Examining the role of design education, a general overview of the state of education and the state of uncertainty

1. DESIGN EDUCATION
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INTRODUCTION
DESIGN EDUCATION
What it means to be in design education today

2. DESIGN EDUCATION
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The role of the designer today - researcher, architect,
artist, craftsman and writer.
WEEK1: CONVERGENCE
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3. DESIGN EDUCATION
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At the lowest levels are components and products.
These represent the types of design problems that exist
in simple societies like this in the early [twentieth
century]. At the upper levels are system-level problems
(demanding related products or activities) and
community-level problems (involving related systems).
Design problems at these higher levels are
characteristic of complex postindustrial societies like the
one we live in.
WEEK1: CHANGING CREATIVE
LANDSCAPE:
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”McCoy & Heller (eds.), 2005, P.15-16
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4. DESIGN EDUCATION
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In a world less controlled by branding and regulations, a new
breed of designers can contribute to an altered, more honest
economy.
Gabrielle Kennedy, OpenDesign Now
Souce: http://opendesignnow.org/index.php/article/joris-laarmans-
experiments-with-open-source-design-gabrielle-kennedy/
WEEK2: OPEN DESIGN AS AN
ALTERNATIVE
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5. DESIGN EDUCATION
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HEDGEHOG (SPECIALIST):
“ Relate everything to a central
vision… In terms of which all they
say has a significance. “
Isaiah Berlin, 1953
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9981.pdf
Access: 10/08/2015
FOX (GENERALIST):
“ Pursue many ends, often unrelated and
even contradictory, … entertain ideas that
are centrifugal rather than centripedal;…
without seeking to fit them into, or exclude
them from any one all-embracing inner
vision.“
WEEK3: DIFFERENT TYPES OF
DESIGNERS
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6. DESIGN EDUCATION
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WEEK 4: DESIGN IS EVERYTHING BUT DESIGN
Graphic design is the most ubiquitous of all the arts. It responds to
needs at once personal and public, embraces concerns both
economic and ergonomic, and is informed by numerous disciplines
including art and architecture, philosophy and ethics, literature and
language, politics and performance. Graphic design is everywhere,
touching everything we do, everything we see, everything we buy…
Graphic design is a popular art, a practical art, an applied art and an
ancient art. Simply put, it is the art of visualising ideas.
Jessica Helfand, 2001, P.137
Screen - Essays on Graphic Design, New Media and Visual Culture
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7. DESIGN EDUCATION
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WEEK 4: THE FUTURE IS MULTI/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY
Graphic design is flexible and adaptive enough to allow designers to work
within (intra and inter-disciplinary) and collaboratively with others (multi
and trans-disciplinary) to produce new and cutting edge work.
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8. DESIGN EDUCATION
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WEEK 5: SUSTAINABILITY IS BEYOND RECYCLING:
…designers were not typically asking for substantial change in
lifestyles, rather they were seeking less resource intensive
production and consumption methods to facilitate existing
lifestyles.
Ann Thorpe, 2010, P.4
Design Issues: Volume 26, Number 2, Spring 2010
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9. DESIGN EDUCATION
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WEEK 6 READING: UNCERTAINTY
But design faces an uncertain future. The traditional design fields
create artefacts. But new societal challenges, cultural values,
and technological opportunities require new skills. Design today
is more human-centred and more social, more rooted in
technology and science than ever before. Moreover, there is
need for services and processes that do not require the great
craft skills that are the primary outcome of a design education.
Donald Norman, 2014
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140325102438-12181762-state-of-design-how-design-
education-must-change
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10. DESIGN EDUCATION
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WEEK 6 READING: UNCERTAINTY
most of today’s jobs won’t exist in fifteen years and most jobs
that will exist in fifteen years don’t exist now..
Gunnar Swanson, 2010, P.7
Source: http://www.gunnarswanson.com/writing/GDasLiberalArt.pdf
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CONTEXT

11. DESIGN EDUCATION
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ON UNCERTAINTY:
We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because it's
education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't
grasp… Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that's
been on parade for the past four days, what the world will look
like in five years' time. And yet we're meant to be educating
them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.
Sir Ken Robinson, Ted Talk 2006
Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
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CONTEXT

12. DESIGN EDUCATION
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DISCUSSION:
How can design education be future-proofed, and
sustainable? [1]
1. Sustainable - “…development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs”
World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987
DISCUSSION

13. DESIGN EDUCATION
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DISCUSSION
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. How can design education prepare you for a job that will exist only in 2025?
2. What skills do you think will be important to prepare you for 2025?
3. What type of knowledge do you think will be important?
4. Is intellectual depth (specialist) more valuable or intellectual breadth
(generalist) more valuable in 2025?
5. What other skills should design education include to prepare students who
do not pursue a design career by 2025?
6. What should be the role of the educator today and in 2025?

14. DESIGN EDUCATION
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PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE:
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
Proverbial Saying
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CONCLUSION