Thesis Final Joshgreen PDF

THE DEVELOPING ROLE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN
AND THE SEARCH FOR A NEW PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
Joshua D. Green
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Degree: Master of Art in Art Education
KEAN UNIVERSITY
Union, New Jersey
May 2012
Approved by: ________________________

Date: _______________________________
Copyright 2012
Joshua D. Green
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my fiance Danielle Laurenti for enduring my crotchety

behavior for the past two semesters. I would also like to thank my professors and fellow
thesis classmates for their insight and welcomed camaraderie. Finally, I would like to thank
the participants of this study who were generous enough to talk with me for an hour about
their experiences and the developing role of graphic design.
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this thesis to my art education professor, Dr. Joseph Amorino, who
provided me with a strong academic and philosophical foundation, along with applicable
pedagogical approaches that provoke authentic art-making in the field of art education.
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ABSTRACT
This thesis focused on the developing role of graphic design and its relationship
with the field of art education today. As the researcher, I investigated these questions using
an ethnographic method. I studied four specific professional white men: those responsible
for pedagogical approaches to graphic design at the university level, pedagogical
approaches to graphic design at the high school level, graphic design at the professional
level, and graphic design at the celebrity level. I transcribed four interviews and reviewed
both high school and university art education curriculum and syllabi in regards to graphic
design. I also analyzed current trends and work in graphic design in order to see how these
pedagogical approaches relate to the professional world of graphic design.
The results of this study indicate that graphic design can provide a suitable
approach to teaching visual culture that allows students to engage with their rapidly
changing environment, developing and noticing new connections, and being able to work
with them. Graphic design is best understood through experiential learning: the creative
play of form and function. It is through these processes students can develop a personal
aesthetic lexicon, an understanding of graphic design, and an understanding of their
surrounding world.
This study opens up discussion about what lesson plans and themes could be
incorporated into a graphic design curriculum that are rooted in the experience and
discovery of the students, as opposed to a static list of rules and client-oriented pedagogy.
Title: The Developing Role of Graphic Design and the Search for a New Pedagogical
Approach
Author: Joshua D. Green
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Copyright Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

Purpose of Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 01
Research Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
Areas of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
Personal Motivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06
Conclusion to Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review

Purpose of Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
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The Prevalence of Visual Culture and Graphic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

What is Graphic Design? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
A Brief History of Graphic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Innovations in Production and Technology and the Way We View Art . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Need for a Comprehensive and Relevant Art Education Curriculum . . . . . . . . . 20
A Developed, Applicable, Personal, Aesthetic Lexicon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Conclusion to Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
CHAPTER THREE: Methods

Purpose of Chapter Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Data Gathering Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Delimitation/Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Conclusion to Chapter Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER FOUR: Results

Purpose of Chapter Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Research Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Presentation of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
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The Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Brian Smith (pseudonym) - (AT1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Frank Young - (AT2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Brian LaRossa - (GD1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Charles Chip Kidd - (GD2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The Transcribed Unstructured Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Curriculum & Syllabi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Conclusion to Chapter Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER FIVE: Analysis

Purpose of Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Graphic Design at the High School Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Graphic Design at the University Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Graphic Design at the Professional Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Graphic Design at the Celebrity Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Conclusion to Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion

Purpose of Chapter Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Summary of Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
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Chapter Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Chapter Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Recommendations to the Field of Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Recommendations for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Conclusion to Chapter Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Work by Banksy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Figure 2: Work by Shepard Fairey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 3: Work by Mr. Brainwash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 4: Work by Chris Ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Figure 5: Work by Chris Ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Figure 6: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 7: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 8: Work by Stefan Sagmeister. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 9: Work by Stefan Sagmeister. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 10: Work by Stefan Sagmeister. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 11: David Carsons work for Ray Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 12: David Carsons work for Ray Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 13: Smiths personal artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Figure 14: Smiths Graphic Arts classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure 15: Smiths desk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure 16: Smiths student work and flat file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 18: Smiths iMacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 20: Smiths production table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Figure 21: Smiths personal artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Figure 22: Smiths personal artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Figure 23: Youngs charcoal drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Figure 24: Typical SVA classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Figure 25: Typical SVA classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Figure 26: One of the houses Young is designing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 27: The living room of the house Young designed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 28: The bathroom of the house Young designed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 29: The bedroom of the house Young designed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 34: Youngs album cover design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Figure 35: Youngs typographic work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Figure 36: LaRossas artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Figure 37: LaRossas logo designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Figure 38: LaRossas logo designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
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Figure 43: LaRossas designs for Scholastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Figure 46: A book jacket design by Kidd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Figure 49: A novel written by Kidd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Figure 50 A novel written by Kidd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Figure 51: AT1 Graphics 3 Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Figure 52: AT1 Graphics 3 Final Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
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List of Tables
Table 1: Interview Question #1 Responses of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Table 10: Interview Question #10 Responses of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Table 16: The Parting Words of the Unstructured Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
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CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Purpose of Chapter One
As ones senses are increasingly saturated with an abundance of visual information,

slogans, corporate identity, advertisements, and perspectives, the role of graphic design is
changing. This amount of visual culture that one processes has increased exponentially due
to technological advents, namely the internet. Visual culture is often constructed with the
contribution of the graphic designer. Graphic designs increasing prevalence is providing a
new and significant vocabulary used in the work of relevant artists of all varieties today.
With graphic design, one is able to develop an inner aesthetic lexicon. This change is not
reflected in the high school art education curriculum. The pedagogical approach to graphic
design in high school is losing its sense of urgency, while the approach at the university
level has remained inspired and relevant.
Why is graphic design in the art education curriculum taught differently at the
university level as opposed to the high school level? What characteristics of the historical
context have changed for graphic designs prevalence to occur?
I investigate these questions using an ethnographic method. Ethnography is a
qualitative research approach emanating from anthropology and focusing on the study of
the culture of groups (Lichtman, 2010). I am studying four specific professional white men:
those responsible for pedagogical approaches to graphic design at the university level,
pedagogical approaches to graphic design at the high school level, graphic design at the
professional level, and graphic design at the celebrity level.
My research is divided into six chapters. In Chapter One the core of my research
topic is introduced. I explain the function that all six chapters played in my study. I relate
my academic and professional interests, as well as my personal motivations that led to the
formation of my research topic idea.
In Chapter Two I present a foundation of knowledge pulled from past scholarly
writing that was relevant to my research study. I analyzed the writings of John Berger and
Walter Benjamin in regards to how art and images are perceived. I looked into Kerry
Freedmans ideas on visual culture, Karl Marxs perspective on history, and the Bauhaus
influence on art. With this substantial history, I was able to construct a point of view and
put together relevant questions in order to properly conduct my research.
In Chapter Three I break down how my research in the field was conducted. I
explain how the procedures that facilitated the gathering of data were carried out.
In Chapter Four I present and organize the results of my research and explain their
significance, while in Chapter Five I qualitatively examine the results of my research and
the conclusions they revealed.
Lastly, in Chapter Six I explain the implications that my research has for the field of
art education and suggest future research studies.
Research Statement
My research study investigates the pedagogical approaches to graphic design at

both the high school and university levels. I transcribe four interviews and review both
high school and university art education curriculum and syllabi in regards to graphic
design. I also analyze current trends and work in graphic design in order to see how these
pedagogical approaches relate to the professional world of graphic design. The first
interview is with an art teacher from the high school level, the second interview is with
a professor of graphic design from the university level, the third interview is with a
professional graphic designer, and the fourth interview is with a celebrity graphic designer.
With my research I am able to incorporate applicable overarching themes found at
the university level into a more comprehensive art education curriculum at the high
school level.
Areas of Interest
As a graphic designer, I have been able to apply my abilities to a variety of subjects

and ideas. This has brought about an active interest in a surplus of topics that I continue to
find valuable. Due to graphic designs dependence on technology, I find the internet,
computers, social media, and the way we process information very important and relevant.
As an art educator, my thoughts became focused on the importance of art and how
art is perceived, not just by myself, but also others. John Berger and Kerry Freedman are
two influential scholars that have a lot to share on this topic. John Berger was largely
influenced by the writings of Walter Benjamin, a German critic and philosopher, whose
readings I have also spent time with. Kerry Freedmans research on visual culture has
remained a relevant topic of discussion in the field of art education.
While developing my personal aesthetic lexicon in graphic design, I grew
fascinated with philosophy and politics. After taking a class in French Existentialism and
processing my criticisms, I started reading Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V. I. Lenin, and
Leon Trotsky. I found a tangible bond between philosophy and politics in their writings
that continues to inspire. Change rooted in the means of production and how they are
governed, dialectical processes, historical materialism, and revolution are core ideas I
continue to dwell on.
While always considering myself an artist first, and a graphic designer second, I
began to investigate the differences, commonalities, and the relationship between both fine
art and graphic design. One conclusion I was initially certain of was their shared
importance. The writings of Adrian Shaughnessy and Chip Kidd, the street art of Banksy,
the emotional qualities of David Carsons design, along with the tedious layouts found in
Chris Wares narratives were all very pivotal when contemplating these ideas.
Personal Motivations
My parents claim that my drawing abilities were apparent at age two. I remember
being infatuated with drawing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and creating my own
variety of monsters and comic book characters all throughout elementary and junior high
school. As I became more preoccupied with listening to music and writing music as a
drummer in a variety of bands, my interest in graphic design began to develop. I would
doodle various band logos on the backs of my high school notebooks and create logos and
flyers for the bands I played in. This engagement with representation and type, along with
the support of my parents and teachers, contributed to my acceptance into the four year
graphic design program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City in 2002.
At SVA, I was introduced to a large amount of exciting ideas concerning the arts,
humanities, and politics. The professors were inspiring and the curriculum was
comprehensive. Graphic design became a valuable process that allowed me to understand
and assemble the substantial number of new ideas I was absorbing.
Up until this point, beyond my interest in punk rock and metal, I did not spend
much time concerned with politics. This all changed during my second year at SVA when I
was introduced to the magazine Adbusters by my typography instructor. Fascinated with
the layout and the political analysis absent from mainstream news, I read it from cover to
cover and bought a two year subscription. With my graphic design education progressing,
coupled with Adbusters breakdown of advertisements and the media I absorbed, I quickly
became more aware and concerned with my surroundings.
I became interested in street art, promotional materials, packaging, web design and
the debasement of advertisements. Art was no longer restricted to galleries and museums;
art was wherever I looked. That idea was very exciting and brought about a strong
appreciation and consideration for what I came in contact with day to day.
Throughout the rest of my time in the graphic design program at SVA, I continued
to hone my skills and soon developed an aesthetic lexicon and social awareness that has
remained intact over the course of my ventures. This engagement with my environment
continues to exhilarate me; it allows new ideas and a strong sense of self to take form.
Assumptions
Contained in my research study are two assumptions. The first assumption is that
the high school art education curriculum predominantly teaches an outdated form of
graphic design while the approach taken at the university level remains engaged and
relevant. My own personal experience led me to this initial idea. This inference has only
grown stronger to form a conclusion with my inspection of current high school art
education curriculums and syllabi as a student teacher.
The second assumption is that graphic design has become more prevalent. It is
clearly evident the amount of visual culture that is digested by the general public has
exponentially increased. There is a need for this content to be designed and distributed.
Once that content is distributed, it is taken in by the intended audience. Visual culture is
often constructed with the contribution of the graphic designer.
Conclusion to Chapter One
Despite graphic designs widespread presence, the pedagogical approach to graphic

design at the high school level is losing its relevance. My research seeks to investigate this
problem. The solution seems to reside in the approaches teachers are using in university
classrooms. What characteristics of graphic design historically changed in order for this
prevalence to occur? What overarching themes found at the university level are applicable
to a comprehensive art education curriculum for high school students?
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review
Purpose of Chapter Two
In this chapter I present a foundation of knowledge pulled from past scholarly

