Dear fellow designers. I've been a graphic designer for almost 20 years and I recently embarked on the somewhat daunting task of doing a PhD in graphic design. I have a lot of freedom in my work, including full control when it comes to choosing my subject of study for my research. Academic design within our field is in many ways in its infancy so I'm spoilt for choice, which has its pros and cons! I've been looking into different ideas, one was to study the effects of using graphic design in children's art classes to enhance their sense of purpose for the visual arts, another was to study the symbolism of logos (why some logos become more symbolically powerful) but the one I would like your input on is the following:
I started studying graphic design in the mid 90s and ever since I have only worked digitally. I am obviously aware of the analogue history of our profession but I have sometimes wondered how it would affect my work as a designer and university teacher if my own knowledge of the analogue processes was greater. So my idea is to do study my own path backwards from digital to analogue, to become more proficient in a few different analogue processes with the aim of asking: is there a place for analogue design methods in today's education of graphic design students?
What are your thoughts? For me personally I think the whole process would be a blast but the big question is how and what I could contribute with to the graphic design profession.
I started studying graphic design in the mid 90s and ever since I have only worked digitally. I am obviously aware of the analogue history of our profession but I have sometimes wondered how it would affect my work as a designer and university teacher if my own knowledge of the analogue processes was greater. So my idea is to do study my own path backwards from digital to analogue, to become more proficient in a few different analogue processes with the aim of asking: is there a place for analogue design methods in today's education of graphic design students?
What are your thoughts? For me personally I think the whole process would be a blast but the big question is how and what I could contribute with to the graphic design profession.