Graphic design education

Why is it that a profession that claims to visualize situations for others is so poor in visualizing itself and its own education?

Where are the diagrams that show commissioners, students and their parents, teachers and managers, what graphic design is about?

At the moment, I’m interested in two topics:

- a description of graphic design practice that could be used as a basis for education.

- some relations between this description of practice and research, theory, teaching methods, and assessment criteria.

[I initiated a series of about 40 readers to form a basis for the discussion of these topics. Each reader consists of five articles, an introduction, and a reading list. A catalogue of available readers can be downloaded here.]

My publications on this topic:

2020 [Co-author: dr Sheila Pontis] Looking for alternatives: challenging current design education. She-Ji. 6(2), 228-253. [download pdf]

2015 An ‘Info-mural’ - based on idea by Robert Horn - about: ‘The Dutch Graphic design education system’ [total 123 KB]. The poster is A2 size and consists of ‘questions in context’. The text is in Dutch. [download pdf]

2014 ‘Some unrelated points?’ A short text reviewing some discussions at the AIGAeducators conference in Cincinnati (March, 2014). [download pdf (3 pages, 88 kb)]

2012 [Co author: Maurits Vroombout] Communication Design Education: could nine reflections be sufficient? pp 8–35 in Sharon Poggenpohl (editor): Special issue of Visible language on ‘Envisioning a future of Design education’. 46 (1/2) [download pdf]