writing that was relevant to my research study. Walter Benjamin, John Berger, Kerry
Freedman, Karl Marx, Lewis Blackwell, David Carson, and Adrian Shaughnessy are
among the writers, artists, designers and scholars whose work I have sifted through. With
this substantial history, I was able to construct a point of view and develop a strong
understanding of the relevant content. This enabled me to put together appropriate
questions in order to properly conduct my research.
I discuss the growing prevalence of visual culture and graphic design, as well as the
pluralistic qualities of postmodern culture. I define what graphic design is and how it has
changed, while providing a brief history of graphic design. I look into the technological
advancements in modes of production and see how they changed graphic design. I explain
why graphic design is an important contribution to the art education curriculum, as well as
graphic designs relationship and overlap with fine art. I argue that graphic design is
instrumental in building a developed, applicable, personal, aesthetic lexicon.
Research Questions
The Prevalence of Visual Culture and Graphic Design
As I have stated before, the amount of visual culture one comes across in this postindustrial, postmodern climate is rapidly increasing. In Teaching Visual Culture, Kerry
Freedman defines visual culture as all that is humanly formed and sensed through vision
or visualization and shapes the way we live our lives (2003, p.1). This large amount of
visual information is significant because with it comes a large variety of communicated
perspectives. When a website is taken in, when an advertisement is glanced over, when a
work of art is appreciated, a multitude of decisions and perspectives are being processed:
some consciously, and some subconsciously. Posters, promotional flyers, shopping malls,
amusement parks, museums, art galleries, billboards, advertisements, music videos,
magazines, television programming, the internet, mobile devices, mobile applications
processing all of this can be quite overwhelming. Not only has the amount of visual culture
increased, but the amount of platforms that disperse ideas and information has increased as
well. These platforms come with their own unique cultures, structures, and hierarchies.
There is also an unequalled amount of computers and mobile devices that have their own
unique logic, operating systems, and functionality. The learning curve is becoming
increasingly demanding.
This expansion of visual culture is accompanied by an inclusive plurality that has
brought critical and interpretive attention beyond galleries and museums and into the
streets, comic book shops, music venues, book stores, billboards, iPads, and tumblr
accounts. This surplus of venue has increased creative participation, inviting many more
perspectives to take part in an active discussion.
In order to have a relevant and inspired art education curriculum, the influential and
demanding aspects of visual culture need to be addressed in a way that is pertinent to the
student in relation to the visual arts. Kerry Freedman also states that as a result of the
growth in visual culture, the visual arts have become fundamental to the cultural
transformation of political discourse, social interaction, and cultural identity that
characterizes the postmodern condition (2003, p. 1). This newfound importance should be
entrusted within art educations parameters. The inclusion of visual culture in the art
education curriculum will provide students with the tools to interpret and better understand
their surroundings and themselves. Among the visual arts, the most appropriate discipline
that addresses these issues is none other than graphic design. In the essay Graphic
Designers Probably Wont Read This... But, Mr. Keedy states, graphic designers are the
scouts of visual culture, looking ahead of the rest of the pack (VanderLans, Licko, &
Gray, 1993, p. 7). Visual culture is rarely without the contribution of the graphic designer.
Despite this need for a relevant pedagogical approach to graphic design, an archaic
approach remains at the high school level, a level where it is needed most.
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What is Graphic Design?
When discussing the developing role of graphic design and the pedagogical
approaches that should accompany those roles, it is important to have a strong
understanding of what exactly graphic design is. As the role of graphic design broadens and
changes, an all-embracing definition of graphic design is becoming difficult to address.
Graphic design exists today at varying levels, in many different cultures, in many different
regions. Jessica Helfand defines graphic design as the following:
Graphic design is a visual language uniting harmony and balance, color and light,
scale and tension, form and content. But it is also an idiomatic language, a language
of cues and puns and symbols and allusions, of cultural references and perceptual
inferences that challenge both the intellect and the eye (Shaughnessy, 2008).
Helfand's understanding of graphic design encompasses a lot of aesthetic and
communicative territory. Harmony, balance, color, light, scale, tension, form and content
are also found in painting, drawing, photography and other forms of visual art. The key
phrase Helfand uses that is unique to graphic design is visual language. Graphic design
is certainly a visual language, and like all languages, it is something that requires
instruction and experience.
It is hard to keep up with the amount of disciplines found within graphic design:
typography, poster design, identity/branding, editorial design, web design, user-interface
design, typeface design, packaging design, three dimensional design, motion graphics,
information design, etc. Along with the abundance of disciplines, graphic design utilizes
11
many old and new production processes and technological advents, it calls upon a large
variety of mediums, and is collaborative in nature. These active and inclusive aspects of
graphic design can influence adolescent students to explore and embrace a variety of
materials and processes, while keeping them apprised of new technological developments.
The other important aspect of Helfand's definition is the mention of graphic design
as an idiomatic language. The interaction and exploration of cues and puns, symbols and
allusions, cultural references and perceptual inferences is where the personal, critical and
emotional aspects of graphic design reside (Blackwell & Carson, 2000). This idiomatic
language is found all throughout visual culture. Graphic design provides one with the
methods and tools to interpret and respond to the dizzying amount of visual information.
This response provides one with a sense of authorship: to explore, question, create, and
engage the surrounding world (Shaughnessy, 2008). Everyone who approaches graphic
design enters with their own rules, experiences and influences. The most significant aspect
of design is how the designer expresses their solution to the problem, otherwise known as
their relationship with the client and/or the surrounding world.
Graphic design most often deals with the composition of elements that the designer
may or may not have created. When designing an album cover, a graphic designer might be
given a photograph of the band and lyrics for the album. It is the designers job to select a
color scheme and typeface, choose the placement of the photo on the record sleeve, and
layout the lyrics on the album insert. In graphic design the arrangement of content often
supersedes the content itself, or rather, the arrangement is considered part of the content.
Graphic designers are frequently characterized as having an objective approach to
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aesthetics. A quick look at the large variety of design styles out there leaves one hard
pressed to find a singular objective approach. Graphic design has revealed the arrangement
of content to be just as subjective and personally revealing as the content being sorted.
Along with arrangement, the domain of graphic design has revealed text, words and
letters, like paintings, drawings and photographs, to be amongst the visual canon. This
discovery opened up a great deal of opportunities for visual relationships to take place.
These new visual relationships have had a strong and significant influence on our lives and
continue to do so. Due to paintings, drawings and photographs' subjective nature, they are
used to communicate ideas that may go beyond words and they have the ability to
communicate complex concepts in a more fluid manner. Words and letters at one point had
an objective nature until graphic design unveiled their visually subjective qualities. Graphic
design introduced the written word and letters into the artists visual repertoire. Graphic
design gave language and the written word a visual perspective. Beyond the point of
readability, how words look suddenly mattered.
A Brief History of Graphic Design
It can be argued that the early influences of graphic design have existed since
Neolithic times where cave paintings served as info-graphics detailing the seasonal
migration of reindeer and buffalo. It could be said to have started with the illuminated
manuscripts and book making during Medieval times, continuing through the fifteenth
century. However, with the advent of Gutenbergs printing press in 1450 and the
13
advancement of typographic printing along with Caxtons production of the first Englishlanguage book a few years later, graphic design qualitatively changed when it became an
industry. Lettering became an art and was honed during the Renaissance, and many of the
typefaces and typographic conventions designers continue to use were formed in Europes
great artistic and cultural eruption of the fifteenth century. Graphic design became an
established craft with the industrial revolution and the automated printing press. These
milestones provided more people with access to information that was previously
unavailable to them. Leaflets, posters, books, and Victorian playbills were being mass
produced and distributed to the public, bringing about advertising (Shaughnessy, 2008).
It was not until the 1920s that graphic design became recognizably modern,
specifically with the formation of the Bauhaus school in Germany. Unifying art and
technology and seeking the common roots of both fine and applied arts, the Bauhaus
sought to solve problems of visual design created by industrialism (Meggs, 1998). With an
abundance of typefaces created, typographic plateaus transcended, the development of
color theory and the grid system, along with a plethora of other accomplishments, graphic
design for the first time became an academic institution. Another significant idea the
Bauhaus expounded was the appreciation and inherent value of process: the trust in
discovery through the exploration of media via an understanding and respect for
craftsmanship. The process of letting the medium inform the creator remains a prevalent
and applicable principle in both art and design today.
By the 1960s, the modern developments in typography brought about by the
Bauhaus school became the major stylistic staple in the world of graphic design
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(Shaughnessy, 2008). Once graphic design found its way into American corporate culture
in the 1970s, it became part of the public domain, invading every aspect of modern life.
Graphic design was becoming a household name, now illustrated by popular television
dramas like American Movie Classics Mad Men (Weiner, 2007), and widely distributed
documentaries such as Helvetica (Hustwit, 2007) and Art & Copy (Pray, 2009). In the
1980s graphic design surpassed corporate culture and became established as a vital
constituent of pop culture (Shaughnessy, 2008). This cultural shift in graphic design, along
with the technological development of the personal computer in 1984, is what perpetuated
visual cultures prevalence in society today. Punk rock, album covers, logos, television
commercials, magazines, youth fashion, and brand identities were developing a new
language (Baker, Rose & Strike, 2004). This language is now inseparable from pop culture
and the subversive underbelly of western culture.
Due to recent developments like the internet, the growing reliance on computers
and smart phones, and a visually dominant culture, graphic design has become impossible
to avoid. Whether it is discerning between specific nuances that separate spam emails from
emails that were intended to be received, reading blog posts, or exploring the interface of a
recently downloaded smart phone application, graphic design has become a ubiquitous
institution. Adrian Shaughnessy states that often with ubiquity, the more there is, the less
it is valued (2008). It is within the domain of the art education curriculum to provide
students with the means of exploring the prevalent institution of graphic design: to better
understand ones social environment, to be able to recognize, appreciate, and hold a critical
15
eye to a domain with such a strong presence, and to develop the ability to participate in an
already active conversation.
Innovations in Production and Technology and the Way We View Art
This increase of visual culture and the inevitable development of graphic design
did not happen overnight; it was the culmination of a variety of complex and dialectical
processes that have shaped and continue to shape history. In A Contribution to the Critique
of Political Economy, Karl Marx states that it is not the consciousness of men that
determines their existence, but, on the contrary, their social existence that determines their
consciousness (1859, p. 1). This concept is the premise of what Marx referred to as
Historical Materialism. It is also the root of my analysis when looking at graphic design.
Graphic design has a reflective nature and is subject to changes that occur in lifestyle,
aesthetics, economics, and technology. Functional design reflects the changing standards of
our culture (Zande, 2007, p. 47). Woodblock printing, lithography, automated printing
presses and the industrial revolution, and the camera are innovations that led to the
development of a visually based postmodern culture (Benjamin, 1969; Berger, Blomberg,
Fox, Dibb & Hollis, 1972). Walter Benjamin and John Berger understood this development
using a dialectical method; now the personal computer and the internet are supporting
those claims made over 40 years ago. These innovations enabled graphic designs plurality
and shaped the social movements that caused graphic design to repeatedly subvert and
redefine itself.
16
The early beginnings of pictorial reproduction stamps, woodcuts, engraving and

etching, and lithography remained a handwork process until the invention of
photography and its application to graphic production (Meggs, 1992, p. 142). Photography
was discovered in the mid eighteen hundreds via the collective experiments and research of
a few printers whose professional demands required a more efficient process in the
reproduction of images. However it was not until 1888 when George Eastman, an
American dry plate manufacturer, brought the power of photography into the hands of the
lay public when he introduced the Kodak camera. It was an invention without precedent,
for ordinary citizens now had an ability to create images and preserve a graphic record of
their lives and experiences (Meggs, 1992, p. 147).
For the first time in the process of pictorial reproduction, the photographic lens
relieved the human hand of its labor. In addition, it increased the rate of reproduction
exponentially. The process of pictorial reproduction was accelerated so enormously that it
could keep pace with speech (Benjamin, 1969). The camera not only relieved the hand of
labor, it also introduced the image to a greater variety of contextual relationships that went
beyond the printed page, museums, and churches. The image had been removed from its
pedestal. Today the camera may seem like old news, however this acceleration of image
reproduction changed the way the world was taken in and brought about the development
of visual culture as it is understood today.
In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin has the
following to say on the revelation of culture:
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The transformation of the superstructure, which takes place far more slowly than
that of the substructure, has taken more than half a century to manifest in all areas
of culture the change in the conditions of production (1969).
Like Marxs analysis of how shifts in production shape history, what Walter Benjamin is
saying here is important to keep in mind when looking at the realized potential of the
camera, the computer, and now the internet.
Similar to how John Cage predicted the degree of affect the use of noise and
electronic instruments would have on the future of music, the computer has affected and
utterly changed the future of art, especially graphic design. In The Future of Music: Credo,
John Cage states the following:
The present methods of writing music, principally those which employ harmony
and its reference to particular steps in the field of sound, will be inadequate for the
composer, who will be faced with the entire field of sound (1937, p. 4).
This all-inclusive nature enabled by technological advancements in sound brought about
postmodernism, challenging modern notions that defined harmony and music (Hurwitz
& Day, 2007). To a similar degree when the Macintosh computer was introduced in
1984, the future of graphic design was changed forever. Computer technology, with
its own governing parameters, extend[ed] the creative process into previously unexplored
areas (Vanderlans, Licko, Gray, 1993, p. 6). Graphic design was presented with an
unprecedented amount of control, production, and room for experimentation. Every
modern notion that currently defined graphic design was now being challenged
and expanded.
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The internet was originally created for military purposes and like Facebook, further
developed out of a community of networks at college universities in the mid nineties. It
then became popularized by the now infamous AOL free trial compact disc. However it
wasn't until the formation of social media platforms like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter,
Wordpress, and what was eventually coined "Web 2.0, when the internet began to realize
its full potential. Now there are websites where people are able to create and publish their
own typefaces, websites with fully developed online video games, secure banking, and the
ability for every willing participant to store and share gigabytes of data. Once web
development improved and became more user-oriented, the general populations interest
increased and people began to confidently participate in and rely on the internet.
What does this mean for graphic design? For one thing, it introduced a whole new
assortment of platforms to work with and understand. These platforms, coupled with their
own rules and systems, brought forth a dizzying amount of potential: new relationships and
connections, so far unaccustomed to human experience, were and are continuing to be
sought after. Graphic design is becoming increasingly more dynamic as the potential these
recent technological advancements carry are becoming realized. The camera allowed
people to capture and document their lives through their own personal perspective. The
computer eventually acquainted the majority with ideas and practices hitherto reserved for
professionals. Now with the internet in full bloom on a global level, visual culture has
attached itself to practically everything everywhere.
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The Need for a Comprehensive and Relevant Art Education Curriculum
The art education curriculum is a great place students can develop a visual and
critical grasp of their diverse postmodern culture. When referring to the cutbacks of
creative endeavors in public schools, David Byrne of the Talking Heads, had this to say:
I think its particularly sad, as I think it turns us into a nation of art, music, and
writing consumers, as opposed to creators. It turns us into passive beings who
accept the assumption that others can always make better stuff than you can.
Encouraging students to flex their creative muscles doesnt mean they necessarily
have to be artists or musicians, but it opens up new neurological pathways - ways of
thinking that are useful for all sorts of careers (2011, p. 83).
It is important that students learn new and relevant ways to stay engaged with themselves
and in their community. Visual literacy provides an increased sophistication in interpreting
the potentially overwhelming amount of visual culture (Carpenter II, Cifuentes, 2011).
Rather than letting students become passive consumers, students should be provided with
the tools that allow them to understand and pull from this immense language of images that
surround them. In Teaching Visual Culture, Kerry Freedman expresses the following on
visual cultures importance:
The visual arts are expanding not only in their forms, but in their influence through
connections to the range of social issues...such as ecology and conceptions of self.
As a result, the visual arts have become fundamental to the cultural transformation
20
of political discourse, social interaction, and cultural identity that characterizes the
post modern condition (2003, p. 1).
As I have stated before, like painting, drawing, ceramics, etc., graphic design is
integral to art education specifically because of its growing prevalence, its methods of
interpretation, and the sense of authorship it provides (Shaughnessy, 2008). I believe
graphic design brings forth a satisfying answer to the handling of visual culture. When
visual culture is addressed in the field of art education, it is often framed in left-wing
political rhetoric; David Darts article, Visual Culture Jam: Art, Pedagogy, and Creative
Resistance, is a fitting example (2004, p. 313-327). With the introduction of graphic
design in the art classroom, students are not only creating meaningful compositions, they
are also learning how the visual culture that surrounds them is constructed. It is an
experiential and tactile process that avoids political didacticism, and introduces creative
and attainable methods of authorship and visual literacy. It enables students to think
differently and critically about objects and images they have viewed a hundred times before
(Amburgy, 2011).
Like contemporary art, graphic design supplies the student with applicable footing
to create a dialogical space that cultivates meaningfulness in our contemporary
world (McKay, 2008, p. 72). Along with contemporary art, graphic design expands their
visual intrigue into new areas such as film, zines, animation, music, videos and digital
imagery, all of which are vibrant in the lives of students (Mayer, 2008, p. 79). Because
graphic design encompasses the use of new and traditional media, it can broaden students
21
notions of what art is, and where it can go. I believe that a knowledge in graphic design
contributes to the development of a more autonomous and contributive individual.
A Developed, Applicable, Personal, Aesthetic Lexicon
A developed, applicable, personal, aesthetic lexicon is a palette of gathered and

