Looking for a new book for Graphic Design 1 or a basic design class? Sherin’s text introduces students to the design process and examines the current landscape of contemporary design practice in addition to including chapters on layout and production and the use of basic visual elements such as color, type and shape. This textbook includes over 500 images from international designers explains critical thinking and visual exploration in addition to describing the special relationship graphic designers have to creative problem solving. Check it out!
Answer: This is an interesting question and one which has caused much discussion even in our office!
Question: Can an author approach more than one publisher at the same time? -MR
Answer: This is an interesting question and one which has caused much discussion even in our office!
In some cases, publishers will request that you only approach one at a time, but this isn’t always enforced in every subject or publisher. Some editors I’ve heard will not consider a project if it has been sent to multiple publishers – the argument being that it can seem like you’ve just sent it out haphazardly to everyone, without fully considering which is the best publisher for you and the project. It’s best to really consider who already publishes in the area you’re working in, where the best books are coming from and whether the reputation of the publisher is right for you (for instance, if you need a university press for tenure, or you need a publisher who double reviews the manuscripts, and so on). As each publisher will invest time and money in the review process, submitting to various places is a difficult one, but you should certainly feel free to submit elsewhere if you haven’t heard back.
I’d personally say that given the fact it can sometimes take a little while to hear back from editors initially, it might be worth approaching a few to start with to gauge interest – however, it is best to be upfront about this, and certainly once you have had contact with an editor you need to make it clear to everyone if the project is also being considered by another publisher (for politeness as well as practicalities). It is tricky if you were to get to the point of being offered a contract by two publishers at the same time without either knowing you’d been discussing the project elsewhere, especially as by that point there will likely have been a significant amount of input from the publishers and reviewers in developing the overall approach of the project. Again, if in doubt have a look at the publisher’s website and see if there is guidance on multiple submissions. And individually submitting the same project to several editors at the same publisher is generally poor form – if you’re not quite sure who to approach, try one editor and ask them to pass the project on to a colleague if it’s not right for them, or copy the editors into the same email so they don’t all end up individually assessing the same project.
Louise Baird-Smith Commissioning Editor – Design and Photography
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
“Ask the Editor” is a Design Incubation series, where design academics, researchers, and practitioners pose their questions to editors of books, journals, conferences and other academic and design trade publishing organizations. If you would like your questions answered by publishing professionals, send your questions to Design Incubation via the “Ask the Editor” form on our website.
“Inclusive design” theory and practice are becoming the norm. Know the common standards and specifications of accessible interfaces for people with disabilities (and meet legally mandated ADA compliance standards).
Saturday, April 14, 2018
General Assembly NYC
902 Broadway, 4th floor
New York, NY 10010
Designing for and Teaching Accessibility Panel Discussion
At a minimum, criteria for success of a designed product, service or experience should be its usability by everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Since digital access is a Civil Right covered by the American Disabilities Act, the question of usability and access are now as important to digital and interactive designers as to those who produce products and physical artifacts.
“Inclusive design” theory and practice are becoming the norm with companies increasingly expecting employees to know the common standards and specifications for accessible interfaces which are used by people with disabilities (and meet legally mandated ADA compliance standards). Unfortunately, even as progress has been made in industry, teaching digital accessibility is rarely part of design curriculum or undergraduate course work.
To raise awareness and provide specific examples of ways to incorporate principles of accessibility into professional practice and design education, Design Incubation and AIGA/New York is inviting a group of scholars, practitioners and industry leaders to discuss accessible digital design and its relevance to the New York design community.
A morning panel discussion will provide a venue for experts to share their knowledge and an optional afternoon workshop will promote understanding of basic accessibility issues, concepts and best practices.
Panelists
Elizabeth Guffey heads SUNY Purchase’s MA in Modern and Contemporary Art and specializes in art and design history. She is author of several books, including Designing Disability: Symbols, Spaces and Society (Bloomsbury, 2017, Posters: A Global History (Reaktion, 2014), and Retro: The Culture of Revival (Reaktion, 2006. She has also authored numerous articles and is also the founding editor of the journal Design and Culture.
Neil Ward is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Drake University. At Drake, Ward’s students work through IDEO’s design thinking methodology along with user-centered design principles to solve problems in new and unexpected ways. Neil’s most recent projects focused on movement throughout the art building on campus for those who are unable to take the stairs along with creating a product to help a veteran – with limited mobility on his right side – cook for and feed himself at home. Both projects involve exercises in empathy for the user, ethnographic studies and a discussion around universal design. Outside of the classroom, he is the principle of Neil O. Ward Graphic Design specializing in identity and publication design.
