Jarrett Fuller
Assistant Professor
NC State University
This presentation examines applying Stewart Brand’s “Shearing Layers” as a theoretical framework for restructuring graphic design education amid contemporary challenges. With technological disruptions including artificial intelligence and broader sociopolitical instabilities, design educators must develop curricula preparing students for sustainable career trajectories in uncertain futures, not merely immediate employment.
The proposal adapts Brand’s architectural model—originally conceptualized by Frank Duffy to describe buildings as systems with components evolving at different rates—to establish a multi-layered pedagogical structure. Just as buildings comprise Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space Plan, and Stuff, this curriculum framework is built upon Ethics, Theory, Methods, Profession, Technology, and Visual Trends layers, each operating on distinctive temporal cycles of change.
The framework fundamentally inverts traditional design education by positioning theoretical seminars as the stable core around which experimental, responsive studio courses orbit. This restructuring enables programs to maintain philosophical and methodological continuity while simultaneously accommodating emerging technologies and shifting professional demands—addressing what Drucker and McVarish (2013) identified as “the perpetual crisis of design education.”
While not yet implemented, this speculative framework provides design educators with a conceptual tool for navigating curricular decisions in contexts of persistent change. The proposal contributes to design pedagogy discourse by offering a theoretical model that reconciles paradoxical demands for both stability and adaptability in curriculum development.
These structures prepare designers to address complex societal challenges with both historical perspective and future-oriented skills, enabling educational programs to respond dynamically to rapid disciplinary evolution while maintaining foundational integrity.
This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 12.2: Annual CAA Conference 2026 (In-person only) on Thursday, February 19, 2026.