Teaching Graphic Design: Approaches, Insights, the Role of Listening, and 24 Interviews with Inspirational Educators, edited by Sven Ingmar Thies, is a thoughtful and practical resource for graphic design educators. The book prioritizes questioning, listening, and communication as fundamental to the growth of teachers, learners, and the design field. The introductory chapters reflect on the nature of design education, while perspectives are broadened in the second half of the book, which shares twenty-four interviews with design educators and twelve project briefs from varied university courses.
The structure of the book unfolds from the theoretical to the granular, and the central topics are explored with refreshing humility and clarity. Front matter spotlights the featured educators with a photo and key idea or question in the form of a pull quote. From this initial highlighting of the multiple voices and perspectives featured within, the book moves on to an introduction and then four key chapters: graphic design, teaching, interviews, and sample assignments.
The book’s introduction preemptively answers many of the potential readers’ questions about what they will next encounter. The pedagogical tactic of encouraging students to consider the who, what, why, and how of each research topic is fore fronted, as the introduction is carefully arranged to answer each of these questions regarding the project itself. The following four goals for the book are introduced: 1) to create an overview of potential teaching parameters 2) to listen more consciously in class 3) to receive feedback for one’s own teaching and 4) to foster more spatial variety. Ten years on and reflecting back on his first year of teaching, Thies notes that in this first year as an educator what would be taught (subject and goals) was immediately clear, but how it would be taught was less clear.
The graphic design chapter focuses on the question “what is it we are teaching?” and consists of three subsections: in search of a definition, design practice, and design education. This preliminary content considers the broader roles of graphic design as a changing field in evolving societies. Here, Thies argues that graphic design aims to change, understand, ideate, and realize, and that each of these activities is fundamental to the nature of design. The situational context for graphic design connects what occurs in the classroom with what occurs beyond classroom walls. By embracing new perspectives and ideas, we change the discipline as the discipline changes us as designers, educators, individuals, and communities.
After this broader theoretical consideration of graphic design as a discipline, the teaching section explores the theory and practice of design education, asking the question “how do we enable learning?” Here, Thies encourages shifting perspective to that of the learner, and explicitly including teachers within this category of learners. Again, the organization of this chapter demonstrates clarity of intent, with subsections asking key questions such as “Who am I?” and “Who am I Teaching?” Within the latter section, acknowledged differences of classroom learners include social background, age, basic education, personality, learning experience, motives, goals, and convictions. Discussion of classroom diversity tends to imply a classroom demographic similar to that at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where Thies teaches, and socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic diversity could be more explicitly discussed to make this discussion relevant to broader campuses. The subsection “How do I Teach?” is organized around the ideas of acting consciously, asking, listening, speaking, rethinking, letting do, and variety. Inquiry and development are embraced; and listening to others’ perspectives in order to learn, grow, and better collaborate is always prioritized. Thies writes “if asking questions is looking into the future, listening is acting in the present” with listening here meaning a focusing of attention, with the example of a productive feedback session given. The typical expected course of action for both educators and students is noted here as beginning with the same two verbs: 1) asking and 2) listening, but Thies argues that listening should instead be placed at the central role within a matrix of other pedagogical actions (asking, speaking, rethinking, and letting do) as it ought to be practiced more consciously as a central tenet, as a method of transferring responsibility to students and motivating them to think, decide, and act.
The subsequent section of the book, educator interviews, asks how others teach. This section consists of 24 interviews with educators in Austria, China, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the USA, including well-known practitioners such as Erik Spiekermann and Stefan Sagmeister. These interviews were collected over the course of four years between 2019 to 2023 and were primarily conducted face-to-face—not a small task considering the broadly dispersed geographic locations of the featured educators. Thies acknowledges major shifts, including the pandemic impact on teaching modalities, within design education over the course of the project, and projects exploring contemporary topics such as artificial intelligence are deftly woven into broader book themes. Rather than providing a set list of questions for each educator, Thies tailors each interview to that educator. Questions asked within each interview reflect knowledge of each individual’s background, approaches, and specialties to tease out the most useful insights for other educators. These insights are both practical as well as theoretical. Again, the importance of listening is discussed with a variety of educators, with LeeAnn Renninger commenting that listening means creating both a habit of curiosity and a habit of questioning, as well as the ability to perceive underlying beliefs, motivations, and foundations beneath surface rhetoric. Takeshi Sunaga ties real listening to genuine interest and wholehearted attention to students.
The final sample assignments section asks what other educators’ project briefs might offer and provides twelve selected project briefs. This section provides specificity that is neatly linked to many of the abstract discussions in the preceding chapter, and grounds the discussion in specific assignments. The brevity of this section indicates an initial collection of briefs that could justifiably be fleshed out into a more expansive collection of project briefs in the future. A valuable companion volume might include additional student insights into the briefs, activities, topics, or pedagogical methods discussed.
Throughout Teaching Graphic Design: Approaches, Insights, the Role of Listening, and 24 Interviews with Inspirational Educators, the writing is succinct, intentional, and considered. The importance of listening and reflection is reinforced throughout the book, shifting focus from the singular designed outcome or artifact to the shared experience of classroom collaboration and inquiry. The emphasis on classroom communities as collaborators for change is practically supported by varied educator interviews, and ultimately the book provides an engaging collaborative discourse and nuanced inquiry into the nature of design education.
Teaching Graphic Design: Approaches, Insights, the Role of Listening and 24 Interviews with Inspirational Educators (Edition Angewandte)
Sven Ingmar Thies
Publisher : Birkhäuser (31 Dec. 2022)
Language : English
Perfect Paperback : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 3035626006
ISBN-13 : 978-3035626001
About the Reviewer
Ellen Christensen is an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design in the School of Design at San Francisco State University. She completed an M.F.A. in Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, where was the recipient of a RISD Research Grant, a Graduate Division Fellowship, and a RISD Fellowship. Her graduate thesis at RISD, Placefulness, researched design strategies of care and community placemaking. She received a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, and Magna Cum Laude. At Berkeley, she formed her own concentration within the American Studies major, “Ethnicity and Visual Representation,” and was the recipient of the William Stout Award. Her work explores collaborative methods of physical and virtual community building.