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Mike, We've offered a transdisciplinary 'thinking and making' design program at the University of Texas at Austin since the early 1990s, and we are in the midst of re-evaluating and updating our approach to design education. Our faculty have backgrounds in graphic design, typography, photography, product design, political science, design criticism and architecture. Instead of courses called Graphic Design 101, we offer topic-driven classes such as Design Systems, Design and the Social Environment, and Design Theory and Method each taught through the particular focus of that faculty with the intent that the fundamental design skills learned can be applied in a variety of situations outside the bounds of any particular discipline. This places emphasis on design as a way of thinking and as a tool that can be applied to a broad range of contemporary issues which is perhaps equivalent to recent 'Design and...' programs. A capstone senior project allows students to operate across disciplinary boundaries and to choose the form of a final product that is most appropriate to the situation they are trying to 'make sense of.' At the moment, amongst other options, we are exploring ways to make stronger institutional connections to disciplines outside of our own design disciplines (computer science, business, engineering, etc.) to become more truly interdisciplinary and to take fuller advantage of being at a large research university. More detail can be found on our web site: http://www.finearts.utexas.edu/aah/design/featured_story.cfm http://www.finearts.utexas.edu/aah/design/index.cfm Riley Triggs Design Lecturer College of Fine Arts University of Texas at Austin On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 7:04 PM, Mike McAuley <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > I would be interested to know of any institutions which have recently > re-designed their curriculums driven by a desire to get rid of the old > vocational terms such as graphic design, illustration etc. > > > > > Dr. MIKE MCAULEY > SENIOR LECTURER, SUBJECT DIRECTOR, > ILLUSTRATION > Institute of Communication Design > College of Creative Arts > Massey University > Museum Building > Buckle Street > Wellington > http://creative.massey.ac.nz > ________________________________ > > (04) 801 5799 ext 62461 > (04 027 357 8799 >