Design education

Este artigo pretende instigar reflexões acerca do ensino de design da informação na atualidade, tendocomo principal referencial teórico os questionamentos expostos pelo filósofo sul-coreano Byung-Chul Han.Abordando o esgotamento da sociedade do século XXI, bem como a temporalidade do processo decriação digital ao qual os alunos e alunas estão submetidos, este trabalho tece conexões entre as ideiasde Han e de teóricos do campo do design — ou próximos a ele —, a fim de se pensar o estímulo aoequilíbrio entre as habilidades técnicas e o pensamento visual destes estudantes. Nesse sentido, apontatambém para a necessidade de se reconsiderar os processos pedagógicos e avaliativos, enraizados nasnoções de desempenho, urgência, controle e rigidez, com o intuito de conduzir a outras relações deensino-aprendizagem e possibilitar — através da priorização da subjetividade, da observação minuciosada informação e da criação lenta — a produção de novas mensagens e significados.

This article intends to instigate reflections about the teaching of information design today, having as main theoretical reference the questions raised by the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han. Addressing the exhaustion of 21st century society, as well as the temporality of the digital creation process to which students are subjected, this work weaves connections between the ideas of Han and theorists in the field of design — or close to him —, in order to think about stimulating the balance between the technical skills and the visual thinking of these students in pedagogical practices. In this sense, it also points to the need to reconsider the pedagogical and evaluative processes, rooted in the notions of performance, urgency, control and rigidity, in order to lead to other teaching-learning relationships and to enable — through the prioritization of subjectivity, of minute observation of information and slow creation — the production of new messages and meanings.

To cite this paper:  Ford, Chris. (2012). “The Found Object in Design,” Forward 112: Process. AIA National Associates Committee, American Institute of Architects, July 2012. p38-51.

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While artists have an established record of scholarship about the role of found objects in their work, there is a disappointing lack of scholarship that considers the role of found objects in design. Perhaps this can first be attributed to the different motivations by which an artist and a designer choose to incorporate a found object.  This difference in motivations illuminates that primary reasons for selection are rooted in the source disciplines themselves. The found object in art has no responsibility to perform beyond its aesthetic affect, and the found object in design has no further responsibility beyond its pragmatic (i.e. mechanical, structural) affect.  Because the incorporation of found objects is non-essential to all design solutions, then as designers, there is a need to explicitly understand the benefit of incorporating found objects, the criteria for their selection, their impact on design thinking, and their ramifications for use.  This paper will articulate four generative strategies for how found objects are / can be used within the design discipline: Resource Availability, Political Heuristics, Creative Heuristics and Aesthetic Heuristics.  Design solutions from both architectural design and industrial design are used in support of the formation of these categories, which include work by Michael Rotondi, Phoenix Commotion, Baker + Hesseldenz Design, and LOT-EK.  Ultimately, this paper showcases the finished design work of students for an assignment titled “FOCO: The Found-Object Craft-Object,” in which each author must answer the question of how ought a found object be used in design.  Student work featured emerged from a three credit hour graduate-level elective titled “Modern Craft” offered by the author while faculty at the University of Nebraska, College of Architecture.

This paper describes the changing role of designers in times of design thinking and service design increasing in popularity. These new participatory approaches expand the work of designers and thus, should be reflected in the way we teach design. If designers nowadays are demanded as facilitators and moderators of innovation processes, what role should educators take, to prepare students appropriately? Building on qualitative interviews with representatives of academia, industry and business, the paper highlights the new requirements and puts these in juxtaposition to the existing teaching model in Germany. While the industry is already adapting, the German educational system seems not yet prepared to teach the appropriate skills. The focus still lies much more on cultivating the individual craftsmanship of designers. The authors, therefore, propose a new model of design education with which they hope to inspire educational approaches for the development of collaborative capabilities and know-how.

