I’m a graphic design professor working out an approach to teaching design in a way that enables my students to become articulate citizens and responsible designers. I set the foundation in an environment where creative discovery and growth can occur.
Immersive Experiences. I create experiences for students that require them to adapt outside their comfort zone. I plan a sequence of exercises that introduce them to the new arena and then drop them into an intensive project with a focused goal. The immersive experience reinforces how much students can do when they put a concentrated effort toward a goal. Students apply specialized knowledge, overcome fears, and boost their confidence. After one quick success, the next challenge can draw out even more student engagement.
Interdisciplinary Frameworks. I embed interdisciplinary requirements into projects to foster student curiosity and inquiry around seemingly unrelated ideas and to nurture their ability to synthesize large amounts of information into a creative concept. When applied back to their design work, an interdisciplinary framework for research yields more nuanced concepts and design decisions that resonate beyond a visual style. Students gain a broader understanding of the role design plays in the world and begin to embody the mentality of the life-long learner so crucial to the designer’s future success.
Transformative Projects. A transformative project creates an compelling finished product and a student who is changed through the process of making the work. Giving students the opportunity to make a personal connection extends the project beyond the design principles they are learning to engage them in developing an active voice. In the process, students’ perceptions about the role of the designer expand to larger definitions that merge with their responsibilities as citizens.
Although I’m teaching graphic designers, I see my approach as transferable to a wide number of disciplines and other classroom settings. ExpDesignEd serves as documentation of my classroom experiments for others to adapt for their own contexts. In turn, I will be inspired by what you make of it and come back to my classroom with new ideas. In this exchange, we all win — educators and students.
Kim Garza is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. As an educator, she employs innovative methods to create an engaging learning environment for her students. As a designer, her work moves across the print, interactive and motion mediums. Prior to teaching, she worked in a variety of professional design settings — an advertising agency, boutique design firms, in-house design departments, and as a sole proprietor. Kim received a Bachelor of Arts degree at Anderson University and a Master of Graphic Design degree at North Carolina State University. In her spare time, she works on experimental short films in collaboration with her singer-songwriter husband. She is also the proud mother of two beautiful boys.
