Understanding Before Action: Student Engagement in Social Advocacy

In graphic design education, an engagement with larger societal problems can start by exploring the role of visual communication in framing, understanding, and disseminating knowledge to inform and empower others. Design educators have the opportunity to engage students in dialogue about social advocacy and their role in promoting awareness and positive social change. The process of understanding complex issues can expose students to research and inquiry towards translating their understanding of complex topics to the creation of communication pieces to make it understandable to others.
This lighting presentation takes the idea that design activism is a practice about better understanding the problem and not solely about producing single right solutions for problems (Thorpe, 2014). Through examples from two design courses: Information Design and Interactive Design, I discuss a pedagogical approach that engage students in exploring their agency as visual communicators to inform, inspire, and involve audiences in topics of current relevance. In this approach, the idea that graphic designers shape content for effective communication, is complemented with students working as researchers and editors, tackling multiple sources of data and information to create their work. I will share the project briefs, students’ topics of research, and research process and ideation for the creation of infographics and interactive experiences. I conclude with a reflection about the results and ideas for future iterations of these classroom projects.