11 Comments

The benefits of such relations are directed towards understanding design as a commercial practice concerned with ‘solving problems’ within the parameter of predefined processes. So, in terms of intensifying the students understanding of decision making, efficiency, accountability, production etc. I suspect that such endeavours will be very successful.

However, this encroachment of professionalism into the domain of universities affirms the ordering principle of ‘commercial reality’ that is increasingly overdetermining the potential for students to question, discover, open, transgress, challenge, resist, and/or reject the prevailing norms and practices. For in building such connections there is a danger that our students education is reduced to a series of sedimented procedures that transforms the question, ‘how can things be approached anew?’ into the answer, ‘this is how things are done’. Designing (in its widest sense) is transformed into policing. Thus, rather than capitulate wholly to the demands of ‘the real world’, universities (students, staff, public, and concerned professionals) need to defend the space in which new methods, modes and models can emerge. For without such spaces education is reduced to another resource (i.e. a publicly funded site for the training of private interests; one that is judged on financial/legue success). Indeed, such relations would make it increasingly difficult for critical voices to emerge, as they may conflict with the interests of both University and its partners.

One need only look at how the intensified professionalisation of football has codified the game, decimated much of the fan network (turning them into consumers), destroyed local communities and ushered in greed and gain where there was desire and passion. Therefore, if commercial entities want students to come ready prepared for studio work, is it they--not the universities--who should invest (financially (and not just through ‘tax’)) in providing that arena?
MLA
2009-06-23 18:51:19

@ MLA

Thanks for the comment.

One of the most interesting, unexpected and rewarding aspects of being within the college walls didn't involve the Thoughtful Six at all but rather us (Thoughtful) and design tutor, James Corazzo.

Prior to the project our dialogue with tutors only extended as far as small talk before or after a presentation - there was no meaningful contact at all. If you would have asked us 12 months ago what we thought of design tutors we would probably have said they are out of touch or protected in the cosy bosom of education. And the working class chip on our shoulders would have lead us to believe tutors don't work hard - not like us 'real' designers, anyway.

In fact, we couldn't have been more wrong.

Our whole thinking about design education was challenged through talking and listening to James Corazzo as well as Sarah Temple from LCC.

We can see how tutors are able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers in the trenches as well view the battle from the top of the hill. This gives good tutors a unique and expansive view of the world and how design and their students fit into that world.

We realised that perhaps it's okay that design education isn't some boot camp for the industry where every student is drilled into preparation for a job. Because, guess what? We've learnt not every single design student really, really wants to be a successful designer and it's us industry types which wrongly assume this. A vast majority of students find themselves drawn to areas where creative thinking isn't confined to visual communication and their design degree is just the first step into a wider business world. It has to be true, just look at the figures:
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Research/The-Business-of-Design2/Education/

(And as for working hard, well - we can tell you that the whole project took about a year to make happen and was conceived, arranged, implemented and managed out of hours or as extra workload.)

This project has opened up a dialogue which we as commercial designers have benefitted greatly from. We think getting closer to education is a positive thing and should be encouraged. Perhaps if the right balance can be found between industry and education we can all learn something new?

Thoughtfully
James, Chris & Stuart
Thoughtful
2009-06-24 09:39:02

I think MLA has a good point.

He’s well aware of the complex ambiguities and arguments that lie at the heart of contemporary design education. He’s in search of a critical voice— from both within industry and the academy. MLA is arguing for a less benign ‘thoughtfulness’, something more reflexive.

It’s not so dissimilar to Dunne and Raby’s notions of ‘critical design’, a practice that does not ‘conform to cultural, social technical and economic expectations’. Unlike ‘affirmative’ design, critical design explores the possible.
Nic
2009-06-24 20:25:36

@ MLA.

Thank you for your comments.

You’re right to point out that education should be a space where individuals can challenge the notion of design that simply reaffirms and conforms to social expectations. But setting up University in a binary opposition to "the real world" is troublesome. To defend this space is to deny opportunities to foster an ecology of collaboration and implies there is little value to be gained from “the real world”.

Key to this project was the design practice entering the space of academia – they were not unchanged by this experience (an neither were we). It generated a dialogue and a space where critical discussions could take place.

But that’s just us, what about the students? While some benefits for the students undertaking this project were clearly directed at “understanding design as a commercial practice” perhaps your comments overlook how the students themselves feel they have developed – initiative, altruism, flexibility, relationships, independence and crucially confidence – attributes, arguably, that can transform the answer, ‘this is how things are done’ into the question ‘how can things be approached anew?" In my view the immersive nature of this experience has clearly changed them, not simply “professionalised” them.

Far from defending the ramparts we should be perforating the walls.

