21 Jul Perspectives from inside the ivory tower
by Brigitte Wolf, Meredith Davis, and Craig Vogel (Design Management Journal, Summer 2002)
In contrast to business programs, which face the difficulty of integrating design management content within their curricula, design schools are addressing the topic with increasing interest and rigor. Brigitte Wolf describes strategies used at the School of Design, in Cologne, Germany. Meredith Davis speaks to the positive momentum building within graphic design. Craig Vogel looks at design education in general and describes specific courses given at Carnegie Mellon University.
Design Management at the School of Design, Cologne by Brigitte Wolf
Ten years ago, the School of Design, in Cologne, Germany, was founded as a new model of design education. The idea was to create a learning environment that would educate students as professionals are educated—that is, learning by doing. The study program supports the talents and skills of all the students and asks them to develop their own personal profiles.We don’t want all of them to turn out the same way: We want each of them to be special. When our students graduate, each one has studied a career he or she has chosen. It is a four-year program. The Cologne program is based on project work and includes technical and scientific seminars, English classes, working groups, workshop introduction courses, and lectures. The School of Design does not separate design careers into the usual categories of industrial design, graphic design,Web design, and so on. Instead, the students experience the complexity of design. The course is divided into 12 teaching areas, created to correspond to market needs. Thus: interface design; service design; corporate identity; design and ecology; design concepts; design for manufacturing; design and production technology; gender design; design theory and history; typography; audiovisual design; and design management. Each semester, the staff provides a fresh selection of projects. Short-term … read the complete article here >>