Final years design students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, are often presented with a pool of topics that they can select from to work on their major/final course project. Some students struggle first with making this choice and then, after the work is submitted, marked and the degree is completed, with the frustration of leaving such projects behind and totally inconsequential. This may happen because the student is not oriented towards reflecting on how each of the possible topics to choose from can become a more or less impactful project during the remainder of their studies, for their professional development and future employability, and in terms of supporting/helping a wider community, by solving a problem common to many. After analysing 35 generative boards/canvases retrieved from a diversity of professional sources, a taxonomy for the design of this kind of visual tools was optimised and a visual board-the Impact Plan-is proposed. It aims at obviating the lack of refl...

Euro-Western perspectives dominate visual communication design education in Australia. This paper examines how the “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” pedagogical framework transformed the learning and teaching of design within high school contexts in two Aboriginal communities – Ntaria in the Northern Territory and Warmun in Western Australia. Known as 8 Ways, this model facilitates a culturally safe space for knowledge sharing, encourages teachers to engage with Indigenous pedagogies within the classroom, and emphasizes relational learning. Multiple participatory methods informed our approaches, including the development of place-based design curricula to embed and evaluate 8 Ways. These case studies reveal how Indigenous pedagogical approaches to design education can create value and meaning for Indigenous young people through the enactment and expression of cultural identity, while reinforcing connection to land, family, and community. We argue that non-Indigenous educators can draw upon Indigenous pedagogies to decolonize their teaching strategies and to engage Indigenous students in meaningful culture-centered, intergenerational, and on-Country learning experiences. This research paves the way for participatory and place-based models of design education that reinforce and return the knowledge systems, land stewardship practices, and cultural values of Australia’s First Nations peoples to the classroom.

The​ ​authors​ ​provide​ ​a​ ​scholarly​ ​definition​ ​for​ ​metaphor-rich,​ ​story-driven​ ​‘narrative visualization’.​ ​They​ ​argue​ ​that​ ​metaphors​ ​create​ ​a​ ​rich​ ​and​ ​emotionally​ ​resonant​ ​set of​ ​associations​ ​that​ ​frame​ ​the​ ​narrative​ ​and​ ​effectively​ ​support​ ​‘System​ ​1’​ ​(or​ ​intuition -based)​ ​thinking​ ​and​ ​decision-making​ ​that​ ​Kahneman​ ​and​ ​others​ ​have​ ​identified​ ​as the​ ​primary​ ​drivers​ ​of​ ​financial​ ​behaviour.​ ​The​ ​authors​ ​then​ ​apply​ ​these​ ​observations to​ ​a​ ​case​ ​study​ ​in​ ​which​ ​they​ ​analyze​ ​student​ ​work​ ​on​ ​a​ ​financial​ ​literacy​ ​design project.​ ​They​ ​discuss​ ​best​ ​practices​ ​for​ ​teaching​ ​narrative​ ​visualization​ ​and​ ​argue for​ ​its​ ​relevance​ ​in​ ​a​ ​contemporary​ ​design​ ​education​ ​-​ ​especially​ ​its​ ​capacity​ ​to represent​ ​and​ ​reflectively​ ​explore​ ​complex​ ​financial​ ​and​ ​other​ ​concepts.

As the need for Human Computer Interaction (HCI) designers increases so does the need for courses that best prepare students for their future work life. Multidisciplinary teamwork is what very frequently meets the graduates in their new work situations. Preparing students for such multidisciplinary work through education is not easy to achieve. In this paper, we investigate ways to engage computer science students, majoring in design, use, and interaction (with technology), in design practices through an advanced graduate course in interaction design. Here, we take a closer look at how prior embodied and explicit knowledge of HCI that all of the students have, combined with understanding of design practice through the course, shape them as human-computer interaction designers. We evaluate the results of the effort in terms of increase in creativity, novelty of ideas, body language when engaged in design activities, and in terms of perceptions of how well this course prepared the stu...

