Mark,
On Nov 25, 2012, at 8:12 AM, Mark Evans wrote:
> I have genuine respect for many of the schools listed in the top 25 but must confess that, despite what I consider to be a global perspective on design teaching/reseach, there were a few that I had never heard of.
I have the comparative advantage of being in the US so I know at least something about all of them. I'd put any of them on some "great design school" list but this one has a couple of obvious problems before we get to your objections about survey methods.
The first is the whole "best schools" question. When someone says "The University of X is the best school in the world," it seems prudent to ask best for what and for whom.
The second big one is the extension of that question--what do we mean by design? If the "business insiders" involved worked for Paris Vogue, they might have a slightly different impression of the question than if they worked for Airbus. Some of the schools listed would be nonsense answers to many questioners asking about "best design schools" and some that offer a broader range of design programs are very good in some design areas and significantly less so in others.
> When I read the results, the first thought that came to my mind was a parallel association with the ironically and optimistically titled World Series Baseball.
I don't know what teams would be competition for an actual world championship of baseball today but in 1903, there were no non-US contenders so the showdown between the American and National leagues might have reasonably been understood to be a world championship equivalent. Since the American League and the National League were the two competing forces, calling it "American," "National," or even "American National" championships would have been somewhat problematic.
The irony part is that for nearly half of the history of the Word Series, many of the best American baseball players were consigned to "Negro league" play. Historically, the real objection to the "World" title was not that "world" status was a self-fulfilling prophesy based in American jingoism but that it was one that was based on racism. Every time I hear someone yammering about putting an asterisk after names because of changes in rules, I think that Babe Ruth was, perhaps, the best white batter ever. Small "world," ain't it?
Gunnar
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Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
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+1 252 258 7006
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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