate their own design discourses with confidence.

The singular mission of graphic design schools is to prepare students for a life in professional practice, primarily as creative form-givers of design artefacts and communications. Such a practice-oriented monoculture in the curriculum leaves the field lacking the knowledge-building capacity for producing a diverse body of disciplinary scholarship by academic researchers – who are sorely needed if graphic design is to ever emerge as a true discipline. Meanwhile, several stakeholder organizations such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and Icograda, among others, have challenged design education to address shifts underway in the field towards a more user-centric, evidence-based practice. In the United States, a few graduate programmes have taken steps to bridge graphic design’s knowledge gap by accommodating different pathways into the field that focus on research skills. This article presents findings from a twelve-month grounded theory study investigating the teaching environments of four such programmes, illuminating some of the factors that enabled a programme’s ability to adapt their approaches to curricula design and pedagogic strategies. An integrated model – a grounded theory – is proposed that emphasizes three core categories emerging from the data – External engagement, Mediating meaning and Transparency. Programme strategies that informed these three categories highlight numerous processes shaping faculty relationships, as well as the role of the teaching environment in coordinating between internal pedagogic objectives and external changes in the wider landscape of the graphic design field. Specifically, these processes promoted sense-making, engagement and transformation in the four programmes that participated in the study. This report aims to increase awareness about faculty beliefs and behaviours that affect graphic design education’s ability to remain relevant.

Creativity is valued in graphic design practice. However, in design education, it is often hindered by assessment processes when students focus on grade outcomes or become attached to a limited set of concepts drawn from pre-existing knowledge. This article presents a case study from an Australian university, drawing on surveys, focus-group discussions and reflections to examine the implications of assessment feedback on creativity in graphic design pedagogy. Curriculum design and assessment strategies that support student confidence in experimentation and creative capacity, as well as the roles of both educators and students, were considered. The study highlights the benefits of face-to-face feedback throughout the assessment process but recognizes the challenges around the practice. It is suggested that, by rethinking how this form of feedback can be effectively incorporated to support graphic design pedagogy, these challenges can be overcome.

This study explores how a structured approach to reflective practice can guide graphic design students to connect their learning from the project with thinking about approaches to design practice. The research employed a case-study approach with a mixed-method research strategy, framed by theories of reflective practice and cognitive psychology. The results indicate that when guided to reflect in a structured and critical manner, students can identify and analyse learning from their project and connect this learning with thinking about approaches to practice. This occurred in a manner that has parallels with the concept of high- and low-road transfer. However, not all participants achieved this, and nor did participants achieve this all the time. This evidence-based study contributes to the limited empirical research in graphic design education, and to the role reflection can play to enhance learning opportunities from the design project.

Educators generally accept that semiotics theory should be taught in design; however, there is need of more evidence and documented practices about how to incorporate semiotics into design education. Existing references propose techniques to use semiotics as source of inspiration and as an analysis tool. In this study, the authors examined how a reflective didactic strategy, one that uses semiotic theoretical reflection in several analytical and creative activities, stimulates learning and bridges semiotic theory and design practice. Even though students’ theoretical knowledge about semiotics increased modestly, they were more aware about how design artefacts convey meaning to the audience, which is the main reason semiotics are part of the design curriculum. This study shows that a reflective didactic strategy supports learning applied semiotics, which helps students to understand the central role of theory for a legitimized design practice.

The Alternative Art School (AAS) is conceived as an open-ended pedagogic tool through which to interrogate the conditions and consequences of contemporary education. It is interdisciplinary in scope, but focuses on the values of design education, while challenging assumptions of the academic status quo. As a ‘school’ within a school the AAS exploits the opportunities of art school to envisage alternatives in a staff−student collaboration. Extra-curricular and unmarked, the AAS is framed as a case study here employing a dialogic process that aims to disrupt reductive government policy and challenge the fusion of commerce and culture. In this way students are encouraged to reframe their experiences and ambitions from a more critical position and to inspire change through creative dissent.

In this text we are reporting back on the practice-based research project Precarity Pilot. The starting point for this research is the fact that in today’s Europe, design graduates are entering into a landscape of precarious work. This research-in-progress thus enquires into how formal and informal design education can be a space where to empower young designers to transformatively engage with the precarious work politics of their profession. As a mid-way result, here we present a series of didactic proposals and strategic questions for how issues of socio-economic precariousness can be transformatively addressed. This result is based on a series of half-day workshops we have been running between 2014 and 2016 with design students, recent graduates and design educators in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Italy. We address these proposals to educators, managers and students alike as we are convinced that everyone involved in education has agency over how the learning process unfolds.

Designers work with people and for people, and the designers’ main objective is to transform people’s existing situations into better ones. This is not easy: it requires both disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, and a will to do things well. Focusing on people makes the social sciences become a necessary support for design, and forces design to become an accountable profession, where decisions are based on reliable criteria, and where projects respond to important needs of society. In most design programmes today a simplistic conception of creativity keeps design as an easy and self-serving activity, where students are kept busy with formal/visual and technological concerns. Unfortunately studies of people are normally missing from design education, along with language and evaluation of performance. If design is to develop its full potential as a major contributor to society’s well-being, design education has to change into a rigorous, interdisciplinary and socially responsible activity.

Sustainable Graphic Design: Principles and Practices, Peter Claver Fine (2016) London: Bloomsbury, 256 pp., ISBN: 9780857850638, p/bk, £28.99

Becoming a Successful Graphic Designer, Neil Leonard (2016) London: Bloomsbury, 192 pp., ISBN: 9781472591197, p/bk, £26.99