Online Elective Course

The activity of designing has witnessed a definitive shift in attitude over the past decade. More and more designers, from a variety of disciplines, are choosing to adopt collaborative working approaches when undertaking commercial and experimental projects. Design theorists now acknowledge that designing is fundamentally a collaborative, interdisciplinary, geographically distributed and multimedia activity; thus supporting the notion of an evolution in contemporary design methodology. This significantly challenges the traditional paradigm of designing being a personal activity and contradicts opinion that collaboration hinders, rather than enhances, a designer's thought process. The traditional design process, seen as an individual's reflective dialogue with their work, no longer seems solely applicable in contemporary design practice.

This online course specifically recognises the emergence of 'collaborative design' in contemporary graphic and visual communication. It responds by utilising a specifically designed interface, allowing you to engage in peer collaboration, visual exchange and conceptual dialogue via the Internet. By working in small teams (where your fellow participants are often in different locations) you will take part in a unique and dynamic online design process. You will examine creative and conceptual approaches to graphic design by engaging in theoretical and visual research, abstraction of ideas and resolution of collective design proposals. Both individual and group assessment/feedback will be given throughout the course to enhance your experience of creative collaboration in graphic design.

NOTE: This course is conducted via the Omnium system (omnium.edu.au). Students will receive log in instructions via their UNSW email account prior to the commencement of the course.