Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Graphic design educators often resist efforts to distinguish “design” from “art.” However, because of the easily accessible similarities of processes, mediums, concerns, and displays between art and design students left without a critical comparison of these two creative endeavors often develop for themselves a frame of intent, interest, and assessment that serves the development of an artistic agency more than orientating them to the praxis of design. Unintentionally, this limited reflexivity of their creative abilities and interests suppresses the students’ awareness and aspirations related to design’s potential for impact and the level of objectivity required. On the other hand, design educators who do employ a distinction between the functions of art and design frequently employ definitions that confine design’s scope to serve a didactic pedagogy dedicated to a more singular and linear mode of design practice obliged solely to a client-driven service thereby limiting a student’s consideration of the potential forms of design practice and impact. These two common occurrences show that the proximity of art and design creates a dialectic that design education must address. This paper proposes a framework of critical reflection for design educator’s to facilitate student consideration of how design praxis is distinct from artistic agency. This framework is oriented to Paulo Freire’s perspective of a critical pedagogy to enable consideration of the relevance and value of this distinction as a basis of liberating the potential within each of these noble human endeavors while managing the complexities of identity politics that disciplinary comparison often entices.