sorted imagery, visual systems, rhythms, and hierarchies that one acquires through
experience, trial and error, observation, critique, and reflection over a significant course of
time. I first heard this expression used in a radio broadcast delivered by Adrian
Shaughnessy. Near the end of the broadcast, Shaughnessy claims there are two types of
graphic designers: one is rooted in history and semiotics, and problem solving, the other is
more rooted in the liberal arts painting, figurative arts, advertising, trends, and
fashions (2008). Shaughnessy further elaborated on the second type of graphic designer
where he mentions an aesthetic lexicon:
There are designers who have a personal and singular vision of how their work
should materialize. They work in fashion, music and cultural design, and while they
may function like traditional problem-solving graphic designers, they rely far more
on intuition and on an inner aesthetic lexicon [emphasis added]. They tend not to
view their role as problem solvers. What others see as problems crying out for
solutions, these designers see as opportunities crying out for graphic expression.
These are designers with a signature style often backed up by aesthetic and
22
moral convictions and clients know what they are getting when they hire these
individuals or studios (2008).
This intuition that Shaugnessys talking about is similar to the idiomatic language
Helfand included in her definition to graphic design, except here there is more significance
put on the individual (Shaughnessy, 2008). This type of designer being described is a recent
development in graphic design directly connected to the prevalence of visual culture. Well
known artists and designers such as Banksy (figure 1), Shepard Fairey (figure 2), Mr.
Brainwash (figure 3), Chris Ware (figures 4-5), Swiss Miss (figures 6-7), Stefan Sagmeister
(figures 8-10), and David Carson (figures 11-12) have no problems fitting into this type of
graphic designer Shaughnessy is referring to. Whether or not these creative individuals are
artists or graphic designers is beside the point, whats important to acknowledge is that
graphic design is qualitatively changing, approaching new territory, and affecting
everything it surrounds. I believe this newfound expressive and creative impulse found in
contemporary graphic design has the potential to greatly benefit high school students and
the art education curriculum.
The time of adolescence is often filled with doubt, uncertainty, and isolation. When
a child completes elementary school they move from the structure of one classroom and
one teacher and are then introduced to many different teachers and classroom
environments. Along with environmental adjustments, the adolescent is simultaneously
undergoing biological maturation (puberty), intellectual development, and psychological
differentiation (Michael, 1983). I believe graphic design has the capability of enhancing the
students ability to personally express and seek out their individuality. In a time with
23
complex, overlapping, and developing visual cultures (Carpenter, Cifuentes, 2011) in the
high school classroom, there is a growing diversity of perspectives towards the world
(Zande, 2007). The development of an applicable, personal, aesthetic lexicon can help the
adolescent gain a better understanding of themselves and the growing diversity of
perspectives that surround them.
Like fine art, I believe it is important that graphic design is taught with an emphasis
on exploration and personal meaning making, in contrast to a list of static rules and
regulations, or design classes governed via computer applications. In Visual Culture and
Literacy ONLINE: Image Galleries as Sites of Learning, B. Stephen Carpenter II & Lauren
Cifuentes state that meaningful interpretations of visual culture emerge in contexts in
which meaning is perceived as fluid rather than fixed (2011, p. 39). When students engage
with the surrounding world, they process that information and relate it to their own
perspectives, ideas, feelings, and past experiences. It is important to discuss these varying
points of view in the classroom and involve these ideas in the students work. Our vision
is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around
itself, constituting what is present to us as we are (Berger, Blomberg, Fox, Dibb & Hollis,
1972, p. 9).
Conclusion to Chapter Two
Due to our visually based postmodern culture, graphic design has become
impossible to avoid and crucial to the art education curriculum. Graphic design provides a
24
suitable approach to teaching visual culture that allows the students to develop their own
applicable, aesthetic lexicon. It enables them to engage with their rapidly changing
environment, developing and noticing new connections, and being able to work with them.
If this is possible, why is the pedagogical approach to graphic design at the high school
level often handled like a math problem, with correct answers? Art educators need to
recognize the fluid manner involved with graphic design and its varying processes and
acknowledge graphic designs relationship with the real world.
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figure 2: Work by Shepard

Fairey
figure 1: Work by Banksy
figure 3: Work by Mr. Brainwash
26
figure 4: Work by Chris Ware
figure 5: Work by Chris Ware
27
figure 6: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos
figure 7: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos
figure 8: Work by Stefan Sagmeister
28
figure 11: David Carsons work for Ray Gun
figure 12: David Carsons work for Ray Gun
29
CHAPTER THREE
Methods
Purpose of Chapter Three
My research study is about the investigation of the pedagogical approaches to

graphic design at both the high school and university levels. With my research I
incorporated applicable overarching themes found in the university level into a more
comprehensive art education curriculum at the high school level. This chapter discusses, in
detail, the design of my research study, the settings where the research was conducted, the
participants involved in my study, the instruments I used to collect data, the sequence and
duration of my research procedures, and the limitations of my research study.
Research Design
My study was conducted using an ethnographic method. Ethnography is a

qualitative research approach emanating from anthropology and focusing on the study of
the culture of groups (Lichtman, 2010). I studied four specific professional white men:
those responsible for pedagogical approaches to graphic design both at the university and
high school levels, graphic design at the professional level, and graphic design at the
celebrity level. There were a total of four participants in my research study, one participant
represented for each of the four groups: Brian Smith, an art teacher from the high school
30
level, Frank Young, a professor of graphic design from the university level, Brian LaRossa,
a professional graphic designer, and Chip Kidd, a celebrity graphic designer.
In order to properly assess each group, I conducted one unstructured interview with
each of the four participants. A portion of the questions included in the unstructured
interviews for each participant overlapped. The overlapping questions referred to the
participants thoughts on graphic design, how graphic design has affected their own lives,
how graphic design should be taught, and how and why the participants think graphic
design has changed over the years. The questions specifically for both the high school art
teacher and the university professor referred to how and why the participants' teach graphic
design, and the results of their pedagogical strategies.
I also reviewed both high school and university art education curriculum and syllabi
in regards to graphic design. I analyzed current trends and work in graphic design in order
to see how these pedagogical approaches relate to the professional world of graphic design.
I reviewed the participants course curriculum and syllabi that was relevant to graphic
design. I also reviewed and photographed artwork that the participants created either
professionally or outside of teaching.
Setting
I conducted the study in four different locations. The first location was the large
classroom of Brian Smith, a Graphic Arts teacher in New Jersey. With an ample amount of
space, Smiths classroom contained three rows of brand new Apple iMac computers, a
31
series of large work tables used for production work and presenting artwork, two large
closets for supplies, a teachers desk, and a sizable flat file for posters and student work.
The walls were lined with work by contemporary graphic artists, dry-erase boards, bulletin
boards, student work, stacked paintings, and shelves of books related to the graphic arts
curriculum. While the students were working, Smith was able to view their progress using
an application that enables him to see every computer screen in the classroom at once. I
conducted the unstructured interview with Smith at his desk near the back of the room.
The second location was one of the classrooms at the School of Visual Arts (SVA)
in Manhattan, New York, where Frank Young, a professor of graphic design, has a few oneon-one meetings with his students. The room was relatively small with about a dozen desks
and chairs, one large desk at the front the the room, a chalk board, and a rolled up
projection screen. The classroom had a clinical feel to it. The walls were all white and there
were no windows. I conducted the unstructured interview with Young at the big desk in the
front of the room.
The third location was a small conference room at the Scholastic building in
Manhattan, New York, where Brian LaRossa, a professional graphic designer, works. The
room was small, but not cramped. It contained a round table surrounded by three
comfortable chairs. The walls were bare except for a rolled up projector screen used for
presentations. I conducted the unstructured interview with LaRossa at the table. We both
enjoyed and commented on the comfortable chairs.
The fourth location was celebrity graphic designer Chip Kidds office at the
Random House building in Manhattan, New York. Like most graphic designers I know,
32
Kidd surrounds himself with what he loves. The walls were completely taken over by
bookshelves, displayed books, posters, figurines and other personal trinkets. Utilizing an Lshaped desk, Kidd sits at his Apple computer with the office door on his right and a view of
Manhattan on his left. I conducted the unstructured interview with Kidd at his office.
Subjects
There were a total of four participants, who are all professional white men, in my
research study. The first participant, Brian Smith, teaches a series of graphic arts classes to
grades nine through twelve, and an independent study to both juniors and seniors at a
regional high school in suburban New Jersey. Smiths real name has not been disclosed
because he currently works in a public school. Smith has been teaching for seven years and
has a history in both advertising and ceramics. He is fascinated with the entrepreneurship
of the contemporary graphic art world and contributes set designs and posters to his
schools theater productions. He is also a local volunteer fireman and youth baseball coach.
Smith represents the first group of my research study, pedagogical approaches to graphic
design at the high school level.
The second participant, Frank Young, is a professor of graphic design at SVA in
Manhattan, New York. Young specifically teaches Basic Graphic Design at the sophomore
level and has been doing so for thirty years. Young has had a wide-ranging history as a
graphic designer, fine artist, and three-dimensional designer. Throughout these varying
trades, Young identifies himself as an artist. He is currently taking part in the designing and
33
building of houses for a couple of clients. Young represents the second group of my
research study, pedagogical approaches to graphic design at the university level.
The third participant, Brian LaRossa, is a professional graphic designer at
Scholastic in Manhattan, New York. He has been working there for the past eight years.
LaRossa received his BFA in Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA),
and he has been creating and designing ever since. He also exhibits his personal artwork in
gallery spaces around the greater New York City area. LaRossa represents the third group
of my research study, graphic design at the professional level.
The fourth participant, Chip Kidd, has been a professional graphic designer for the
past twenty-five years. He is known for his popular book jacket designs for contemporary
graphic novels, literary journals, fiction, and non-fiction works. Along with designing book
jackets, writing for prominent graphic design journals, and giving speeches at a variety of
events and universities, Kidd has written, designed, and published two fictional novels: The
Cheese Monkeys in 2002, and The Learners in 2008. He is currently writing his first
graphic novel, Batman: Death by Design, due out in May of 2012, and an instructional
book that introduces graphic design to adolescents and teaches them how to design. Kidd
represents the fourth group of my research study, graphic design at the celebrity level.
Data Gathering Instruments
For the purposes of recording all four unstructured interviews accurately, I used the
Voice Memo application on the iPhone 4 which utilizes the built-in microphone found at
34
the base of the phone. I photographed the participants' artwork with a Fuji 12 megapixel
point-and-shoot digital camera. I scanned the participants' curriculum and syllabi with an
HP Scanjet G3010. I also kept a moleskin journal where I was able to record my
observations and thoughts, and retain ideas and concepts.
Procedure
I collected my data in the following sequence: I emailed four participants to

interview and waited for a response. Once the responses were properly received, I met with
each participant separately.
Each interview with each of the four participants occurred in the following order:
I decided on a proper time and place to have the interview with the participant.
When I arrived at the participants office/studio, I had the participant read and
sign an Informed Consent Form and provided them with an extra copy for
their records.
I began the unstructured interview with the participant for 45 - 60 minutes in

