The Landscape of Graphic Design Education

Meredith Davis

AIGA Design Education Conference

Schools of Thoughts 2

Poised Toward the Future of Graphic Design Education

March 4-6, 2005

Designers must evolve within the field and also it's place in society. It is not the time spent in class, but the experiences that each student gains and also the immersion within the work discipline. This article argues what distinguishes a professional graphic design education from a pre-professional graphic design education. Art and design courses only cover about 65% of the curriculum. It is considered a "professional lite curriculum". Students who have strong backgrounds in liberal studies have interesting perspectives on audiences and context within design.

Graphic design has witnessed change over the decades. There are more students than jobs available. Graduate studies are not that different from undergraduate studies and master students are often put in the same class. The need is now greater for students to complete 4 year programs instead of colleges that offer 2 year programs. There is a greater need to incorporate liberal studies into the design programs.

Part 1 The Fundamentals: What is research

Leedy/ Omrod

-Suggests an activity that is removed from everyday life.

What research is not:

1) not mere information gathering

-going to the library may be information discovery.

2) Not the transportation of facts.

-such as writing an essay

3) Not rummaging for facts

4)Not a catchword to get attention

What research is:

- collecting analyzing and interpreting information in order to understand what we are interested in

1) originates with a question or problem

-looking at things in everyday life. Asking why they are or are not the way they are.

2) research requires clear articulation of a goal

3) requires a specific plan for proceeding

-plan overall research design

-specific search methods

4) research usually divides the principal problem into more manageable sub problems

-main problems to sub problems

5) guided by the specific problem question or hypotheseis

-hypthesis logical supposition, a reasonable guess, they are constant

6) accepts certain critical assumptions

7) requires the collection and interpretation of data in an attempt to resolve the problem that initiated the research

GD Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and the "Real World".

Gunnar Swanson

Schools are training for GD's

-gd has potential because of it's lack of specific subject matter to connect to many disciplines

-reconsider graphic design as a liberal arts subject

-concept of liberal arts was first delineated by Aristotle

-LB has four point

1) they are not mechanical

2) they are not utilitarian - they have intrinsic calue

3) there must be no specializing that would would restrict the mind

must be undertaken for its intrisic value, not merely to earn a living or to impress others.

-harvard instituted the elective system, with the purpose of allowing students to move in the direction of their future careers

-main purpose is the production of college teachers with doctoral degrees while producing scholarly research that is not solely utilitarian.