This investigation into the role of flow and mindfulness in the production of rapid life-drawing sketches (croquis drawings) derives, primarily, from four decades of practice as both teacher and artist. The result is a reflective account of my teaching philosophy informed by the philosophies of various educators and/or philosophers, including: (aka Zhuangzi). Although not intended as a full analysis of how the concepts of flow and mindfulness might apply to the initial stages of drawing for design, I nonetheless argue for the importance of introducing these concepts into the curriculum of design education. Further, it is hoped that this paper will contribute to a wider understanding of the act of drawing—including its cognitive, psychological and philosophical aspects.

For some time employers have identified that one of the most sought after graduate attributes is the ability to function as an effective member of a team. In the creative and performing arts disciplines, which are often individually oriented in nature, the development and implementation of curricula that enable students to attain high-level teamwork skills suitable for participation in multi-disciplinary collaboration is not only necessary but it can be challenging for both educators and students. Indeed the ability to evidence where and how students develop teamwork or collaborative skills will become increasingly critical, as a result of the impending standards framework that is soon to be implemented by the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA). This paper overviews the ways in which Creative Exchange, a multi-disciplinary teaching and learning capstone subject offered by the School of Creative Arts at James Cook University since 2009, provides direct evidence of the ways in which students develop strong teamwork skills and attributes. In addition to teamwork skills, students also continue to develop discipline-specific knowledge as well as insights into industry and community settings, given the work-integrated learning orientation of the projects themselves. Data obtained from creative and performing arts students and alumni who previously participated in Creative Exchange are analysed, in order to report on the extent to which they had achieved appropriate standards required for industry. In addition, ongoing benchmarking of the Creative Exchange model via consultations with national and international industry practitioners is presented to further contextualise the findings. The paper concludes by discussing future applications of the framework as well as a range of additional research directions and opportunities.

After the earthquake and tsunami occurred in Chile on February 27th 2010, the Technical University Federico Santa Maria was asked to contribute with reconstruction proposals for the commercial infrastructure destroyed in the town “San Juan Bautista”. Located 600 km (~370 mi) away from the continent, this town is not just the home of several endemic species, but is also located next to a National Protected Area and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Within this context, the design problem consisted on the development of a component-based strategy and prefabrication requirements, and to reduce to the minimum the implied logistics and environmental impacts of the new buildings. With a Studio of 23 final year students and the support of the Architecture Firms Association, 11 projects were developed using digital tools such as visual programming and digital fabrication. Finally, technical documentation was produced and delivered to the local and government authorities.

University-level classrooms have seen a massive transformation from instructor-led to studentcentered education, with many courses adopting project-based learning as an effective learning approach. As students become key actors in leading their courses, it is necessary to have highlevel intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the search to enhance student motivation using project-based learning, this article proposes a framework based on self-determination theory, including various indicators of the level of students’ motivation for learning. In particular, the framework was applied to explore the effectiveness of employing social media, such as Facebook, to increase student motivation. The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of employing social media to amplify students’ will to learn. This article reports on the results of action research in creative media design courses where students were required to develop an e-portfolio through Facebook. Eleven indicators (autonom...

The pandemic process compelled many educational institutions to apply online education during the quarantine. Therefore, design studios in practice-based disciplines such as architecture and industrial design have been adapted themselves in a limited time to become applicable for distance learning. However, current e-learning tools and applications provided an uninvited option for students: pseudopresence during the online design studio classes. Students had the possibility to turn off their videocameras and microphones to show their attendance and not to interact with the design studio at all. This study primarily investigates the pseudo-presence tendencies of the undergraduate architectural design students at Atilim University- Department of Architecture- in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 21 undergraduate design students and 5 design educators. The qualitative data was analyzed through students’ pseudo-presence tendencies, social presence, and interaction levels due to a holistic perception of distance learning in the design studio.