length using my iPhone 4 to audibly record the interview.
I then scanned in course curriculum and syllabi that the participants agreed
to contribute.
I also took photos of any personal artwork or graphic design work I felt
were relevant.
35
Lastly, I thanked the participant for taking part in my study and handed them
a Debriefing Form.
I had a total of four unstructured interviews that lasted about fifty-five minutes
each; this amounted to a total of three hours and forty-five minutes of interviews. The
interviews were conducted over the process of four weeks. I took about a week studying
and analyzing curriculum and syllabi of both the high school and university levels, along
with another week analyzing current trends and design work, and their relation to the
professional world of graphic design. My data collection for my research study amounted
to a total of six weeks.
Delimitations/Limitations
Due to time constraints, my research study did not take into account the students
perspectives. I chose to focus on the perspectives of both the instructors and the
professionals who are white men. For the goal of my study it seemed more constructive to
take into account the viewpoints of those who were experienced with the matters in
question. I did not interview any women or men of color for this study.
My research study also does not take into consideration the potential financial
concerns related to the art education curriculum. That is not to say there are not financial
concerns. Graphic design's reliance on technology, potentially new qualifications for art
education, and the potential need for multiple art teachers, are all things that require money
for a program that is already under plenty of scrutiny. That being said, I felt it important to
36
first tackle the theoretical questions on the developing role of graphic design in an art
education curriculum before treading into financial and political territory.
Conclusion to Chapter Three
Utilizing an ethnographic method, my research study focused on four specific

professional white men: graphic designers who used pedagogical approaches to graphic
design both at the university and high school levels, graphic designers at the professional
level, and graphic designers at the celebrity level. I had one unstructured interview with
one participant from each group being studied. Curricula and syllabi were analyzed, and
contemporary graphic design and fine art work were examined.
37
CHAPTER FOUR
Results
Purpose of Chapter Four
In this chapter I present the data that I collected in the field. I transcribed four
unstructured interviews with four different participants: a high school art teacher, a
university professor of graphic design, a professional graphic designer, and a celebrity
graphic designer. I identify and describe both high school and university art education
curriculum including syllabi in regards to graphic design. I also discuss current trends and
work in graphic design and contemporary art.
I introduce the four participants. I discuss where they come from, their professional
backgrounds, their inspirations, their artwork and/or lesson plans, their work stations, their
classrooms, and other information I took note of while in the field. Due to the fluid nature
of unstructured interviews I also go into detail about what my experience was like
interviewing each participant. After each participant is introduced, I go through the
sequence of my questions, take note of the individually sparked tangents, and provide
tables that allow an overall review of the information.
Research Statement
As ones senses are increasingly saturated with an abundance of visual information,

slogans, corporate identity, advertisements, and perspectives, the role of graphic design is
38
changing. This amount of visual culture that one processes has increased exponentially due
to technological advents, most recently the internet. Visual culture is often constructed with
the contribution of the graphic designer. Graphic designs increasing prevalence is
providing a new and significant vocabulary used in the work of relevant artists of all
varieties today. With graphic design, one is able to develop an inner aesthetic lexicon. This
change is not reflected in the high school art education curriculum. The pedagogical
approach to graphic design in high school is losing its sense of urgency, while the approach
at the university level has remained inspired and relevant.
Presentation of Results
My collected data consists of interview transcripts, lesson plans, syllabi, curricula,

photographs, contemporary artwork and observational notes. I had one unstructured
interview consisting of about fifteen questions with each of the four participants. The
answers to these questions have been presented using tables. Individually sparked tangents
that occurred during each interview have been sequenced throughout the narrative of the
chapter. A few of the participants were gracious enough to provide me with their lesson
plans, syllabi and deep explanations of how they develop their curriculum. I was given
handouts of lesson plans and syllabi, while curricula was often explained within the
39
unstructured interviews. I took photographs of the participants artwork, the participants

graphic design work, and contemporary artwork that were relevant to my study. I also took
photos of the classrooms used by both the high school art teacher and the university
professor of graphic design. During the unstructured interviews, I took observational notes
on the setting of each interview, information about the participants, and the mood and
overall experience of each interview.
The Participants
There were four participants who were a part of my research study:

1. Brian Smith (pseudonym) - a high school art teacher - (AT1)
2. Frank Young - a university professor of graphic design - (AT2)
3. Brian LaRossa - a professional graphic designer - (GD1)
4. Charles Chip Kidd - a celebrity graphic designer - (GD2)
40
figure 13: Smiths personal artwork
Brian Smith (pseudonym) - (AT1)
Brian Smith is a young high school graphic arts teacher at a regional high school in
suburban New Jersey. He has been teaching there for seven years. Smith teaches a series of
three graphic arts courses, and an independent study for both juniors and seniors. Before he
was a teacher, Smith worked at an advertising agency. When Smith attended college he
41
figure 14: Smiths Graphic Arts classroom
figure 15: Smiths desk
discovered a love for ceramics and three-dimensional design which he still practices to this
day. Smith and his students often help in constructing set designs for their school's
performances and productions. He is someone who remains engaged with the
contemporary art and design world and makes a fervent effort to include current artists and
designers in his lesson plans. Smith spends his time after school coaching youth baseball
and volunteering as a fireman.
I conducted the interview with Smith in his classroom. His classroom was quite
large and impeccably organized (figures 13-22). Smith told me that because of a grant, he
was fortunate enough to have recently been supplied with three rows of brand new Apple
iMac computers (figures 14, 17, 18). Next to the rows of computers were a series of large
work stations (figures 19-22). A few of the work stations were being used for production
work (figure 20), while the other work stations displayed Smiths students' threedimensional design work and Smiths own personal work (figures 13, 21, 22). Both student
and contemporary artwork were displayed on the walls and rested against the walls on the
floor (figures 13, 16-22). At Smiths desk were two large monitors: one was used for
42
figure 16: Smiths student work and flat file
figure 18: Smiths iMacs
figure 20: Smiths production table
43
monitoring all of the students' computers in the room, while the other was where Smith
manages his grades and other work related tasks (figure 15).
After giving me a detailed tour of the classroom, we sat down at his desk and
conducted the interview. Smith was not used to being interviewed and I wasn't used to
interviewing. We both shared our first experiences together.
44
figure 23: Youngs charcoal drawings
Frank Young - (AT2)
Frank Young has been teaching Basic Graphic Design at SVA in New York City for
the past thirty years. He has had a long and varied career as a teacher, graphic designer,
photographer, architect, and art director. With a high level of respect for Eastern
philosophy, concentration, and work ethic, Young begins each class with a half hour of
meditation. Alongside his career as a professor of graphic design, Young has spent the last
couple of years designing two houses for clients while also acting as the contractor (figures
26-29). He enjoys drawing with charcoal (figures 23, 30-33), has designed a few album
45
figure 24: Typical SVA classroom
figure 25: Typical SVA classroom
covers (figure 34), and experiments with typography (figure 35). Young will be teaching
painting at SVA in the Fall of 2012 in a new department, Conceptual Painting. Throughout
his creative ventures Young has always considered himself an artist.
I conducted the interview with Young in one of SVAs standard classrooms (figures
24-25). Before the interview, Young just finished a one-on-one session with one of his
graphic design students. The room was small with approximately a dozen white desks and
black chairs. The walls and ceiling were white, the door was purple, and there were no
windows. Young and myself sat at the large teachers desk at the front of the room in front
of a chalk board and we began the interview.
I had the pleasure of being taught by Young as the professor for Basic Graphic
Design during my second year at SVA. It was a great experience and I can honestly say that
he changed the way I think about design and art in general. It was a pleasure to sit and hear
what Young had to say about the developing role of graphic design and how that role is
expressed in his classroom.
46
figure 26: One of the houses Young is

designing
figure 27: The living room of the house Young

designed
figure 28: The bathroom of the house Young

designed
figure 29: The bedroom of the house Young

designed
47
figure 35: Youngs typographic work
figure 34: Youngs album cover design
48
figure 36: LaRossas artwork
Brian LaRossa - (GD1)
Brian LaRossa is a professional graphic designer at Scholastic in Manhattan, New

York. He has been working there for eight years (figures 43-45). LaRossa received his
BFA in Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He later received a
49
figure 37: LaRossas logo designs
figure 38: LaRossas logo designs
masters degree, also at MICA, in Digital Art and is an alumni of Milton Glasers Summer
Program at SVA. LaRossa is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
He is also the design director for Freakstep Records, an independent dubstep label, a
freelance illustrator whose work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators and
American Illustration, and also mentors a high school student who is attending a visual arts
high school in Manhattan. LaRossa somehow manages to find the time to create and
exhibit fine art in the greater New York City area (figures 36, 39-42). His artwork can be
found at Like the Spice Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
I conducted the interview with LaRossa in a small conference room that he reserved
for us at the Scholastic building in Manhattan, New York. The room was small, but not
confined. It contained one round table surrounded by three comfortable chairs. The walls
were beige and bare. LaRossa and I had the interview at the round table.
50
51
I was introduced to LaRossa through a discussion over Twitter on graphic design.

LaRossa wasnt necessarily used to being interviewed, but he had no problem talking about
graphic design. He was very approachable and excited to contribute his ideas of the
complex cultures revolving around graphic design and fine art and where they intersect.
figures 43: LaRossas designs for Scholastic
figures 44 (above):
LaRossas designs for Scholastic
figures 45 (below):
LaRossas designs for Scholastic
52
figure 46: A book jacket design by Kidd
Charles Chip Kidd - (GD2)
Chip Kidd has been a professional graphic designer for the past twenty-five years.
He is known for his popular book jacket designs for contemporary graphic novels, literary
journals, fiction, and non-fiction works, such as the famous Jurassic Park book jacket
(figure 47). Along with designing book jackets (figures 46-50), Kidd has also written about
graphic design and popular culture for McSweeneys, Vogue, The New York Times, The New
York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Post, and I.D. Kidd grew up in
Pennsylvania and attended college at Penn State University where he discovered his love
for graphic design. He often speaks on graphic design and his career at colleges and
universities. In interviews Kidd has stated that he believes the next step for graphic design
53
is for designers to start producing their own content. That being said, Kidd has written,
designed, and published two fictional novels: The Cheese Monkeys in 2002 (figure 49), and
The Learners in 2008 (figure 50). He is currently writing his first graphic novel, Batman:
Death by Design, due out in May of 2012, and an instructional book that introduces graphic
design to adolescents and teaches them how to design.
I conducted the interview with Kidd in his office at the Random House building in
Manhattan, New York. Although seemingly organized, Kidds office walls and desk were
taken over by books, posters, figurines, manuscripts, works-in-progress, coffee mugs, and
other personal trinkets. Utilizing an L-shaped desk, Kidd sits at his Apple computer with
the office door on his right and a view of Manhattan on his left. I sat in a chair in front of
his desk and we proceeded with the interview.
54
figure 49: A novel written by Kidd
figure 50: A novel written by Kidd
Interviewing Kidd was unique. Unlike the other three participants, he had been
interviewed hundreds of times. His answers to my questions were often short where other
participants responses were long, and long where others were short. Although I was
nervous at first, as the interview moved forward, the dialogue became more fluid.
55
The Transcribed Unstructured Interviews
I began each interview with about five minutes of small talk and a few
preliminary questions. I asked most of the participants all fifteen questions. The fifteen
questions have been laid out in the following sequence:
1. How would you define graphic design?
2. What do you think has changed about graphic design over the past 5-10 years?
3. How do you adjust your curriculum/syllabi to acknowledge these changes and
teach the principles found within these changes? *
4. Do you need to know the technological side of graphic design, namely the
Adobe Creative Suite, to properly teach design?
5. What graphic design lessons that youve taught do you find are the
most successful? *
6. Do you have class critiques? If so, how frequent? How long?
Are class critiques important? *
7. Was graphic design taught when you were in high school?
8. Outside of graphic design itself, what inspires your design work?
9. How does your own art work and design work inform your teaching methods? *
10. Have you ever consistently used a sketchbook? Do you still use a sketchbook?
11. What does graphic design have in common with fine art?
12. What differentiates design from fine art?
What are distinct qualities unique to graphic design?
56
13. Why is graphic design important to someone that is not a graphic designer,
if at all?
14. Why is graphic design important to a general art education curriculum, if at all?
15. What do you think are the shortcomings and/or benefits found in your
educational setting in concern to graphic design? What can you do, or did you
do as a teacher to eliminate those shortcomings? *
Each unstructured interview had their own unique qualities and pacing. Due to the fluid
nature of unstructured interviews, individually sparked tangents occurred around each
question. I have included any tangents I felt were relevant to my research study. Questions
marked with an asterisk (*) did not directly apply to GD1 and GD2, and were only relevant
to AT1 and AT2. However, in a few circumstances GD1 and GD2 provided answers.
57
Table 1: Interview Question #1 Responses of Participants
Question #1
How would you define graphic design?
Smith
(AT1)
Graphic design is creating something thats going to communicate a message. Youre

