Australian Infront

Design education in Australia, your thoughts?

Posted 26.05.2010 @ 6.44PM

Thanks so much for your responses everyone, they've proved most insightful and I've really enjoyed reading them.

Without giving too much away, I work at one of the leading tertiary institutions (providers of art and design education) in Melbourne and so was interested in getting people's thoughts in order to prompt some dialogue between myself and some of our leading academics about some of these issues.

I look forward to touching base again in the future about how things progressed.

Design education in Australia, your thoughts?

Posted 21.05.2010 @ 10.19AM

Thanks so much for your contributions so far everyone. The key points resonating from all that has been said above seem to be:

*Students should have greater ability to tackle real-world briefs whilst at Uni/TAFE (love the examples of KISD and Hyper Island in particular - how innovative and inspiring)

*More experimentation should be allowed in the contexts of tertiary design courses - not all content should be so pragmatic

*Practical experience should be introduced at a greater level throughout an individuals design education

*Uni/TAFE is handy but is by no means the be-all and end-all

In regards to Australian institutions, it seems some are really chasing their tail. On the contrary, do you think any universities, TAFE colleges or privately run institutions are doing a particularly good job? If so, what is it that they are doing?

Designing Our Future

Posted 13.01.2010 @ 1.01PM

Simon / Michael - thanks for your comments and feedback. I enjoyed reading both your responses.

One of the core themes here seems to be the lack of exposure to real-life occupational environments, and the ability of designers to successfully integrate and strive in a business context. Graduates in particular I have found come in to a new job all gung-ho as to how proficient and talented they are technically, yet seem to lack even the most basic communication or interpersonal skills. In my opinion possessing the ability to relate positively with those whom you work with and for is just as important (if not more so) than being able to deliver a crackerjack creative solution. Hence, on the points you have made, I couldn't agree with you more.

So what do you think could be some tangible ways for us to address this issue? I like the idea of a design degree consisting of a compulsory practical placement year in a studio / business, but this might not be feasible for a variety of reasons - particularly financially and logistics wise (ie: not enough studios to fulfill demand from educational institutions). Do you have any other ideas?

Would Australia's proper graphic design magazine please stand up

Posted 11.01.2010 @ 12.01PM

Agree with you on many of these points Michael, particularly the last point about Artichoke being the magazine of choice amongst the three you have mentioned. Perhaps it is simply a matter of Artichoke doing a re-think of its agenda, target audiences and organisational affiliations?

Despite its membership being open to the Graphic Design arena, the DIA also places emphasis on catering to its Interior Design / Architectural member base which I think is (probably duly) represented in the content structure of Artichoke as it is today. An alliance with say AGDA (or similar) and a greater degree of editorial real estate allocated to the GD profession could prove to be just what the industry is after?

Design Victoria recently published a report indicating that there needs to be more emphasis on the cross-disciplinary nature of the various design professions so this could also be a way to tackle that, rather than reinventing the wheel entirely? Just my thoughts.