Axel Magnuson

Meredith Davis describes the evolution of a graphic designer in the past as having started with art education and then proceeding to an on-the-job education in production, the emphasis being on knowing how in terms of form-making.[1] Skills needed for moving into a higher level of responsibility – moving through print production to design and executive functions in firms – came from learning from experience.

She then describes what she sees as happening in terms of the demand for newly minted graphic designers today. She senses that employers expect a level of strategy literacy and expertise in technological development and management that is of a different balance than in earlier times. RitaSue Siegel, from her position as a talent recruiter over 40 years, sees a similar evolution.[2] They may be recognizing that there is a new form of graphic designer, a break from the design archetype.

Both see important implications for (graphic) design education, without being too specific about what to do about those implications.

Trying to map what needs to be taught in schools of design, Tom Briggs, a graphic designer and professor at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, uses a visualization of graphic design development to locate what skills and contextual knowledge are required at various points in the design development process. He points out that social/cultural context is instrumental in design development. It “…may be used to inform objective characteristics of design process.”[3] He indicates that the understanding and teaching of contextual knowledge disciplines – and how they effect ideas about communication – hasn’t played a large role in design education.

The link with both Davis and Siegel’s perspectives is that he puts emphasis on the domain of “location”, the contextual knowledge that is the central component of the strategy-making expertise that characterizes the “new” form of graphic designer.

The ability to dive deeply into this contextual domain is one of the characteristics of what has come to be called “design thinking”, a terms publicized by IDEO co-founder David Kelly but widely used in the literature on design and business strategy.[4]

This is what Howard Gardner in Five Minds for the Future calls the “synthetic mind”, the ability to develop new meaning from diverse points of data in a novel way.

Briggs also briefly describes what may be called the core competencies of a graphic designer in making form – methods of inquiry and/or procedures that contribute to object definition – which include communications theory, perceptual concepts, semiotic and rhetorical analysis and mastery of visual language.

So, if there is at least a demand for a new type of graphic designer from firms doing business differently, what needs to get done for graphic designers to put them into the middle of that new field? What type of mind needs to be added to the core competencies of graphic designers? And is it teachable?

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[1] Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore…” Meredith Davis, AIGA Boston, April 4, 2008, page 2.

[2] “Just Doing It”, RitaSue Siegel, PDF of article in Communications Arts, 2005.

[3] Briggs seems to be implying that the importance of the contextual knowledge was not part of the assumptions that form the basis for design education until now.

[4] “Design Thinking… What is That?” By Mark Dziersk, July 8, 2008 at Fast Company Online: http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/design/dziersk/design-thinking-083107.html

And “Design Thinking” at The Institute for Design at Stanford University: http://www.stanford.edu/group/dschool/big_picture/design_thinking.html