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Design Research Society DRS Digital Library DRS Biennial Conference Series DRS2018 - Catalyst Jun 25th, 12:00 AM Challenges in Barbadian Design Education – When Graphic Design & Product Development Collide Shelly Mayers Barbados Community College Follow this and additional works at: https://dl.designresearchsociety.org/drs-conference-papers Citation Mayers, S. (2018) Challenges in Barbadian Design Education – When Graphic Design & Product Development Collide, in Storni, C., Leahy, K., McMahon, M., Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Design as a catalyst for change - DRS International Conference 2018, 25-28 June, Limerick, Ireland. https://doi.org/ 10.21606/drs.2018.333 This Research Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Conference Proceedings at DRS Digital Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in DRS Biennial Conference Series by an authorized administrator of DRS Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Challenges in Barbadian Design Education – When Graphic Design & Product Development Collide MAYERS Shelly Barbados Community College [email protected] doi: 10.21606/drs.2018.333 The Barbados Community College’s BFA Programme in Graphic Design has been in existence for over 20 years. The year 2009 marked a shift in design application, with pockets of students using graphic design as a catalyst to develop products that are potentially marketable. The current economic climate has made it harder for students to be employed in agencies and studios. One would anticipate that they would follow through in creating new spaces for themselves as designers, i.e. developing products as viable sources of income in a struggling economy, but sadly most do not. Through an exploration of case studies ranging from plush anthropomorphic toy letters, and interactive Caribbean storytelling, there must be some revelation on how best to harness this talent. How should the bridge be built for further training so that the product enters the commercial market? Are there socio-economic and psychological factors, which create this gap in idea to enterprise? The aim of the paper is to investigate why graduates are not pursuing self-initiated projects as profitable business ventures, and to offer viable solutions for how this can be achieved. product development, graphic design, Caribbean culture, education 1 Introduction Barbados is an independent British Commonwealth nation densely populated with 285,000 inhabitants within a 166 square mile radius. Land is precious and pricy, and finding employment remains competitive.1 The Barbados Community College (BCC) was formed in 1968 by the Government, as a means of educating and providing employment opportunities for the people of Barbados. Prior to this date, employment by way of the old colonial apprenticeship model offered little scope for growth and financial wealth. Thus, the establishment of the BCC and the BFA degree in Graphic Design, was timely and visionary. The school has exceeded its initial capacity in student enrolment and course offerings therefore leading to challenges in plant capacity. The plant for 1 Umemployment rate in Barbados: 2017-10.2%, 2016-10.2% - www.tradingeconomics.com. Barbados Statistical Service: 2015 – 11.5% - www.barstats.gov.bb This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Graphic Design is small and in turn the student enrolment averages twelve new students per year. This number has recently plummeted with the introduction of tuition fees for all undergraduate programmes. Limited studio space is further compounded by obstacles, such as insufficient equipment, and a budget too small, to meet essential operational needs. Despite these challenges, our students continue to produce at a reasonably high standard. Many students who have graduated have gone on to work in agencies, studios, and as freelance designers, creative directors, art directors and so on. In essence they are gainfully employed, where we typically imagine them to be. Being the only undergraduate programme in Graphic Design has placed the department in a very unique position at the forefront of design in Barbados. As students seek higher learning along with their varied interests, the programme has sought from its inception to tap into the multifaceted talents of those enrolled. Normally in international art institutions degrees are specialist. For instance, programmes such as BA Illustration, BA Film/Video Production are degrees in their own right. Due to the limited space of the entire Division of Fine Arts the school must also be mindful of ‘over offering’ other art degrees, as enrolment will be significantly lower. The programme allows the students to explore what are normally considered specialty areas in the arts, as both modules and singular projects thereby creating a version of the ‘interdisciplinary area of design’. For instance, if a ‘core’ graphic design student is not as capable of creating illustrations, but must complete the task requiring those skills, they can be expected to find ways of resolving this challenge, irrespective of the other students who may have a flair for illustration. Essentially, the student who could pursue a successful career in illustration sits in the same space with the student who does not fully possess the skills to illustrate. Components within the programme include: 1. Creative Writing 2. Illustration 3. Digital Photography 4. Design Management 5. Web Design 6. Video – Film & Script Writing Since the aforementioned subjects are undergraduate disciplines in their own right, to those outside, this approach may seem like a ludicrous consolidation of disciplines, when one considers all the components or arms within the field of Graphic Design. It is this interdisciplinary blend, which allows the students to flex their creative muscles. Barbados still remains a ‘jack of all trades’ culture. The students brief exposure to the full range of disciplines, allows them to better survive as practitioners outside of the college studio setting. The case studies introduced in this paper are a by-product of the Department’s design theory and practices. By-product in this context signifying: the synthesis of graphic design and product development, by a select few. The objective of this paper is to critically look at the forces in play, which may either help or hinder our graduates from getting their products onto a commercialised platform. Although there will be some mention on the application of cultural identity in the work, it is not the driving force of the paper, but provides context for revealing some perspectives on the work. The case studies are introduced with project descriptions and illustrations, followed by a summary of responses gathered from the interviews. The inclusion of some dialogue gives the reader a sense of the process and challenges in the student’s own voices. Moreover, challenges with psyche and the positioning of local entities with regards to support, will be discussed at length, followed by solutions on the best way forward. 2 Methodology Empirical research is integrated with six case study projects that demonstrate recent developments, within the past nine years under the BFA in Graphic Design. A series of twenty- to thirty-minute 596 interviews with five graduates were conducted on their experiences, whilst undertaking their respective projects, along with their thoughts upon finishing the programme. Very little research has been done on the development of Graphic Design in the Eastern Caribbean region, and furthermore, pertaining to a trend such as this one. Therefore, these case studies can contribute to the body of knowledge on design practice in the region. They serve as critical indicators of the heterogeneity of the programme, and highlight both the significance and value from a potential market perspective. One out of the six case studies has achieved success but there must be an analysis of the variables on why this is so. The following questions guided the interviews: Line of Inquiry to Graduates: 1. Describe your project. 2. What was the driving factor that made you create the product in the first place? (Considering the nature of the programme). 3. What were the most challenging areas of the project? 4. You have reflected on your work. What would you have done differently with regards to the product you created? 5. Did you make it a point after graduating, to research if there are any organisations, that could have assisted you with regards to developing, manufacturing and getting your product to market? 6. If approached by a prospective investor, would you sell your product to them? 7. Other details such as residential status and current job title have been recorded. The case studies have been evaluated and pulled together in a summary. 3 Cultural Signposts – The Products Saga clearly indicates how national identities are formed through a series of socio-global phenomenon and diaspora: Several post war events have helped to boost the development of culture nationalism in the region. They are the independence of the Anglophone Caribbean, migration, mass media technologies, the black power movement in the United States and the Cuban Revolution. Race played a more significant role in the formation of national identities in the Anglophone Caribbean than in the Hispanophone islands. (2001, p. 250) As stated in the abstract, we are seeing pockets of students eager to assert indigenous cultural form through Caribbean and Barbadian folklore. Those who seem to demonstrate this interest speak of family who have instilled pride and appreciation of things cultural. Identity is deeply rooted through organic means and its survival is not fully bolstered via post-colonial institutional means. Although this trend has been occurring, a parallel can be seen with some students solving tasks under the proverbial guise of Eurocentrism2. Conditioning still runs very deep. (Figure 1). According to Nettleford: In an ex-colonial society doused in colonial attitudes and mores, old practices of colonial vintage die hard.