This paper presents the conclusions of an empirical study aimed at (1) identifying educational practices in the academic design studio intended to promote empathy in industrial design students, and (2) identifying a broad range of expressions of student empathy for users and stakeholders. The study was motivated by the importance that current human-centered design approaches give to empathy as an ability required to understand and connect with users and by the little empirical research that examines empathy development in design education. Methodologically, a mixed methods strategy was used to collect and analyze data from faculty and students in three undergraduate and graduate courses in industrial design offered by a major land-grant public research university in the southeastern United States. The findings of the study consisted of identifying strategies used by faculty to promote empathy in the design studio and categories of students' expressions of empathy. These findings informed the conclusions herein presented as recommendations for educators to promote student empathy in their design courses.

Contemporary issues informed by the political and geographic alterations on our planet are demanding new paradigms of approach in design thinking. The continuous call to address the new social criteria is bringing fresh challenges in the realm of policy, strategy and civilization. The dilemma of globalisation and mass migration has affected the social fabric of the society. From Canada to the Australia, a new postmodern identity awaits its recognition following an integration of peoples from various ethnic backgrounds. The social fabric created by amalgamation of different cultures and ethnic values of varied contrast, has on the other hand brought opportunity for designers to capitalize on the new protocol. The paper is built on the analysis of the situation and its effects particularly in the Australian context.  Among other states and territories, New South Wales has produced new multicultural and multilingual city scapes, who’s main trigger has been the migrants that enriched the commonwealth. The research brings into account design project conducted as part of academic degree coursework that aimed at creating sufficient framework to address the criteria and tangible outcomes as a response towards the need to create the new identity. It also becomes a valid case study where design academics or  practitioners are eyeing for opportunity aiming to produce creative solutions in current times, by giving due significance to the diverse vernacular and regional native identities of the inhabitants of our planet.

2017 marks the first time the creative industries have been formally recognized in a British Industrial Strategy. Concurrently, reductions in applied learning, EBacc, Academisation and general disregard for the value of creativity and creative industries currently promoted within education in Britain present an ambiguous blueprint.

This research aims to look through a lens of recasting design as a special branch of the sciences whilst preserving the imperative that the visual and aesthetic “making and doing” of craft does not become obsolete. Methods of intent include empirical evidence, grounded theory, interviewing design education policy stakeholders, and revisiting the recommendations from the RCA’s Department of Design Research to the government (submitted 1978).

Design is an activity driven by science and invention. What is needed is an education system fit for the 21st century. Instead of marginalising creative subjects, young people should be provided with the mix of creative and technical skills required for success. The research will be published in September.

This paper looks into conventional teaching practices and intends to generate a new approach towards the teaching of Building Construction in architecture schools. With the fast pace of the current world and changing technology, conventional teaching practices that are largely based on information assimilation have ceased to serve us adequately. The rate of change in trends and technologies in the current times do not match the content of our existing syllabus. This paper tries to identify the role and application of Building Construction Technology for training the young minds for handling future challenges and coping up with upcoming developments. It talks about various experimentation and exploration techniques aimed at enhancing the student's analytical ability as well as his/her understanding of materials, techniques, systems, etc. The Building Construction Technology team at IDEAS has tried to bridge the gap between conventional teaching methods and the changing technology by adding a third dimension to teaching-learning methodology. The paper presents methods devised and tested in the Second Year Building Construction Studio for enabling the students for creative handling of materials and technology.

The proceedings from the RSD3 symposium are now available online:
http://systemic-design.net/rsd3-proceedings/ 
from the successful Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD) Symposium in Oslo, October 2014. The proceedings contain presentations and papers presented at RSD3.  The proceedings also contain papers by keynote speakers Hugh Dubberly and Harold Nelson and a transcript of the late Ranulph Glanville's last speech.