taking your ideas and youre making them visual. Youre going to figure out how youre
going to communicate your ideas to people when youre not there. With graphic design,
youre focusing more on how people are going to interpret it, perceive it, and is the
message getting across as quickly as it needs to get it across. In graphic design, you
always have the client in mind, the viewer in mind.
Young
(AT2)
Well today, I just dont, I dont even like the word. I mean, graphic? Whats graphic?
Design, I guess everything would come under that heading. Anything could be design. I
can go into a company, I could go in a restaurant and help them and design how the plates
come out, how the food looks on the plate. Is a chef a designer? Totally. I have worked in
kitchens and cooked for awhile in a meditation center that I studied in, and I cooked for
one hundred and fifty people. It was the same thing. What about the word graphic? It isnt
really the word. Its what, where, and why.
LaRossa
(GD1)
I guess I kind of try not to define it, really. I think I kind of understand design - rather than
understanding it from what it is physically, or what it does - I understand it through its
culture. Its culture is very different from the fine arts culture. They have very different
heroes. Very different histories. I think about it more like the socio-political dynamics of
what makes it work. Design is really about mass production in a way that art is sometimes,
but mass production largely is not intrinsic to what art is.
Graphic designers are connecting to communities and the internet has only made that more
easy. The designer is growing in their freedom and flexibility with their ability to move
effortlessly throughout the system.
Kidd
(GD2)
You can be very logistical about it. It is purposeful problem solving using some kind
of combination of words and image, or sometimes just words, and sometimes just image.
Thats the really broad definition of it.
58
Question #2
What do you think has changed about graphic design over the past 5-10 years?
Smith
(AT1)
I think a couple of things have happened. I think the advent of the home computer as a tool
for graphic design in the 90s and into 2000, the internet, and even video editing in the last
five years. I mean, I just started frequently putting videos up on YouTube. Now you can go
to YouTube, you can go online and use free software and you can edit. Its almost scary
how much can be done. The internet has also increased exposure to other artists.
Young
(AT2)
I recently talked with a student who graduated Cooper [Union] a couple of years ago.
Shes in a band, she also paints, she does logos, and she does performance art. Shes with a
group of people that kind of work together on a lot of these things and she said that her
whole generation is thinking like that. Its not this narrow... We dont want to just be one
of those things, we love all of those things. I think its a great moment really, kind of... The
economy, which is going to continue the way it is, is telling you youre going to need to be
sort of a renaissance person. The computer has really helped. Im telling my classes that
everything is possible, dont limit yourself.
LaRossa
(GD1)
In the beginning my department was just print, now were aggressively shifting our entire
business plan and structure of the whole organization towards doing web, interactive white
boards and mobile learning devices that are saturating the classrooms. The other day I was
thinking when YouTube and Twitter started, and its blowing my mind because it wasnt
even 5 years ago. There are all these things that are so ubiquitous now, and this was all
during the time since Ive been a designer. Specifically with the design world, I think
Twitter changed everything as far as connecting people. Because everything that graphic
designers make can be packaged and delivered that way easily with one hundred and forty
characters and a link. So suddenly the design world is able to connect and share what
theyre working on and making at this crazy accelerated rate. I feel like its accelerating
the evolution of graphic design. I think one of the things that come out of that is a much
higher standard for typography for both web and print. I think Twitter has made design
history and the best practices of design so accessible.
Kidd
(GD2)
Certainly the greatest change has been a technical one. Not the death of print, but the
changing role of print. Now, thats a purely technical aspect that has, in and of itself,
nothing to do with, Are people using more red than they used to?... Its the whole form and
content thing. I find if youre a student now, you have to learn about design for the web.
You just have to. Its not an option. Even when I taught at SVA in the 90s, it was
something that we frankly didnt have to go into, and I didnt. So, to me, the last five to
ten years, thats the biggest thing.
59
When GD1 was talking about higher standards in graphic design, he began talking
about modernism, post-modernism, and Alter-modernism:
There was an exhibit at the Tate a couple years ago called Alter-modernism. It
was really well curated. It was interesting. They were talking about how the new
global technological reality we find ourselves in is making some of the aspects of
modernism that used to be idealistic, now suddenly realistic. So its not the same as
modernism, because at the time when modernism was happening, it was kind of this
utopian idea of perfect form and connecting the whole global community, but there
really wasnt a framework for that. Now that we have the internet, some of those
things are actually plausible. So its not really modernism. Its something else.
Post-modernism is really specific to the period between modernism and now. But I
dont think were in a post-modernist era anymore. Post-modernism was less about
the community and more about the self. It was kind of like retreating back in and
saying its okay for this to just be for me. I dont have to create something that
solves things for everyone. Its okay if Im just going to be satisfying myself. Thats
the way that I view it.
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Question #3
How do you adjust your curriculum/syllabi to acknowledge these changes
and teach the principles found within these changes?
Last year I had PCs and I had a piece of software, Microsoft Publisher, which was a
template driven piece of software that they could create a business card, a letterhead, and
an envelope. When we switched over to Macs, we lost Microsoft Publisher. That was a big
part of Graphics 1. They learned a lot by using it. So all of a sudden I had to see what else
was out there.
Smith
(AT1)
Young
(AT2)
I frequent message boards all the time. Somebody may post something about an artist Ive
never seen or heard of, and all of a sudden youre on their website, youre looking in their
store, youre buying their artwork, youre hanging their artwork, and then all of a sudden
Im teaching their artwork in my class. That happened with Mr. Brainwash. I started
giving him as vocabulary words in class. They were researching him. They were finding
out all sorts of things about him. It was just on a whim. Finding something through a
message board. Now we study Banksy (figure 1), we study Shepard Fairey (figure 2), we
study Mr. Brainwash (figure 3). I call them the big three because they are so intertwined,
and theres other artists that are sort of satellites of them, and its a big web. All of these
artists, a lot of these street artists work with each other. Curtis Kulig, who does the Love
Me tag, he is starting a clothing line project with Shepard Fairey. Shepard Fairey started
Obey Clothing, and he got his help from Marc Ecko, who started Ecko Clothing, who is
also from New Jersey. Its weird. The internet really helps disseminate this information.
Prior to that youd have to go into a coffee shop and meet the right people, or wait for a
book to get published, or a magazine.
I think my class is changing, has been changing, but maybe it was always about nurturing
creativity. Like, basic to me, is not basic design, but how do I have an idea? This
creativity thats within me, how do I bring it up? How do I become... What is a creative
person? I think those are the really basic issues. I think most schools are trade schools and
theyre teaching the trade. What Im trying to do is go more basic than that. You have to
bring something to your trade, and what would that be? Oh, well, the biggest influence for
me has been Buddhism. I mean as a concept. Many many of their ideas have to do with
uncovering your true nature. When I say true nature I would say one aspect of true nature
is your creativity. This is something that has been done. The Japanese did this. In Japan
they have all these art forms that they use to do exactly this. They have flower arranging,
and the tea ceremony, and archery, and brush painting, and calligraphy. All of those arts
were used as a way of accessing, of focusing the mind. When the mind is focused it can
access its creativity. Thats what its used for. I mean not only creativity, it accesses other
things too.
So, Im focusing more and more on accessing the creative, I guess, spirit thats within us,
more specifically. I feel that thats what I have discovered within myself through
concentration practices; walking, sitting, basically those. But its amazing actually what
happens. If you do have somewhat of a practice of concentration, you notice these ideas;
that the mind will have ideas and youll have access to them. So when youre a little
calmed down a little bit, when youre not in the busy-ness of your mind, thats when it
comes. If you concentrate, its just that the mind will, the creative mind, creative aspects, it
will send this information to you. So, since you cant teach creativity really, I feel what I
can teach is access.
61
AT2 had a lot to say in relation to this question. He talked about how he
incorporates meditation into his classes:
So what we do have is a forty to fifty minute period of walking meditation now
every class. The classes should really be four hours long. We had a workshop a
couple Saturdays ago where we had three hours of walking. Then afterwards, sitting
quietly afterwards.
AT1 mentioned this later on in the interview. It addresses the inclusion of new shifts
in the contemporary landscape and responsibly applying them to the classroom:
When we talk about street artists and graffiti, I have to preface it by saying that I
am not supporting or condoning graffiti. Im not in any way. It is illegal. You will be
arrested. But I find the culture these street artists come from is so interesting.
Theres a lot you can take from that world. You find a lot of the students coming in
with apparel that features a lot of current street artists work. The kids see it. Im
always picking up new artists to learn about because whos going to be the next one
that theyre going to relate to? We can look at their work, and its something they
can relate to. Its real. Its happening. They see it and they like it.
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Question #4
Do you need to know the technological side of graphic design,
namely the Adobe Creative Suite, to properly teach design?
Smith
(AT1)
I think youd be obsolete if you didnt. But could you? Absolutely. Yeah. I recently had a
student teacher who did a project with them, a design project where they were designing
book covers. They had to use torn pieces of colored construction paper. They were still,
almost like in Illustrator, using shapes to design with torn paper. It was an effective lesson.
The kids definitely learned. Although, you could see that they were eager to get back into
the digital format, to do it in the computer. They like the computer. Thats the problem I
have with kids in the beginning, is that theyre so easy to just go to the computer and start
creating. Its important to know the origin of Copy, Cut, and Paste.
I think in secondary education, and even in university, theyre calling on there graphic
design teachers to teach the computer, to teach the programs. But here at SVA, which I
think is great, they dont. Its too big of a job to do everything. You want to focus here on
creativity. Theres not enough time. Youre going to try and do both in three hours? Once a
week? Its just impossible. I think they do it at the secondary level because its economic.
Its just much to much to ask somebody to teach all of these things.
Young
(AT2)
One of the most important things I teach is work habits. Dedication and perseverance. I
would say those two are the key. When work isnt going well, and you get a critique, and
you kind of know you have a lot of work to do, instead of being disheartened, instead of
going home and feeling insecure, all these psychological factors that play a huge role,
which I deal with a lot... Students are very insecure. All human beings are very insecure.
Big talents are insecure. Its a part of the human condition. But you want to know how to
work with your insecurities. Work habits. Under work habits is Oh, all right. This is hell. I
dont know what the hell Im doing, but what did Frank say? Keep going. Just keep
persevering. Its the strong work ethic which people really lack.
My first reaction is, No. I do think that you can teach the principals of design, which are
very similar in a lot of ways to the principals of drawing or painting. Just composition,
color, form, those are things I find a lot of people with undergraduate design degrees are
missing. You spend all of this time with type and the software, almost so much so that
theyve missed the other side of things. But at the same time, as soon as I said No, I started
thinking, I feel that its starting to become real difficult to detach the two.
LaRossa
(GD1)
I feel like Im still a beginner and in order for me to move to being a master, I would want
to understand design in all the ways that it can be expressed. I would want to do a wine
bottle label. I want to do a hardcover book. Anything I havent done, I want to be able to
understand that and a lot of those things, you really cant do without a computer anymore.
I think you can learn and teach design without a computer, but I think you can only go
so far.
I think without the computer, especially now with Twitter and all these connective
resources, like describing design without the computer, youre really not going to be able
to touch on the community of graphic design, and like I said at the beginning, the
community of it is like 90% of it. The community of graphic design. The global
community, but more specifically your local community.
63
AT1 had the following to stay about creating thumbnails and sketching out ideas
away from the computer:
I think for the kids its important for them to thumbnail, to sketch, and to
brainstorm, thats the one thing that [students who have graduated from my class]
are always telling me. Theyre like, I never understood how much I have to draw in
college, even though Im a graphic design major. Its quicker and easier. It makes
you a better artist and a better graphic designer.
64
Question #5
What graphic design lessons that youve taught do you find are the most successful?
Smith
(AT1)
Any project that has the possibility of being used out in the community. I will get kids
arguing, debating, almost fighting. They get passionate about their work because they
want theirs to get picked. They want the client to like theirs the best. They want it to go up
out and around the school. They get sad when its not picked. They get upset. They shut
down. [If that happens] I provide other outlets for that work to be shown. So, if we do the
play poster, at the play every poster that wasnt chosen will be displayed. Alongside the
head-shots of all the actors are the fifteen or twenty posters that we created that didnt get
chosen. Along with that is going to be the poster that was chosen, and the evolution of that
poster. So the twenty different versions of it, and how it evolved and changed. Im more
passionate about the process than the final project.
After asking Young this question, I mentioned a lesson he taught my class in 2003
involving the process of creating fifty versions of the same idea, and by the next week
creating two-hundred versions of the same idea, and seeing where that would take us.
Sure. Definitely. Im still doing a lot of that, doing the numbers. Im not the one who
discovered numbers, you know, doing amounts. In fact, specifically, when I was a kid I
saw these 8mm black and white films that my aunt had taken in Japan of a Japanese
master doing calligraphy, and he did about two-hundred sheets a day of one character, with
a big sumi brush, over and over and over, the same thing. Of course, every one is different.
They were not the same. He knew. A very focused guy. So, it was just again this eastern
influence, but Im sure Native Americans had plenty of trainings for their young men and
women in similar ways.
Young
(AT2)
Its what happens to the mind. The mind gets bored. It has to go through all kinds of
changes in order to know that you can stick to something; that you know youve done it. I
did fifty and I thought that half way through was hell. How am I going to keep on doing
this? Then you do it, and you realize, Yeah. All right. I can do that! So the next time,
easier. Thats where work habits come from. Theres also some pride in that too, because
you think, Oh. Gee. I got 1 out of fifty. Not bad. Pretty good. And then also, how hard it is
to get one, that you have to a lot to get anything. Thats just the reality of it. You have to
get a lot of stuff out. Everythings leading. You just have to do the work.
Its similar to music. How many hours a day are you working on your instrument. And the
repetition. Playing the same licks over and over and over, until theyre just perfect. Maybe
theyre never perfect, you just need to practice them. Im calling it all a practice, all of
its a practice. Im sort of letting the third and fourth year teachers - not letting, but in
terms of coming up with a specific product for something. Theres plenty of time to focus
on the product.
65
Question #6
Do you have class critiques? If so, how frequent? How long?
Are class critiques important?
Smith
(AT1)
Graphics 1 we do [critiques] with the first project. I used to use a video camera where I
could use a tripod and point the camera straight down at the table and we could put the
thumbnails underneath the lens, so that we could project them on the wall real big, so
everyone in the class could see the little thumbnails. The person would get up and talk
about them and explain them. With the new technology in the room, I now have an iPad.
So Ill photograph it and then I can put it up on the screen and I can zoom in on it, I can
expand it, etc. We spend usually between five and ten minutes per student talking about it,
giving ideas, input, our impression. Each class is an hour long. When we do our critiques,
they last about a week. You always have got to say something positive and be creative and
encouraging. Sometimes theyll pair off into smaller groups and Ill have them do a peer
critique, so its much smaller. I have twenty-four students in a class and if we spend five to
ten minutes on each one, it takes us about four to five days to get through everybody.
Thats Graphics 1.
The first project they do in Graphics 2 is a movie poster. They do peer critique. Depending
on the size of the class, well do a class critique. Theyll last longer, like fifteen minutes,
and some of them will last a half hour.
Class critiques give the students a chance to see their work next to other students work. I
wish we could do more with it, but it really becomes a wrench in the monkey-works in
terms of time. Weve got a lot to get through.
Sure. Yeah. Now Im not having that many class critiques. Now, just this semester, Im
doing all individuals. I meet with everybody every week. Im a big believer in contacting
the other person. We were meeting as a group last semester. People were doing videos and
we showed them on screen and we all sat there and watched. So yeah, we use a projector
sometimes, with the students sitting around looking at work, well do that. We did that
quite a bit, maybe even every week, last semester. But I wasnt focused on the individual
the way I am this semester.
Young
(AT2)
A teacher that I got a lot out of, and I asked her, she was a meditation teacher, and I said,
Im just getting so much out of your teachings, and she looked at me kind of piercingly
and she said Direct transmission. I found what that meant was it wasnt just the words, it
was the body being there, that she was transmitting her energy, her love for the subject, all
of who she was, directly from her to me. Did I feel that? Totally. I think that you do feel
that. I mean, it depends upon the person, how open they are. But I feel that. Its not phony.
Ill say [to a student] Yes, I like your ideas and Im looking directly at the person, and
Im letting them know that they have my support, and that I get what theyre trying to do,
and I think thats huge. I think one of the biggest things you can give to another person is
encouragement. Its unbelievable how powerful that is.
66
GD2 wasnt directly asked question #6. When describing what his process was when
writing The Cheese Monkeys, he referred to critiques as miniature court room dramas.
Question #7
Was graphic design taught when you were in high school?
Young
(AT2)
We had an etching studio. Printmaking. There wasnt any photography. It was largely
painting and printmaking. We did silkscreens. That was really great to have that. We did a
lot of posters for the school. Then there was the yearbook, and that sort of got me into
some of the type. I had been painting and all of a sudden my teacher said You want to
work on the yearbook? and I had no idea what that was about. I was setting type and
going to the typesetters and doing mechanicals. We did that in high school.
LaRossa
(GD1)
No. My high school was awful. I mean it was a good high school. It was actually a private
school. I grew up in Atlanta and the schools where I was in the late 90s were not that great.
It was really focused on history, literature, social studies, and these things. They didnt
even have a PR program, and not many people before me even went to art school. I was
woefully unprepared for art school.
Kidd
(GD2)
No, but I remember in art class, like in junior high, one of the assignments, basically to
keep everybody happy, was to design an album cover. It was 1979. Other than that - and
this is getting too specific to be interesting - When I was in high school there was a class
that I did not take, but I had friends who were, and we would talk about it all the time,
which was called Understanding Mass Media. For its time, in a suburban Pennsylvania
high school, was pretty sophisticated. They were learning about subliminal advertising and
that kind of thing, and that would have been 1980-1981.
67
Question #8
Outside of your graphic design itself, what inspires your design work?
I used to play Tetris a lot while I was in college. I would sleep and I would see the Tetris
pieces, like the falling shapes. The blue piece over there (figure 22), if you can see it, the
holes cut out are the Tetris shapes. My work has always evolved. Ive always wanted to
create things that sort of make people look at it and question how it was made. Not
necessarily, What does it mean? With my artwork, nothing has meaning. Its more of
pushing material to its limits. Getting it to do something that it normally doesnt do. Trial
and error. I get things to work, and what doesnt work, I learn from. I like a challenge of
being able to create something that can look like its about to break, or shouldnt work.
Smith
(AT1)
When I did my ceramic pieces [in college], the white ones (figures 19-22), I explained the
idea to my professor and she said it wouldnt work and that I shouldnt do it, nor would I
get credit for it. But, as an artist, when you get an idea inside your head, its like having to
take a shit. You gotta get it out. You cant leave it inside, or it hurts. It physically hurts to
have an idea in your head that isnt out. Youre not satisfied until its out on the paper, out
in wood, out in clay. It becomes this physical thing rather than a mental thing.
I sleep with a sketchbook next to my bed and if you get those dreams you wake up from
and youre like, Holy Crap! I dream in inventions, which is weird. Like, I invent things in
my dreams. I invent things in my sleep. I need to get some patents. Haha. Theres been
some that Ive forgotten and its killed me. I had one dream where I was inventing
something, and I was so lucid and it was so clear, and I didnt write it down. I went back to
sleep and forgot and I have no idea what the hell it was.
Young
(AT2)
Inspiration is everywhere of course, but Im trying to think specifically. Certainly when I

