So a few weeks ago, we participated in the CCA Career Expo. They gave us a booth alongside a shitload of other local creative shops and set the students loose on us. I never went to any of the job fairs when I was in school, but I assume that they’re kinda like this: students or recent grads come by, show their stuff, and talk to you about what you do and how they might fit into it, and you spend all day repeating your story. That’s where it got sticky.
Because saying “we’re a Communication Design studio” mostly returned blank, slack-jawed looks. So we spent the whole day reframing and re-articulating what communication design actually is and what it’s good for. We talked about design thinking and communication strategy, but most of the students didn’t know what those were either. The day brought up two big questions:
What is communication design?
And why the fuck do students at design schools know nothing about design thinking?
Anyone?
Comments
10 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Because students straight out of college (assuming they went straight in from high school) aren’t taught to think about anything. They’re taught skills but the business side of things is deluded and the teachers only teach them what the teachers know. Thus you get a very skewed view taught in a very broad manner. Not about what to do once you’re actually there.
I’m going through a business class in a design program right now where all they talk about are the big designers and the big firms and the broad over-all picture. No functional information is included in the class. Frustrating- especially when you know that there’s much more knowledge to gain.
My theory is that the goal of such schools is to teach a student how to build a portfolio and let whatever firm manages to pick them up teach them the actual skills they need to succeed in their industry.
@Calli
True that. But design thinking isn’t about the business of design. It’s actually about the practice. What I can’t figure out is why design schools aren’t teaching the conceptual part, the thinking part, of design. They’re teaching materials craft, which is great, but they’re not teaching problem solving as design practice. Go figure.
This is a broad generalization that serve less to mean something and more to vent. Besides, isn’t design inherently communicating? Re-duh-dant.
I can’t explain clearly what communication design is and I’m your mother. Plus, I’m a performer, therefore a communicator. Plus I’m married to an artist who’s taught art for 40 years. In my crowd, I don’t hear this term. Maybe it’s a generation thing. I’d like to see a definition of communication design on this site.
Also, the idea that all creative processes can be taught at school doesn’t square with my experience and observation of creative people at work. I think there’s a confluence of elements: context, talent (now there’s a charged word worth exploring) necessity, collaborative community, perserverance… that can support creative thinking, sensing and discovery . We are so various. Each person must discover her own creative process over time, by experimenting,
I think that the main problem with schools is that they’re undervalued in our society. The only people their low salaries attract are either 1. failures in the field who see the paltry sum they pay as reasonable, or 2. the rare gifted successful designer who takes a pay cut to teach. Unfortunately, often the later has an outdated approach to practice, and the former couldn’t get his/her foot in the door and has little or no experience in the field. They aren’t wholly to blame, though. They teach in a system where the skills designers are lacking are taught in marketing courses. Additionally, the industry changes rather quickly and prior to the web offered little in the form of resources that allowed academics to keep up (though the changes were a bit less frequent — this is no excuse).
I’m not sure what my peers learn at design schools. But I do know that they’re stuck there “learning” and I’m out here doing.
I think some of the comments here are a bit off target, too.
First, switchback, you said, “Besides, isn’t design inherently communicating? Re-duh-dant.” No, it isn’t. Re-tah-ded. (Couldn’t help myself, sorry.) What does industrial design communicate? What does how this chair I’m sitting in communicate to me? Nothing. But it’s fairly comfortable, except sometimes it falls backward when I recline. So, no, communication design is not redundant.
Joya Cory, what is so hard about defining the term “communication design?” It’s made up of two English words that represent two different concepts. If you put those together, you have a sound definition.
It’s easy. I’ll show you.
Communication design is:
“To skillfully plan and execute the form and structure of the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs (all graphics).”
So, when you’re designing a chair and developing concepts that will enhance it being “fairly comfortable”, you don’t enter into a dialogue with yourself, the consumer and the client? When sketching an arm rest for this chair, is their not an implied communication between you(or the product) and the person using the chair of its purpose even if its common and understood? If I designed a giant black protuding off the side, meant to be an arm rest but, because of its design, the purpose remains of unclear, wouldn’t you say, “What’s the point of this giant block??” Who are you questioning, why, and more importantly…isn’t it a question, wanting an answer?
Oh, Schnap.
Thanks for the retard comment too.
I am an instructor for a technical college. We teach Web design and Web Development. In our degree the Web designers are taught that design is not just making pretty pictures, it is communicating a message. It is expressing the goals of the organization to meet the audience. We don’t teach art. We teach the subtle art of manipulation. It is only a five semester associate degree. I myself come from a computer graphics degree from a University. I had to learn these concepts from working in the industry, it was just not taught in the classes I took. Also, you need to look at the student. Some get it. Some just go through the motions. I see those who create fantastic sites and those who are satisfied with mediocrity.
Thanks, Colin Williams, for your definition of Communication Design
“To skillfully plan and execute the form and structure of the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs (all graphics).â€
I guess I was expecting somthing more esoteric. This definition implies to me that CD is simply technique: that is, the mastery of the formal devices of which your art /craft is made. If craft training doesn’t teach technique, what does it teach?
Greetings, everyone. Colin’s definition was crystal clear to me, but the *words* “communication design” alone are not clear enough to me to not need Colin’s definition (or an equivalent definition).