Blog Re: Educate
By Jon Kolko - October 20, 2010
It would appear that we’ve arrived: design has emerged as the discrete discipline of problem solving and cultural change, and the designerly ability described by Nigel Cross in 1995 as “a distinct form of intelligence” is now considered with some degree of respect in disciplines such as the sciences or the liberal arts.
That’s good, as a disciplinary acceptance of design work would imply that:
- Designers could spend less time justifying what we do and why we do it, and more time actually doing it
- Designers could work alongside and with other disciplines, rather than working instead of other disciplines (or being excluded by other disciplines)
- Designers could begin to further differentiate and structure nuances of specialty, allowing for a more impactful depth of practice and a larger degree of impact
- A larger “we” could benefit from a broader view of problems and opportunities, approaching issues from a multiplicity of perspectives simultaneously
Yet these statements aren’t necessary true, and as I traveled between three significantly different groups of thinkers at three different conferences, I interpreted a few trends as an indication of some of the largest “next steps” we face in achieving the above. I’ve summarized a few of these here.
Blog Re: Educate
By Jon Kolko - October 11, 2010
Design has been in a period of change for the last decade, but design education – and more specifically, design educators – just haven’t kept up. This is problematic and troubling for a number of reasons:
- Design students are continually learning tired and irrelevant methods and techniques
- Design graduates find themselves without either the breadth of relevance or the depth of expertise to get a job
- Students and parents generally fail to realize a “return on investment” in an increasingly expensive college education
Perhaps most fundamentally, the potential impact of thousands of well intentioned design students is not realized, as these individuals have the passion and cultural sensitivity necessary to take on large-scale social problems and gnarly business issues, but are not afforded the skills and methods necessary to appropriately engage.
