Institutions Reproduce Themselves. It’s a Problem

Design Issues, 1994

Although this essay concentrates on issues of graphic design education, my arguments also pertain to education in other areas of design; most apply to arts education and many are relevant to post-secondary education in general. I assume a university setting, although many of the ideas presented in this essay apply equally to art schools. Finally, just as the essay calls for a broad view of design education and a broad context for design, I hope it will be read in a broad context and the arguments applied wherever appropriate.

2011 DEFSA Conference Proceedings, 2011

The diverse tautology applied to graphic design means different things depending on the perspective from which it is viewed and has become the topic for much debate in recent times. This is of particular relevance to the tertiary educational arena in South Africa, where universities (including Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) which provides the context for this paper) are faced with the dual spectres of programme re-curriculation and Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF)1 level compliancy in the near future and graphic design programmes will have to reconsider their relevance in a changing/changed educational and business paradigm. Determining what graphic design is and reflecting on its role in society is a critical aspect of this imminent, and important process. This paper will attempt to define the "new model" graphic designer by identifying the qualities, skills, values, content and contexts that best describe the practice and the practitioner; as this should also inform educational best practice, and will present a list of values and characteristics that embody the essence of graphic design for the 21st century. These characteristics can then become the basis for the development or evaluation of a best practice curriculum that is credible, relevant and vital for the future. The author contends that responding to the "definition" will allow teaching and learning to become more relevant as the designer‘s identity is clarified, a broader world view is encouraged and curricula evolve to accommodate the present and future realities of graphic design communication

2019

There is a perfect storm hitting higher education and the effects of this storm are impacting art and design education severely. The institutions that will be able to survive will be the ones that can react and innovate to rapidly changing forces, and to continue to rapidly change and innovate. The perfect storm impacting higher education are 1. Widening Gap Between Education and Practice 2. Inability of Education to Reinvent And to Innovate 3. Student Debt 4. Enrollment 5. Disappearing Middleclass Widening Gap Between Education and Practice and the Inability to Reinvent and Innovate The relationships between design education and practice have always been disconnected and disassociated. The disconnection is, in part, because education and practice operate at different speeds as well as have completely different organizational and accountability structures. Whilst we should be mindful that there is an obvious difference between education and practice and that distinction is an important one, we also need to be equally aware that the widening gap has now seriously affected the ability for higher education to prepare students for careers. This is because the way education is currently delivered cannot keep pace with the rapid change that is happening in practice. The gap is getting wider and education is now so far behind that they are preparing students for careers that do not exist anymore-they are preparing students for the past. One reason for the gap between education and practice is because the pace of innovation is getting faster, minute-by-minute, and year-by-year. One only needs to consider how technology has, and will continue to be important, and the level of technological innovation gets faster and faster year after year. The idea of how quickly technology and innovation are happening is best discribed by Marina Gorbis who wrote an article for the New York Times in 2015 entitled, "Innovation Is Happening Faster Than We Can Adapt to." She outlined that technological innovations, that are coming out of Silicon Valley, are changing our institutional, societal and cultural norms and practices, and these new technologies put the world at our fingertips and help us coordinate activities at previously unimaginable speeds and scales. She goes on to say that although these new innovations are enabling new levels of convenience and flexibility, they are, at the same time, undermining well-established notions of work and employment. Technology has impacted art and design education and it is an endless struggle for both private and public institutions trying to "keeping up" with technology. Institutions have to continually

2013

In my eleven years of teaching graphic design at Tshwane University of Technology, I have come to realise that education is more than just teaching a student the fundamentals, techniques and new technologies, it is also about their personal development. I conducted this study to ensure that my educational practices challenge my graphic design students to acquire the essential characteristics -or more profoundly, the essential human qualities -- required for a contemporary graphic design career through which the quality of life for all will be enhanced. The study is a participatory action research study involving the second and third year graphic design students at Tshwane University of Technology. It involved five action intervention cycles. In the first cycle I explored the current graphic design education practices in order to determine whether these practices ensure the acquisition of such essential human qualities that a graphic designer should posses. The acquisition of such human qualities has become paramount because of the ethical imperative that graphic designers can change the world . I found that my current graphic design education practices as they relate to the commonly most dominant practices are not sufficient to accomplish this purpose. During the research I was exposed to a paradigmatically innovative education practice that focuses on maximizing human potential and it was adopted to improve my existing education practice. Through four additional action intervention cycles I provided evidence that indicated that my improved education practice contributed to my students' acquisition of an identified four sets of essential human qualities: the artistic quality of creativity; the professional quality of continuous, independent, increasing expertise in creativity within an interdependent, co--operative value based community of graphic design practitioners; the personal quality of maximizing human potential; and the leadership quality of an enlightened change agent. The primary focus on the © © U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y o of f P Pr re et to or ri ia a © © U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y o of f P Pr re et to or ri ia a ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ iv Keywords ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Graphic design Education practices Authentic learning Facilitating learning Graphic design in society Human qualities Artistic qualities Professional qualities Personal qualities Leadership qualities © © U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y o of f P Pr re et to or ri ia a © © U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y o of f P Pr re et to or ri ia a ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ vi Ethical Clearance Certificate University of Pretoria ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE CLEARANCE NUMBER : Ensuring that graphic design students acquire the essential human qualities for a career that enhances the quality of life

Although this essay concentrates on issues of graphic design education, my arguments also pertain to education in other areas of design; most apply to arts education and many are relevant to post-secondary education in general. I assume a university setting, although many of the ideas presented in this essay apply equally to art schools. Finally, just as the essay calls for a broad view of design education and a broad context for design, I hope it will be read in a broad context and the arguments applied wherever appropriate.

So you want to be a designer? There's a lot to know. Don't expect schools to teach it all. Look for it on your own.

Revolution/Evolution: Two Decades and Four Hundred Designers Later edited by Musfy L. , 2013

Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education, 2017

Considering the continued growth of undergraduate and postgraduate graphic design education in recent decades, as well as the considerable increase in newer subjects and programmes that utilize graphic design educational methods and tools-for example, communication design-it is bemusing that more has not been written about learning and teaching in graphic design. There are occasional articles in journals such as the one you are reading, and a handful of articles in published conference proceedings-for example, the biannual Design Research Society conferences-but a wider shared understanding of how the subject is taught is no further advanced than when Steven Heller pondered on the notion of a 'handbook' about how to teach graphic design two decades ago (1997: xiii). Then, his book, The Education of a Graphic Designer (1997), emphasized how we learn and teach the subject, comprising more than 40 relatively short essays, interviews and course syllabi, mostly from an American perspective. Not much has been added to this tome since. This special issue of ADCHE, about graphic design education, is, therefore, timely and emphasizes what is often referred to as pedagogic research. It draws from a wide geographic base, with contributions from America,

Teaching Ethics, 2007

Acta Graphica Journal for Printing Science and Graphic Communications

To encompass the multitude of activities currently attached to graphic design, scholars, practitioners, and other stakeholders have proposed a range of names in recent times. Owing to the expansion of the role and multiple proposed and prevalent nomenclatures in education and industry, some confusion and identity crisis exists. This study investigates and traces the journey of graphic design, how its roles and functions have evolved with time, and the challenge of assigning a universally acceptable nomenclature encompassing all that graphic design stands for now. Data has been collected from both primary and secondary sources to get a sense of the situation. The secondary sources helped understand the breadth of the problem, views of scholars, practitioners, and the education world. Primary sources helped establish the inconsistencies of nomenclature in graphic design education, mirroring the situation of graphic design’s expanded functions in the profession. Primary information has...