The ephemeral aesthetic of spontaneous design on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil

There are few opportunities when the poor and prosperous can be spoken about with respect to the same, shared cultural experience. And yet, visual culture, and the design process that contributes to its materialisation in specific contexts, offers an opportunity to recognise a socially inclusive activity that reveals similarity rather than difference. This paper celebrates an ephemeral aesthetic that is appreciated by people at different ends of the economic, political and social spectrum. A mutual appreciation for the medium of collage differs only in terms of the environment within which the recycled object is eventually revealed. This paper explores some of these different contexts, and those who recognise and practise this phenomenon in a South American and European context. The conclusion of this speculative and exploratory study is that there is potential to develop this unique medium as an accessible and inclusive visual language, giving voice to those who often do not have the opportunity or the means to speak and be heard. Collage is recognised as a channel that mediates between social exclusion and inclusion when political and economic means have been exhausted. The resulting ephemeral aesthetic is proven to have visual appeal, satisfying low- and high-order human needs. Keywords: Bricolage; Ephemeral Aesthetic; Urban Poor; Human Need; Graphic Design</p

Graphic design as urban design: towards a theory for analysing graphic objects in urban environments

This thesis presents a model for analysing the graphic object as urban object, by considering atypical fields of discourse that contribute to the formation of the object domain. The question: what is graphic design as urban design? directs the research through an epistemological design study comprising: an interrogation of graphic design studio practice and the articulation of graphic design research questions; a review and subsequent development of research strategy, design and method towards the articulation of methodology that reflects the nature of the inquiry; a detailed analysis of five different ways to study and research graphic design as urban design, in geography, language, visual communication, art and design, and urban design. The outcome of the investigation is a model that enables future research in the urban environment to benefit from micro-meso-macrographic analysis. The model endeavours to provide a way to evaluate, design and enhance ‘public places and urban spaces’ (Carmona et al., 2010) by considering different scales of symbolic thought and deed. This has been achieved by acknowledging the relationship between the relatively miniscule detail of graphic symbolism, the point at which this becomes visible through increased scale, and the instances when it dominates the urban realm. Examples are considered that show differences between, for example, the size and spacing of letter shapes on a pedestrian sign, compared to the ‘visual’ impact of an iconic building in the cityscape. In between is a myriad of graphic elements that are experienced and designed by many different professional disciplines and occupations. These are evidenced and explained. Throughout the study an indiscriminating literature review is interwoven with the text, accompanied by tabular information, and visual data in the form of photographs and diagrams. This is mainly research-driven data utilising photographs from fieldwork in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The methodology integrates a transdisciplinary adaptive theory approach derived from sociological research, with graphic method (utilising a wider scope of visual data usually associated with graph theory). The following images provide sixteen examples of artefacts representing the graphic object as urban object phenomenon

In the name of graphic design education

In the name of graphic design educatio

Aligning assessment, feedback and action planning for international students

What language should feature in assessment criteria for international students? How do students reflect on assessment feedback to allow the creation of effective action plans for future learning? Have universities adjusted their assessment methods sufficiently to match the increased demand for studying abroad? What can art and design contribute to these issues? These are some of the questions this paper seeks to address by reporting on recent pedagogic research at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University, in the United Kingdom. Language use is at the heart of this, and yet, it has been overlooked as an essential tool that links assessment, feedback, and action planning for international students. The paper reveals existing and new data that builds on research since 2009, aimed at improving students’ assessment literacy

Towards an integrated pedagogy of graphics in the United Kingdom

In this discussion paper, graphic design, graphic science and graphic art are acknowledged, substantiating the need for benefits associated with a wider perspective on how students learn graphics in the United Kingdom. A case is presented for the adoption of a single word descriptor (compared to the many variants that have developed in the higher education sector) by discussing: the historical development of art and design in the United Kingdom; the widespread use of the term graphics; an emphasis on research neglect in a field that has diversified and expanded to become one of the largest groups of students in an enlarged university sector; a lack of national professional representation that has neglected the opportunity to link practice, pedagogy and research in a growing field. The inquiry begins with an overview, of the historical context, before an exploration into the recent expansion of a category of closely related words that originate from the same etymological source. Finally, consideration is given to the scope of influences that may form the basis of research into graphic method as a logical development of first-order design principles. The paper calls for renewed efforts, by graphics educators in the UK, to establish their own professional body to consolidate shared interest in graphics pedagogy between disciplinary perspectives

The dimensions of graphic design and its spheres of influence

This paper further expands on the concern about how we depict graphic design to explain its relationships (both “internal” and “external”) for the purposes of education, research, and practice. The initial development of this concern led to the identification of what has been described as the critical dimensions of graphic design, and this inquiry has required the analysis and proposed redefinition of the subject’s plural domains. The attempt to depict these critical dimensions, or domains, benefitted from a diagrammatic modeling exercise, discussed formally in 20071 after having first been outlined a year earlier.2 This exercise demonstrated how the traditional definitions, from which the subject emerged and with which it became identified in the first half of the twentieth century, could be represented in diagrammatic form, creating a contemporary interpretation of the subject. The present author has used the visual method of diagrams as a form of rational inquiry to illustrate the shift from traditional to contemporary ways of thinking about the graphic design (Figure 1). The traditional interpretation of graphic design in diagrammatic form by this author, seen on the left, owes much to the way urban design is shown, by Jon Lang in 2005, to have emerged from the overlap between architecture, landscape architecture, city planning and civil engineering.3 Whereas the contemporary model seen on the right evolved from numerous attempts by this present author since 2001 to use diagrams as an effective tool for teaching graphic design to students within and without the subject

Graphic objects and their contribution to the image of the city

This paper explores the relationship between graphic objects and urban environments by adopting a critical stance towards the notion of image in the image of the city. It challenges the emphasis on image as a multi-sensory mental construct by revealing it to have different meanings in diverse disciplinary contexts. In exposing how a miscellaneous range of objects cited in the literature lacks cohesion and sense of function, the urban graphic object is introduced and illustrated as a pervasive epistemic phenomenon. Understanding urban graphic objects expands established ideas about legibility and how urban objects have intended and unintended graphic properties. Through considering the function of graphic communication within the function of cities and urban places, the paper introduces a framework for considering graphic design as urban design and graphic objects as urban objects