Some ruinous habits & rhetorical questions

Deborah Littlejohn, PhD student, North Carolina State University
The “design project” is the motivation from which class activity and discussion emanates. A closer examination of studio assignments, however, begs the question whether coursework projects are as authentic to the breadth of circumstances in which design practice currently operates. Underlying the typical studio project is the tendency towards privileging the designer’s position over that of other people involved while elevating the artifact over the context for which it is designed—the “why” of the practice is seen as less important than the work it self. For example, students are often encouraged to invent personas for clients and audiences—or worse—do not engage any “real” people at all. The underlying message of such a framework is that relegating people to the periphery is a normative practice for graphic design. What other hidden habits of mind are we teaching students through the projects we assign?

This presentation will break down “the brief” as it functions pedagogically in the studio classroom and propose alternate problem-setting approaches that engender a more authentic learning environment in which students are able to understand a more realistic graphic design practice.