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Icograda: Tarek Atrissi and Sean Bolan
BY
TAXI
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Icograda Design Week in Seattle was an international design forum which took place in Seattle, USA last 9th July till 15th July 2006.
Defining Design on a Changing Planet, Icograda invited 22 international speakers to discuss on the role of design in this global awareness of evolution; how design has and may serve the economy and society and will also address the major topics design faces: cultural, political, economic and environmental issues at work in a global society. Last year’s Icograda Design Week is first in history to be held in USA and is in partnership with AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design.
TAXI Design Network proudly supported Icograda Design Week in Seattle as the Major Media Partner. The editorial crew from TAXI Design Network proudly reported the conferences live and delivering to you our interaction with the presenting design leaders.
For every week from April to June 2006, TAXI Design Network conducted exclusive interview sessions on the speakers based on their opinions of design in the growing world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Please visit Icograda Design Week in Seattle for more information.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Tarek Atrissi
Stefan Sagmeister's book "Made you Look" is also an excellent biography, and illustrates the unique thinking and concepts behind Sagmeister's work. It is as well a useful resource for seeing how he did set up his design studio and made it into an internationally renowned office.
TAXI >> What do you think is the distinct difference between English, Chinese and Arabic typography?
Tarek Atrissi>> Each script has its own nature, rules, understanding and ways of dealing with. I think generally typography is the same, and the relationship between typographers and typography, no matter what the script is, is the same. Whether it is in Type Design or in Designing with type, the process of thinking and approaching a project is similar, even if the way this is done will differ depending on the script's nature. The difference is a different visual script, different alphabet and different typographic or calligraphic forms, which make the way of dealing with them different in certain areas. But on the big picture, I see typography the same no matter what the script is.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Tarek Atrissi>> I am a workshop leader at the Icograda Design Week in Seattle. Usually in my involvements in these international design events, I always try to bring my focus in my design work to a wider audience. I have been involved with Arabic Typography and design since the beginning of my career, and to many the beauty, developments and current of Arabic design and typography is unknown, so I try to showcase that to a wider audience, through my work or the work of other contemporary Arab Designers. It is something needed with the current general image existing about the Arab world, and it is very important that through design the beauty and richness of the Arab culture is shown again. I am always sharing my interest and focus on creating a Modern Arabic Graphic Design language.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Sean Bolan
democratized production and has given rise to new forms of practice, while an emerging criticism may finally push designers to be more accountable for their thinking. Whether based in craft, technology or the simulation of professional practice, a pedagogy that remains strictly vocational does not adequately address these issues. If design is to operate as a significant, formative component of society and culture, education must adopt a dynamic new model positioned to lead practice rather than follow. It must engage the future rather than reproduce the past if it is to succeed in producing the next generation of critically aware, creative thinkers.
TAXI >>As a student and now a lecturer, how different is applying theory learnt in school in comparison to the adaptation to the real working world?
Sean Bolan>> Though I am currently pursuing a PhD and have been studying or teaching within formal learning environments for several years, I think it is important to note that I have also practiced design for 15 years. In fact, it was my professional experience in Holland, Spain and the U.K. that inspired me to continue on to graduate school at Basel in Switzerland, and then again ultimately to the University of Washington, to study how designers learn.
Early in my design career I was able to observe a wide variety of designers, from all over the world, with very different modes of engagement. I began to notice some designers were particularly efficient, others more innovative, but all dynamic and unique. I couldn’t help but wonder what experiences have led them to their unique strategies for engagement. I found that European design education, European culture and the perception of design as a discipline within their society, is really quite different than here in the US. The dilemmas surrounding the transition from student to practicing designer however are actually quite similar. This brings me back to your question.
The adaptation of theories learned in school to the real world, is a question that has been at the center of debate for years. It is essentially a question about transfer: the transfer of knowledge or learning schemas from formal (school) to informal learning environments (work). Most of the research has been conducted in other disciplines so there is very little that applies to design specifically. One of the main problems is that it is difficult to establish effective ways to assess or measure transfer, especially in informal visually based environments. And, with the field of design changing so rapidly, it is particularly troublesome.
I have personally spent the last few years exploring the effectiveness of different instructional experiences to help students develop a form of design specific, adaptive expertise; a balance between efficiency and innovation in practice. This adaptive expertise allows a student/practitioner to make a fluid transition between different learning situations and apply their learning strategies to a broad range of engagements.
The issues surrounding the transfer of skills and abilities from academic to practical environments is central to the development of new ways to educate designers. This subject deserves much more thought and discussion form the design community and I look forward to having more conversations about it in the future.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Sean Bolan>> Yes. Indeed I am enthusiastic at the opportunity to stimulate a discussion about new ways to envision visual education.
Over the last 4 years I have studied design education closely and conducted a number of educational studies, which have ultimately culminated into an experimental new undergraduate curriculum. A non-discipline based visual learning experience designed to unify the theoretical ideas linking all problem-solving forms of visual engagement and disciplined perception. An undergraduate curriculum strategically placed at the conceptual intersection of design, information theory, perceptual psychology, cultural anthropology, communication theory, and media arts. An environment designed for rigorous academic visual research, rather than visual training, intended to prepare students for, and inspire, Doctoral level critical inquiry. I am looking not to replace or restructure traditional design education but to add a new discipline that may help to redefine academic visual discourse altogether.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Defining Design on a Changing Planet, Icograda invited 22 international speakers to discuss on the role of design in this global awareness of evolution; how design has and may serve the economy and society and will also address the major topics design faces: cultural, political, economic and environmental issues at work in a global society. Last year’s Icograda Design Week is first in history to be held in USA and is in partnership with AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design.
