On Dec 5, 2003, at 9:19 AM, Carma R Gorman wrote:
> I am also still very skeptical (as I noted in my post of November 21)
> that
> one semester of design history is sufficient. Am I the only one who
> harbors
> this reservation?
Gunnar Swanson, graphic designer, (sometimes writer, former director of
graphic design and multimedia programs at various US universities. . .)
here.
This week I did the final lecture of a class at Loyola Marymount. It
was mainly non-designers taking the class for general interest. The
class focused on 20th century mainstream graphic design and
concentrated on broad issues and themes. Even given that narrow
temporal and subject focus and no attempt to be encyclopedic, a
semester isn't enough. Trying to cover one big all-inclusive Design in
one semester in some way that it would be of any value to (what I hope
will be) a broad range of students with a broad range of design
interest strikes me as not merely insufficient.
No matter how many semesters [is UCI still on the quarter system?] are
devoted to it, I think a design history class is one of the places
where broad use of the word design and the assumption that it is a
singular subject or activity will prove to be problematic.
Gunnar
----
Gunnar Swanson Design Office
536 South Catalina Street
Ventura, California 93001-3625 USA
+1 805 667 2200
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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