ISSUES IN DESIGN EDUCATION
Tor Hovind , Moderator

The attendees were welcomed by the panel moderator, Professor Archie Boston, Director of the Visual Communication Design Program at California State University, Long Beach. He also introduced the four panelists. They were: Denise Kufus Weyhrich, Founding Director of the Graphic Design BFA program at Chapman University,Leslie Haines, Director and Professor of the Department of Graphic Design, at Watkins College of Art & Design, in Nashville, TN., Diane Tarter, Associate Professor at Western Oregon University. - Gunnar Swanson, graphic designer, media designer, writer, and educator. Their juried abstract titles were: "Is Your New Graphic Design Program Trustworthy?" By Denise Weyhrich and Leslie Haines; "Making It Work and Joining the 21st Century," by Diane Tarter; and "Graphic Design, Education and Knowledge," by Gunnar Swanson. The presentations began with Denise and Leslie expounding on their topic, "Is Your New Graphic Design Program Trustworthy?" They continued with the thought, How do you build a solid, reputable new BFA in a Graphic Design program? They stated that there is no magic formula, but from their experiences, they can tell you that a pivotal building tool is trust. If the general community doesn't trust your program, they won't support it. If the local design industry doesn't trust your program, they won't place your interns or hire your graduates. If your administrators don't trust your program, they won't give you financial support. If the faculty and other departments don't trust you, the best teachers will go elsewhere and interdisciplinary involvement will not take place. If parents of prospective or current students don't trust your program, they will send their kids to some other school. Most importantly, if your students don't trust the program, it goes nowhere. Students can be your best salespeople, or your worst nightmare. Building a reputation involves the successful graduation of talented students who make it in the field. That won't happen without trust. Denise Kufus Weyhrich shared the case study of developing a BFA program at Chapman University. She stated that the process that lead her to start a new program at an old Southern California private Liberal Arts University was completely based on trust and this came directly out of her MFA thesis for Syracuse. Her thesis was a comparison analysis of the GD programs in Southern Calif., thus in doing so she spent 1 1/2 years studying the unique benefits of each program and how their success was created. She was able to spend time with the program directors of all the existing programs. What drove this research was a response to her California State University Long Beach students who were unable to be accepted into the program and needed advice on their options. They trusted her to give them advice and she needed to acquire some knowledge to accurately advise them. The second case study was delivered by Leslie Haines, a full time faculty, Graphic Design Program Director at Watkins College, established in 1885 as a continuing education institute supporting arts and vocational skills. Watkins has recently evolved into a College of Art & Design with five disciplines: fine arts, photography, film, interior design, and graphic design. She was brought on board last year to create a BFA graphic design program. The BFA replaced a weak Associate's program with not much of a reputation. [cutout, hallway] To gain trust from the community and students, facilities can be an important aspect. This year, Watkins moved to a new campus, renovating a vacant 14-theatre complex on the north side of Nashville. The importance of looking like a professional art school was foremost in their minds when they designed their new space. The response to the new site was overwhelmingly positive. Establishing trust on many different levels lends credibility and support to a fledgling design program. So build trust with these groups: 1. General Community. 2. Business Community. 3. Administration. 4. Faculty. 5. Other Depts. 6. Parents. 7. Students. Most importantly, have trust in yourself. The success will follow. The second presentation was by Diane Tarter and her title was: "Making It Work and Joining the 21st Century." Diane wrote this recap of her presentation: When I sent the proposal for this presentation, I posed two questions Ð 1) Is the visual literacy of students at a small rural university different than that of students at larger universities, or more urban schools? 2) What kind of support is provided visual design programs at small, rural, liberal arts universities? In thinking about these seemingly separate issues, they merged. What they have in common is that the participants have a low level of awareness when it comes to visual communication. The campus community doesn't realize what's involved in visual design, and as a consequence it takes longer to convince support services of our needs. In the presentation I showed slides of student work and talked about my need to combine computer training, design theory, aesthetics, and professional practice information into a schedule of one class per term over 2 1/2 years. This is the maximum time allotted to graphic design as a concentration in the fine arts major offered at WOU. Ultimately, my point is that it is possible to provide information and practice so students can become viable designers, presuming they continue to learn out of school and in the workplace. It is my hope that the slides illustrated this potential to the conference participants. The final presentation was by Gunnar Swanson. His title: "Graphic Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and the "Real World," suggested the possibility of teaching graphic design as the nexus of various education fields and ignoring vocational training. It and his later, Is Design Important? assumed that graphic design would advance in both knowledge and stature by being a subject of traditional academic study. From a designer's standpoint, non-designer initiated research generally asks the wrong questions to show any hope of advancing design but he has come to the conclusion that design researchers and design PhD programs may fall into that "non designer" category. Rethink design education and where it fits in a larger educational picture but don't accept academic prejudices that value similarity to other fields, that devalue craft and doing. The rise of the design PhD should remind us that universities often value research over doing. The possibility of unqualified doctors of design being hired to teach studio classes is real and has precedents. Consider whether there is designerly knowledge, something more we have to offer the world. Craft and doing are a key part of that knowledge and that many important things do not lend themselves to full understanding by reading and thinking alone. There were about ten minutes of questioning directed to each panelist, which helped to clarify the design education issues. The session ended abruptly, because time ran out. At the breakout session on Sunday, all of this session attendees went to other discussion groups. I assume that there were more interesting subjects than listening to more rhetoric on issues in design education.

 

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