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Eric Benson

Assistant Professor, Graphic Design, University of Illinios at Urbana-Champaign

Beyond the Grid System: A discussion on how Graphic Design can create a sustainable future

Designers tend to solve problems with material objects. The artifacts solve smaller problems within a system of other issues, however they are really only bandages masking deeper and possibly more sinister ones. How can graphic designers help solve our contemporary issues outside of the traditional poster campaign making us aware of teenage pregnancy or a website asking for donations to stop rainforest destruction? Moving beyond the systems we use in layout, what broken systems of commerce or interaction should the graphic designer focus their energies on solving? Is the jump from the systems we're used to, to those much bigger and in many ways intangible realistic? This roundtable discussion will focus on the possible options for creation graphic designers have moving forward, when faced with the knowledge that their current method of making is unsustainable.

Benson received his BFA in graphic and industrial design from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1998. His work professionally has been focused on creating enriching digital experiences on the web and environmentally friendly print and packaging material. Benson has provided digital work for such clients as the Vanguard Group, FILA, Credit Suisse First Boston and Texas Instruments. He has designed print and packaging material for Texas Instruments, MADD, Toyota, and produced a range of sustainable print collateral for Whole Foods. In 2006 Benson received his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in design and social responsibility. His graduate research is available at www.re-nourish.com, which provides a depository for practical information about sustainable materials and design theory. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching methods and assignments hope to serve as an incubator for producing more socially responsible designers in the world.

Blake Coglianese

Assistant Professor, Graphic Design + Digital Media, University of North Florida

“I love teaching. I hate grading.” Making the most of a subjective situation

We require our students to create visuals that communicate and inspire, challenging them to consider this question: If the visual does not communicate can it be deemed a success? However, how often does our own communication fail when describing project requirements, outcomes and expectations? As a result, students may ultimately complete a project without ever understanding its relevance; or when receiving the final grade, may not accurately make sense of the grading criteria.

How do you focus on objective criteria when providing feedback to students who tend see Graphic Design as a purely subjective medium? (Thatʼs cool. I like. That sucks.) Can a grading rubric become too prescriptive and stifle creativity? How do you decide what to include in your assessment criteria? Is there a way to simplify the grading process and still provide responsible analysis of a studentʼs work? Join the conversation and share your thoughts and experiences on the sometimes painful, but the always necessary, grading and assessing student design.

Blake Coglianese is an assistant professor of Graphic Design + Digital Media at the University of North Florida in the Department of Art and Design. He received his Bachelor of Arts at Columbia College in Chicago, IL. He continued his education at Savannah College of Art and Design, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in graphic design. He spent 11 years in the industry designing and leading teams of design professionals before becoming a full-time educator. His work can also be seen in “SustainAble: A Handbook of Materials and Applications for Graphic Designers and Their Clients”. Blake continues to practice graphic design and currently works with a select group of clients. He also serves as Education Co-Chair for the Jacksonville chapter of AIGA.

Kimberly Garza

Adjunct Faculty, St. Edward’s University

Planning Projects: Begin, End, and Start Again

Join an open discussion about structuring projects and classroom interactions to facilitate student understanding of design processes and to foster student success. Although projects are often specific to a school, curriculum, level, and course, we will analyze common project elements and share successful classroom techniques. The conversation will also explore specific process issues that arise at the beginning, middle, and end of projects. Come, participate, and gain some new project ideas to adapt for your students. What elements define a project that successfully models the idea-to-execution process? How do you structure a project to help students generate executable ideas within the timeline?  What techniques do you use to encourage student exploration of the relationships between a chosen idea and its developing execution? What critique responses enable students to better fulfill the idea-to-execution process in subsequent projects? How do you incorporate student feedback and your own observations into the project for the next course?

Kimberly Garza is a graphic designer and educator in Austin, Texas. She works as an Interactive Art Director for EnviroMedia Social Marketing and teaches part-time at St. Edward’s University. For seven years, she partnered with not-for-profit organizations through her design firm, Above: The Studio. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree at Anderson University and a Master of Graphic Design degree at North Carolina State University. Her work moves across the print, interactive, and motion mediums. If she ever gets any spare time, she’ll be making silly short films in collaboration with her husband Todd, a singer-songwriter, and her young son Sylvan.

Jonathon Russell

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Central Michigan University

The Scalability of Sustainability

Can a global “toolkit of best practices and methods for integrating sustainability into design programs all over the world”1 work as well at a 1500 student rural state university as it would at a 30,000 student urban institution?

