AIGA Design Conference Las Vegas

The Design Educators Steering Committee facilitated a select design education program during the AIGA Design Conference “by educators, for educators.”  The sessions were comprised of PechaKuchas presentations with additional workshops or lectures devoted to two of the PechaKucha topics.

Denielle Emans  and I were invited as one of ten PechaKucha speakers and one of two workshops proposals selected to present at the AIGA Conference. The PechaKucha talk introduced the audience to our Design Powers System developed and implemented in graphic design undergraduate classroom collaborations.

An increasing number of publications underscore the importance of collaboration as part of a new paradigm within corporate, organizational, and institutional contexts. This research explores the tendency for design students, as well as educators and practitioners, to identify with specific competencies and design roles. Building on the idea of the integrated whole and the Myers-Briggs Type indicator, a preliminary model for team-based collaboration was developed for an undergraduate learning environment: Design Competencies in Collaboration (DESCO) Model. This model and the Design Powers System can help guide team-building activities and skill-assessment in order to support diverse teams with complementary skill-sets. The workshop demonstrated how the DESCO model can be utilized and provided testing materials to assist design educators in facilitating a collaborative, fun and productive learning environment in and outside classroom walls.