Teaching Philosophy
When I first began teaching at JUST College of Architecture and Design in 2013, Design and Visual Communication was a year-old department and a degree program with about 40 students. Today, more than 250 students are enrolled in the program, and there are 200 alumni with bachelor’s degrees working in the fields of visual design, entrepreneurship, multimedia design, gaming, marketing, advertising, and education. Just as learning to walk involves more than just footwork, so too is teaching more than the mere accumulation and dissemination of knowledge.
In my time at JUST, I have taught 10 different courses. I had a hand in crafting the rest of the courses on offer, and I have adapted to the many changes in the curriculum. The way I was taught design at undergraduate level is totally different from the way design should be taught today. Design is a discipline that keeps on redefining itself, while an understanding of design and its impact on businesses and society is becoming widespread. Students of design must realize the power they can bring to the table through design.
For most of the 20th century, design education encouraged and popularized the idea that the role of design is giving form to content. At the same time, businesses and systems were static. The relationship between businesses and designers was that businesses made money and designers helped sell things. Now, at the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new socio-technical and economic landscape is taking over. Similarly, in recent years, a paradigm shift in the practice of design has occurred. Marketing, design, and the business environment are evolving, and the role of the designer is currently dramatically different from what it was during the days of Mad Men. Therefore, I believe it is essential to approach design education holistically and similarly shift the role of the designer from that of a visual form-giver who seeks individual expression and differentiation to that of an enabler who designs flexible systems on the basis of complex technologies that can be controlled by and adapted to user needs. I design my courses to support the integration of technology, business, innovation, and design.
The design profession that my students will join looks very different from the design profession I entered when I was their age. The designs I produce now have little connection to those I made when I was younger. The field will continue to change. Thus, I see my role as a professor as not simply providing professional training, but as preparing students for an ever-changing, ever-growing field and giving them the tools they need to change, grow, and adapt with the field. I believe that every generation of designers carries on its shoulders the task of redefining what design is. I try to help my students push the field forward by continually challenging conventions and finding new ways of practice. I now view my role as a teacher as designing a set of rich and meaningful experiences that students can look back on for knowledge, inspiration, and character development.
I see design as an optimistic discipline. I try to prepare the designers of the future to believe in a better world and the possibility of change, and to believe that design can play a central role in shaping a new and better world. What becomes evident in students’ work is that we will be seeing prototypes that could be developed either by the students themselves or by someone else. Ultimately, students will contemplate design as a rational response to human needs and an aspiration for a better world. This also enables students to acquire critical thinking skills and apply them in their designs while improving their character as professional designers. Critical thinking allows students to ask better questions, and, as we all know, better questions open up new possibilities and new perspectives. It allows students to take a thematic approach in developing their design solutions. Some of the questions that students may ask include “How do we (re)materialize culture?,” “How do we (re)design who we are?,” “How is reality formed by narratives?,” “How do communication tools (re)solve problems?,” “Is technology leading us to a utopia or a dystopia?,” “Should design impose order or chaos?,” “How do we find a voice in a commercial world?,” and “What is wrong with design/society?” These questions will help students to develop and transform their design solutions more effectively.
The goal of education, then, is not always to create products or award-winning projects that are portfolio-ready. The classroom should be a laboratory; a place for free experimentation in which students can try new methods and modes of thinking and push themselves creatively, formally, and intellectually. Failure is encouraged in the service of experimentation. It is up to each of us, individually and collectively, to figure out what works and what doesn't, what makes good design and bad design, and what it is we are trying to say and do. I encourage my students not to find their own style, but rather to hone their own voice. Who are they as designers? What are they trying to say? What is their role in society?
In both theoretical and studio classes, I teach a wide variety of subjects. My goal is to break down the divide between thinking and making, theory and practice, regardless of the level and type of class. In most design education programs, classes are divided between studio classes (where the work is done) and lecture/seminar classes (where history, theory, and criticism are taught). This separation can create a false division in the students’ minds, as if one doesn’t affect the other. I bring elements of both theory and practice into all of my classes. I include theoretical lectures and discussions in studio classes and assign readings, and I encourage students to reflect on their own work through discussion, writing, making, and critical thinking about the profession, its process, and its instruments. In lecture/seminar classes, I ask students to link the theories discussed to contemporary work and their own processes.
In my classes, I require unfiltered imagination and an atmosphere of mutual respect and acceptance, which eventually leads to self-awareness and personal development. My expectations of students are high. I believe that in the classroom, passionate educators create positive energy. As an active participant in the design field, I remain relevant and credible to my students, and I am able to lead discussions about the current situation in art and design. Ultimately, my goal is to introduce students to the vast influence of the design industry, to expose them to innovative approaches and strategies, and to prepare them to meet technical design problems and opportunities with confidence in the future.