Readings 1

1. The Landscape of Graphic Design – Meredith Davis

In the beginning of design education, we are taught basic skills, we are learning about form and how to describe and look. But what makes a good or rather professional design program is one where students not only develop their technical skills, but develop insight, mature their thinking skills and elaboration of concepts that can only happen through ongoing immersion in the work of a discipline. Davis explained what distinguished a professional graphic design education from a pre-professional experience. She also talks about the faculty and how we are being taught. She mentions that there are more people retiring than those entering the field of teaching which then gives us more divergence in the education we are receiving, that of part time teachers and those who are regular staff.

2.The Fundamentals (A chapter from a book) – Leedy / Ormrod

The reading provided us the characteristics of “What is Research?” and a brief description to help us understand what is real research and what is not. She explains what true research is compared that which may be one of several other definitions such as “fact discovery” or ” exercise in self-enlightenment”. Research is a systematic process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information (data) in order to increase our understanding of the phenomenon about which we are interested or concerned.

What research is not:

1. Research is not mere information gathering.

2. Research is not transportation of facts from one location to another.

3. Research is not merely rummaging for information.

4. Research is not a catchword used to get attention.

What Research is:

1. Research originates with a question or problem

2. Research requires clear articulation of a goal

3. Research requires a specific plan for proceeding

4. Research usually divides the principal problem into more manageable subproblems

5. Research is guided by the specific research problem, question or hypothesis

6. Research accepts certain critical assumptions

7, Research requires the collection and interpretation of data in an attempt to resolve the problem that initiated the research

8. Research is, by its nature, cyclical or, more exactly, helical

3. Graphic Design as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and the “Real World” – Gunnar Swanson

He talks about liberal arts, its history and the study of graphic design as a liberal arts education. He is suggesting that there could be less vocational training and more theory in the field of graphic design. Another idea he is trying to get across is that in design education we must not only be taught fundamentals of design, but how to be a functioning member of society, malleable and able to adapt to the ever changing climate of the business world.