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Posted by Allan Chochinov | 25 Apr 2007
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Peter Hall's got a great piece in Metropolis on the crisis facing product design schools right now, summed up in the subtitle: "Design schools need to shift focus from the form of objects to understanding the systems that produce them." Here's a taste:
It seems to me that there are at least three responses from design schools to the current crisis: position product design as a business(week)-friendly, innovation-focused process (IIT and Stanford); focus on research rather than form making and align it with other humanities disciplines (Hunt); or take the art-school route epitomized by the Royal College of Art, in London, and Cranbrook Academy of Art, which have reputations for critical thinking and producing sexy imagery of objects--often more hypothetical than manufacturable.
Read entire article.
Thanks Jason!
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About time. I'm thinking about going back to school for id, and frankly, the field looks to be in a shambles. I look at portfolios and it's 99% regurgitated souless crap. A bit of production knowledge and some critical thinking would do the field good.
Design schools should teach at least some of each of those routes. How much of each is where the distinction is made. The value designers bring is thinking about products in a way that other disciplines do not. This comes from researching the problem, and applying an Art perspective, an engineering perspective, a marketing perspective, and an ergonomics perspective, or at least being sensitive to those perspectives, and without expecting the designer to be an expert on all those things. There are a variety of types of problems, and thus a variety of approaches. It would be dangerous to think there is a one size fits all approach to the best way to train designers. One way to do this is by working through a variety of projects, and not simply focusing on "skills" throughout a 4 year program. Being sensitive to a variety of other disciplines creates a synthesis- and when the stars align properly, the end result is a sexy, innovative product that sells like crazy.
Why depend on the stars? Because often, a great problem solution by a designer is not given the backing by the people with the money to make it happen.