South Africa’s educational landscape is scarred with economic and educational inequalities. South African tertiary education today has to deal with a variety of challenges including the lack of funding, both on the student’s side and on the side of the institution.  The most prominent challenge relevant to our research is the extensive lack of skills and knowledge of students when coming from secondary school where they are rarely exposed to cognitive skills. Our students struggle to understand the notion of a ‘concept’ or ‘metaphor’ in an artwork: that art is not just representative or aesthetic, but communicates a message, an idea, a criticism, or appreciation. This requires creative and critical thinking. We present a case study of a drawing and animation project that aimed to facilitate this. We argue that through the integration of art theory and drawing practice, students came to understand not only how to detect critical thinking by other artists, but how to implement concepts, metaphors, or symbols in their own work. Through this project we explored drawing
• as a bridge to close the gap between theory and practice,
• as a tool for creative and critical thinking, and
• as a means to introduce technology on a basic (low-cost) level.
We found that our integrated approach narrowed the theory/practice gap and enhanced creative and critical thinking, resulting in student work of greater conceptual quality.

Mark Roxburgh’s research over the past decade has focused on the evolving conceptualization, discourse and development of research methodologies for design. This has lead him to question the historical pattern of design whereby the methods and epistemologies of other disciplines are used without addressing the differences between them and design. Design is a complex activity enmeshed in many aspects of our lives. In his article in Design Issues (1992), ‘Prometheus of the Everyday: The Ecology of the Artificial and the Designer’s Responsibility’, Manzini foregrounds the relational nature of this complexity by conceiving design (the artificial) as having an ecology. Roxburgh has written about these matters but his critique has conformed to the conventions of academic publishing and he has found articulating aspects of such complexity constrained by the limits of written language. Increasingly, in design, visualization is used to map complex relationships between things, ideas and actions. In this essentially visual essay, Roxburgh is attempting to graphically identify and explore the relationships of some of these concepts in a manner that echoes these trends and his own research practice. He is aware that sketches of complex phenomena, through a process of interpretation and abstraction, become somewhat reductive. The moments he draws on in crafting the depictions of his views are presented episodically rather than chronologically.
Roxburgh sketches out three key historical conceptions of design and the ramifications they have had on our perceptions and practice of it. He depicts these conceptions as being drawn from traditions outside of design and suggests that an alternative strategy may lie within design itself. This strategy calls for an engagement with what he calls the aesthetics of research. He suggests that it is imperative that design encompasses an aesthetic engagement with the world at all levels, and most importantly at the point of design research and conception, for our experience of design is fundamentally aesthetic. He is aware that there is an apparent irony in his use of non design theories to frame aspects of his view but this is a necessary strategy to critique the ontological assumptions inherent within the conceptions of design that he characterizes (one could even say ‘caricatures’). Roxburgh takes the position that there is nothing essentially given about design consciousness. Rather, the characterizations of design consciousness that he outlines all carry (usually implicit) ontological assumptions that may be inappropriate and/or limit design practice. The depiction of design that he offers is based instead on an alternative ontology. While this cannot be empirically verified (no ontology can), he proposes it as a way of extending and critiquing usual conceptions of design practice. No doubt this in turn will be found to have shortcomings of its own.

This case study tracks the process of the design of the identity for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital by third year students studying at Vega the School of Brand Leadership in Johannesburg, South Africa. The approach and methodologies used by the team of lecturers, especially collaborative methods, who guided the students (specializing in creative subjects) to successfully complete this project are reviewed and discussed, using examples of the designs created by the students.

The staggering cost of energy has become a major challenge for industrial facilities in their constant effort to reduce product cost. For some manufacturing industries in the United States, the energy cost has even exceeded labor cost of their products. Staying viable in a world with a large appetite for energy resources depends on making energy efficient practices a part of day-to-day operation. Engineering programs need to prepare prospective engineers to become critical thinkers in the area of energy usage. This paper outlines the process of industrial energy audit projects conducted in senior level thermal-fluid design classes at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville (UWP) and University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). In the frame of project work, each student team visited a local industrial facility, found out facility’s energy consumption data, identified and evaluated opportunities for energy saving. Total of eight projects were carried out for diverse manufacturing industries such as iron melting foundry, engine industry, aircraft and vehicle industries in Northeast Wisconsin and Central Arkansas. The energy audit reports included energy assessments of various systems such as fans, air compressors and compressed air lines, lighting, and motors. The energy audit reports also evaluated redesign of a large cooling water pipe network and design of a Rankine cycle to utilize the large amount of heat wasted during the iron melting process.Copyright © 2008 by ASME

