Author: Design Incubation

Design Incubation Fellowship Redux: Fellows Get Published

Meaghan Barry, Assistant Professor at Oakland University and Aaron Ganci, Assistant Professor at Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design, two of our 2016 Design Incubation Fellows have recently published in the journal Design and Culture.

Barry’s Statement of Practice interview with designer, performance artist, and Cranbrook Designer-in-Residence Elliot Earls explores the many facets of Earl’s practice and the evolution of his thinking about design, education and performance over the last several decades.

Ganci reviewed John McCarthy and Peter Wright’s text, Taking [A]part: The Politics and Aesthetics of Participation in Experience-Centered Design.

Barry and Ganci continued their writing projects with the support of Design Incubation’s Fellowship Director, Aaris Sherin, to craft these articles.

For more information on how Design Incubation supports design writing and publishing see the Fellowship page on the Design Incubation website. Applications for the 2018 program will be accepted June 1, 2017 – September 1, 2017.

Recap of Teaching Type: A Panel Conversation

http://www.alphabettes.org/takeaways-on-teaching-type/

Read Amy Papaelias’ delightful synopsis of the panel discussion on Teaching Typography. Amy is Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at SUNY New Paltz and was one of the distinguished panelists at this past Saturday’s event at the Type Director’s Club.

 

Colloquium 4.1: San Jose State Call for Submissions

San Jose State University in San Jose, CA will be hosting a Design Incubation Colloquium. Abstract submission deadline is August 5, 2017.

San Jose State University in San Jose, CA will be hosting a Design Incubation Colloquium on Saturday, September 30, 2017. All are welcome to attend. Details and agenda can be found on the Colloquium 4.1: San Jose State page.

We are accepting abstract submissions for presentations. Abstract submission deadline: August 5, 2017.

We invite designers—practitioners and educators—to submit abstracts of design research.  Presentations are limited to 6 minutes + 4 minutes for questions.

For more details, see the Submission Process description.

The abstract submission are accepted online here. Questions can be directed to info@designincubation.com.

Please register for this free event if you plan on attending.

Colloquium 4.0: SUNY New Paltz Call for Submissions

SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, NY will be hosting a Design Incubation Colloquium. Abstract submission deadline is July 15, 2017.

The State University of New York at New Paltz will be hosting a Design Incubation Colloquium on Saturday, September 9, 2017. All are welcome to attend. Details and agenda can be found on the Colloquium 4.0: SUNY New Paltz page.

We are accepting abstract submissions for presentations. Abstract submission deadline: July 15, 2017.

We invite designers—practitioners and educators—to submit abstracts of design research.  Presentations are limited to 6 minutes + 4 minutes for questions.

For more details, see the Submission Process description.

The abstract submission are accepted online here.  Questions can be directed to info@designincubation.com.

Please register for this free event if you plan on attending.

Multi-modal Interface Design: Communicating Design Through Presentation and Review

Peter Lusch
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design
College of Arts and Architecture
Penn State

Danielle Oprean
Post-Doctoral Research Scholar
Stuckeman Center for Design Computing
Penn State

Multi-modal visualization has long been considered important for design communication through representation and presentation, yet it has not been explored through an interface. In this presentation we discuss the outline for our test of use of a new interface designed to provide a multi-modal experience of design representations through the presentation and review processes. This interface is being developed for use in an immersive environments lab, a unique presentation space that allows for large-screen display and virtual reality. Before implementing a new interface, testing needs to be done to identify issues and perceptions of how well it works. We aim to test the feasibility of using a multi-modal interface with advanced-level undergraduate students in the design disciplines (architecture, landscape architecture, and graphic design) as a way for them to communicate design through presentation and review. In this presentation we talk about how usability testing allows for the results of actual use of an interface to feed back into improving the overall design. Specifically, we will provide an overview of our application of usability testing in design disciplines to address our hypothesis that being able to view different modalities of design representation at one time is more meaningful to communicate design both during presentation and in the review process. Success of the meaningfulness of the interface will be explored through the TAM model (Davis 1992) of usefulness, ease of use, and behavioral intention. We will also present the primary end point goals for this study, including our human factors study, and our self-report measurement of actual use of the multi-modal interface through questionnaires measuring usefulness, ease of use, and behavioral intention.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.3: Kent State University on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

The Process Of Exploring the Next Urban Condition

Adam Fromme
MFA Candidate
Department of Design
The Ohio State University

Urban transportation within the United States is at a critical point.

The automobile dictates our infrastructure, but there is a hunger for something else. Many mass transit solutions ignore the need to develop unique urban neighborhood identities. It seems time for a different approach. The Ohio State University’s Department of Design (Columbus, Ohio, USA) held a 16-week graduate studio in the spring of 2016 to explore this idea, based in our city’s needs.

The course structure provided a defined pathway through the problem’s complexity while allowing ‘the question’ to be responsive to the research. This sensitivity to the moment is in sharp contrast to traditional path-to-goal curriculum, yet reflective of most professional-facing design projects. While uncomfortable at times for the students, within this flexible format they were able to apply practices, trends, and technologies to specific city-, neighborhood-, and street-based needs in a system that would serve the unique needs of Columbus.