Bo Campbell is an Interaction Designer and Accessibility Design Lead at IBM. As an accessibility thought leader and innovator in the IBM Accessibility organization, Bo functions as a driving force behind the integration of accessibility practices and techniques in the IBM Design Thinking framework. Additionally, he functions as a lead designer on products designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Bo has been with IBM since 2013, is a member of the W3C CSS Working group and has his Master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction from Iowa State University.
Liz Jackson is the founder of the Inclusive Fashion & Design Collective, a disability design organization that is focused on increasing the impact of beautiful, functional products in our everyday lives and in the global economy. Liz is committed to shifting the disability narrative, as current mainstream representations of disability do not accurately portray disabled lives. She is currently focused on creating pathways into design for disabled people through initiatives such as The Disabled List, a curated list of creative disabled people who are available to consult and collaborate. You can learn more about Liz on her blog The Girl with the Purple Cane.
Accessibility Workshop
Integrating Accessibility: Inclusive Design Methodologies and Practice
Bo Campbell, an Accessibility Design Lead for IBM, will conduct a workshop on accessible design while focusing on disability as a design challenge.
Participants will explore how and when to apply accessibility in the design and development process and will use empathy exercises to understand why accessibly is important for users with differing cognitive and physical abilities. Campbell will also discuss IBM’s inclusive design framework and will describe some of the training methodologies taught to new employees at the company.
Through a series of exercises, attendees will have the opportunity to learn how to apply the ideas and methodologies presented during the workshop to specific educational and/or practice-based design scenarios.
All are welcome, however, this workshop will be most useful for designers and educators who are less familiar with best practices around accessible design and want to learn more about how to practice and/or teach inclusive design.
Question: Is there any difference between writing a single-authored book and a co-authored book? -AB
Answer: While different publishers or series may have set rules on when they will (or won’t) accept co-authored titles, in most cases, there usually isn’t a problem from the publishers’ side on this.
Sometimes it can actually be a bonus where the book is interdisciplinary or has broad coverage where a single author couldn’t be an expert in all the content. My colleague is publishing a book on climate change in history written by a historian and a climate scientist together – it’s a massive selling point because we can say our book has holistic coverage and the science is valid.
Something to bear in mind though is how to divide the work, and do you know you can definitely successfully work together over a couple of years? In terms of how you split the work is up to you – maybe you’d each write certain chapters and swap to read/edit the other ones, or you may have certain aspects of the book you’ll research individually, then write up together. Generally, there would be a lead author, though this isn’t essential. Saying all that, going above two co-authors can get tricky, so over this number, you’ll need to really consider if multi-authored is the right approach – an edited collection may then make more sense (a different author writing each chapter, with overall editors who commission individual chapters). Another consideration is that any royalties will be split between the primary authors/editors of the volume, and you will be equally responsible for the delivery of the book.
Louise Baird-Smith Commissioning Editor – Design and Photography
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
“Ask the Editor” is a Design Incubation series, where design academics, researchers, and practitioners pose their questions to editors of books, journals, conferences and other academic and design trade publishing organizations. If you would like your questions answered by publishing professionals, send your questions to Design Incubation via the “Ask the Editor” form on our website.
Question: How important is it that an author has written a book before? Does that improve their chances of you taking on their project and giving them a contract? –MR
Answer: While there is an element of reassurance if an author has already published a book before, everyone has to start somewhere and there will always need to be a ‘first book’ at some point.
Some big textbook lists/publishers may not sign unpublished authors as the bigger textbook projects have a higher risk factor than an academic monograph might do, but this isn’t the same across the board.
I’ve worked on subjects where academic scholarship was relatively new, so the pool of previously published authors was very small – getting new voices into the mix was really important to build up the high quality literature in the area.
Equally, if someone has written many books before, it doesn’t mean that they will necessarily be offered a contract for their next book.
Whether you have tons of experience as an author, or are brand new, the combination of the project itself and your experience in the area (as a researcher, practitioner or teacher, depending on the type of book) along with the feedback from the peer reviews is a more realistic predictor of whether a project would be approved. If in doubt, just drop the editor/publisher an email and see if it’s worth submitting a proposal.
