Category: Discussion

We’ll break into a quick group discussion this week to brainstorm ideas and topics for final presentations. Please take turns considering the following questions. Provide feedback and suggestions to your peers based on their responses.

Do you have a topic in mind for your presentation?

What sort of design would you like to address, ie. graphic, industrial, architectural, advertising, etc.?

Is there an ad, a design project, or the work of a particular designer that has recently been inspiring to you?

Have you completed any recent design projects that were particularly exciting or interesting? If so, did you view any examples or samples of related design work?

Have you seen any great design work in other studio or history courses this semester?

Are there any particular social or political issues that have been important to you recently? Are you aware of any design that addresses these issues?

Which readings from this class have you found to be the most relevant or resonant?

Today’s group discussion will build from last week’s discussion (What is design?), and from the readings for this week.

The objective for this discussion is to compose your Design Manifesto. Use short declarative statements to define the philosophy, intentions and requirements for the designer of today. State the social, political and ethical questions that are necessary for a designer to consider. Identify the technological concerns that designers must embrace or reject. Don’t shy away from poetics or abstraction. Feel free to re-write passages from the Futurist and Constructivist manifestos that we’ve read.

Again, appoint a ‘scribe’ to record the conversation. When the discussion session concludes, you’ll create one new post for your group’s collective response.

We’re going to try something new today. (Or at least new to the way that I have normally conducted the class.) We might call it “Group Theorizing” or maybe its just small group discussions. In any event, we will split into breakout groups to discuss a set of questions.

One person in your group should record ideas, then create a new post with those thoughts . You should label the post “Feb 22 – Name, Name, Name…”

The premise for this is derived from a theory that I have considered and would like to examine further. The very short version of my theory is this: Most young designers don’t know what Design is.

This may be a something of a confrontational way to frame the theory. But there are many questions about design which many of us have likely never considered. Here are a few:
What are the social responsibilities of a designer?
Why is design important to culture or society?
What distinguishes the field of design from fine art? Or engineering? Or programming?
Which other fields of industry should or should not intersect with design?
How is design related to language? What separates design from language? And what connects them?
What constitutes good design?
What constitutes bad design?
What, exactly, is design?

Discuss these amongst your group. Discuss any related ideas that emerge. Record your thoughts. Do not answer each question in order.