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Design Education Resources

AIGA supports education throughout the arc of a designer’s career, including special programs for educators, a group critical to advancing the profession.

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AIGA Design Teaching Resource

The AIGA Design Teaching Resource is a peer-populated platform for educators to share assignments, teaching materials, outcomes, and project reflections.

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AIGA Design Educators Community

The DEC Steering Committee is comprised of 13 dedicated educators providing service and leadership to the Community.

Meet the committee

Dialectic

Dialectic seeks to publish scholarship, analytical study and criticism that will enlighten and inform a diverse audience of design educators engaged not only in classroom teaching experiences but also in differing forms of research and professional practice. It is open access, double-blind-peer reviewed, and the official journal of the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC).

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NASAD and Accreditation

The AIGA & NASAD briefing papers address various aspects of graphic design education and are directed towards a number of different audiences.

Read the briefing papers

Professional Standards of Teaching

A design educator adheres to values that demonstrate respect for students, other educators, academic institutions, the profession, the public, society and the environment. These standards define the expectations of a design educator and represent the distinction of an AIGA member teaching design.

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Bibliographies

These bibliographies for design educators and students address an eclectic array of topics: Cognition and Emotion, Cultural Studies, Design Planning, Education and Learning Theory and Interaction and New Media Design.

View the bibliographies

Design Futures

This research project examines seven trends shaping the context for the practice of design. This change in the nature of work calls for new skills and perspectives beyond traditional college-level design education. It is critical that the industry expands its knowledge and expertise to remain economically viable and professionally relevant as it prepares for changing client demands and new opportunities for design influence.

Read the trends

Dialogue

Dialogue is the ongoing series of fully open-access proceedings of the conferences and national symposia of the AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC). Issues of Dialogue contain papers from DEC conferences that focus on topics affecting design education, research, and professional practice, although each conference varies in theme. Michigan Publishing, the hub of scholarly publishing at the University of Michigan, publishes Dialogue on behalf of the AIGA DEC.

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Promotion and Tenure

The purpose of this resource is to provide guidance to those involved with Promotion and Tenure (P&T) processes of Graphic Design and Visual Communication Design Educators at US institutions of higher learning. It is not meant to address all possible topics and issues related to the P&T process, but should assist in dealing with issues commonly involved in the P&T process, and will provide suggestions on which policies and procedures may be based, at the discretion of the institution.

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Guide to Internships

AIGA believes that quality internships provide an invaluable stepping stone towards professional practice and create continuity within the design profession. We thank those who open their doors to young designers and generously share their knowledge and experience with the next generation of design practitioners.

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High School Design Curriculum

This four-unit graphic curriculum has been created specifically for high school educators. Areas addressed include An Introduction to Graphic Design, 2D Design Basics, Design Process, and Typography, as well as a glossary and supporting handouts. Created by AIGA Minnesota with support from AIGA Innovate.

Download the curriculum

Additional Teaching Resources

    Course Planning

    WRITING A SYLLABUS

    Published by Jossey-Bass

    The Course Syllabus, A Learning Centered Approach, Second Edition

    WRITING A SYLLABUS

    Chronicle of Higher Education

    How to Create a Syllabus

    WRITING A SYLLABUS

    Steven Heller

    Teaching Graphic Design: Course Offerings and Class Projects from the Leading Graduate and Undergraduate Programs

    CREATING A RUBRIC

    Robin Landa

    A Case for Using a Rubric
      In the Classroom

      CRITIQUE

      Karen Cheng

      How to Survive Critique: A Guide to Giving and Receiving Feedback—Part 1

      CRITIQUE

      Karen Cheng

      How to Survive Critique—Part 2

      CRITIQUE

      Yoon Soo Lee

      Functional Criticism— How to Have Productive Critiques in the Creative Classroom

      TEACHING ASSISTANTS

      John Bowers

      Handbook for Teaching Assistants

      COLLABORATION

      Marty Maxwell Lane and Rebecca Tegtmeyer

      Collab + Design Ed: Collaboration in Design Education
        Student Resources

        ADVICE

        Chad Hall and Jp Avila

        This is Design School

        ADVICE

        David Airey

        Advice for Design Students

        ADVICE

        Adrian Shaughnessy

        How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

        PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

        Emily Ruth Cohen

        Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Strategies To Evolve Your Creative Business

        PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

        Ted Leonhardt

        Nail It: Stories for Designers on Negotiating with Confidence

        BUILDING PORTFOLIOS

        Peachpit

        Stand Out

        BUILDING PORTFOLIOS

        Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit

        Flaunt

        BUILDING PORTFOLIOS

        Simon & Schuster

        Build Your Own Brand

        BUILDING PORTFOLIOS

        Juliette Cezzar

        AIGA Career Guide
          Select Publications

          CURRICULUM / PEDAGOGY

          Meredith Davis

          Teaching Design: A Guide to Curriculum and Pedagogy for College Design Faculty and Teachers Who Use Design in Their Classrooms

          CURRICULUM / PEDAGOGY

          Steven Heller

          The Education of a Graphic Designer

          ASSIGNMENTS

          Spector Books

          Taking a Line for a Walk: Assignments in Design Education

          ASSIGNMENTS

          Edited by Linda van Deursen

          37 Assignments

          ASSIGNMENTS

          Steven Heller

          Teaching Graphic Design

          FOUNDATIONS

          Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

          Graphic Design: The New Basics

          FOUNDATIONS

          Robin Landa

          Graphic Design Solutions, 6th edition

          FOUNDATIONS

          Meredith Davis

          Visual Communication Design: An Introduction to Design Concepts in Everyday Experience

          FOUNDATIONS

          Robin Landa, Rose Gonnella, and Steven Brower

          2D: Visual Basics for Designers

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Jason Santa Maria

          A Book Apart: On Web Typography

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Simon Garfield

          Just My Type: A Book About Fonts

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Karen Cheng

          Designing Type

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Robert Bringhurst

          Elements of Typographic Style

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Matej Latin

          Better Web Typography for a Better Web

          TYPOGRAPHY

          Ellen Lupton

          Thinking With Type

          TYPOGRAPHY

          John Kane

          A Type Primer

          GRIDS

          Timothy Samara

          Making and Breaking the Grid, Second Edition, Updated and Expanded: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

          GRIDS

          Josef Müller-Brockman

          Grid systems in graphic design: A visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers and three dimensional designers

          THEORY

          Meredith Davis

          Graphic Design Theory (Graphic Design in Context) First Edition

          THEORY

          Helen Armstrong

          Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field

          COLOR

          Rose Gonnella and Max Friedman

          Design Fundamentals: Notes on Color

          COLOR

          Rose Gonnella and Max Friedman

          Design Fundamentals: Notes on Color

          COLOR

          Sean Adams

          The Designer’s Dictionary of Color

          BRANDING

          Website Planet.com

          30 Stats and Logo Facts

          INCLUSIVE DESIGN

          Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps

          The Senses: Design Beyond Vision

          INCLUSIVE DESIGN

          Kat Holmes

          Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)

          CREATIVITY

          Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire

          Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

          CREATIVITY

          Kyna Leski

          The Storm of Creativity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)

          CREATIVITY

          Rosanne Somerson and Mara Hermano

          The Art of Critical Making: Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice

          INTERACTION/INTERFACE DESIGN

          Steve King

          Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

          INTERACTION/INTERFACE DESIGN

          Jon Kolko

          Thoughts on Interaction Design

          DESIGN HISTORY

          Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit

          Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design

          DESIGN HISTORY

          Steven Heller

          Teaching Graphic Design History

          DESIGN HISTORY

          Phillip B Meggs

          Megg’s History of Graphic Design 6th Edition

          DESIGN HISTORY

          Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne

          100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design

          DESIGN HISTORY

          Richard Poulin

          Graphic Design and Architecture, A 20th Century History: A Guide to Type, Image, Symbol, and Visual Storytelling in the Modern World

          MOTION DESIGN

          Editors R. Brian Stone, Leah Walin; Routledge: 2018

          The Theory and Practice of Motion Design: Critical Perspectives and Professional Practice

          PROCESS

          Beth Costello

          The Art of the Process: Establishing Good Habits for Successful Outcomes

          THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER

          Steven McCarthy

          The Designer As…

          THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER

          Steven Heller

          Citizen Designer

          THE ROLE OF THE DESIGNER

          Noah Scalin

          The Design Activists Handbook

          THINKING/WRITING

          Steven Heller

          Writing and Research for Graphic Designers: A Designer’s Manual to Strategic Communication and Presentation

          THINKING/WRITING

          Ellen Lupton

          Design is Storytelling

          THINKING/WRITING

          Ellen Lupton

          Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs)

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