Visual Communication Design

In organizing and coordinating an academic event, even at the modest scale of the 2012 Balkan Locus-Focus (BLF), one has the unique opportunity to listen to the present-day academic pulse closely, and oversee meaningful details that are usually hidden or out of sight to the public. Reporting from a privileged insider’s position, this text recounts selected moments in the making of the BLF as a way to bring to the fore issues concerning the discipline of Visual Communication Design (VCD) and the region in focus (the Balkans).

This paper reports from my experience as a graphic designer in co-designing tactile graphics for and with visually impaired people (vip) for making a museum exhibition accessible to this special audience. The presentation takes up as a case study the Accessibility Programme developed for the temporary exhibition ‘The Pre-Columbian Art at the Benaki Museum’ in Athens, Greece, in 2009. The User contribution comprised the development and production of tactile materials: graphics, maps, Braille catalogue, and collection-inspired pottery, which were displayed at the exhibition space.

University of Economics (Turkey), and teaches practice and theory in the area of visual communication design. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design and holds an MA and a PhD in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art. Her latest academic activities include the co-ordination of the Balkan Locus-Focus Symposium (2012, Izmir) and the co-organization of the "Crisis is a Greek Word" exhibition and the "Greek Crisis and Design" colloquium (2013, Izmir). marinaemmanouil.wordpress.com.

Design and creativity have been a considerable force for improving life conditions. A lot of effort has been invested in explaining the design process and creativity mainly through the design thinking methodology, but design accountability and responsible actions in the design process are, yet, to be fully explored. The concept of design ethics is now increasingly scrutinized on both the level of business organization and of the individual designer. A 4-day design workshop that involved creativity techniques provided the base to explore responsibility in the fuzzy front end of the design process. The future of education in 2030 was defined as the workshop's theme and fifty-six students from China were asked to create detailed alternative scenarios. A number of imagination exercises, implementation of technological innovations and macro-environment evolutions employed in the workshop are discussed. The aim was to incite moral and responsible actions among students less familiar w...

Design and creativity have been a considerable force for improving life conditions. A lot of effort has been invested in explaining the design process and creativity mainly through the design thinking methodology, but design accountability and responsible actions in the design process are, yet, to be fully explored. The concept of design ethics is now increasingly scrutinized on both the level of business organization and of the individual designer. A 4-day design workshop that involved creativity techniques provided the base to explore responsibility in the fuzzy front end of the design process. The future of education in 2030 was defined as the workshop's theme and fifty-six students from China were asked to create detailed alternative scenarios. A number of imagination exercises, implementation of technological innovations and macro-environment evolutions employed in the workshop are discussed. The aim was to incite moral and responsible actions among students less familiar with creative educational contexts of student-led discovery and collaborative learning. This paper reflects on the use of creativity methods to stimulate anticipation in (non)design students.

Design and creativity have been a considerable force for improving life conditions. A lot of effort has been invested in explaining the design process and creativity mainly through the design thinking methodology, but design accountability and responsible actions in the design process are, yet, to be fully explored. The concept of design ethics is now increasingly scrutinized on both the level of business organization and of the individual designer. A 4-day design workshop that involved creativity techniques provided the base to explore responsibility in the fuzzy front end of the design process. The future of education in 2030 was defined as the workshop's theme and fifty-six students from China were asked to create detailed alternative scenarios. A number of imagination exercises, implementation of technological innovations and macro-environment evolutions employed in the workshop are discussed. The aim was to incite moral and responsible actions among students less familiar w...

In recent years more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics have been incorporated in mainstream public education. Although the benefits of STEM instruction are broadly recognised in secondary school curricula, STEM topics in primary education are rather limited, leaving a gap in manipulative skills building and in preparation processes for the next school level. This paper reflects on the outcomes of a design workshop attended by 12 primary school students (9 to 12 years old) in Belgium. Mycelium, a fungi-based natural material now used in innovative sustainable applications, served as a means to introduce early learners engineering basics through selfmade learning tools. Students grew their own 3-D structures to build a 'Grow-It-Yourself' biodegradable playground using mycelium as a primary source. The paper stems from an in-progress research that investigates the opportunities of how mycelium as a material innovation can be used as a medium to create innovation in primary education through a learning-by-design approach. Reflections on the workshop's instructional guidelines are included along with an extension of the call for support for primary school teachers delivering STEM topics in their classes.

ty’s newly founded (2016) master program in User Experience (UX), employs a curriculum that recognizes the role of design pedagogy and the teaching of creative thinking for innovation. The interactive, practice-oriented and project-based workshop is based on a design process structure, and ultimately, on a design thinking methodology. Futures studies methods and storytelling exercises were carefully selected to enrich the workshop procedure. The future of education was defined as the main topic and students were asked to deliver four detailed and distinguishing scenarios about the education of the future. As a final deliverable, students appointed products or services opportunities for one elaborated future scenario. This paper offers a critical appraisal of the literature on the different directions innovation might take, and outlines how design education can prepare the next generation of designers for the upcoming challenges in both life and practice. It aims to illustrate how ex...