The deliverable was an immersive installation in a gallery space corresponding to the Barnett Symposium “Planning Creative Cities” 11–13 May 2016 in Columbus, Ohio. The 6 diverse graduate design students and their professor explored social change in a metro area, realizing that sometimes the best spark for change can come from building the tools to change the conversation.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.3: Kent State University on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

Participatory Design Research and Social Practice: Postcard Exchange as a Generative Design Research Tool for Eliciting Stories

Hemalatha Venkataraman
MFA Candidate
Design Research and Development
The Ohio State University

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the way design is being approached. What once used to be a traditional form of addressing an ‘issue’ through creative problem-solving and designing artifacts has moved to a contemporary space where one seeks the ‘right questions’ and looks for opportunities. This transition in the role of design has led to increased interdisciplinary collaboration and an exchange of different perspectives. A well-designed and constructed design research approach and methodology can help to unearth important voices and narratives in particular areas. The emphasis of this research lies in the socio-cultural realm.

It is particularly important that tacit and latent narratives are elicited in areas of socio-cultural concern. This research explores the use of a tool that lies at the intersection of art, design and social innovation i.e., in social practice. Eliciting stories from people using participatory methods in a non-threatening manner can help us to understand the delicate fabric of any given situation that design can address.

As a diminishing social ritual and artifact, the postcard (exchange) is applied as a tool in Participatory Design Research (a type of design research where the people with whom one is designing, are brought into the design process as the experts) which is where ideas and opportunities are generated and collected. Through a series of well-designed and illustrated postcards entrenched in design ethnography methods, conversations have the space for slow response and introspection, and dialogue. This provides participants their space, brings out honest narratives and forms deeper bonds that are needed in social design research.

The research approaches the use of the postcard exchange from multiple fields of art, design, social anthropology and material culture studies to explore the different means to elicit stories from participants as a participatory design approach.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.3: Kent State University on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

CAA Conference 2018: Call for Design Submissions

http://www.collegeart.org/news/2017/02/27/conference-submissions-for-caa-2018/

College Art Association (CAA) is accepting design submissions for the 2018 Conference in Los Angeles.

Although the stated requirement is that submissions come from members, CAA considers all submissions carefully and is especially interested in including design topics.

Questions can be directed to David Howarth, Chair of the Committee On Design, and subcommittee chair of Conference Content, Bess Williamson.

Reveal, Empower, Propel: Design Education for a Tenacious Community

Herb Vincent Peterson
Associate Professor of Design: Coordinator of Graphic Design
Co-Founder of Marion Design Co.
Division of Art + Design
Indiana Wesleyan University

Wendy Puffer
Assistant Professor: Coordinator of Design for Social Impact
Co-Founder of Marion Design Co.
Division of Art + Design
Indiana Wesleyan University

No larger than 30,000 people and deeply bruised by a downtrodden economy rooted in racial tensions, the rustbelt town of Marion, Indiana begs to become triumphant once again. A community previously slated to become the thriving metropolis of the Mid-West, now promotes a residue of the past with blighted storefronts, broken homes, and vast and vacant warehouses. Here lies the real crossroads of America. Never before has there been such a need to see Design as a mechanism to reveal a true identity within a community and empower its people to propel forward into a new chapter of vibrant life.

How can design empower radical change? How can students learning design employ empathy to develop relational design practices and drive trust in a community plagued by deep trauma? What is the responsibility of University design programs connected to rust-belt and blighted American towns?

This is the story about a social design studio and the subsequent movements that change how we consider community activism and design education. The studio of faculty and undergraduates face wicked problems head on while gaining experience conducting ethnographic research with community members. The environment of unbridled growth of ideas, reflective of the academic model of the middle ages, encourages individuality and freedom of thought. Through an immersive experience where students learn to become design leaders, the social design studio of Marion Design Co. utilizes design thinking strategies engaging community toward authentic relationships, bringing much needed hope and innovation.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.3: Kent State University on Saturday, March 11, 2017.

Framing Metaphors in Visual Identity Design

Jason E. Murdock
Undergraduate Instructor
School of Visual Communication Design
Kent State University

The metaphors used by designers to describe the logos they create reveal something about the technology they have at their disposal, as well as how they think these graphic devices should be applied.

Brand, mark, signature, and signet are all metaphors that frame logos as instruments for making impressions onto surfaces as a way to denote ownership and authorship, and these metaphors dominated visual identity design during the first half of the twentieth century. During the second half of the century, as design thinking shifted away from authorship and ownership toward service, experience, and participation, new metaphors emerged to describe new functions for logos. Container, icon, kit of parts, and module are all metaphors that frame logos as components of a larger systems—ascribing to them a variety of possible applications—and these metaphors are becoming increasingly prevalent in twenty-first century visual identity design.

This shift in framing metaphors coincides with the shift from Swiss and International Style Modernism to American Modernism and Postmodernism, or, as Dubberly (2008) has put it, from a mechanical-object ethos to an organic-systems ethos. This presentation offers a framework for understanding the logos created during this transitional period in graphic design history by identifying and defining three framing metaphors—logo as signature, logo as motif, and logo as building block—and providing visual evidence by way of case studies. Unlike other classification systems—such as Mollerup’s “Taxonomic tree of trademarks” (2013)—that take a morphological (i.e. a form-based) approach to categorization, the framework presented here takes a more pragmatic approach by categorizing logos based on how they are described and used.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.3: Kent State University on Saturday, March 11, 2017.