ACUADS 2006 Conference

 
Now, more than ever, it is essential that students of graphic design take responsibility for the messages portrayed in their work. Current social and political climates demand considered, well-researched and articulate items of communication. Ignore this responsibility and our future design professionals run the risk of repeating the errors of the past: items of design that offend, pollute or simply misinform.

Graphic Design is everywhere. Whether we, as the public, are aware of it or not, we engage with it daily, from admiring the exquisite elements of our Apple products, to navigating our way through the pages of a daily newspaper, to disposing of our empty packaging into its appropriate recycle bin. Graphic Design has an enormous audience, and its responsibility to that audience cannot be understated. I fear however, that it has become so much a part of our existence we have come to take it for granted - perhaps, too much so. As the saying goes: familiarity breeds contempt.

With approximately 200 graduates from tertiary graphic design programs entering the public arena each year in Victoria alone, it is imperative that they are suitably armed with the intellectual capabilities required to produce responsible design solutions. An awareness of: gender and sexual politics; cultural and religious sensitivities; and ecological impacts, are just some of the issues contemporary designers will face in an average design career.

Through analysing the works of contemporary designers, historical precedents and student-based projects, this paper aims to highlight ways in which graphic design education transcends a mere concern with aesthetics, to become a responsible and valued contributor to an already cluttered visual landscape. Whatever our students add, it must be of value.

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This paper sets out to demonstrate that case studies in industrial design education can contribute not only to the education of young designers, but can also offer insights and alternative approaches to problem-solving in other professional fields outside that of purely manufacturing. Industrial design is a discipline that draws upon a number of disparate branches of knowledge and requires the mastery of a wide range of cognitive and pragmatic skills. It is, therefore, relatively difficult to teach and develop experience within a university environment. Case studies in which students are introduced to design problems in a realistic manner are an important method for framing undergraduate projects.

Twenty undergraduate students undertaking the Bachelor of Industrial Design program at Monash University engaged in a collaborative research project to address the issue of child anxiety during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure. The approach was to use an industrial design methodology to create a more child-friendly environment.

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The pedagogical approach employed in the graphic design program at the University of Wollongong is based primarily on a blend of project-based and studio-based learning. Emerging from experience and observations of teaching in this environment, the researcher has identified potential for enhanced learning through a formalised reflective framework. This may address concerns that current teaching frameworks over emphasise the design project, leaving the student at risk of not learning from the design process itself.

This paper will describe the ongoing development and implementation of a formalised reflective framework into the University of Wollongong undergraduate graphic design program. Informed by staff and student feedback, and the researchers observations, this paper will evaluate the outcomes to date and suggest future directions.

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Part One: From Bachelor of Design Arts to Designer/Maker
Part one of this paper will be a report on the aim and development of the newly introduced craft-based design degree at Australian National University, School of Art. February 2006 saw the first student cohort enrol in Design Art, comprising all craft-based departments at the school. Analysing experiences, feedback and evaluation, this paper attempts to show the challenges and opportunities for students and staff while addressing the designer/maker model in delivering this degree.

Part Two: Visual Research Using Dürer's Perspective Illustration
Part two discusses the initial outcome of a visual research project initiated by a surprise discovery of a mistake in one of Albrecht Dürer's illustrations. This discovery was a result of teaching perspective drawing as part of the Design Art core program.

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This paper reports work-in-progress for a research project involving 1^st year Design students at Curtin University. This research examines if a computational environment supports multiple visual representations applicable to the idea generation process.

The impetus to carry out this research began when Design eliminated the portfolio presentation and interview as part of its entry requirements and relied solely on the Tertiary Entrance Exam scores for the selection of its applicants. Experience has shown that student's prior experiences and knowledge of visual communication has a significant influence on their approach, attitudes and perception of design. Students who have studied art at high school demonstrated a higher level of achievement and performance in their 1^st year of study than those who did not. Traditionally, student designers have drawn initial design ideas with a pencil on paper and drawing has been seen to be a spontaneous and direct means to produce visual representations of ideas. However, these representations can be limited by the students skills and the media used.

