Abstract
To meet the challenges of our age, designers must deal with change, complexity, and contingency — key aspects of historical thinking. Yet graphic design students have few opportunities to develop these skills in design history. Most undergraduate programs in the United States require design students to study art history, but it is less common for programs to require design history, and some may not even offer courses. The common exception is the design history survey, usually a single semester in which students broadly explore the development of design professions from a perspective that often favors art historical framings and a Eurocentric canon. In this paper, I bring a critical historiography lens to graphic design pedagogy, arguing that teaching historical research methods can support the development of critical practices by inviting students to think historically about design instead of reducing history to a record of aesthetic exemplars. I substantiate this claim with data from the field and a case study, using my own course, “Making History” at Washington University in St. Louis. I propose that when we expose students to the historian’s skillset — examining sources, interpreting evidence, framing arguments, and understanding historiographical issues — they learn to interrogate inherited narratives, connect design to social worlds, and find the content that most resonates with their interests.
Presenters
Aggie ToppinsAssociate Professor and Chair, Design, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Graphic Design, Design Methodology, Design Thinking, Design History, Design Historiography
