An Analysis of Traditional Graphic Design and MultiCommunication Arts Pedagogy

Abstract

Traditional visual communication and graphic design curricula at the university level may not adequately educate, train and/or prepare students to successfully work in the intended creative professions. This critical study found three suspected reasons for the problem: first, that higher education art studio and mass communication curricula are stalled in a historical pedagogy that no longer is viable. Second, that employee compensation for traditional graphic design graduates is typically lower than integrated, interdisciplinary, multimedia graduates and third, that current institutional structures are based on past practice constructed by higher education’s territorial resistance to change.