MFA, Kent State University, 2014, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

Strategies, systems, experiences and services are part of the new challenges faced today by design students and designers. These challenges include shifting audiences with specific needs due to the broad offer of services and products that often create new needs. These needs include limited resources, sustainable solutions with low environmental impact, and production costs. Besides, there is a great demand for multidisciplinary designers that are able to generate and perform ideas in a co-creation environment. An approach to meeting these challenges can include an open-ended, scaffolded brainstorming process. This might involve design students and designers, instead of advancing towards potential solutions from an unstructured ideation process. Structured methods have many benefits such as collaboration between teammates, ordered and constructive creative sessions as well as increased efficiency. One structured method that has found a place inside classrooms across the world is the Deconstructive discourse, in the areas of philosophy, linguistics, architecture, and others. This paper describes the process, and findings of building a creative framework based on the Deconstructive discourse and its implications in the learning process of design students. Deconstruction provides a structured way of analyzing complex problems. An example of successful application of Deconstructionist theories in design education is the academic work of Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the late 1980 and early 1990s under the direction of Katherine McCoy, Graphic Design students explored the semantics and syntax of their. This demonstrated the importance and the value of the Deconstructive discourse in the studio classroom. As a result, its use as a critical tool it exposed the gap between sign and meaning in the context of culture. This research follows the definition of Deconstruction as a mode of questioning stereotypes, traditional ideas and popular views by comparing them and exploit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sanda Katila MFA (Advisor); Tameka Ellington PhD (Committee Member); Gretchen Rinnert MFA (Committee Member); Jessica Barness MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Education; Linguistics