A Design Core for the Twenty-First Century
Andrea Marks
When I began teaching graphic design at Oregon State University in 1992, the required freshmen foundation courses included 2-D and 3-D design and basic drawing. It was a core of classes very similar to the ones I took upon entering college in the late 1970s. Many graphic design programs today still rely on a set of outdated design foundation classes that are offered throughout the freshman year as prerequisites to entering graphic design programs. These are often watered down courses modeled from the Bauhaus Foundation courses. Though a basic understanding of design principles and vocabulary is necessary, the freshman year introductory model needs to be replaced by a broader, more relevant set of core classes. A revamped design core, developed as a set of classes taken across three years by students from multiple design disciplines, can strengthen student understanding of the connections between disciplines, research and practice.
It may be helpful to look at history for the context of our current foundation classes. The great European designers and artists, who came to the United States in the early to mid-twentieth century, brought new ideas and theories about Modernism. They influenced a generation of Americans, who in turn became teachers and practitioners, and the cycle of influence continued throughout the decades. Many of the Bauhaus faculty were among this group of émigrés and continued teaching in the States; Moholy Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes taught at the New Bauhaus in Chicago (now the Illinois Institute of Design), and Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer in the Department of Architecture at Harvard University.
Josef Albers immigrated to the United States in 1933 to teach at Black Mountain College, a new type of experimental and interdisciplinary college in North Carolina. At Black Mountain, Albers taught a basic design course called Werklehre (workteaching), a course similar to the preliminary course he taught at the Bauhaus. In 1950, he left Black Mountain to become head of the department of design at Yale University and spent his eight years at Yale, developing what would become known as the Yale Graphic Design Program.
In the United States, the 1960s and ’70s saw commercial art programs give way to four-year college and university graphic design programs, most located within art departments. Coursework in 2-D and 3-D design and drawing were mandatory before moving into a more defined discipline, and many of the projects and investigations done in these courses were reflective of the Bauhaus model.
First year foundation curricula at many institutions have changed to include courses in design thinking, collaboration, visual culture and theory, yet many freshmen still take foundation classes within a more traditional, fine arts—oriented model. Some may argue that freshmen typically have no idea what particular discipline they want to pursue, so letting them take a combination of fine art, design and art history courses can help them with their future decisions. Though this argument may be true, there is also a critical need for contemporary graphic design programs to develop a new type of core, one that includes a set of design foundation courses coupled with a more multidisciplinary set of classes that better prepare design students for the 21st century. Why not a drawing course and a course in entrepreneurship?
Today the scale and impact of design is much greater than during the Bauhaus era due to many factors including technology and complexity of information. As a result, graphic design has become a richly diverse field that continues to evolve. Today’s graphic designers work as creative strategists alongside business leaders, engineers, computer programmers, and other disciplines. Graphic design education needs to keep pace with this acceleration of change to ensure students understand the importance of design research and human behavior in relation to a designed experience. Rethinking both what a contemporary graphic design curriculum looks like and where a graphic design program resides is necessary.
In the fall of 2012, the graphic design program at Oregon State University migrated from the art department in the College of Liberal Arts, where it had been housed for over three decades, and joined three other disciplines on campus to form a School of Design. This new school, comprised of graphic design, apparel design, interior design, and merchandise management, is housed within the College of Business. The first goal of the school was to create a cross-disciplinary set of core classes for all students to take over their four years of college. These classes are in addition to the individual program requirements for each of the four majors and will roll out in the fall of 2015. A new set of freshmen design foundation courses (Design Perspectives and Design Explorations) replaced the previous 2-D and 3-D courses. The eight new “core” classes will allow for students from graphic design, apparel design, interior design, and merchandise management to take classes together with students from the College of Business. The collaboration is intended to give students a more holistic understanding of how they will work when they graduate. The courses include:
• Human-Centered Research for Design and Merchandising
• Human-Centered Design Theory and Strategies
• Collaborative Studio
• Sustainable Engineering
• Introduction to Microeconomics
• Fundamentals of Accounting
• Introduction to Entrepreneurship
• Introduction to Marketing
When the Bauhaus began in 1919, its structure and curriculum was progressive. Walter Gropius and his colleagues understood the need for change in how art and design were taught in response to the cultural, social, and economic context of the time. Today’s design programs need to also respond to significant changes. With the need for more collaborative, multidisciplinary curriculum models, a specific core that is comprised of a diverse group of cross-disciplinary classes can build stronger connections and ultimately better prepare design students to solve today’s complex problems.