design education: tradition and the new open source

In which I express a perceived flaw in my current design education and how I’m learning to listen out for alternative sources of expertise to learn from.

Design theory, or, more to the point, a lack of it concerns me. Worryingly, in terms of theoretical education, as I’m starting to come to the end of the first year of the two-year programme, I’ve had the grand total of two lectures: one on ideas generation and a rushed overview of visual communication which skimmed across a basic communication model, explicit and implicit meanings, graphic elements, semiotics and typography. I think you can appreciate the depth in which this was covered when I tell you the latter lecture was delivered in the grand time of 45 minutes.

I read around design theory, elements, tools and techniques where I can, but relying on digesting books about grid structures, design theory, digital design, software packages, illustration techniques, etc etc, does not maketh a designer out of me. So, I feel like I’m currently producing graphic design work without coherent fundamental understandings to really make things work most effectively. It’s frustrating, to say the least. Feedback on creative work’s one thing; having the knowledge to approach it differently from the outset is another.

I’d be wrong to say that lectures are the be all and end all for learning approaches to tackling design issues. Knowledge can come from different angles, both practical and academic, but the knowledge needs to have a solid starting point from which a student is encouraged to expand upon and explore areas in more detail, whether through practice or personal research.

towards openness

Asides from books, journals and traditional online articles, there’s a hidden goldmine of opinions, discussion and information being shared on networks of blogs involving practitioners from a myriad of different expertises. The Birmingham blog network is particularly buoyant when it comes to the creative sector, with bloggers openly sharing information and resources with each other as well as the wider public. Figuratively speaking, they are making viewing design and other expertises from a different perspective an accessible option on an ’open source’ basis.

To illustrate this, SXSWM consist of a group of professionals from a range of different disciplines who actively blog. Pete Ashton, professional blogger , overseeing Created in Birmingham and the Custard Factory sites amongst other things; Stef Lewandowski, head honcho of design firm 3form and consultant on The Big City Plan; Dom Murphy, Creative Director and owner of design firm TAK!; Joanna Geary, Birmingham Post journalist; David Harte, Digital Central project manager at Birmingham City University; Nick Lockey, New Media Producer at Maverick TV; and Ruth Ward, PR and Marketing Consultant and a founding Director of Creative Republic. Presently attending the SXSW festival in Texas, the group have blogged, fed and twittered information endlessly since they arrived at the event late last week.

So, ‘what’s this got to do with making design expertise open source?’, you may be wondering. It’s all in what they’re blogging and how they’re making it freely accessible to the likes of you and me, whether it‘s what they‘ve picked up from SXSW or information sharing in their own blogs. Allow me to share with a few quick things I found to be of particular interest:

• openness: blogging

From SXSW, Pete blogged about the Blogs, Buzz and Buddy Lists talk. Something I could take away from this was: “Be an active listener. Take suggestions to heart and act on them.”. Whilst the talk wasn’t about graphic design, it looked at communicating with an audience (via blogs and social networks) and this statement is certainly transferable across all media. Never underestimate the power of listening to feedback and reconsidering your approach.

There are many other snippets that others can learn from on Pete’s blog, and it’s heartening to see how particular knowledge gained from the event is something that he’s looking to bring home and implement. See here and here.

• openness: how to control the information to get what you want

Before he even hit Texas, Stef Lewandowski shared information about a range of tools he’d be using to help manage the coverage of the event. Having been someone who is guilty as charged when it came to having a bunch of unruly site feeds that I seldom made the most of, I can’t believe I didn’t use Google Reader before now. Once you’ve found sources of information you can learn from, GR’s a one-stop place to monitor your feeds without the chore of blitzing through your blogroll on a random basis. So, whilst it’s not something that influences my approach to design, it allows me to manage the sources that do.

• openness: keeping your focus on the user when designing

Dom Murphy from TAK! blogged about Jared Spool’s talk ‘Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusion to Simplify Design’.

“He explained the importance of delight in the user experience — making people love something is the most influential way to improve perception…….

“He also explained how the reverse is also true ………… Even though delight is important, basic expectations are paramount. Additionally also added that what is delight today, becomes basic expectation tomorrow.

“What I got from all this was to always try and improve the experience. Go that little bit further. This can be from every perspective — usability, visually and functionally. This talk made me realise that the extra work in doing this is always worth it.”

The full article is here.

The talk itself focused on user interface design and the principles talked about are transferable when considering designing for a wide range of media. So, I’m taking this to thinking of a book, business card, etc as a user interface. Take the design of a humble book – the pagination, layout, typography, colour, cover, navigation, indexing, structure, sections, format, materials – these elements can affect everything from the initial appeal of the book, through to how the user can interact with it and whether they find this delightful or dreadful. Who are the audience? How can it be better than other books this audience may use? What are their new expectations from previous delights? How do you now make it delightful and ensure that the book still functions as the audience expect it to? Dom’s article has got me intrigued to start exploring the ‘hows’, ‘dos‘ and ‘don‘ts‘…. this is what I meant when I talked about basic knowledge providing a springboard to develop from.

These three short examples are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to information that’s out there that can provide positive input into your area of interest. Apart from the slightly voyeuristic feeling that occurred when I read the incoming feeds from the group about their dinner arrangements, ’snort-goggling’ and which parties they were off to (which pleasantly served to highlight the humanity amidst the mountain of information that was being gathered), I’ve learned a few things from SXSW without even being there.

can it work for you?

There are people blogging out there who are providing a stream of information about their areas of expertise – but you’ll need to find what’s relevant to you. You’ll also need to think about sifting the information – is it useable/ workable? How can you use it? Does it work for you in practice? I mentioned three things that I think could work for me, only one of which originally related to something strictly design-oriented. But I found inspiration from the variety.

Learn from the practitioners. Knowledge transfer’s never been so open.