Louise Baird-Smith Commissioning Editor – Design and Photography
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
“Ask the Editor” is a Design Incubation series, where design academics, researchers, and practitioners pose their questions to editors of books, journals, conferences and other academic and design trade publishing organizations. If you would like your questions answered by publishing professionals, send your questions to Design Incubation via the “Ask the Editor” form on our website.
Christie Shin
Assistant Professor
Communication Design
Fashion Institute of Technology
Christie Shin Assistant Professor
Communication Design Fashion Institute of Technology
The printed page is not obsolete, and it will probably never be “dead” as many have predicted. As a matter of fact, a new wave of indie magazines has been thriving in recent years as a result of the streamlined process of publishing. However, as far as the overall media consumption is concerned, the war is over, and the printed media has lost. Today, screens in a variety of sizes are undoubtedly the primary platform for delivering and disseminating messages and information.
Despite the shift in media channel dominance, typography remains as the soul of visual communication design. The art of designing and using typeface as a means of communication and expression can still single-handedly elevate or destroy the aesthetics and function of a design – regardless whether it is printed on a piece of cardboard, or projected onto a silver screen.
The new possibilities in typographic design exponentially expanded following the transition to screen-based media, and the rules and principles of typography have changed in the world of digital design. As stated by Michael Worthington in the seminal book, The Education of a Graphic Designer, “ Most of graphic designers understand how printed type conveys its message to an audience, what its form signifies, but few understand how that differs in the environment of the screen. On the screen-based world of typography, what was stable in the print world becomes movable, alterable, and temporal. Some of Gerstner’s possibilities for static typography seem irrelevant, restrictive, or untranslatable in this new world. If his rules have been made anachronistic by current technology, I found myself questioning whether the written word should still be such a major part of our communication process.”
In order for the new generation of graphic designers to embrace and explore new possibilities in screen-based typography, we must begin to take concrete steps toward a true typography education reform. This presentation introduces the best typographic design projects from the newly developed courses at FIT including Kinetic Typography, Typography for Digital Content Design, Typography for Digital Product Design, and Content Centric App Design. The primary goal for the presentation is to showcase the innovative uses of pedagogy and teaching methodologies for teaching digital typography.
Michele Damato McCaffrey
Assistant Professor
Department of Design
Syracuse University
Michele Damato McCaffrey Assistant Professor Department of Design Syracuse University
How are students going to become empathic designers when they live and learn in a guarded design institution for four years? Can we develop courses/projects that encourage them to interact with communities outside of their own?
My work with students has shown they want to feel invested in their learning. Millennials are the most ethnically and racially diverse generation in the U.S. and are highly committed to social change. As design educators, we can use this information to tailor classes that will challenge them socially as citizens and designers so that they may have a deeper emotional connection to their work.
In my Experimental Typography Class, students are required to photograph the typographic signage/markings of an unknown neighborhood. For many, this may have been the first time visiting a neighborhood/culture significantly different from their own. Through typography only, the students designed a double-sided poster that communicates the culture and experience of that place. They come to understand how typography alone can reflect the ethnicity, culture, and socio-economic structure of a neighborhood. Though challenging and uncomfortable to some, students enjoy this project because they have the freedom to choose communities; take their own photography; spend time outside the boundaries and solitude of the classroom; and are in a new environment.
As a result, students often felt an investment and commitment to the neighborhood they chose to present. Not only did they fall in love with this new approach of discovering typography but also how they visually represented their story. Having students move outside of the classroom and interacting in new communities allowed them to (a) utilize their own strengths to develop their voice as designers and (b) raise their awareness of other communities as a first step toward becoming empathic and socially engaged citizens.
We’re excited to announce our very own Robin Landa’s recent publication, the 6th Edition of Graphic Design Solutions, publisher Wadsworth. Congrat’s Robin on completing this 2 year project.
Meredith James Assistant Professor
Graphic Design Portland State University
There are a number of textbooks on the market for research strategies used by designers, from A Designer’s Research Manual by O’Grady and O’Grady, to Visual Research by Bestley and Noble, to Design Research by Laurel and Lunenfeld. These texts offer a range of approaches, from marketing strategies used by designers, to more academic case studies. However, what is missing from the marketplace is a simple “how-to” guide that introduces basic primary and secondary research techniques to students.
This presentation will provide a literature review of tactics every designer and educator should know, and then present a practical research guide created for designers that fills the gap in existing literature. This pocket guide is being used in design classes at both foundational and advanced levels. Our students work has advanced to be more culturally and critically aware due to the implementation of these techniques.
