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Studio Art: 2-D Design Course Perspective
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by Ken Daley
Professor of Art
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia
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| | Please note: The official College Board® Course Description is available below in "More."
Houston, we have a problem!
Anyone familiar with the saga of the Apollo 13 mission recognizes these words and the tense, thrilling return to Earth of the astronauts in their crippled spacecraft. It took years of sophisticated design planning for the Apollo 13 astronauts to reach the Moon. But it also took the improvisational genius of the ground control experts to quickly design a life-support system -- one that the crew could assemble from miscellaneous objects at hand -- to get them safely home.
Be it methodical or "eureka!" in nature, design is a cognitive process. It requires thinking, it requires analysis, and above all it requires perception. How does one teach design? Methods are very diverse, but at a basic level it involves demonstrating to students the manipulation of the elements of form in meaningful, purposeful ways. It also involves making the student aware of the design process in history and in the natural world, and of its many applications in human productivity. In the professional world the word "design" is linked to numerous applications: architectural, product, package, industrial, interior, fashion, lighting, furniture, graphic -- these are some of the most common we encounter. However, students must learn that the elements of form are present in any visual expression -- that it is by a design sensibility used to compose these elements that we measure the success or failure of an artwork or product.
Just about all university and academy art programs introduce the student to the arts through a foundation core. These core courses invite the student to explore the fundamental principles of drawing, of color theory and interaction, and of two- and three-dimensional design. A primary objective is to build a useful vocabulary of the formal elements with which we design: line, shape, space, color, light, value, texture, proportion, symmetry, balance, module, pattern, size, scale, mass, density, motion, rhythm, etc. A student is expected to gain an understanding of the relevance of these elements to visual thinking; the student must recognize that these elements comprise the compositions that articulate content in any medium. Since teaching methodologies for these courses are diverse, I would suggest that AP teachers write to various collegiate art departments to collect design course syllabi. Some faculty put their syllabi online. Many art schools have foundation program directors who can furnish samples of course projects and syllabi.
To be well informed, a student should also be taught that design takes on major cultural and political significance. Important philosophies in the modern history of design, such as the Arts and Crafts movement, de Stijl, the influence of the Russian VHUTEMAS and the German Bauhaus, should be considered, and their sources examined. I recently read a news article in which J Mays, the design director for the Ford Motor Corporation, was quoted as saying, "I don't think Americans are interested in design." At the same time he emphasized the importance of a hundred or more design features about a new SUV, beginning with the design of the ignition key, that were meant to send desirable "design messages" to the consumer. What J Mays indicated with his comments was that design in American culture primarily reflects the marketplace; it emphasizes exterior features and decoration -- design function is less important than design image.
Critical questions concerning design quality should be addressed in the classroom. Well-designed works or products invite discovery, interpretation, and understanding; they contain tangible clues to their meaning or function. Poor design leads to visual pollution, to works or products that are confusing and which invite frustration or error. Albert Einstein marveled that our universe is so comprehensible, and that humans are designed in such a way as to make sense of the world. In addition to the work produced at the drawing board, on the computer monitor, or at the easel, I think it is very important that students in design classes understand this global connection. Indeed, as artists and physicists, writers and engineers, musicians and technologists (and any number of other professions), we are designing ourselves into the future. On their way to the future our students will be confronted with many problems in a reshaped world that will demand their ingenious design solutions.
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