see other peoples work; I can go to a museum, I can look in a magazine, I can look at a
photo, seeing my students work, seeing what theyre doing. All the basics: a tree, a bird,
the wind, poetry, music. I was bringing a lot of music in the last few years, not any
mainstream music, but experimental things. The same issues musicians have, visual artists
have, especially, one thing I can remember is space - how musicians use space, and how
artists use space.
Im inspired by the manuscript of whatever the book is, or the story is, or whatever the
author is trying to do. That has to be the initial inspiration. I dont have time to read
everything. But, am I informed about it? Yes. Do I read some of it? Yes. There was this old
saying in school that the more you can accurately define the problem, the more that will
help you to find the solution. That kind of sounds like some kind of Zen mumbo-jumbo,
but I I do think thats true.
Kidd
(GD2)
Personally, I find as I go along, and the years pile up, and the work piles up, what becomes
hard is to keep it fresh, for lack of a better word. I also, subconsciously at least, am aiming
for a kind of timeless look to things. Some of these covers are fifteen, twenty years old.
Some were created last year. I do want some sense of, you know... Theyre not going to
look dated or silly as time goes on.
Ive got these two straddling things professionally: theres book publishing, and theres
graphic design. And so theres an intersection where sometimes Im a graphic designer in
the book publishing world, and sometimes Im a book person in the graphic design world.
So, I love to read and write actually. So all of that aspect is very important to me, as
opposed to like somebody whos really really multidisciplinary.
68
GD2 elaborated further on his satisfaction with what he has been able to accomplish
professionally and the future of graphic design:
Ive been able to generate projects that we publish here, or acquire them, and
oversee them, and help bring them into being, and by that I mean the graphic novel
stuff. Being able to publish Chris Ware (figures 4, 5). Being able to do my own take
on Peanuts. The Batman and Japan thing (figure 48), that was a really personal
crusade for me. That really excites me. Authorship excites me. I think thats been
one of the other major trends in the graphic design world, is that theres been more
authorship. I think thats very exciting. I think its a way for graphic designers to lay
claim to their own stuff, to their own work, instead of constantly doing something
in service to somebody else.
69
Question #9
How does your own art work and design work inform your teaching methods?
Smith
(AT1)
Actually, the ceramics classes are actually doing my project. I invented that. The pieces
that fit together and you build with (figures 13, 20-22). Thats what I was saying before
(table 8). My professor said it wouldnt work. At that point I had taken ceramics one
through six in college as a blow-off. I was so passionate about it, even though I was
majoring in graphic design. I was still very rigid and formal and you know, alignment,
keeping things straight, not letting loose. She called me out on it and I had to sort of go a
new direction with my art from there. But basically, I approached her with this idea. For
every one piece thats over there (figures 13, 20-22), there are six or seven that look just
like it in my parents basement still. So I brought in a small sampling of things. I wanted to
work in size and I wanted to go bigger. I had this idea of creating ceramic pieces that
would fit together and lock together. Almost springing from the Tetris idea, where you
could fit the pieces together and I started creating these patterns in my head.
So, I had this idea for this ceramics project and I want to do it. She said it wont work. The
clay is going to shrink and contrast and its going to break and its not going to work. But
its in me. Ive got this idea in me. Im going to do it anyway. So, I did it and all of a
sudden I came into class one night and I was late and everybodys around the table where
the work was and they were putting the pieces together. The professor said to me, Im
sorry. This is what you need to do.
Young
(AT2)
I did not ask Young this question specifically because I felt that he had indirectly answered
this question in question #4 (table 4), question #5 (table 5), question #6 (table 6), and
question #8 (table 8)
70
Question #10
Have you ever consistently used a sketchbook? Do you still use a sketchbook?
Ill have a week where Ill do nothing but sketch in my sketchbook, then Ill have a month
where I dont even touch it. Ive taken 6 months off and then Im back at it again. Ill be
like, All these ideas need to come out.
Smith
(AT1)
LaRossa
(GD1)
Kidd
(GD2)
I would lifeguard in the summer and I would sit and stare at the pool for ten hours a day. I
would think about my art. I wouldnt sketch, I would just think about it. I wasnt
sketching, because I was forced to sketch in college. I was forced to sketch, so I wouldnt
sketch in the summer. I would think during the summer and I would sketch when I got
back in September.
I just started using one again recently. I dont know if I still will. I have a box full of
sketchbooks. Ive gone through periods where I have. I also illustrate sometimes, mostly
just for a couple clients; other departments in Scholastic, and New Scientist Magazine
seems to be the only person that keeps calling me back. Haha. I do stuff for them and I
never do sketches, I always go straight to final. Even when I was in undergrad for
illustration, I would never do sketches, I would always go straight to final. I do use a
sketchbook, but I dont use it to sketch out ideas. Im really adverse to doing things twice.
I dont see the point. Something gets lost for me when I do that.
Now I use a sketchbook, but I like sketch on archival paper with archival ink. In my mind,
whatever Im working on has the potential to be a thing, to be a finished thing. So, right
now Im maybe like ten pages deep in a new book. Some of the stuff Ill never use, and
some of the stuff I might be using in March. But yeah, like all the sketchbooks I have in
my basement hermetically sealed, those are objects to me that I treasure. That is the
finished thing. Youve got the cover, youve got to do it up.
I am a terrible sketcher, but that doesnt have anything to do with the web and computers,
but when computers came along, I really became hopeless. I remember as a sophomore in
college, we were taking something called Photo Graphics. It was great. It was a great
class. We were learning about photo techniques, making photograms and all of this predigital stuff. We had to keep a sketchbook as part of the assignment, and you would turn it
in at the end for part of your grade. And, you know, it was work. It was work to do that.
Ive got friends, especially my cartoonist friends - I mean Chris Ware (figures 4-5), hello!
They cant function unless theyre sketching. For some of them its therapy, for some of
them, they just have to do it. I have infinite respect, but also, Im almost jealous in a way. I
just wish I had that gene, and I really really dont.
71
I also asked AT1 if his students use sketchbooks, or if he requires a sketchbook to

