Doctoral Education in Design: Problems and Prospects

This paper considers the status of design research and underlines the importance of setting up clear objectives for doctoral programs within this discipline. For this reason, it compiles a list of key considerations in order to advance towards a consensus in respect to these type of academic programs

Educació doctoral en disseny: problemes i perspectives

El present text pren en consideració l'estat de la investigació en disseny i es planteja la importància de fixar uns objectius clars per a un doctorat en aquesta disciplina. Per aquest motiu recull un seguit de consideracions claus per tal d'avançar en el consens al respecte d'aquests programes universitaris. És el cas de la necessitat d'identificar àrees problemàtiques d'estudi, la necessitat de comunicació entre les diferents comunitats i les professions afins, la necessitat de connectar la investigació en disseny amb la pràctica d'aquesta professió, així com la necessitat d'aclarir per què serveix la investigació en aquest camp

Visiones de Obama

Las características gráficas de las imágenes de Obama en su campaña presidencial de 2008 supusieron un instrumento fundamental para llegar a comunicar el mensaje y los valores que representaba su candidatura. Y en gran medida su enorme éxito se debió al trabajo del diseñador Shepard Fairey, pues esas primeras imágenes "”y otras posteriores"”, convirtieron a Obama en un icono gráfico y un símbolo de esperanza en el futuro y el cambio

Remarks on the Acceptance of the Design-Ed, Cumulus, and DRS Lifetime Achievement Award for Design Research presented at the LearnXDesign conference in Chicago 2015

I am deeply honored to be standing before you tonight to accept this Lifetime Achievement Award for Design Research from Design-Ed, Cumulus, and the Design Research Society. I know that Design-Ed is a relatively new organization with a strong commitment to improving design education, while Cumulus and the Design Research Society have fostered research for many years and have consequently had a strong effect on deepening design culture. I am a longtime member of the Design Research Society and have only recently begun to participate in Cumulus meetings, while this is my first Design-Ed event. I would like to thank the committee that nominated me for the award and hope that my remarks this evening will not disappoint them. My participation in the culture of design – and here I use Guy Julier’s term – has been rich and satisfying. I came to the study of design before it was a widely accepted and understood activity and I have been involved in its growth over the past thirty-five years. I have watched the field of design research expand from one that involved only a small number of people to a professional practice that engages scholars worldwide. On the one hand, I applaud this proliferation of academic interest in design but on the other I have some concern about its development. Despite much valuable research that has been done, I believe that we researchers still lack a clear and widespread consensus about how these research activities can relate to each other and how they can influence design practice and the world at large. These are not questions easily answered and I raise them in order to suggest their importance as we move forward