Design Writing
20 credit module led by Professor Mike Press, Head of the School of Design and Jonathan Baldwin author of Visual Communication.
What is this module about?
Context + Cohesion is a module that explores the value of writing in design and aims to help you develop a writing style and strategy that is appropriate for your personal context. For some students it is appropriate to fully master the ‘academic style’ of writing, for example, if you wish to progress to a PhD. For others you require a more ‘reflective’ and personal approach to writing. But in all cases you need to be more conscious of how writing informs your practice, enables you to more critically engage with it - and to engage with the discourses that surround design practice.
Why is this module important?
Critical, well informed writing helps us to understand what we are doing and helps us to make sense of the design culture around us. However, it is not something that design education has traditionally placed much emphasis on. Read the accompanying reading by Anne Gerber and Teal Triggs. They make the point that design has to borrow from discourses in art and architecture to develop its own critical analysis. In short, they argue, the number of good design critics can be counted on the fingers of one hand. We are not expecting that this module will turn you into a world class design critic - but we are expecting that it will get you to question and refine how you write. If you end up a world class design critic - so much the better!
How the module will work
We will conduct a number of workshops through the semester, linked to specific writing tasks. These will feed into and reinforce your major project work. Whilst much (but not all) of the writing will be done by you as an individual, we will aim to develop a collective critical and supportive environment for your writing.
During the workshops we will encourage and enable you to take on different writing roles. These will include:
The reflective journaler
The critical reviewer
The journalist
The academic design researcher
