Nicole Roberts MFA Thesis Visual Component Artwork - Savannah ...
Nicole Roberts MFA Thesis Visual Component Artwork - Savannah ... Nicole Roberts MFA Thesis Visual Component Artwork - Savannah ...
introduction The dichotomy Meggs describes is evident within many of today’s new graduates. Their shortcomings are the result of an intrinsic design school struggle between the development of experimental creativity and critical thinking versus the need to concurrently prepare students for practical clientele and real-world workplace limitations. Defining a universal solution is complex, as graphic design education is laden with variables unlike any other major of study. Discrepancies in pedagogical practice are accepted, with no professional certification to validate its graduates, or to definitively validate the outcome of the school’s curriculum itself. Unlike graphic design’s neighboring disciplines of interior design and architecture, laymen proficient in certain software are able to easily self-impose the title – graphic designer. Paul Rand often made reference to the misalignments from pedagogy to practice, “Design is one of the most perplexing pursuits in which to excel, yet as a profession it is relatively easy to enter. It requires no accreditation, no authorization from official institutions. There is no set body of knowledge that must be mastered by the practitioners. [Regardless] the designer must contend with encyclopedic amounts of information, not limited to any particular idea or form.” 4 The inconsistencies are apparent from the community trade schools to the liberal art colleges, from the independent art schools to the university departments of design. Graphic design education has continued to be diversely interpreted into multiple configurations throughout the country. National academic accreditation is not demanded, and many schools align their curricular updates with differing regional standards. In order to bridge these gaps – three initiatives must commence. First, graphic design educators and collegiate administration must mandate consistent student portfolio reviews. Second, industry professionals must unite to prescribe a national certification program that ensures those who claim to have gained a professional graphic design education truly meet industry expectations. And third, if objectives of collegiate design programs are to comprehensively prepare students for success in the professional workplace, there must be a consistent criterion established of what it means to truly meet industry expectations. Without this paradigm, graphic design education as a whole is left with an opaque definition of professional expectations for the twenty-first century workplace – a definition the subsequent study seeks to clarify. 4 Paul Rand, Design, Form, and Chaos (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 15. 4
INTrODUCtiON Currently, a student’s competency in the professional field upon graduation is the main and potentially only measurable indicator as to the qualitative success of one’s design education. In this vein, the expectations of today’s industry practitioners become paramount to the objectives of graphic design pedagogy. And with today’s heightened public perception of design, it is becoming even more imperative to relay to students exactly what will be expected of them upon entering into the competitive twenty-first century workplace, as measured by today’s leading graphic design professionals. In this quest for a comprehensive set of industry expectations, a medley of perspectives becomes applicable from the realities of current or newly graduated design students, to the views from design educators within noteworthy schools and leading design professionals actively working in the field. Amongst the variant professional and educational perspectives surveyed arose three over-arching educational tenets: fundamental skills; new modalities, methods, and media; and parallel principles of business. Their categorical tenets ultimately served to define seven essential expectations of new graduates entering into the twenty-first century workplace: (1) creativity, (2) craft and technique, (3) design discourse, (4) digital media, (5) multi-disciplinary approaches, (6) innovative business strategies, and (7) social responsibility. By defining today’s leading professional expectations, we create an informed module of evaluation for how well current graphic design pedagogies are (or are not) preparing students for the workplace of today. History has proven that graphic design is a profession that will continue to grow and transform through time, thus changing the way it is taught along the way is an inevitable requisite. These expectations combine to provide a present-day barometer to better visualize current curricular priorities and pitfalls and to evoke an informed future of pedagogical change. We teach students to experiment, we teach them to produce, we teach them methods that will get them good jobs. Graphic design education indeed, graphic design practice, requires an even greater intellectual rigor. Steven Heller 5
- Page 1: Unlike any other major of study, gr
- Page 6 and 7: © 2010 Nicole R. Roberts nrober24@
- Page 9 and 10: contents Abstract .................
- Page 11 and 12: abstract Leading professionals lear
- Page 13: introduction Since William A. Dwigg
- Page 17 and 18: fundamental skills Collective Cogni
- Page 19 and 20: fundamental skills *Creativity rank
- Page 21 and 22: EXPECTATION 1 | creativity EXPECtAt
- Page 23 and 24: pORTFOLIO DESIGN DISCOURSE PROCESS
- Page 25 and 26: EXPECTATION 2 | craft & technique E
- Page 27 and 28: Statement of the Eames Design Proce
- Page 29 and 30: EXPECTATION 3 | design discourse EX
- Page 31 and 32: EXPECTATION 3 | design discourse To
- Page 33 and 34: EXPECTATION 4 | digital media EXPEC
- Page 35 and 36: It’s no longer possible to make a
- Page 37 and 38: Students must continually practice
- Page 39 and 40: EXPECTATION 5 | multi-disciplinary
- Page 41 and 42: EXPECTATION 5 | multi-disciplinary
- Page 43 and 44: EXPECTATION 5 | multi-disciplinary
- Page 45 and 46: EXPECTATION 6 | innovative business
- Page 47 and 48: Being good in business is the most
- Page 49 and 50: EXPECTATION 6 | innovative business
- Page 51 and 52: EXPECTATION 7 | social responsibili
- Page 53 and 54: EXPECTATION 7 | social responsibili
- Page 55 and 56: EXPECTATION 7 | social responsibili
- Page 57 and 58: VISUALIZING CURRICULAR CONCEPTS OBJ
- Page 59 and 60: visualizing curricular concepts CHA
- Page 61 and 62: visualizing curricular concepts Unl
- Page 63 and 64: visualizing curricular concepts In
INTrODUCtiON<br />
Currently, a student’s competency in the professional field upon graduation is the main<br />
and potentially only measurable indicator as to the qualitative success of one’s design<br />
education. In this vein, the expectations of today’s industry practitioners become paramount<br />
to the objectives of graphic design pedagogy. And with today’s heightened public perception of<br />
design, it is becoming even more imperative to relay to students exactly what will be expected<br />
of them upon entering into the competitive twenty-first century workplace, as measured by<br />
today’s leading graphic design professionals. In this quest for a comprehensive set of industry<br />
expectations, a medley of perspectives becomes applicable from the realities of current or newly<br />
graduated design students, to the views from design educators within noteworthy schools and<br />
leading design professionals actively working in the field. Amongst the variant professional and<br />
educational perspectives surveyed arose three over-arching educational tenets: fundamental<br />
skills; new modalities, methods, and media; and parallel principles of business. Their categorical<br />
tenets ultimately served to define seven essential expectations of new graduates entering into<br />
the twenty-first century workplace: (1) creativity, (2) craft and technique, (3) design discourse,<br />
(4) digital media, (5) multi-disciplinary approaches, (6) innovative business strategies, and (7)<br />
social responsibility. By defining today’s leading professional expectations, we create an informed<br />
module of evaluation for how well current graphic design pedagogies are (or are not) preparing<br />
students for the workplace of today. History has proven that graphic design is a profession that<br />
will continue to grow and transform through time, thus changing the way it is taught along the<br />
way is an inevitable requisite. These expectations combine to provide a present-day barometer<br />
to better visualize current curricular priorities and pitfalls and to evoke an informed future of<br />
pedagogical change.<br />
We teach students to experiment, we teach<br />
them to produce, we teach them methods<br />
that will get them good jobs. Graphic design<br />
education indeed, graphic design practice,<br />
requires an even greater intellectual rigor.<br />
Steven Heller<br />
5