Hi Rob
Nice to hear from you, and always good to get another graphic design
perspective.
With regard to design educators who don't draw or make, I was chatting to an
Australian colleague recently who expressed concern that if all new
appointments in Australia (as seems to be the current thinking) demanded a
PhD, then there was a danger that graphic design courses would find
themselves short of educators who could actually 'do'. I would be no means
subscribe to dishing up so much 'theory' that students' pencils remained
unused, I think it's absolutely important to get the balance right and
engage them in both theory and practice—preferably with the two inextricably
linked via their studio projects.
Also, I often think of graphic design as like a vaccuum - it is empty in
itself, and that vaccuum is only filled when one has content to work with.
Given that on most projects that content is not usually graphic design
based, but could be anything from banking to bowling, it seems it is, in
some ways, inherently interdisciplinary and therefore perhaps that is why we
have an ability to understand and work in a broad range of settings and
with a range of collaborators. Just ruminating, not a completely formed
theory...
Hope all good in Loughborough,
Alison
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:21 PM, Robert Harland <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>
> I therefore don't identify with much of what Don is saying. If design
> education needs to change, we may need to carefully manage the expectations
> of those who assume designers can 'draw' what they, as surveyors, bankers,
> etc, can't. Perhaps 'designers' or 'design educators' who don't draw, make,
> call it what you will, should colonise a different space. Maybe that's a bit
> contentious, even defensive.
>
>
>
> Regards, Rob.
>
>
>
>
> Dr Robert Harland | Lecturer | School of the Arts | School of the Arts,
> English and Drama | Loughborough University
> http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/robert-harland.htm<
> http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sota/staff/robert-harland.html>
>
--
* * *
Dr. Alison Barnes
School of Graphic Design, LCC
University of the Arts, London
www.alisonbarnesonlineportfolio.tumblr.com
http://informationenvironments.academia.edu/AlisonBarnes/About
http://geo-graphic.blogspot.com/
|