be handed in at the end of the year or marking period for a grade. This was his response:
With each project, as I give them a rubric, I usually give them the thumbnail
sheets. The sheets are there to give the students a rough outline of what they want to
do. So thats sort of in lieu of sketchbooks. I dont require them to keep a
sketchbook outside of class. I have students that have sketchbooks, but theyre
usually not willing to share them. At the same time too, I dont want to turn them
off to a sketchbook by forcing them to use one. The thumbnail sheets can be very
formal and rigid and your sketchbook can be unto yourself. If youre really genuine
about sketching, youre going to do it. I think once they get into college, they all
really get into having sketchbooks and stuff like that. To require it in high school, I
think it could be a turn off to them. I mean, I cant go in an grade it because it is
almost like a diary. Its as if Id be pressuring them into using it.
72
Question #11
What does graphic design have in common with fine art?
Young
(AT2)
LaRossa
(GD1)
Kidd
(GD2)
Its really if youre an artist, youre an artist. Something I really disagree with is... Well I
know why its happened that everything was so compartmentalized, graphic design,
painting, whatever, film, just this idea like, Okay, that means youre that. People are
much more eclectic, but not that many though that have been.You know I remember when
I started out doing advertising and graphic design, even though I was painting at the time,
I didnt think Oh, well I can design a lamp or a table, or maybe I could design a house, or
maybe I can do landscape. You know? An artist is an artist. So thats proved out to be true
of course.
I think it has a ton in common, now more than ever. A lot of the same tools. A ton of the
same language. Mostly because of the computer. For me personally, I just had a show last
year. Everything I had exhibited I made with the same tool that I designed a catalogue
interior with. Which is weird. The thing is, its like artists and designers are using the same
tools, more than they were before. Not just the same language as in composition, and
color, and form, and rhythm, and balance, and these things, but the same tools.
But I still think the major dividing force is the cultures. You take these tools and the same
language and some of the same principles and practices and you take all of those and you
stick them in one culture and means one thing, and in another culture it means something
else. Its not so easy to just jump from one to the other, you know. Because again, its
different benefactors, different hierarchies, different histories, different people that are
like... Its something that I think about a lot.
I mean this [holding up a piece of work by Chris Ware], do I want to frame that and put it
on my wall? Yeah. Kind of. But is it in service to some specific thing? Absolutely. You
know, the obvious old example is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Alphonse Mucha, these
truly gifted draftsman who made art, but they also had to make a living. So you had
Toulouse-Lautrec making posters for the French dance halls, and you know, thats a sort
of a line in-between. I think a contemporary example is a lot of the stuff that Stefan
Sagmeister does (figures 8-10). He clearly is trying to explore something thats visual
and has a typographic component, but also fits somehow into the world of putting it into
an art gallery.
73
Question #12
What differentiates design from fine art?
What are distinct qualities unique to graphic design?
Smith
(AT1)
Graphic design is creating something thats going to communicate a message. Its also one
of the few art classes thats preparing you with a skill thats going to be able to support
you. You can paint, you can draw, and you can make money, but graphic design is
something where youre going to be able to apply all of the artistic traits youve learned to
a career. You probably have a better chance at being successful at, rather than a
professional painter. Its a little more commercial in here. I dont know if that emphasis is
put forth in the photography class, or painting, or drawing, or fine arts.
I have a studio and am a practicing artist so I spend a lot of time trying to define and
divide the two, because I find that its difficult to operate in the two worlds without
understanding that theyre totally different. They have really different benefactors. Its
like two different worlds. If I was to say what graphic design is, I would describe it in
an answer that really is like describing the social structures that support it, that facilitate
its creation.
LaRossa
(GD1)
I think one of the major things that is unique to graphic design is the client relationship.
That is completely devoid in the art world. As a designer, you kind of come in touch with
what [the client] wants. You bring a lot of yourself to it but youre kind of aiming for that.
Its almost like something you pride yourself on; to be in tune with what the zeitgeist
wants, and to be able to deliver it on command within a set time-frame.
Also, design is really about mass production in a way that art is sometimes, but mass
production largely is not intrinsic to what art is. Now mass production is dependent upon a
lot of people playing their part, cogs in the wheel, steps along the way. There are a lot of
things involved with graphic design, where art exists in the room where it is.
I know a lot of guys that are 33 and are making next to nothing and are living in their
studio sleeping on a cot, and theyre just painting, and they sacrificed a lot. Theres a lot of
blood, sweat, and tears there. They go to every opening that there is in the city. They spend
a lot of time putting their feet to the pavement, meeting curators, all this stuff. I have that
in my mind when I see designers who come up through design school, or guys who learn
illustration and teach themselves design. They start trying to put together a show in a
gallery, or they just make a make-shift gallery. Then they just start trying to do that, but
without understanding.
Kidd
(GD2)
Heres the basic difference as I see it, and again, I think this is just common sense. Maybe
Im too pragmatic. Fine art is a blank canvas. Ok fill it. Do whatever you want. Design is,
Ok. Heres the problem. I need you to design a poster that will either encourage me to start
doing something or discourage me to stop doing something. Go. So thats the basic
difference to me.
74
Question #13
Why is graphic design important to someone that is not a graphic designer, if at all?
Well, in concern to visual literacy, its important, even as a consumer. I always come back
to Advertising. I feel like theres such a tie between advertising in our daily lives and
graphic design is such a big part of it, that if you can teach a kid things like moods and
persuasions, and marketing techniques, and look at the actual advertisements and see the
things that are done that are done specifically to target them, it might make them a
smarter consumer.
Smith
(AT1)
Young
(AT2)
Kidd
(GD2)
Also, theres nothing worse than going to a meeting and having to sit through a Power
Point presentation that is all bullets and templates and page after page of text without
images. I was teaching them Power Point and Im putting a focus on images consistency,
color, and not using templates. I told them if you get a job working and you have to do a
powerpoint presentation for people, to have some sort of clue to aesthetics and
understanding of how type is going to interact with the viewer, its important. You dont
want to use Comic Sans to do your business card if youre a lawyer. Theres a basic
understanding. Theres sort of an assumption on behalf of Microsoft that people know that
stuff. Well, they dont know that. They do not know that.
Well, I mean, God theres, you can call it just on the level of appreciation, to be able to
appreciate an Eames chair, or Le Corbusiers buildings, or a magazine. Its interesting
because in our country the public is less educated in design. In Denmark, the publics
really well educated and their country looks like it. But then youd say, Well, but so what?
Does it matter that they are? Well I think that the sensitivity, its just... The idea that I can
get really excited about a piece of design is definitely life enriching and the fact that they
say art appreciation, music appreciation... People dont think they should pay for that
particularly, but the idea of enriching your life... well, you know what, you were saying,
theres all this research that they did, I think at MIT, or was it Harvard, that people who
took art classes did so much better at all there other classes, and in business, because of
creativity. So you can say, Oh creativity, what a wonderful thing to teach, or to expose
people to. Even if theyre not looking to go into creative work. So they did discover
that it actually makes a huge difference. I dont think theyre getting people to spend
money, particularly on the arts anymore in our country, because they dont get that.
Graphic design is important because they encounter it all the time, and even more so with
the internet. They are looking at graphic design constantly. So, I mean, I think its different
then, you know, I want to drive a car. I dont need to know how it works. But I think the
whole thing, and this is getting onto something else like the advertising world, but I think
its valuable to be able to decode and understand the extent to which you are being... An
attempt is being made to manipulate you. That actually, that would be a whole great book
for kids too.
Visual literacy and understanding, you know, what those TV ads are saying and trying to
get you to do. Theres a lot of peer pressure involved. Youre not cool if you dont do this.
So I think understanding that, understanding what youre looking at. Something that has a
tremendous amount of quality and value as opposed to something that doesnt. Why? How
do you determine that? How do you make that decision? So I do think its important for
people that dont want to study it, or practice it, to at least understand it.
75
Question #14
Why is graphic design important to a general art education curriculum, if at all?
LaRossa
(GD1)
It is definitely important because I think its a part of the landscape. Its a part of the
spectrum. Its good for someone in high school to learn design cause its important for
them to be exposed to a wide spectrum of things and they dont know whether or not they
want to be a designer because they dont know anything. Even if they know they have an
inclination to the visual arts, they need to experience it all. I was really happy with the way
MICA did their foundation year. Im sure SVA did something similar. I was doing
sculpture, photography, and all of that stuff. That was really important. I still remember
my sculptures fondly. It was really important for me to feel and understand what that
means. Let them explore.
I think really what matters in a design education is problem solving, and learning
conceptual thinking. All the formal stuff is style and its not that its not important, but I
think its this core thing of, How do you solve this problem?, and, Do I do it with a
poster?, Do I do it with some other graphic vehicle means?, but it becomes about a
concept in the service of solving a problem. And I think thats really really really
important to try and teach to kids - teach anybody.
Kidd
(GD2)
Im very very big on form and content. What are they? How do they work together? How
do they work separately? Its the formal stuff; big and small, visual hierarchies, pattern
and repetition, typography, What is it?, form and content, What are they?, What do they
mean? Its almost about when youre a baby you can only perceive things formally for a
good bit of time. Then you learn to speak and to write and all of this. I think good graphic
designers and good formalists have to teach themselves to, not regress, but go back to that
stage. Graphic design teaches you to really look at things and break them down into
formal components.
AT1 and AT2 were not asked this question because as educators of graphic design,
their responses to this question were acknowledged throughout all of their answers.
76
Question #15
What do you think are the shortcomings and/or benefits found in your educational setting in
concern to graphic design? What can you do, or did you do as a teacher to eliminate those
shortcomings?
Smiths experience is a little unique. He was given carte blanche to write his own
curriculum for a series of graphic arts courses set in a digital studio.
They asked me to write my own curriculum. They wanted a digital studio. Prior was
printing presses and silk-screens and all of that. The guy retired. I came in, but they said
were turning this into a computer lab. They went digital.
Smith
(AT1)
When I wrote the curriculum, I was able to get the curriculum from Fairleigh Dickinson
for all of their graphic design classes. I was able to use that as a framework along with the
framework of what I had learned while working at the advertising agency. The one thing
that we didnt have at Fairleigh Dickinson was the client interaction. I was able to include
all of that stuff. So the kids are really learning that its not necessarily important to learn
how to be a graphic designer and to design for yourself. If youre a graphic designer,
youre really designing for other people and its important to get into that mindset. In the
real world youre not making money designing for yourself, youre designing for other
people. The larger part of graphic design is designing for other people. Creating logos,
business cards, and all of that stuff.
That all being said, I think class size is a huge issue. Ive got 24 kids right now. All my
classes are at capacity.
Young
(AT2)
Well, I think here, itd be great if there was more interdisciplinary... if students could take
more courses in different disciplines. I think that the departments are all so separate from
each other. But I mean, I guess Id say, being here with all of these disciplines going on,
thats a good thing for me. I mean the great thing about this school in particular is that I
have the support of the chairman and that all of the people in the department are hired for
who they are. They are pretty much left alone. There are departments where they try and
tell the teacher what they should cover, but I think mostly, in this school, its not true. I
think its a great part of this school.
LaRossa
(GD1)
I mean if I could teach a college level course in design and I had carte blanche, I dont
know if I would even let them touch a typeface until half way through the year. I think I
would just have them be drawing, painting, sculpting, and doing other things that they
might think have nothing to do with anything... But, yeah, I think its really important to
get those basic fundamentals. I would have Color Aid all over the table. Everyone get out
your Color Aid. Lets play with colors with your hands. There these beautiful sheets of
screen printed color. You can cut them up. Theyre great.
77
At the beginning of the interview, AT1 mentioned the utilization of a class he

calls Computer Graphics 4:
I created a Facebook page for the alumni and its called Computer Graphics 4
(CG4). Its for the students that are either excelling in art, have excelled in art, are
pursuing art, or pursuing advertising, or just passionate about it, or have a genuine
interest in things that theyve learned here. As the students go through the Computer
Graphics courses in high school, they learn about a lot of contemporary artists
whose careers are still evolving. For a lot of the students here, art history to them
has always been about someone thats dead and in here were learning about artists
that are still alive; artists who are active and who are creating new pieces. So the
Facebook members will share links on the Facebook page and see whats going on
in the varied world of graphic design. The students can see work that were doing in
the classroom. I can see work that the alumni are now working on at the college
level. Now students who have graduated and are seeing the work thats currently
going on in the classroom by those kids, and they can give feedback, and they can
critique, and they can modify things that are happening in here. Theres actually no
contact between the students and the students that graduated. Everything gets
filtered through me. Its more for me as a teacher and the kids that have already
graduated, as opposed to the kids that are here.
78
In the middle of the interview, I asked GD2 about the book he is writing about
teaching pre-adolescents and adolescents about graphic design:
Well, first of all, a lot of it has yet to be figured out. I made 40 pages of it for a
proposal. On one hand it should be a series of books, but from a practical
standpoint, if nobody buys the first one, then theres no point. You can do a childs
introduction to typography, all this kind of thing. Right now Im thinking its very
basic concepts of things that theyre dealing with already. One of my examples that
was in the proposal was Japanese matchbooks. I have these scrapbooks of Japanese
matchbooks that I got in Japan. Theyre like 50s, 60s. Some of them are fantastic.
This is formally exciting and part of that is you cant read it. You dont know what
its for. Because you cant read Japanese, you are forced to simply consider it as
form. Its learning to look at this that way, or that way, or considering it as visual
components despite what this actually says.
79
Table 16: The Parting Words of the Unstructured Interview
That about wraps it up. Thanks a lot.

Smith (AT1)
Yeah. No Problem.
Young (AT2)
It was my pleasure.
LaRossa (GD1)
Cool. That was fun. That was good.
Kidd (GD2)
Sure. So what comics did you get?
Curriculum & Syllabi
AT1 provided me with a worksheet outlining the final project for his Graphics 3
class. It includes a rubric, vocabulary words, and project guidelines (figures 51-52).
80
figure 51: Smiths Graphics 3 Final Exam
81
figure 52: Smiths Graphics 3 Final Exam
82
Conclusion to Chapter Four
In this chapter I presented the data that I collected in the field. I transcribed four
unstructured interviews with four different participants: a high school art teacher, a
university professor of graphic design, a professional graphic designer, and a celebrity
graphic designer. I identified and described both high school and university art education
curriculum and syllabi in regards to graphic design. I also discussed current trends and
work in graphic design and contemporary art.
I introduced the four participants. I discussed where they come from, their
professional backgrounds, their inspirations, their artwork and/or lesson plans, their work
stations, their classrooms, and other information I took note of while in the field. Due to the
fluid nature of unstructured interviews I also went into detail about what my experience
was like interviewing each participant. After each participant was introduced, I went
through the sequence of my questions, took note of the individually sparked tangents, and
provided tables that allowed an overall review of the information gathered.
83
CHAPTER FIVE
Analysis
Purpose of Chapter Five
In this chapter I summarize my research findings and draw conclusions based on

