Positioning design students in the design industry

At the end of each semester, graphic design students looked at their class projects, reflected on learned skillsets, and positioned themselves and their works in the design industry. While some students were familiar with the design profession through part-time jobs, others have not practiced art and design professionally outside of classrooms. This activity, thus, was to locate students’ works based on their perceptions of design products and industry.

Adapted from the stakeholder analysis quadrant, students used low-tech materials such as sticky notes, note cards, color markers, and threads to collectively map the design organizations that link to their career interests. During this process, students visually summarized their projects, to which they would draw links from design organizations. This way, students could make adjustments to their design portfolios if needed.

Acknowledgement: I thanked my colleage Santana Nyanje’s framework as the inspiration for this design experiment.

Reference:

• Bryson, J. (1995) Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (rev. edn), San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass. Latest edition Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement (Bryson on Strategic Planning).
• Eden, C. and Ackermann, F. (1998) Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management, London: Sage Publications