Background and context The practice of design is changing. This is of course not necessarily a new phenomenon. Our work as designers has always been moulded by developments in technology and has always reflected the societal shifts and cultural values of the day. Not withstanding this, the central role of designers has remained fairly constant, being traditionally concerned with making critical judgments about the aesthetics or function of images, information, objects, products, and environments. However, the emerging paradigm increasingly positions the primary role of the designer as that of a facilitator - or orchestrator, of the diverse inputs and processes required to effectively address contemporary design problems. There is now, more than ever previously, a need to be adaptable and able to morph into team-based contexts that can be characterised as multi disciplinary, cross-cultural and online. Design education programs, and indeed the design industry itself, must move rapidly...

Design is everywhere, but for many African American and Latino youth, the journey to a design career can be overwhelming. Limited access and too few opportunities prevent the majority of these youth from even beginning the journey. Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines explores diversity in design disciplines and presents fifteen strategic ideas to expose African American and Latino youth to design-related careers. This solutions-based thesis introduces a map charting a design career from grade school to a seasoned professional. The “Design Journey Map” contains four color-coded passages that are overlapped with career competency components that simultaneously cultivate soft skills together with the hard skills youth learn along the journey to a design career. The intent of this research is to inform and empower future African American and Latino youth, their parents and other educational stakeholders, about the journey to obtain a design-related career. The objective of this study is to analyze the design journeys of current African American and Latino designers and learn what influenced their career paths. This research is important because it shows the journey to become a designer and provides principles of the solution for closing the diversity gap in the design industry.

Como valer-se do arcabouço teórico-metodológico da Semiótica de Greimas na prática projetual do Design? Partimos da hipótese de que uma maior consciência das relações entre expressão e conteúdo e, em especial, da relação de semi-simbolismo promove uma tomada de decisões com mais intencionalidade e clareza na prática projetual. Propusemos uma prática pedagógica em que grupos de alunos foram apresentados à teoria semiótica e desenvolveram análises escritas de manifestações diversas; em seguida, produziram um pôster impresso que traduz na visualidade os valores fundamentais da manifestação analisada. Os resultados apontam a possibilidade de valer-se da abordagem semiótica como fundamento na própria etapa de conceituação dos projetos.

Referência: BOGO, Marc Barreto. O semi-simbolismo no ensino de design: projetos de pôsteres. In: Anais do X Seminário Leitura de Imagens para a Educação: múltiplas mídias. Florianópolis: Fundação Cultural BADESC, 2017, p. 19-30.

Researching the contribution of women designers to Australia's Graphic Design industry, the author of this article PhD candidate Jane Connory discovered that despite women comprising more that 50% of GD graduates since the 1970s, only one woman, Dahl Collings, was included in the AGDA Hall of Fame. Little is known about women designers in the Australian graphic design industry but this article aims to discover more about their presence. Through exploring the invisibility and visibility of women in graphic design since the 1970s, I have encountered many raised eye brows and stern statements along the lines of " why bother, we already know the answers " and " I don't care who the designers are, as long as they're making good design ". However, the absence of empirical and published data has become one of the most revealing parts of this project. Women have consistently comprised over 50 per cent of graphic design graduates since the 1970s and the Australian Graphic Design Association's (AGDA) hall of fame has, until recently, included only one woman, Dahl Collings (1909-1988), with the inclusion of Alison Forbes (1933-) later in 2016. This, despite women working in different positions within studios and in different areas of the industry ranging from design studios to advertising agencies, publishing houses and freelancing careers and still others establishing successful businesses. The task of this research is to question and gain insight as to why women in graphic design have been rendered invisible for so long.

