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Icograda Design Education Manifesto (2011)

Issued by
Icograda, International Council of Graphic Design Associations, later the International Council of Design (ico-D); presented at the Icograda General Assembly, Taipei
Adopted
2011
Type
professional declaration
Category
design-architecture
Scope
universal
A compartmented case of metal type with a composing stick holding upside-down text
Willi Heidelbach, via Wikimedia Commons
Presented at the Icograda General Assembly in Taipei in 2011, this is the second edition of a manifesto first issued in Seoul in 2000 by what is now the International Council of Design. It defines communication design as an intellectual, creative, strategic, managerial and technical activity, sets out eleven statements about what a communication designer is and does, and nine about what design education should become. Its ethical clauses are explicit: designers apply ethics to avoid harm and account for the consequences of design action on individuals, communities and the environment, and design education should imbue in students a personal sense of responsibility for the environmental and social impact of their practice.
Icograda, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations, issued its first Design Education Manifesto in Seoul in 2000 under the leadership of Professor Ahn Sang-Soo. Eleven years later, at its General Assembly in Taipei, it issued a second edition. The organisation has since renamed itself the International Council of Design. The manifesto is published in the six official languages of the United Nations, each version translated and designed by a different teacher and student team, a choice that matches the document's own subject. It is organised in four parts. The first defines communication design as an intellectual, creative, strategic, managerial and technical activity that essentially involves the production of visual solutions to communication problems, and notes that the boundaries between design disciplines have become fluid through shared digital tools, so that communication designers must redefine their role for a media context dominated by many-to-many conversation. A footnote handles the naming question with more care than it is usually given: the term graphic design has evolved into a plural state of being with many names, and the term the 2007 Icograda General Assembly in Havana identified as most appropriate is communication design. The second part surveys what changed in the preceding decade: emerging technologies broadening communication to include intersensory expression, direct dialogue with end users creating openings for authorship and invention, copyright and creative commons entering the designer's working vocabulary, and a dire need for a more advanced ecological balance between human beings and their natural environments. The third and fourth parts are the substance. Eleven numbered statements describe the communication designer as professional and global citizen. Several are professional scope, but four are ethical positions: the designer uses an inclusive approach that emphasises difference and respects human, environmental and cultural diversity; applies ethics to avoid harm and accounts for the consequences of design action on individuals, communities and the environment; advocates for the betterment of humanity and the environment either bottom-up through design-it-yourself and design-it-with-others facilitation or top-down through policy; and holds a disciplinary focus while bringing it to collaborations with anthropologists, programmers, scientists, engineers and architects. Nine further statements say what design education should do, including a striking one about power in the studio: education should evolve from teacher-generated projects to more participatory problem definition, enabling students to democratically address their own concerns and ways of learning. The role of the educator, the manifesto says, shifts from knowledge provider to mediator. It closes on a formulation that carries the whole document: a new conception of design aims to rebalance nature, humanity and technology, and to harmonise east and west, north and south, as well as past, present and future into a dynamic equilibrium. It is not law, not an accreditation standard, and no school is obliged to follow it. It is one profession's statement about how it wants its successors taught. Two corrections belong on this record because earlier project notes carried different figures. The manifesto is dated 2011, not 2010, and it is published in six languages, not seventeen. Its claim about the naming of the field is also narrower than it has sometimes been reported: the document says only that Icograda's own 2007 General Assembly identified communication design as the most appropriate term, not that the field worldwide adopted it.

What it says, article by article

  • Communication design

    Communication design is an intellectual, creative, strategic, managerial and technical activity that essentially involves the production of visual solutions to communication problems.

  • Communication design

    The boundaries between design disciplines have become more fluid through shared digital tools and knowledge, so communication designers need to redefine their role for a media context dominated by a many-to-many conversation mode.

  • Footnote on naming

    The term graphic design has evolved into a plural state with many names, and the term identified as most appropriate by the 2007 Icograda General Assembly in Havana is communication design.

  • Change: opportunities and challenges

    Emerging technologies have broadened how designers communicate to include intersensory expression across visual, aural, somatosensory, gustatory and olfactory components, and multi-platform content delivery is now the norm.

  • Change: opportunities and challenges

    There is a dire need for a more advanced ecological balance between human beings and their natural environments, which has brought about the need for more sustainable design materials, methods and outcomes.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 3

    A communication designer contributes to shaping life and the visual landscape of commerce and culture towards a peaceful balance.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 5

    A communication designer identifies and frames problems and solves them collaboratively, exploring possibilities through critical thinking, creativity, experimentation and evaluation.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 7

    A communication designer uses an inclusive approach that emphasises difference, respects human, environmental and cultural diversity, and strives to achieve common ground.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 8

    A communication designer applies ethics to avoid harm and takes into account the consequences of design action on individuals, communities and the environment.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 9

    A communication designer advocates for the betterment of humanity and the environment either bottom-up, through design-it-yourself and design-it-with-others facilitation and technology appropriation, or top-down through policy.

  • The designer as professional and global citizen, point 11

    A communication designer holds a disciplinary focus and brings that expertise to interdisciplinary collaborations with anthropologists, software programmers, scientists, engineers, architects and other experts.

  • The future of design education, point 1

    Design education should instill a compassionate and critical mentality and nurture a self-reflective attitude and the ability to adapt and evolve through innovative learning tools and methods.

  • The future of design education, point 2

    Design education should include the dimensions of image, text, context, space, movement, time, sound and interaction.

  • The future of design education, point 7

    Design education should evolve from teacher-generated projects to more participatory problem definition, enabling students to democratically address their own concerns and ways of learning through student-initiated projects.

  • The future of design education, point 8

    Through outreach programmes design education should diversify the profession and create opportunities for under-represented voices to be heard, and should provide continued learning programmes for practising professionals.

  • The future of design education, point 9

    Design education should imbue in students a sense of personal responsibility for the environmental and social impact of their practice.

  • The future of design education, closing

    The role of the design educator shifts from knowledge provider to mediator who inspires and facilitates orientation for a more substantial practice.

  • Closing

    A new conception of design aims to rebalance nature, humanity and technology and to harmonise east and west, north and south, and past, present and future into a dynamic equilibrium, continuing in the spirit of Oullim, the great harmony, from the first edition.

More information

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