Education

Steven Kroeter|Essays

Design Thinking, Muddled Thinking

One of the most agonizing experiences of my professional career was the annual marketing plans process at the large consumer package goods company where I started in brand management. Each year the brand managers wrote (exhaustingly, …

Andrew Blauvelt|Unusual Suspects

Modernism in the Fly-Over Zone

The story of Peter Seitz provides one example, and we can rest assured that there are many more stories just like his in cities across the country — modernism in the fly-over zone, if you will — which add a critical human …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Type Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

About a year ago, I participated in a student portfolio review involving nearly a dozen American schools, many (most?) exhibiting the classic projects that characterize all undergraduate design programs — the color studies, the …

Nichelle Narcisi|Essays

Except You

Command X was supposed to serve as comic relief at the AIGA's Next Conference last month in Denver. Seven young designers from around the country were chosen to compete in a real-time design competition, taking on a series of assignments …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Science and Design: The Next Wave

Michael Bierut|Essays

May I Show You My Portfolio?

My art school portfolio has sat in a box, largely untouched, in the closets and basements of the three places I've lived in the last 27 years, sort of like a slowly decaying design time capsule. A few weeks ago, I opened it up for the …

Meredith Davis|Essays

The Cult of ASAP

I belong to an AIGA Education online discussion group. It's a place where those of us involved with teaching design can ask questions and share answers about things like assignments, reading lists and accreditation. There have been some …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Back To School

It is la rentrée, back-to-school time around much of the world this month, which involves a host of September activities — not least of which involves the selection of courses. Though generally considered a college ritual, our …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Back to School

It is la rentrée, back-to-school time around much of the world this month, which involves a host of September activities — not least of which involves the selection of courses. Though generally considered a college ritual, our …

Steven Heller|Essays

Leon Friend: One Teacher, Many Apostles

Leon Friend. Photo by Alex Rosenberg, 1969.Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, is not as famous as the Bauhaus, ULM or Cranbrook — nor is it even especially well known among most New Yorkers, despite the appearance of …

Steven Heller|Essays

Silas H. Rhodes, Founder of SVA

Silas H. Rhodes, chairman of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, died last Thursday at 91. He was a progressive educator who established a uniquely collaborative learning environment that delicately balanced creative independence …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Alice Twemlow

British-born Alice Twemlow is a design critic and the author of What Is Graphic Design For? She also chairs the Design Criticism department at the School of Visual Arts in New York.