Dynamic literature mapping : typography in screen-based media

This paper chronicles the development of a visual map representing a literature search on key theorists and thinkers in two principal topics: Typography and New Media. Its aim is to visualise and facilitate conceptual connections between key ideas and philosophies across disciplines. This literature map was drawn up by reviewing available influential literature within these topics. Related categories were later added and a further series of literature searches were conducted to build references in each topic. This on-going cyclical process serves to construct a comprehensive contextual map of knowledge. The benefit of the map is twofold. Primarily, aiding the researcher to navigate and understand complex layers of information. Secondly, allowing the researcher to present and share representations of knowledge. The clarity of the representation is crucial in eliciting the participation of fellow design researchers and practitioners to the development and growth of the literature map

Connecting practice to research (and back to practice): making the leap from design practice to design research

This paper explores two questions: what skills and knowledge can be derived from research and brought back into design practice; and how can we better prepare designers to undertake research? Its aim was to enable design practitioners wishing to pursue research to understand the process and anticipate the scope and level of work. Additionally, it addressed the questions of how design education can incorporate a research-based curriculum and how professional bodies can promote the value of research to practitioners? A complementary paper was co-written and presented at the CONNECTED 07 conference, Sydney. It explores the process of undertaking a PhD within the framework of the UK design education system by examining it from a design and business perspective (Yee, J.S.R, Michlewski, K. and Bohemia, E. (2007) 'Interrogating the Academic Research Process in UK Design Education from Design and Business Perspectives', ConnectED 2007 – International Conference on Design Education, Sydney, (http://www.designdictator.com/publications/connected07.pdf). Yee’s research bridges the gap between contemporary design practice, the growth of professional knowledge and pedagogy, via empirical study and theoretical discourse. Yee is currently 2nd supervisor for a PhD, entitled; ‘The Development of a Framework to Understand Potential Relationships Between Services and Their Users’ and is contributing to the development of the Professional Practice Doctorate in Design in the CfDR

Capturing tacit knowledge: Documenting and understanding recent methodological innovation used in Design Doctorates in order to inform Postgraduate training provision

This paper presents a preliminary review of recent Design PhDs that identify and analyse the methodological innovation that is occurring in the field, in order to inform future provision of research training for Design PhDs. Six recently completed Design PhDs are used to highlight possible philosophical and practical models that can be adopted by future PhD design students. Four characteristics were found in Design PhD methodology; thesis-structural innovation, a ‘pick and mix’ research design approach, situating practice in the enquiry and the validation of visual analysis. The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how research training can be improved for Design PhD candidates. By being aware of recent methodological innovations in the field, design educators will be better informed when developing resources for future design doctoral candidates, and assisting supervision teams in developing a more informed and flexible approach to practice-led research

A Typographic Dilemma: Reconciling the old with the new using a new cross-disciplinary typographic framework

Current theory and vocabulary used to describe typographic practice and scholarship are based on a historically print-derived framework. As yet, no new paradigm has emerged to address the divergent path that screen-based typography is taking from its traditional print medium. Screen-based typography is becoming as common and widely used as its print counterpart. It is now timely to re-evaluate current typographic references and practices under these environments, which introduces a new visual language and form. This paper will attempt to present an alternate typographic framework to address these growing changes by appropriating concepts and knowledge from different disciplines. This alternate typographic framework has been informed through a study conducted as part of a research Doctorate in the School of Design at Northumbria University, UK. This paper posits that the current typographic framework derived from the print medium is no longer sufficient to address the growing differences between the print and screen media. In its place, an alternate cross-disciplinary typographic framework should be adopted for the successful integration and application of typography in screen-based interactive media. The development of this framework will focus mainly on three key characteristics of screen-based interactive media ¬¬– hypertext, interactivity and time-based motion – and will draw influences from disciplines such as film, computer gaming, interactive digital arts and hypertext fictions

Methodological Innovation in Practice-Based Design Doctorates

This article presents a selective review of recent design PhDs that identify and analyse the methodological innovation that is occurring in the field, in order to inform future provision of research training. Six recently completed design PhDs are used to highlight possible philosophical and practical models that can be adopted by future PhD students in design. Four characteristics were found in design PhD methodology: innovations in the format and structure of the thesis, a pick-and-mix approach to research design, situating practice in the inquiry, and the validation of visual analysis. The article concludes by offering suggestions on how research training can be improved. By being aware of recent methodological innovations in the field, design educators will be better informed when developing resources for future design doctoral candidates and assisting supervision teams in developing a more informed and flexible approach to practice-based research

Methodological bricolage: What does it tell us about design?

