Thanks Alison, Teena, Stefani

Some further thoughts ...

On 6 Oct 2011, at 23:25, ALISON BARNES wrote:

However, I don't think it is just about language, as by knowing there is a
language out there that relates to a body of work you can dig further into
the methods/approaches/ideas. I also think students aren't just engaging
with social science in relation to visual methods. I think a lot of what
might considered to be ethnographic methods (and others) are used as well,
but again students are unaware of this.

Agreed. I guess I referred to language in the sense that it helps to build a mutual understanding. To give a basic example, 'Photo-documentation' to the Social Scientist, described as 'photos are made systematically by the researcher in order to provide data that the researcher then analyses' (Rose, 2007, p. 243) is a case in point. Substitute 'researcher' for 'graphic designer' and it describes a method so intrinsic to education in graphic design that it would be considered as stating the obvious. Take this a step further, and 'read' the image, and again this opens up a whole new world of language that can facilitate interdisciplinary working.


Also, relating to the earlier posts about sketching/drawing, depending on
the type of designer you are, one's sketchbooks aren't necessarily going to
be full of sketches, or perhaps visual in the traditional sense.

Agreed, hence me saying 'or equivalent'.

For me, 'sketching' can take a variety of forms, not all
of which are solely visual.

Agreed.

As Stefani attempts to bring the thread back to the core of the debate, and Derek Miller's points, I think the discussion is directly aligned to:

On 6 Oct 2011, at 09:54, Derek B. Miller wrote:

1. There may be some value in aligning educational conduct (i.e. what we teach and how) with actual evolving design practice.

-snip-

4. My immediate concern is that students are not really being prepared for the work they think they are going into, and more to the point, they don't know they aren't prepared because their education is so distant from the social sciences and other fields necessary to illuminate their own gaps.

But, on point 1, that is exactly how I was taught in the early 1980s, when I this seemed to forme the basis of most design degrees in an art school setting in the UK, since the 1960s at least. Therefore, perhaps there is something to be learned from design education in the traditional art school setting as it has developed since the 1840s.

On point 4, the kind of education I described earlier as a 'craft-ideas' based 'modern design' education in an art school setting, seemed to work for me in the eighties (when Steve Jobs arguably changed the face of practice in graphic design over the fifteen years or so that followed, and since). I wonder if there is a further argument here that a craft-ideas based modern design approach provided the stability required for dealing with change. It seemed to serve the clients I worked for well, and is probably why I take pride in the skills I learned, and continue to acquire.

I assume we all agree that Apple products are beautiful examples of well crafted ideas based modern design, physically and virtually. On a simple note, I recently took great pleasure in the simple act of unwrapping the screen cloth for my new iMac.

Rob.


ROSE, G. 2007. Visual methodologies: an introduction to the interpretation of visual materials, London, SAGE Publications Ltd.
Soon to be replaced with a 3rd edition.


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>