Design, Culture, and Language

Karen White, Associate Professor in Visual Communication | University of Arizona
John Bowers, Associate Professor in Graphic Design and New Media | Oregon State University

Introduction

          Margaret Haughey, editor of the Journal of Distance Education, writes,
          “Learning itself cannot be designed. It can only be designed for through
          [sic] the design of learning environments that…incorporate [learners’]
          experiences, demand practice, follow their growing understanding, and
          provide feedback.” 1

Design education has too often focused on design as an activity of object making apart from the
communities and disciplines that shape it and from the culture it creates. In a broad and critical
sense, design examines issues, methodologies, strategies, and theories in its relationship to
community and culture. Shaping experiences that place design in a cultural context is critical to
creating meaningful forms and messages and to understanding the many layers of visual and
verbal information. We live in a complex and expanding visual culture, and design education must
critically embrace new technology and holistic approaches that reflect and anticipate change.

This paper discusses the shaping of design education as a participant in the development of
visual culture and as an activity connecting a breadth of disciplines. The virtual communities of
the Internet provide a model and an opportunity for the development of new types of communities
and distance-learning teaching methods. Web communities in the form of Web logs (blogs),
asynchronous chat rooms, and synchronous threaded discussions have given voice to the
marginalized and have created shared experiences—a phenomenon of importance to graphic
design education.

Our research is based on a collaborative project between the University of Arizona and Oregon
State University to develop a new online general education course called Design: Culture and
Language.

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