James Corazzo – Design Tutor
James Corazzo
2009-06-24 21:18:45

If a student has a goal to achieve with a time frame, naturally she/he will do her/his best to get it no matter what the circumstances are. A place will never be a hindrance if the mindset was already set to fulfill his/her dreams. For these "six loyal" pals, I'm sure they will be a part of the "royal" few graduates who will make it through thick and thin.
hampers
2009-06-25 08:01:49

If only this happened more often. A massive respectful virtual pat on the back to Thoughtful for giving something back to the very establishment that created them and trying to bridge the ever expanding and bitched about gap between design education and commercial design. Invaluable for both design student and designer.
Adam
2009-06-25 10:54:55

I can't believe I've only just found out about this!

What a lovely enterprise, Thoughtful living up to their reputation as ever.
 While this probably wouldn't work in all colleges and definetly not for all agencies, I'm so very impressed to see it succeeding so spectacularly!
Well done to everyone, staff, students, designers, involved.
Alan Offord
2009-06-29 10:02:13

I've always been an advocate for giving something back to the community, from experience I know how difficult it is to get a foot in the creative arena. This is an excellent opportunity for college-level students to sample the industry, most importantly it will build confidence and provide a strong platform for their budding career.

I agree it's difficult to apply the same logistic across colleges but as these guys have proven, it can be done. It's a fantastic concept and it would be a shame not to repeat it somehow.

Kudos to the Thoughtful team for this fresh approach, best of luck in the endeavor!
David A.
2009-06-30 12:17:48

@ Thoughtfully (James, Chris & Stuart) and James Corazzo – Design Tutor

Firstly, simply setting educational institutions in binary opposition to the ‘real world’ would be a simplistic and reactionary strategy (and one that would be defined by the very parameters under attack). Contra to such a stumbling, dueling, duality I want to present universities as privileged institutional sites that, while residing in the world, are capable of resisting it.

Secondly, I am not denouncing the domain of production but the control mechanisms that order the relations of production. Commercial practice exists primarily as a domain of intensity that demands efficiency, assurance, expertise, etcetera—in short a professionalism. However the search for alterity often requires contemplation that models of efficiency destroy. Therefore, the inherent danger in introducing the demands of intensity into the arena of reflexivity is the former dominates the latter.


Thirdly, this critique is not directly concerned with the appearance of particular instances (although it is possible to link dispersed practices to indicate an emerging trend), such as your own, but with the lack of critical analysis of such practices. This prodding seeks to locate the points assumption and subjective assertion in order to open up a finality.

Thus, if we are all concerned to develop the students ‘initiative, altruism, flexibility, relationships, independence and crucially confidence’ then, I would argue, there are other partnerships that would prove much more challenging and invigorating for all concerned. This would simply entail the replacement of vocational practices with professions from outside the sphere of design that would challenge the student’s creativity and offer the opportunity for new communicative and creative models and practices to emerge. The encounter demands the development of the student’s communicative capabilities and integrates them in relations that may not understand, care for or appreciate design. Placing non-commercial clients of design into the universities provides a platform in which design can inform others practices of its particular qualities, but design/ers (students and staff) are in turn also informed by other thoughts, ways, methods, and practices. This shift in relations would be radical and challenge the self-affirming repeating pattern that ensnares much design. By redirecting the object of concern awy from itself the positive aspects of your initiative would resonate far deeper and have transformatory effects beyond the remit of a design practice.

My argument then is not an affirmation of the necessity of division but rather a concern with the placement of particular forces. That is a care for the organisation, distribution, and direction of the thoughts and practices that determine our realities. Thus, my position is not organised against ‘ecologies of collaboration’ but rather the effects that such relations have in defining the field of possible actions and for critical reflection upon such alliances. I am arguing for the defence of a space and a time that can close all too quickly once students leave university. To introduce that closure into the university only makes sense if universities are concerned with reproducing practices and not producing challenges.

Walls in themselves then are not inherently negative, but are positioned to have particular effects. Perforation then is a tool we can employ to introduce transference, but equally we would need to recognize the moments where we need to reinforce the barricades.
MLA
2009-10-20 15:13:17

That is a care for the organisation, distribution, and direction of the thoughts and practices that determine our realities. Thus, my position is not organised against ‘ecologies of collaboration’ but rather the effects that such relations have in defining the field of possible actions and for critical reflection upon such alliances. I am arguing for the defence of a space and a time that can close all too quickly once students leave university. To introduce that closure into the university only makes sense if universities are concerned with reproducing practices and not producing challenges. Grow taller Earth4energy
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Jump Higher
Ramon1982
2010-04-29 11:27:53

erfectly exemplifying the neoliberal extension of the market form throughout the social field, and too the ‘inseparable variations’ of a control society, student practice is released from the artificial enclosure of the ‘hall of mirrors’, where the value of creativity was given within a purely educational context, into an environment where its worth can now be valorised according to the terms and ‘realities’ of the market, and through which can be established a continuous feedback loop informing its future development.

As much as the market is posited as the environment through which education is to be modulated, education, in a complimentary movement, is proposed as a source of ideas and creativity valuable to the market and its own development.

https://terraincritical.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/enterprise-and-the-subject-of-education-foreign-office-architects-ravensbourne-college/
MLA
2010-12-17 20:29:12

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