Are the efforts of organizations like the AIGA and Designers Accord taking small & rural colleges and universities into consideration while drafting curriculums? Will the programs developed by these organizations benefit small and large, urban and rural institutions equally? Will adjustments need to be made? Only one community of less than 25,000 people was represented at the Global Summit on Design Education & Sustainability.

This roundtable discussion addresses topics such as limited resources and access in small markets, the challenges of being separated from urban centers, the use of technology in aiding and advancing the discussion on sustainability and the challenges of teaching students to be aware of global efforts in sustainability and how to apply those efforts on a local scale.

From the overview of the Designers accord Global Summit on Design Education & Sustainability, 2009

Jonathon Russell received his BFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and his MFA from Fort Hays State University, both in Graphic Design. He is currently teaching design and typography to the fine students of Central Michigan University.

Kelly Salchow MacArthur

Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Michigan State University

Green is a Primary Color: Introducing Undergraduates to the Environment

Sustainability must be a priority in every aspect of life--including the activities in the design classroom. This presents a wider span of awareness and sensitivity for the educator to embrace--including the paper we load in the printer, the products we include on our materials list, the recycling and reusing systems in our institutions, the projects and ways in which we assign them, and even our means of transportation to school. Given the expansiveness of the issue, it is a challenging concept to enfold into curricula that may already be strained to fully prepare graduates for the workplace. What ways have you found to teach--and more importantly--practice sustainability as an educator? How can green thinking be presented without seeming overwhelming? What response have you received from students and administrators? Are you confident that these sustainable ideals will become both inherent and apparent in the graduates' professional work?

Kelly Salchow MacArthur is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Michigan State University. Previous experiences have included serving as Program Head of Graphic Design and Assistant Professor at Kansas City Art Institute, and teaching at Rhode Island School of Design, and The College of New Jersey. Kelly received her MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design, and BSA in Graphic Design from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. She is President of AIGA Detroit, after serving as Education Chair for the Detroit and Kansas City Chapters. The concepts and questions she brings to her students are investigated in her own explorations—currently focusing on environmental messages through typographic, photographic, and volumetric integration. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and recognized in several publications. A retired two-time Olympian, she balances her passion for design with miles of rowing on the Grand River.

Lee Vander Kooi

Visual Communication Design faculty, Herron School of Art and Design

Getting Beyond the Word: Skills and Competencies for Reaching Sustainable Solutions

While the landscape of professional practice in design shifts in relation to social, environmental, and economic pressure the challenges that design education programs face continue to emerge. Not only must students become thinking, ethical designers; but they must also be equipped to collaborate to reach sustainable solutions. The living principles are more than just a framework to help guide sustainable design decision-making. Economic, environmental, societal, and cultural factors form a framework that describe the conflicting values of diverse stakeholders which design solutions need to address.

This shift places emphasis on how decisions get made, how values get integrated, and how value is maintained through compromise within a design process. To often, emphasis is placed on a broad concept such as sustainability or collaboration with little unpacking of what these concepts mean in practice; what are the skills and competencies students need in order to collaborate effectively or to design sustainable solutions?

Professor Vander Kooi was appointed to the Visual Communication Design faculty at the Herron School of Art and Design in 2006. Previously, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of Hawaii. At Herron Vander Kooi teaches undergraduate courses across the curriculum from the introductory design studio to the capstone portfolio course. Additionally he teaches Collaborative action research studio courses in the graduate program. His areas of research interest include exploring form making as related to enhancing collaborative process skills, using technology to facilitate student reflection, and the assessment of design competencies.

Hilary Dana Williams

Visiting Assistant Professor , Graphic Design, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

Process(ing) : Cultivating Reflection in the Design Classroom

How can we encourage our students to be mindful of their processes? To this end, I have been establishing a reflective practice as a daily habit in my design courses. I begin every class with a five- to ten-minute period in which my students think and write online in response to a question that I pose.  I consider this reflective practice to be a way in which I call for my students to engage not just in schoolwork but in experiential learning. The continuous and cumulative effect of this series of reflections is for my students to process their direct experiences of making and thereby to synthesize their learning for future understanding and application. This hearkens to John Dewey’s notion of linking doing with knowing. Please join me for a discussion about ways in which we can develop reflective practices, frame leading yet open-ended questions, and respond to students’

Hilary Dana Williams is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She received her MFA in Studio Art (Graphic Design) from The University of Tennessee and her BA in Studio Art and Environmental Studies from Williams College. Drawing on the intersection of these disciplines, she is committed to exploring how design can provide both incentives and implements to prompt people to change individual habits for the common good. Her recent works toward this end focus on local foods (and can be found at www.aforkintheroad.org or www.hilarydana.com).