TAXI Design Network proudly supported Icograda Design Week in Seattle as the Major Media Partner. The editorial crew from TAXI Design Network proudly reported the conferences live and delivering to you our interaction with the presenting design leaders.
For every week from April to June 2006, TAXI Design Network conducted exclusive interview sessions on the speakers based on their opinions of design in the growing world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Please visit Icograda Design Week in Seattle for more information.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Tarek Atrissi
 | TAXI >> Steven Heller, Paula Scher and Stefan Sagmeister are your favourite designers. How do you think their reputable craft have contributed to the design scene?
Tarek Atrissi>> They are people from the design world that have influenced me very much, particularly that all three of them were among the faculty that taught me at the MFA Design at the School of Visual Arts. They all have a lot in terms of contribution to the design scene, on many levels. But I can narrow their contributions down to the books they have written. Steven Heller has more than 80 books on design history and theory, and they are always excellent references for inspiration and for design literacy. Paula Scher's book, "Make it Bigger" is not only a great reference to all the major projects she developed, and a showcase of her great typographic sense, but is also a very interesting resource on the "politics" of design and the common problems faced in the relationship between designers and clients. |
Stefan Sagmeister's book "Made you Look" is also an excellent biography, and illustrates the unique thinking and concepts behind Sagmeister's work. It is as well a useful resource for seeing how he did set up his design studio and made it into an internationally renowned office.
TAXI >> What do you think is the distinct difference between English, Chinese and Arabic typography?
Tarek Atrissi>> Each script has its own nature, rules, understanding and ways of dealing with. I think generally typography is the same, and the relationship between typographers and typography, no matter what the script is, is the same. Whether it is in Type Design or in Designing with type, the process of thinking and approaching a project is similar, even if the way this is done will differ depending on the script's nature. The difference is a different visual script, different alphabet and different typographic or calligraphic forms, which make the way of dealing with them different in certain areas. But on the big picture, I see typography the same no matter what the script is.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Tarek Atrissi>> I am a workshop leader at the Icograda Design Week in Seattle. Usually in my involvements in these international design events, I always try to bring my focus in my design work to a wider audience. I have been involved with Arabic Typography and design since the beginning of my career, and to many the beauty, developments and current of Arabic design and typography is unknown, so I try to showcase that to a wider audience, through my work or the work of other contemporary Arab Designers. It is something needed with the current general image existing about the Arab world, and it is very important that through design the beauty and richness of the Arab culture is shown again. I am always sharing my interest and focus on creating a Modern Arabic Graphic Design language.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Sean Bolan
| TAXI >> In comparison between the early time when you were studying in a design school and design students these days, how do you feel about the changed design education curriculum system? Or are there any changes?
Sean Bolan>> Unfortunately there has been very little fundamental change in design education since I was an undergraduate, only advancements in technology. In fact, there has been very little change in design education since the original modernist curriculum of the Bauhaus. However, we are in desperate need of change. Today, the challenge in design education is that of preparing students for an increasingly diverse range of creative and analytical activities. Training a student to be formally sophisticated is no longer enough. Never have there existed so many options in the absence of any dominant paradigm. Developments in technology have |  |
TAXI >>As a student and now a lecturer, how different is applying theory learnt in school in comparison to the adaptation to the real working world?
Sean Bolan>> Though I am currently pursuing a PhD and have been studying or teaching within formal learning environments for several years, I think it is important to note that I have also practiced design for 15 years. In fact, it was my professional experience in Holland, Spain and the U.K. that inspired me to continue on to graduate school at Basel in Switzerland, and then again ultimately to the University of Washington, to study how designers learn.
Early in my design career I was able to observe a wide variety of designers, from all over the world, with very different modes of engagement. I began to notice some designers were particularly efficient, others more innovative, but all dynamic and unique. I couldn’t help but wonder what experiences have led them to their unique strategies for engagement. I found that European design education, European culture and the perception of design as a discipline within their society, is really quite different than here in the US. The dilemmas surrounding the transition from student to practicing designer however are actually quite similar. This brings me back to your question.
The adaptation of theories learned in school to the real world, is a question that has been at the center of debate for years. It is essentially a question about transfer: the transfer of knowledge or learning schemas from formal (school) to informal learning environments (work). Most of the research has been conducted in other disciplines so there is very little that applies to design specifically. One of the main problems is that it is difficult to establish effective ways to assess or measure transfer, especially in informal visually based environments. And, with the field of design changing so rapidly, it is particularly troublesome.
I have personally spent the last few years exploring the effectiveness of different instructional experiences to help students develop a form of design specific, adaptive expertise; a balance between efficiency and innovation in practice. This adaptive expertise allows a student/practitioner to make a fluid transition between different learning situations and apply their learning strategies to a broad range of engagements.
The issues surrounding the transfer of skills and abilities from academic to practical environments is central to the development of new ways to educate designers. This subject deserves much more thought and discussion form the design community and I look forward to having more conversations about it in the future.
TAXI >> Is there a specific message that you look forward to share over your presentation at Icograda Design Week in Seattle?
Sean Bolan>> Yes. Indeed I am enthusiastic at the opportunity to stimulate a discussion about new ways to envision visual education.
Over the last 4 years I have studied design education closely and conducted a number of educational studies, which have ultimately culminated into an experimental new undergraduate curriculum. A non-discipline based visual learning experience designed to unify the theoretical ideas linking all problem-solving forms of visual engagement and disciplined perception. An undergraduate curriculum strategically placed at the conceptual intersection of design, information theory, perceptual psychology, cultural anthropology, communication theory, and media arts. An environment designed for rigorous academic visual research, rather than visual training, intended to prepare students for, and inspire, Doctoral level critical inquiry. I am looking not to replace or restructure traditional design education but to add a new discipline that may help to redefine academic visual discourse altogether.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.