Nicole Roberts MFA Thesis Visual Component Artwork - Savannah ...

EXPECTATION 6 | innovative business strategy
One opportunity to better incorporate business
strategies into the graphic design curriculum is for
students to experience the client/designer relationship
first hand in class. Students show proactive enthusiasm
when asked to rate their interest level in various
educational initiatives. Working on real client-based
projects in class ranked most interesting for students.
As an expert in operations management for creatives,
Shel Perkins shares their enthusiasm. “An essential skill
set for a designer is business savvy. We need to clearly
understand [our client’s] business challenges, trends and
options. We also need to be just as smart when it comes
to our own. Business savvy is what makes our careers
sustainable over the long haul.” 23
As a witness to the recent economic downturn,
Sarah Miller, Partner at Miller-Cormier in Cincinnati,
Ohio, agrees that business knowledge is even more
important during a troubled economy. “Design firms
hire a lot of folks when times are good and lay them off
when times are bad,” says Miller. “Many designers take
on freelance work when times are tough and it is helpful
to have prior business knowledge – how to bring in new
clients, writing estimates, invoicing, and book keeping.”
A typical graphic design curriculum does not include a
plethora of business-driven design strategy above and
beyond lectures on business conduct, proposal writing,
and copyright basics. For this reason, educators ranked
business practices the least emphasized within their
curriculum as a whole.
Which educational initiatives do you find most interesting?
Student
23 Shel Perkins, “Making a Living,” AIGA
Center for Practice Management,
Design: Business Issue 4, May 2005
http://cpm.aiga.org (acessed
February 13, 2010).
*Real Client-
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