The future of design education — Graphic design and critical practices: informing curricula

Graphic design curricula must be flexible and responsive. As designers and educators we must strengthen the relationships between design and the sciences, between design and business organisations, and between design and relevant communities. There is little doubt that the design paradigm will continue to shift, as will the current economic, social, cultural, environmental, technological and political contexts in which it operates.

We are witnessing a time when the graphic object is no longer the sole outcome of design practice. Posters, billboards, publications and navigational systems are still the domain of the graphic designer, but increasingly designers are involved in generating services, information visualisation and visual experiences. Designers are moving away from tangible object-orientation and toward experiential or service-oriented design solutions. As global contexts change, the need to form closer working relationships with those outside of the discipline, in fields like ethnography, psychology, human-factor research and policy making, increases. This understanding of co-operation may be broadened to include the participation of targeted communities that

Icograda is honoured to announce the members of the Icograda Design Education Manifesto update Steering Committee. Led by Icograda Vice President Omar Vulpinari and Manifesto Co-chairs Ahn Sang-Soo and Audrey G. Bennett, each steering committee member has been invited to contribute a 1000 word essay on the future of design education.

The Icograda Design Education Manifesto (PDF) was developed collaboratively by an international group of designers. Prof. Ahn Sang-Soo convened two workshops in March and June 2000. The first explored the shift in the definition of design, while the second developed the language of the Manifesto. The document was translated into 17 languages and presented at the 2000 Icograda Oullim Congress in Seoul.

The Icograda Design Education Manifesto is a core document that defines Icograda’s position on design education. The Manifesto advocates that design education must foster learning, rather than imparting knowledge, so that students are resilient to change and will develop their potential in and beyond academic programs.

Contributors to the original Manifesto represented a geographically, politically, economically, culturally and socially diverse cross section of the design education community, including individuals from Brazil, China, Germany, India, South Korea, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United States. The Steering Committee co-chairs and Icograda Board sought to reflect this same diversity in updating the Icograda Design Education Manifesto.

The essays contributed will form the basis of the Manifesto update, which will be published and distributed at the Icograda General Assembly 24, taking place on 27-28 October 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)