All Design is Education of a Sort
Posted on December 13, 2013 | posted by:“All men are designers. All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity.” Victor Papanek argued.
So, is design an instinct? Design seems like a discipline without threshold, or a kind of inherent feeling in the mind. I encountered a worry when I glad to see design has been more and more significant in many people’s lives; when design practitioners make great efforts and become a key agent in many industries; when students crowded to schools to select design as their major… In how many ways we can interpret design? What role should design education plays in order to cultivate good and practical design graduates for the world?
As Yevgeny Yevtushenko said: “Telling lies to the young is wrong. Proving to them that lies are true is wrong. The young know what you mean. The young are people. Tell them the difficulties can’t be counted, and let them see not only what will be but see with clarity these present times.” This is maybe what a design education practitioner should follow. In a more comprehensive way, as Jamer Hunt claimed in his design education manifesto: “In this networked, global environment, design educators will need to redouble their efforts in teaching future designers to be both solidly specialized and flexibly generalized.”
I am grateful that I received 4-year undergraduate design educated in Hong Kong, a city of “west meets east”, which acted as a bridge from the conservative Beijing to a collaborative world. Although my university is one of the top design schools in Asia, there was a period in school that totally drove me crazy and made me lost. Squeezing, frustration, demanding tutors, and endless overnight are the key words for students from our school of design.
I think we have reversed the order of teaching design in undergraduate & postgraduate education. Before the freshmen knew “What is design? What to design? What should design?” they have already started it. School gives them paper and pencils to practice sketch as a “basic skill”; then pushes them into a computer lab to learn 3D modeling software or 2D software for illustration; at same time shows them around the modeling workshop teaching carpenter, smith crafts, porcelain crafts, plastic crafts and the rapid prototyping machines… Hands-on is prior to brain-on.
Establishing an independent and right view of design, thinking what role design should play in the world now and future and understanding the needs human and society are the essential basis before designers start to design things. Without those, the things they do can only be called design exercises. For design students, this kind of practice is a way to show their instinct of design as human beings. Professional design education seems to speed up the process of consuming their imagination, creativity and instinct of design and gives them tools to make irresponsible design. Many times, my professor in university told me: It is very fast and easy for everyone to learn skills and technics, however, the ability to think and to have perception is the most precious talent of designer and only the minority can do it. Try to imagine an Iron Man with super powerful armor who is clueless about what to do with his power.
“Design must be meaningful.” – Victor Papanek
All societies have a sense of the future, ours does not. Our future is in doubt, so is that of design. But I believe design is the most powerful tool by which we can shape the products, our environment, and, by extension, ourselves. Maybe, the future will be shaped by design. Who will know? Because of the important role design is playing and will play, the designer must be conscious of his social and moral responsibility. Now I understand Hunt’s words at the end of his education manifesto: “Design is a always a political art… Every designer is a citizen designer.”
The world is becoming a giant net. People are involved in a “transdisciplinary world”. The center of gravity has already shifted from craft focused education to the emerging service design, transdisciplinary design and so on. In this situation, “Design educators must not only find ways incorporate more teamwork, but also teach students how to work with professionals who do not share a disciplinary language and method.” Hunt added.
All design is education of a sort. It may be education by studying or teaching at a school or university, or it may be education through design.