the results. I discuss issues that were raised and broad themes that were revealed based on
the data I collected. I compare the research findings from my study to the relevant literature
outlined in Chapter Two. An analysis of the results is presented within each of the groups I
studied: graphic design at the high school level, the university level, the professional level,
and the celebrity level.
Graphic Design at the High School Level
One of the assumptions I had at the beginning of my thesis was that the high school
art education curriculum predominantly teaches an outdated form of graphic design. It is
important to note that AT1s graphic arts classroom finds itself in an unique situation. AT1
was able to write his own curriculum from the ground up, and his curriculum is solely
focused on graphic design (table 15). AT1 teaches in a regional high school in New Jersey
that is fortunate enough to have an art program that is not only varied, but also held in high
regard and well funded. AT1 has over twenty brand-new Apple iMac computers, when
most art classrooms I have been in only have two or three. Due to AT1s allotted autonomy
and financial support, his experience is unlike that of most art teachers.
84
Based on the interview I had with AT1, he is someone who remains engaged with
technology (tables 2-3) and current trends in both the design world and the contemporary
art world (table 3). He also recognizes the importance of process (table 8), tactile learning
(table 4), and group critiques (table 6). AT1 has a strong attention to the client when putting
together a unit for the class (table 1). He is straightforward in his approach and brings his
past experience in advertising into the classroom (table 15). Occasionally AT1 involves a
level of competition into his assignments for projects that have the possibility of being used
out in the community. He considers graphic design to be a commercial artistic field and
structures his classroom around that idea (tables 12, 15).
AT1 recognizes that graphic design is important for students to understand because
they are surrounded by it and because it has an effect on their lives as consumers. He
believes graphic design is a skill-set that can be utilized in a variety of careers (table 13).
I was very impressed with AT1's ability to keep an open ear and an open mind to new
developments out in the field; a great example of this quality is AT1's "Graphics 4" class
that he runs as a Facebook group. After his arts-oriented students graduate, they have
the opportunity to join the Graphics 4 Facebook group that serves as a place where high
school graduates can post their ideas, projects, class critiques, developments, and
discoveries in the art world, and receive feedback that furthers discussion. AT1 uses this
resource as a way of staying informed on what's going on in the real world and in the
university classroom, as well as a way to develop new and relevant lesson plans that
engage his students.
85
AT1 also provided me with a worksheet that he gives to his Graphics III students as
a final exam (figures 51-52). The assignment asks the students to create a PowerPoint
presentation that defines a select group of vocabulary words addressed in his class.
Although the vocabulary words included are relevant and intriguing, there is no room for
the students to incorporate their own experiences into this assignment. The assignment seen
in figures 51 and 52 leans more towards a test than it does a project.
Graphic Design at the University Level
Based on the interview I had with AT2, he does not see the need to
compartmentalize the visual arts (tables 1, 15). AT2 teaches second year graphic design
students. At SVA, when AT2 begins the Fall semester, he is teaching a group of students
who have just completed their foundation year which involves painting, drawing, video,
sculpture, and art history. His class, among others, is the students first introduction to
graphic design at the university level. AT2 recognizes he is teaching future graphic
designers, but focuses his attention on accessing creativity (table 3) and developing
work ethic (table 4).
AT2 does not teach graphic design via a sequence of assignments where at the end
of each project you have a product. He feels that the students will have the next two years
of the program to focus on that (table 4). Instead, AT2 takes his experiences as a graphic
designer, photographer, architect, and painter, finds a common thread, and incorporates
those ideas into his classroom. Meditation is a ritual activity in his classroom and is
86
practiced for the first thirty minutes of each of AT2s three hour classes. AT2s group
discussions pull from various students relevant personal experiences that they are willing
to contribute, as well as AT2s own experiences. Lessons and semester long projects are
derived from the collection of personal experiences where the visual components of
graphic design are explored and utilized.
AT2 teaches the elements of principals of graphic design through the exploration
of both physical and digital materials, typography, projects, and class critiques. It is
important to note that AT2 does not teach any graphic design software (table 4). At SVA,
there is a class where the sole purpose is to teach graphic design applications. It is
important to note that this is an opportunity AT1 does not have at the high school level.
That being said, the significant thing here is that AT2 focuses his lessons and projects
around the experiences of the student. With this practice, a personal aesthetic lexicon has
begun to develop. Through explorations of form and content, AT2 provides the students
with a setting that allows them to formulate their own meaning with tools and concepts
they will be using as future graphic designers.
Graphic Design at the Professional Level
One of the reasons I thought it was important to assess graphic design at the
professional level is because both high school and university curricula should, in some
way, reflect what is going on in the real world. GD1 was able to contribute his experiences
both as a student and a professional graphic designer during the interview. GD1 is an
87
incredibly proactive professional and when not designing, he focuses a lot of his attention
on the technological progress that has been made to keep individuals informed and
connected. He believes this progress has directly affected the world of graphic design
because, with advents such as Twitter, it has made design history and the best practices of
design so accessible (table 2).
GD1 is the type of creative individual who does not like to limit himself. He sees
the computer as just a tool that both fine artists and graphic designers alike are using to
create their work. GD1 sees the main differences between fine art and graphic design by
how their cultures are defined and developed. He believes graphic designs inclusion in a
high school art education curriculum is important because the students need a sampling of
the visual arts to understand their relation to one another. GD1 gives high regard to
exploration in an art education curriculum (table 14). GD1 has been a graphic designer for
seven years and has not stopped exploring. He still considers him a beginner (table 4) and
is constantly looking for more creative ventures to participate in.
Based on my experience, the characteristics GD1 personifies are not unique. I
believe his drive to explore new mediums and take on new projects is the product of a
strong developing, personal aesthetic lexicon (Shaughnessy 2008). With graphic
designers like Stefan Sagmeister (figures 8-10) and Swiss Miss (figures 6-7) growing
popularity, a profound change is happening in the world of graphic design. I believe GD1
is a great example of a graphic designer (figures 36, 39-42) who is greatly affected by this
recent shift.
88
Graphic Design at the Celebrity Level
GD2 is a professional graphic designer who has established himself as a prominent

figurehead in the world of graphic design. He started designing book jackets only to later
write two fictional novels, and a graphic novel. GD2 is a professional who is of a celebrity
caliber; he gives many talks at a variety of high schools and universities, publishes his
own work, and surrounds himself with what he loves. GD2 is very excited by authorship
(table 8). He sees this as one of the major trends in graphic design; a way for graphic
designers to lay claim to their own work, instead of constantly doing something in service
to somebody else. Like AT1, AT2, and GD1, GD2 thinks graphic design is important in a
high school art education curriculum because adolescents encounter it all the time, and
even more so with the internet. He believes it is valuable to be able to decode and
understand the extent to which you are being manipulated (table 13). GD2 believes that
graphic design teaches one to really look at things and break them down into formal
components (table 14).
The results of my research suggest that graphic design has certainly become more
prevalent. Due to its prevalence, there is a qualitative change happening in the world of
graphic design. When addressing graphic design in a high school art education curriculum,
in order to incorporate these recent changes, like fine art, lessons should be centered
around student experiences and the exploration of both form and content, as is relevant to
graphic design.
89
Conclusion to Chapter Five
In this chapter I summarized my research findings and drew conclusions based on

the results. I discussed the issues that were raised and the broad themes that were revealed
based on the collected data. I compared the research findings from my study to the relevant
literature outlined in Chapter Two. An analysis of the results is presented within each of the
groups I studied: graphic design at the high school level, the university level, the
professional level, and the celebrity level.
90
CHAPTER SIX
Conclusions
Purpose of Chapter Six
In this chapter I provide a conclusion to my research study. As part of my

conclusion I present my final statement based upon the entire process of my research study,
I discuss the contribution of my research to the field of art education, and I provide
suggestions for future research studies based on the findings of my study.
Summary of Thesis
Chapter One: Introduction

In Chapter One the core of my research topic was introduced. I explained the
function that all six chapters played in my study. I related my academic and professional
interests, as well as my personal motivations that led to the formation of my research
topic idea. Why is graphic design in the art education curriculum taught differently at the
Chapter Two: Literature Review

In Chapter Two I presented a foundation of knowledge pulled from past scholarly
writing that was relevant to my research study. Walter Benjamin, John Berger, Kerry
91
Freedman, Karl Marx, Lewis Blackwell, David Carson, and Adrian Shaughnessy are
among the writers, artists, designers and scholars whose work I have sifted through. With
this substantial history, I was able to construct a point of view and develop a strong
understanding of the relevant content. This enabled me to put together appropriate
questions in order to properly conduct my research.
I discussed the growing prevalence of visual culture and graphic design, as well
as the pluralistic qualities of postmodern culture. I defined what graphic design is and
how it has changed, while providing a brief history of graphic design. I looked into
the technological advancements in modes of production and saw how they changed
graphic design. I explained why graphic design is an important contribution to the art
education curriculum, as well as graphic designs relationship and overlap with fine art.
I argued that graphic design is instrumental in building a developed, applicable, personal,
aesthetic lexicon.
Chapter Three: Methods

In Chapter Three I discussed the method and design of my research study, the
settings where the research was conducted, the participants involved in my study, the
instruments I used to collect data, the sequence and duration of my research procedures,
and the limitations of my research study.
92
Chapter Four: Results

In Chapter Four I presented the data that I collected in the field. I transcribed four
unstructured interviews with four different professional white male participants: a high
school art teacher, a university professor of graphic design, a professional graphic designer,
and a celebrity graphic designer. I identified and described both high school and university
art education curriculum including syllabi in regards to graphic design. I also discussed
current trends and work in graphic design and contemporary art.
I introduced the four participants. I discussed where they came from, their
professional backgrounds, their inspirations, their artwork and/or lesson plans, their work
stations, their classrooms, and other information I took note of while in the field. Due to the
fluid nature of unstructured interviews I also went into detail about what my experience
was like interviewing each participant. After each participant was introduced, I went
through the sequence of my questions, took note of the individually sparked tangents, and
provided tables that allow an overall review of the information.
Chapter Five: Analysis

In Chapter Five I summarized my research findings and drew conclusions based on
the results. I discussed issues that were raised and broad themes that were revealed based
on the data I collected. I compared the research findings from my study to the relevant
literature outlined in Chapter Two. An analysis of the results were presented regarding each
of the participants of the groups I studied: graphic design at the high school level, the
university level, the professional level, and the celebrity level.
93
Chapter Six: Conclusion

In Chapter Six I provide a conclusion to my research study. As part of my
conclusion I present my final statement based upon the entire process of my research study,
I discuss the contribution of my research to the field of art education, and I provide
suggestions for future research studies based on the findings of my study.
Recommendations to the Field of Art Education
Due to our visually based culture, graphic design has become ubiquitous and crucial
to the art education curriculum. Graphic design provides a suitable approach to teaching
visual culture that allows the students to develop their own applicable, aesthetic lexicon. It
enables students to engage with their rapidly changing environment, developing and
noticing new connections, and being able to work with them. Graphic designs ubiquity has
effected qualitative changes to the domain of graphic design. For better or worse, the CocaCola logo has become just as familiar as the still-life and scenery drawn through
observation. Rather than a list of static rules, graphic design is best understood through
experiential learning; the creative play of form and function. It is through these processes
students can develop a personal aesthetic lexicon, an understanding of graphic design, and
an understanding of their surrounding world.
The focus of a high school education should not be career minded, necessarily.
Rather, high school education should focus its efforts towards the development of life-long
94
learners. In a high school art education curriculum, graphic design enables students to view
differently what they come in contact with everyday. Graphic design has the potential to
further enrich the lives of students and is a crucial addition to the art education curriculum.
Recommendations for Future Research
My research study investigated graphic design at a variety of levels: the high

school level, the university level, the professional level, and the celebrity level. I thought
it was important to research the relationship these levels have with one another based on
the recent developments graphic design has gone through. For future investigation, I
would look into a larger group of study of multicultural professionals. I would also like to
look into successful lesson plans and themes that could be incorporated into a graphic
design curriculum that are rooted in the experience and discovery of the students, and not a
static list of rules. What lesson plans would be the most successful? What emerging themes
in graphic design are relevant to a high school education?
Another aspect of this issue I did not touch upon are the financial concerns that are
accompanied with the field of graphic design such as computers, design applications and
software, printing presses, and other technological advents that can be quite costly. Are
these technological aspects necessary for the pedagogical approaches of graphic design to
remain inspired and relevant?
95
Conclusion to Thesis
Chapter Six is where I provided a conclusion to my research study. As part of my

conclusion I presented my final statement based upon the entire process of my research
study, I discussed the contribution of my research to the field of art education, and I
provided suggestions for future research studies based on the findings of my study.
96
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THE DEVELOPING ROLE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

AND THE SEARCH FOR A NEW PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

Approved by: ________________________

I would like to thank my fiance Danielle Laurenti for enduring my crotchety

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review

The Prevalence of Visual Culture and Graphic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

CHAPTER THREE: Methods

CHAPTER FOUR: Results

CHAPTER FIVE: Analysis

CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion

Figure 1: Work by Banksy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Figure 21: Smiths personal artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Figure 43: LaRossas designs for Scholastic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Table 1: Interview Question #1 Responses of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

As ones senses are increasingly saturated with an abundance of visual information,

My research study investigates the pedagogical approaches to graphic design at

As a graphic designer, I have been able to apply my abilities to a variety of subjects

Conclusion to Chapter One

Despite graphic designs widespread presence, the pedagogical approach to graphic

In this chapter I present a foundation of knowledge pulled from past scholarly

The Prevalence of Visual Culture and Graphic Design

What is Graphic Design?

A Brief History of Graphic Design

Innovations in Production and Technology and the Way We View Art

The early beginnings of pictorial reproduction stamps, woodcuts, engraving and

The Need for a Comprehensive and Relevant Art Education Curriculum

A Developed, Applicable, Personal, Aesthetic Lexicon

A developed, applicable, personal, aesthetic lexicon is a palette of gathered and

Conclusion to Chapter Two

figure 2: Work by Shepard

figure 1: Work by Banksy

figure 3: Work by Mr. Brainwash

figure 4: Work by Chris Ware

figure 5: Work by Chris Ware

figure 6: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos

figure 7: Swiss Miss Temporary Tattoos

figure 8: Work by Stefan Sagmeister

figure 9: Work by Stefan Sagmeister

figure 10: Work by Stefan Sagmeister

figure 11: David Carsons work for Ray Gun

figure 12: David Carsons work for Ray Gun

My research study is about the investigation of the pedagogical approaches to

My study was conducted using an ethnographic method. Ethnography is a

Data Gathering Instruments

I collected my data in the following sequence: I emailed four participants to

I began the unstructured interview with the participant for 45 - 60 minutes in

Conclusion to Chapter Three

Utilizing an ethnographic method, my research study focused on four specific

As ones senses are increasingly saturated with an abundance of visual information,

My collected data consists of interview transcripts, lesson plans, syllabi, curricula,

unstructured interviews. I took photographs of the participants artwork, the participants

There were four participants who were a part of my research study:

figure 13: Smiths personal artwork

Brian Smith (pseudonym) - (AT1)

figure 14: Smiths Graphic Arts classroom

figure 15: Smiths desk

figure 16: Smiths student work and flat file

figure 17: Smiths Graphic Arts classroom

figure 18: Smiths iMacs

figure 19: Smiths Graphic Arts classroom

figure 20: Smiths production table