ICOGRADA Design Education Manifesto 2011

DIID, Disegno industriale industrial design/DIID, 2024

The article presents the results of the debate that emerged during the 8 th International Forum of Design as a Process, organized in Bologna by the design units of three partner institutions: the University of Bologna, the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Tecnológico de Monterrey (20-22 June 2022). In particular, the Authors were chairs of the New Education Pathways for Future Designers in a Changing World theme track. It focused on two complementary perspectives. First, how designers can apply their peculiar "productive thinking" to educational spheres or other forms of organizations; second, how a non-hegemonic approach to design education could introduce new perspectives on future experiences. After an introduction about the overall theorical background, five themes have been created to frame the papers by international scholars. The conclusion outlines some elements that can be considered in a process of continuous research and discussion.

DS 110: Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (EPDE 2021), 2021

In recent years, the responsibilities of designers have drastically shifted as the world we live in becomes increasingly more complex. Correspondingly, educators advocate for an adaptation of design education in relation to the shifting economy, technological and societal advances. The question therefore is how to design the future of design education in a way that it corresponds better to these shifts. Traditionally, university curricula are updated on a department level together with faculty members. Under this localized practice, programs update one course at a time. During this routine hardly any other stakeholders are involved. By reviewing universities' practices around the world towards reforming their curricula, it was found that design programs can benefit from shifting towards a systemic, design-based, and research-through-design approach, specifically, by using design research methodologies, namely, co-creation, stakeholder involvement, questionnaires, trend analysis, benchmarking, focus groups, interviews, prototyping and the application of an iterative mindset. In agreement with Cross (1982), the authors call for a more designerly way of thinking in order to update design curricula. By reconsidering conventional approaches regarding curricula reform practices, this paper presents recommendations for designing design education to define future university study programs.

Cultural Spaces and Design - Prospects of Design Education, 2019

Halter, Regine & Walthard, Catherine (Eds.) for HyperWerk HGK FHNW Throughout the discussions about globalisation and design, what has been missing until now are deliberations regarding necessary changes towards a design education which puts conceptual acting in the context of global movements and problem situations. This publication pleads for a revision of design education. It addresses students, teachers, and design practitioners. On the basis of concrete examples, concepts, methods and tools are presented for discussion. They can open up new directions and possibilities of design education. Consequently, this book focuses on design students’ experiences and reflections as contributions to a design education understood as a school for differentiated perception. The local level – the respective Cultural Space – is appreciated as the actual hot spot of globalisation. The book offers reports, case studies, analyses, and reflections by lecturers, artists, and students about their working experiences in Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Nigeria, Botswana, South Sudan, India, Canada, Albania, the USA and others.

2011

The global impact of ever-increasing mass consumerism set against the reality of finite resources, posits design with the responsibility as well as the ability to influence consumerism at every level, however to do this demands changing the way designers think, which in turn means re-educating, re-directing design and moving to Design Futures. The following quote is taken from a 2010 briefing paper by Professor Tony Fry: "Rather than looking at design education from the perspective of the design industry, or towards it, the Design Futures frame of reference is wider. It looks at it refracted through university education in general, beyond the industry and out into the future. This point of view does not ignore practicalities but rejects the notion that design education is purely vocational and pragmatic. Rather it asserts that first and foremost it has to be an education. Design Futures is firmly committed to the creation of educated designers. What this means is an education whereby the designer understands the world in which they are going to practice -socially, culturally, economically, politically, environmentally. It is predicated on the assumption that they have to know what they are doing, why and with what consequence. More than this, designers have to understand what design is and does in a wider worldly sense, have a basic understanding of its history beyond the narrow characterisations delivered by design history. Above all, graduate designers must realise design's implication in forming futures, and their own responsibility in this context. Students still have to acquire a wide range of technical skills BUT they have to know how to direct them and to what ends. Every educated designer needs to be equipped with a strategic sensibility, so they can steer their career path in ethically and economically viable directions. For this to be possible students need to be adequately educated so that their economic and employment opportunities will expand not contract! A design education has to be understood as expanding horizons and qualifying young people for more than just a conventional design job." The paper will discuss the process of developing an existing 3 Year Bachelor of Design degree based upon the service industry model of the past into a new 4 Year Bachelor of Design degree with embedded honours and the underlying Design Futures philosophy as the foundation of this new degree.

