Copyright reserved © J.Mech.Cont.& Math. Sci., Special Issue-1, March (2019) pp 509-517 Development of design education in Russia: history and contemporary problems 1Anna V. Solovieva, Tatiana S. Semichevskaya, Oleg V. Bik, Elizaveta S. Terekhina 1 Department of Architecture and civil engineering at Peoples’ friendship university of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow, Russia; 2Department of Architecture and civil engineering at RUDN University, Moscow, Russia; 3Department of Architecture and civil engineering at RUDN University, Moscow, Russia; 4Department of Architecture and civil engineering at RUDN University, Moscow, Russia; [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] https://doi.org/10.26782/jmcms.2019.03.00051 Abstract The article discusses particularities of the development of design education in modern Russia. The necessity of interrelation between classical art and design, academic art and engineering education, traditional craft and applied art was identified and represented by variety of opinions of Russian and foreign researchers. It shows the evolution of opinions on the methods of formation a creative vision in the process of professional training of future designers. Article contains a detailed analysis of the history of educational activities and creative concepts of innovative design trends and activities. It shows the specific place and role of art universities, as well as the contribution of individual masters in the development of modern design education. Today in Russia, the graduate preparation of designers is determined by the federal state standard, but the alternative system of design education on the basis of non-state private educational institutions is becoming more competitive. The results of the analysis show that the formation of a creative vision in the process of professional training of future designers implies the multidimensionality and unity of design education. Keywords : design history, design education, russian design, professional competency, professional training I. Introduction It is well known that the context in which we receive information impacts our interpretation of the information, the opinions we form and the decisions we make. 509 Copyright reserved © J.Mech.Cont.& Math. Sci., Special Issue-1, March (2019) pp 509-517 Studying history of the design is a way to add context that will impact understanding of design in a positive way. Studying design history means investigating the way the outstanding designers created their masterpieces, exploring the beautiful path the human mind came through. Learning design experience for higher education is extremely important for not to repeat faults and mistakes that were made before. And studying history of national design also helps to understand better the particularities of your own country and also adds a lot to understanding the global processes in world art and design. II. Development of design education in Russia The word "design" in the international professional vocabulary came into common use in the middle of the XX century. The ambiguity of the term, both abroad and in Russia, is due to the interconnection of several types of activities: art-project activity, engineering design and science. Thus discussing the semantic basis of the phenomenon of design as a kind of culture some specialists see it as an entirely commercial beginning, marking it down as a product of mass art while others using luxury design as a counter-argument, see it as the fundamental basis for "high" art. Regarding it there are different opinions about the nature of design, which in their essence can be reduced into determining the role of design in the life of society: as an exclusively commercial activity aimed at consumer demand; or as a free creativity which contributes a lot in aesthetic formation of the consumer taste. For example, the Soviet and Russian researcher of project creativity and architectural heritage Vyacheslav Glazychev (2006) writes in his famous book "Design as it is" that for John Gloag the only ideal was the development of "the normal good design" and any attempt to impose a new profession with any abstract ethical or aesthetic ideal, which has nothing in common with the market and consumer’s demand, evokes in him a sharp protest against the "intellectual dictatorship". Philip Ashford under the function of design considers always only the consumer function, which is thus unified and indivisible in all the diversity of its components (Glazychev V., 2006). From the philosophical point of view, all these differences are determined by the specific feature of this dual world in which the antagonism between economy and art has always been a problem. There is an interesting argument in the works of Fr. Sergius Bulgakov (Lossky, N., 1991): "If art treats economy scornfully and contemptuously for its calculating utilitarianism and wingless creativity, then the economy patronizes art for its dreamy impotence and involuntary parasitism in the face of economic need." No doubt, in a developed society one cannot exist without the other and in such conditions "the ideal unity between art and economy is achieving through the art of life itself, which transforms the world and creates life in beauty." In this respect, design as the closest to everyday life form of art can and should be one of the directions of professional creative activity "reconciling" both sides of being. 510 Copyright reserved © J.Mech.Cont.& Math. Sci., Special Issue-1, March (2019) pp 509-517 Design as an educational activity starts its history from the era of industrialization, when a serial factory production necessitated a new profession. For the first time the problems of teaching the basics of design were announced during the discussion of the results of the First World Industrial Exhibition held in London in 1851. And specific suggestions on reforming the education system in art schools with the idea of specializing in basic design activities after general introductory courses were given first in the book "Science, Industry and Art" by Gottfried Semper (1970). This teaching methodology was included in program of South Kensington College, opened in 1850s, where students studied museum collections and exhibitions of contemporary art industry, paying great attention to manual assignments of projects in the material. Already by the middle of the 1870s the School of Industrial Art in Helsinki included classical methods of art education - drawing training, geometric constructions on the plane and in space, as well as mastering various techniques while working with wood, metal and textiles. Today design is represented by integration of project-design and artistic activity, existing simultaneously in the field of art and technology, synergizing the natural, technical, humanitarian knowledge, engineering and artistic thinking, and aimed at shaping the architectural and design environment in all spheres of life. As a consequence, a new professional activity was established, based on indissolubly intertwining concepts - technology and aesthetics, and its main practical task is the creation of an objective environment that harmoniously combines both spiritual and utilitarian needs of the life of society. But such a broad interpretation presents ambiguous and contradictory requirements for the training of specialists in the field of design, whose professional qualifications are closely related to the level of aesthetic perception and rethinking of the environment. In this regard, various approaches and directions in design education have evolved into various world schools that have their own concepts. In Russia the historical path and other factors determined the prerequisites for the formation of its own school which has its own characteristics. A distinctive feature of it is a close relationship with classical art, academic art education, engineering and traditional arts and crafts. As we know from the history of Russia, the beginning of art education was due to the opening of the Academy of Arts in 1757 in St. Petersburg. In 1764, the Empress Catherine the Great approves the charter and staff of the Academy, which receives the status of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Founding the Academy, Catherine II collected there the children of noble families, and she personally supervised their upbringing. The special character of the upbringing at the Academy of Fine Arts deserves some serious attention. Complete freedom, moral mood and practical way of teaching without any violence constituted the extraordinary strength of this institution. Children, who were still supervised by nannies, constantly heard French, German and Italian languages and effortlessly learned them. This subsequently gave them the opportunity to get acquainted with the scientific literature of the then-scholarly world. Children were taught to music, there were choirs and their own orchestra. Drawing was also a mandatory subject for everyone. There they knew not only how to 511 Copyright reserved © J.Mech.Cont.& Math. Sci., Special Issue-1, March (2019) pp 509-517 compose and sculpture a monument, but also how to cast it in bronze. The technical side was next to the formal and aesthetic. Not only art, but also crafts, such as: blacksmith, carpentry, woodwork, etc. were practically studied by the aesthetically developed students of the Academy. From which it follows that the engineering and technical side (necessary for the implementation of the idea) was given no less importance.