This paper explores an approach to design research that is becoming more prevalent in practice-based doctoral studies and examines what it tells us about the current state of design research. A previous examination of design PhD case studies has shown that the bricolage approach is evident in a majority of contemporary practice-based design PhDs [1]. The usual academic norm of using an established method or methodology is often discarded in favour of a ‘pick and mix’ approach to select and apply the most appropriate methods. Does it suggest a discipline in crisis, where existing methods are unfit for purpose? Or does this suggest that design as a discipline is maturing and developing a distinct research model? Is design undisciplined? The paper answers these questions by proposing that design researchers navigate a complex, indeterminate and temporal framework where the bricoleur is the best operative

Beyond the Wall: Typography from the German Democratic Republic

1989: The German Democratic Republic (GDR) still existed and the Berlin Wall was still standing. Communism was alive in Europe. Hard to believe now, yet only fifteen years ago, a reality. By 1990 the GDR was gone, but it lingers on in the memory of many people now as a dull, repressive, unimaginative place full of cheap plastic, grey concrete, goosestepping soldiers, sports stars with mullets, the dreaded Stasi secret police and of course, the Wall. These memories illustrate common Western stereotypes of the GDR. But in the real, existing East Germany, the reaction of designers to the Communist system was not as downbeat or sterile as you might expect. The graphical and typographical culture of the GDR is a fascinating glimpse into how graphics and typography might have developed and functioned in an integrated system not based solely on the economics of supply and demand. The “workers and peasants state” was founded in 1949 on the premise of supporting humanism, anti-fascism, peace and security. East Germany occupied a unique position within Eastern Europe; not only did it define an outer edge of the Soviet bloc, it faced the difficulty of being umbilically connected to ‘the other (Western) Germany’. Questions of identity dogged it to the end, and stereotypical perceptions about Communism and Capitalism heightened the tensions between the split personality of east and west. The history of East German typography is essentially, from a Western perspective, one of those “in spite of” stories. Inevitably constrained by inconsistent political ideologies in the arts, a lack of raw materials and outdated typesetting and printing equipment, GDR graphics and typography eventually flourished in a way which only occurs when designers are forced to come up with solutions in the face of seemingly impossible obstacles. Designers found innovative, critical and individual ways of coping with political and material shortcomings

Valuing service design: Lessons from SROI

This paper describes lessons learned through the use of a Social Return On Investment (SROI) approach to evaluate a completed Service Design project with a large vocational training company. It is written by the Service Design team that led the original project and who subsequently used SROI to evaluate its impact. Experiencing the SROI evaluation process first-hand, in a live setting, is the approach by which the authors develop a discussion about its potential fit with Service Design processes. The SROI method enabled both the design team and the case-study organisation to acknowledge and measure additional social/stakeholder benefits created through the design work. These elements would not have been visible in a traditional ROI evaluation. There is the promise of a useful fit between SROI and Service Design in larger projects. The approach could be used as a framework for forecasting and evolving indicators for likely social impacts (and their financial proxies) throughout a Service Design project, to guide decisions at each stage. Its usefulness depends, however, on there being a will at Design Management level to rehearse the approach and develop tailored approaches towards it. In the current study, the method was found to be time-intensive for the Service Design team as lay-users and also for some key project stakeholders, but that could be better managed with experience. SROI will not suit every project, however may fit very well with those projects that already count a full business plan amongst their deliverables. One of the main limitations encountered in using the SROI process was difficulty identifying appropriate proxies for the calculations. It is proposed that social benefit might be expressed to multidisciplinary co-design teams through visual and emotive means rather than in quantitative, financial terms. Such ‘visual proxies’ would better fit with the semantic mode of design