Individual Project

Communication as strategic action: Towards a design method that relates theory and practice

Istanbul (TR)

Els Kuijpers gave a lecture entitled ‘Design Education: Expanding the mindset’, at this conference held at Grafist21 Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. The publication 'Design Education: Expanding the mindset’ is forthcoming (2017).

panel "Design Education: Expanding the mindset", 4.5.17 Grafist21 left to right: Emre Senan (MSGSU, TR), Tevfik Balcioglu (Yasar Universitesi, TR), Els Kuijpers (Royal Academy of Art, NL), Tevfik Fikret Ucar (moderator), Bethany Shepard (Central Saint Martins, UK), Sinan Niyazioglu, (MSGSU, TR)

Communication design as visual journalism is the production of meaning in which mentality determines the nature of the message and is used intentionally with a view to change; communication design education thus teaches students to operate strategically on the basis of mentality within the (limitations or space of) sociocultural circumstances and a given constellation.

As such, this lecture is a plea for a reinvestment in the practice, the means of expression and expressive capacity of non-verbal communication – image, editing and strategy – at all levels of the message: the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic functions of visual communication.