Journal of Design Research, 2008

As a Researcher and an Educator in the field of design, he is interested in the skills and competencies of designers and the match between these and industry requirements. The results from his research in this area have been used to guide the development of curriculum in design so that future graduates may more effectively fulfil industry requirements. His current research focus is on global product design development processes and its impact on the design profession. His research has been published in international journals and conferences.

This Study explores the extent to which the changes brought by new socio-economic paradigm shift and its influence on social and economic behaviour in the last 20 years are reflected in design education and practice. Furthermore, this Study attempts to identify the root causes of design education and design curriculum content maladjustment to the needs of contemporary era. It also identifies the current challenges design education is facing today. Theoretical and empirical research results, particu - larly in the form of knowledge, skills and competencies, served as the ground for proposing appropriate guidelines for the improvement of current design education and the content of the design curricula. The results of the Study reveal theoretical and empirical evidence that confirms the assumption about the current mismatch between knowl - edge and skills acquired in formal design education and skills needed in current and future design practices. This mismatch is mostly related to the managerial and social skills needed for solving problems and demands of real life design practice and to a smaller extent, to practical design knowledge and competencies. Therefore the Study argues that design education should be carried within a multidis - ciplinary context, which will embrace all necessary knowl - edge, skills and competencies needed for future successful professional design practice, and that design education should be more practice-based oriented, allowing students Abstract to work on specific real life projects. Since the evidence suggests that educational institutions in their attempts to provide additional skills and competencies are faced with financial and bureaucratic constraints, which create a gap, or lack of professionals from other specialist disciplines, design education institutions should consider finding alter - native sources for financing those specialist and alternative ways of training students in deficient disciplines or skills. Furthermore, the Study argues that there is a need for finding more ef fective way of transferring economic knowl - edge to design students and that the business sector and other interested parties need to better learn each other ’s languages in order to achieve more productive communi - cation. Design educational institutions should present their students the importance of business management and raise awareness of the business sector about the value of design. Key words: Design Education, Design Practice, Skills, Competencies, Challenge, Knowledge Society

Design Education: Approaches, Explorations and Perspectives, 2014

Design Education: Approaches, Explorations and Perspectives documents diverse approaches and practices in design education situated in local, national and international contexts. Bringing together contributions from six design academics, researchers and graduate students this publication includes in-class case studies, long-term research studies, and graduate research projects. There is growing recognition from both within the field and from other areas of the unique and critical role that design can play in addressing major issues facing society. Design educators must take a leading role in pushing the field of design, through innovative thinking and action, to address these serious and substantial concerns. Design Education: Approaches, Explorations and Perspectives contributes to the growing discussion on human-centred design education, research and practice.

2013

Design, we are often reminded, has a direct social purpose that is capable of reaching all sectors of public life. National design organisations across the world proclaim that design acts reflect a nation's social and cultural values; design shapes the everyday products people use, the buildings we live, work and play in, and the clothes we wear. Furthermore, design communicates those values to others. It is therefore an extremely powerful tool that can communicate and express a nation's values to others and has a significant role in the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of its people (Newman and Swann, 1996). Moreover, it has been suggested that design is the best tool that we have available to us to make sense of the contemporary, complex modern world (Sudjic, 2009). But how should a design school in the age of digital capital best prepare future designers for this complex world? How can the design school maximize the potential opportunities suggested by this future, uncertain world? Can the design school truly help address some of the emergent and huge global issues we will surely face? By looking at the contemporary situation this paper explores how the structure of design education has been transformed by a number of internal, external, and contextual factors. The paper will expand upon the operative scope, flexibility, and vulnerability of teaching design, its history/theory, and representation in the years and decades ahead in the design school.

The multiple environmental and socioeconomic challenges confronting humanity today, and a contemporary context that presents the promise of perpetual connectivity and accelerated patterns in information consumption and creation, represent powerful global forces that are shaping the way we live, work and learn. Such pressures and opportunities on an international scale are affecting design education in significant ways, creating an unprecedented need to deliver knowledge, experience and sophistication upon a global playing field. The college-wide initiative Designmatters at Art Center College of Design advocates for applied research approaches to complex humanitarian issues and provides unique methodologies for creative reform and change, empowering a new generation of designers to imagine critical solutions for society’s future well-being.