What’s Right with Design Education and Wrong with the “Real World”?
Susan Agre-Kippenhan and Mike Kippenhan
Admittedly, academia is disconnected from the “real world,” and we think it is time to go on record saying that this disconnection is quite wonderful. We say this as graphic design faculty who are committed to preparing students to be smart, thoughtful, and productive participants in the community of designers.
The “real world” believes that a disconnect lies in the fact that throughout a student’s education, academia provides him with a protective environment that doesn’t actually offer him “real-world experience” prior to entering the job market. Our belief is that the disconnect lies in a different place. We believe that good design education is centered on some basic tenets that educators and professionals alike hold in high regard. These tenets form a backbone for education as the guiding principles that faculty and students use to ground their work. And we are confident that they translate as key theories for functioning in the “real world,” forming basic building blocks that should be amplified and developed in the profession. But are they?
Tenet One: Support, Justify, and Defend Your Design Decisions
Academia: In every class, every day, with every exchange, presentation, critique, and self-evaluation, students are required to be cognizant and articulate about every decision they make. Students must verbalize how their work addresses the creative brief, how it is connected with their concept, the defined audience, and the ultimate intent of the design.
Real World: Many clients and designers have no compelling reason for their judgments and decisions. Notions of creative briefs and problem statements that function above the most rudimentary marketing terms are irrelevant. How often does “real-world design” turn into a scary game of “Guess what I am thinking” and “I’ll know it when I see it”?
Tenet Two: Be Accountable, Polite, and Respectful
Academia: There are basic rules of accountability in academia that include coming to class on time, prepared, and ready to participate. Learn to engage your instructor and classmates in a respectful and meaningful discourse. Give constructive criticism and behave civilly.
Real World: “Hurry up and wait” or work when your boss is ready. Try to make something of the vaguest of comments. Apply for jobs online, but don’t expect as much as a thank-you-but-no-thank-you email. It’s all part of the game.
Tenet Three: Make Good Decisions
Academia: We teach students that it is unacceptable to produce crappy work. Students are expected to think critically, innovate, experiment, and create thoughtful design that illustrates a sincere desire to produce good work. If they can’t do it, they are sent back to revise and revise again. If they still can’t do it they are sent home.
Real World: Whether it is driven by market forces, low-budget excuses, or a lack of passion for the profession, there is a lot of really terrible design going on out there.
Tenet Four: Take Responsibility and Be Ethical
Academia: There are direct consequences for failures: You miss a deadline or exam, your grade suffers; you plagiarize or cheat, you get kicked out of school. In the end, the scale of responsibility is personal.
Real World: Every design studio and business would agree with academic notions of responsibility. But in the “real world,” shouldn’t the stakes be higher? Decisions often affect the lives and welfare of people throughout the community, and standards of ethical business practices are often undermined by profit, greed, and ego.
So What Do These Tenets Really Mean?
How often do we read or hear some “real world” lament regarding academia’s failure to prepare students adequately? “If only students were better prepared. If only students . . . If only . . .” It is as if the newly graduated designer were responsible for rectifying all the profession’s ills. The truth is that academia is one of the last bastions of critical and ethical thought, and it is doing what it is supposed to do. Academia is holding up its end of the bargain with the “real world” by providing a protective environment where critical thought is expected and where ethical behavior is the standard. Unfortunately, we are growing increasingly less confident about the “real world’s” ability to hold up its end of the bargain.
In the end, we are left with a few choices. Either we celebrate the real disconnect as being a very good thing for both students and the “real world” or, at a minimum, the “real world” learns to place the blame for its problems elsewhere. Ultimately, we need to recognize that we are all in this profession together. But for the sake of this profession, let’s hope that academia doesn’t become more like the “real world.”