"Multi-perspectivism as a philosophy of education" has a predominant role in the mission statement of Ghent University [1]. It opens up a path towards a critical and active participation into the society of today and the future. Within the framework of multi-perspectivism, a novel course has on "Co-creation" been setup that is offered as an elective course in all educational programs of the university [2]. The course focuses on methods for creativity, transdisciplinary research, entrepreneurship, communication and collaboration, system thinking and design. The leading lecturers are members of the department of "Industrial Systems and Product Design" of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. Students, researchers and lecturers from different faculties are actively participating in a transdisciplinary project to solve a real societal need. Each project brings all involved stakeholders-experts from different specialisms, designers and end-users-together in an iterative collaborative change process (using co-creation methods). Prototyping real-life experiences in a living space plays a central role as integration and communication method throughout the development cycle. During every iteration, a co-experience is obtained by all involved stakeholders through direct interaction with the prototype in a real "make" or "use" context. These interactions gradually reveal affordances and disturbances by iterative adaptations. This particular education method is illustrated by ongoing student project cases in the domain of health-care and societal problems. An overview will be given on how to identify and setup projects, how students perform these projects, and on how the obtained knowledge and results are valuated and transferred back to society.

As in other countries across Europe, Greece's postwar reconstruction was directed toward rebuilding and reshaping the war-torn nation. 1 The country's desperate call for international help was transmitted immediately after the end of the occupation in late 1944 via radio broadcasting, as well as through graphic means, such as charts, maps, and diagrams. These graphic forms were presented at several fairs and events in 1945 in key cities around the world (see Figure 1), 2 and they were compiled a year later to form an ISOTYPE-inspired album (see Figure 2). 3 In its volume, production quality, and graphic style, the war album was a testimony to two important accomplishments in the history of graphic design in Greece: First, it signaled awareness and appropriation of an international modern language to participate on equal terms and in common ways in the international forum of postwar reconstruction; 4 and second, it served as acknowledgment by the Greek state of the economic and political role of graphic design in international communication.

This paper reports on a study currently conducted in the scope of an Erasmus+ KA2 project on the subject of co-creation in design education. A case study was carried out on a third-year bachelor design engineering course ("Co-creation") at which 48 students from different study disciplines, levels and countries worked together in groups to tackle societal challenges. This research aims to gain insights into students' experiences and problems with regard to taking part in a multidisciplinary co-creation process by scrutinising student's self-and peer-assessment reports. Findings refer to the essentials and challenges of multidisciplinary co-creation processes from a student perspective. In particular, soft skills were highlighted as fundamental skills while working with peers. Moreover, challenges in collaboration, specifically, in a remote learning environment during the COVID-19 pandemic, were noted. Recommendations were provided for design educators to ameliorate the multidisciplinary co-creation and learning environment in order to sufficiently prepare students for Industry 4.0.

With the new industries on the horizon, where design engineers will become facilitators of innovation that need to keep up with an array of new technologies, it is essential that our students are equipped with skills in line with this new role. From literature describing emerging paradigms (Skills for Industry 4.0, and 21 st century skills) it becomes clear that students need lifelong learning skills, which have been linked to reflective thinking and learning during critique. However, at our university we noticed that students needed to be assisted in this. Students seem unable to translate the discussion points during critique sessions to design actions or challenge teachers' feedback with counter arguments. Therefore, it is important to establish clear goals and consistency of actions between teachers. This paper will report on the development of such goals through a critique workshop with lecturers and focus groups with students. The outcome of the development is a template with responsibilities for both the feedback-giver (lecturer) and recipient (student). These responsibilities are categorized in actions before, during, and after the critique is given in an effort to trigger reflection at various moments. With this template we hope to provide different anchors for both student and lecturer to have insightful critique moments. By sharing our experiences, we wish to inspire other design engineering lecturer teams to try to come to their own shared understanding of what critique should entail and how responsibilities between lecturers and students are divided.

Fragile Innovation is a brave first step in the study of design history in Greece. Yagou, a Greek design historian and lecturer at VU University Amsterdam, is addressing the relatively unexplored periphery of Southeastern European design history. Drawing on carefully selected secondary and primary sources (often rare or ill-archived), this ambitious new publication becomes a valuable companion for the intended audience of students, researchers and scholars of (design) history. Written in a simple, clear and concise language, it offers an engaging interweaving of Greek historical phenomena with the peculiarities of the emergence of local design from its 'pre-history' in the mid-19 th century to the present day.