This paper investigates how a computational environment might support students with drawing skills and the idea generation processes. A symmetrical configuration task was given to two test groups, the first used traditional hand drawn methods, and the second used digital media. The results have implications for understanding drawing in Design.

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Creative review and critique in visual communication education is critical to learning and creative design outcomes. If we accept that creative outcomes are vital to design learning, and critique is critical to learning through design, then it is imperative that teachers investigate their practice of giving feedback on student artefacts, especially in the design context and the rapidly evolving virtual and online environment of contemporary education.

This imperative is even greater if we accept that assessing creativity, and critique of design artefacts, is highly contestable and an emotionally charged event. How does the design teacher construct creative knowledge for the student designer? How can individual teachers analyse and improve their critique on student learning products and incorporate the improvements into their everyday teaching practice?

Oral communication plays an important scaffolding role in developing socially-held and shared knowledge of creativity and the design artefact. This paper reports an action-orientated process in which final year graphic design students, a design lecturer and her colleagues collaborated to develop, trial and revise, a checklist for giving constructive verbal critique, both online and face-to-face, in a design project-based context.

This paper builds upon – and updates – our initial research presented at ACUADS 2004, 'Critiquing critique: Investigating effective verbal feedback in graphic design critiques'.

 
Gene Bawden completed a Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Communication) at Chisholm Institute of Technology in Melbourne. In 1988, he began working at the Melbourne newspaper The Age then later moved to The Herald Sun as an editorial designer and illustrator. Since 1997, he has lectured full-time in graphic design, typography and illustration at Monash University, Faculty of Art & Design.

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Selby Coxon has been a practising Industrial Designer for over ten years, working largely in Europe for both multi-national consumer product manufacturers and design consultancies. For the past five years he has been teaching and researching at Monash University's Faculty of Art & Design, where he is Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator for Industrial Design.

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Grant Ellmers lectures in graphic design and digital media in the Faculty of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong. He lectures in web design and production, and the emerging area of motion graphics. Grant is specifically interested in exploring the perspective the graphic designer possesses that will afford a unique contribution to the development of these media.

Grant previously lectured at the University of Canberra (1999-2002) and was primarily responsible for initiating the new media component of the graphic design program. During this time, he played an influential role in the implementation of the University of Canberra's website interface and information architecture.

Grant obtained a Master of Visual Arts from the Australian National University in 2000, where he investigated issues of national identity and memorialisation within a post-colonial framework. His current research focus is graphic design pedagogy and Grant is enrolled in a Masters by research in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong, investigating the role reflection can play to enhance learning outcomes for the graphic design student.

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Coralie McCormack is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Scholarship at the University of Canberra, specialising in postgraduate research supervision, mentoring, evaluation of learning and teaching, and narrative approaches to teaching and research.

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Gilbert Riedelbauch is lecturer and coordinator for the Computer Art Studio and Design Arts at the Australian National University, Canberra, School of Art. He is a practicing artist exhibiting nationally and internationally. After completing his degree in silversmithing with a Meisterschueler at the Academy of Fine Art in Nuernberg, Germany, he completed a Graduate Diploma (Silversmithing) at the ANU School of Art. In 1998, he was jointly nominated for an ANU Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award and an Australian Award for University Teaching. In 2002, he was invited to participate at the prestigious 'Meister der Moderne' exhibition at the international Munich Craft Fair where he was awarded the coveted 'Bavarian Staats Prize'.

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Sarah Scutt is the Head of the Department of Design, Curtin University of Technology, and coordinator of the BA (Design) Illustration major and International coordinator. She is currently undertaking a PhD through the Faculty of Education at Curtin University of Technology and her topic relates specifically to Design education. Her thesis revolves around a central issue in design, the teaching of the idea generation process, and how to implement change by using digital technologies.

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Mary-Jane Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the Bachelor of Graphic Design course, School of Design & Architecture, at the University of Canberra. Mary-Jane ran a successful multi-disciplinary design consultancy in Sydney for a number of years before entering the teaching profession to establish the graphic design course at the University of Canberra. She teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students in graphic design, convenes the senior year in graphic design and the interdisciplinary subject Special Study: Work Experience, and is a long-time member and former state president of the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA). She is currently undertaking postgraduate studies with a focus on creative critique in online education in visual communication.