Cieľom publikácie bolo vytvoriť praktický nástroj pre študentov produktového dizajnu. Prvá časť publikácie je venovaná téme dizajnérskeho vzdelávania a jej cieľom je priblížiť základný kontext spojený s dizajnérskym školstvom, objasniť používaný slovník a kontext, z ktorého vychádzajú metódy dizajnérskeho výskumu a príklady použité v druhej, praktickej časti nazvanej „Nástroje a príklady“. Druhá časť opisuje nástroje pre úvodnú fázu projektového plánovania a následne fázu analýzy skúmaného problému. Zameriava sa na praktický opis jednotlivých nástrojov, metód na objasnenie základných pravidiel a možností ich využitia. Nie všetko, čo funguje v praxi, je rovnakým spôsobom využiteľné počas štúdia a naopak. Cieľom publikácie je vysvetliť výhody a nevýhody jednotlivých nástrojov a priblížiť vhodný kontext ich použitia v študentských projektoch. Publikácia prináša autentické praktické ukážky dizajnérskeho výskumu na príklade projektov študentov FAD STU v Bratislave.

ISBN 978-80-227-5105-6

Critical design has been philosophically positioned as that which opposes the affirmative role of design as the status quo, offering itself as social critique located in the formalised spaces of museums and galleries. This paper contests that reasoning by firstly showing that in the contemporary sphere, criticality in design now resides in a more socially aware and humanistically engaged space. Design propositions can be expressed from the perspective of modes of enquiry that ask both What if? and How else? questions in the vein of Malpass and Slotnick. These then propose alternative ways of considering design not as a way of seeking answers but as a way of asking questions. Furthermore, participatory engagement and an understanding of the importance of community involvement in generating solutions have become normalised. This paper addresses this shift in thinking around the role of critical design, questioning how this may be addressed in design education such that it challenges affirmative design and foregrounds social awareness.

This paper considers the discrepancies in the visual literacy of students prior to entering spatial design education at a public higher-educational institution. Because the school subjects Visual Arts and Engineering Graphics and Design provide feeder skills to visual literacy, students with exposure to these subjects tend to have higher visual literacy than
students who are unlikely to have received exposure to these subjects. This is problematic because Visual Arts and Engineering Graphics and Design are not on offer in all public South African schools.
As educators from a public higher-educational institution endeavouring to provide equitable learning opportunities, how do we, through spatial design education, relate to first-year students with an awareness of differences in student ’readiness’ impacted by schooling opportunities? What role can spatial design exercises play in alleviating these discrepancies while engaging all students in the first-year studio?
This paper focuses on first-year spatial design students and the design exercises In your Hands and Self-Portrait. These introductory design briefs focus on the development of students’ three-dimensional spatial design skills with awareness of the impact of students’ school subjects on studio outputs. In your Hands requires the creation of a support with wire for stone using stone, wire and pliers. Thereafter follows a group discussion, reflection and iteration. Self-Portrait requires the creation of a three-dimensional self-portrait of the inner and outer being using wire and thereafter, a projected shadow drawing of the portrait using light while drawing with graphite on paper. A selection of projects conducted by first-year spatial design students of architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture in 2017 at the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria has been documented. With the focus of spatial design education in the first-year studio being on the development of three-dimensional design skills, differences in students’ schooling backgrounds played a reduced role in impacting project outcomes. The introduction of alternative media, stone and wire, to which most students had limited exposure, provides an even playing field. Communalism as a means of learning together was explored through group discussion and iteration of the exercise, providing students an opportunity for self-review and improvement in their approach. Self-Portrait allows a reflection of self-understanding in a threedimensional format. The shadow projection reinforce the role of two-dimensional drawings as representational of three-dimensional spatial products as a key skill to spatial design practice which redefines the two-dimensional drawing from being an artistic output to becoming a representational image. The two exercises provide a relevant discussion as introductory exercises focusing on skills development in the spatial design fields through the three-dimensional. This approach allows a fairer learning opportunity for students regardless of their school subjects, which could have enhanced their skills in visual literacy. This is a worthwhile case study for spatial design educators in the context of the call for decolonised education.