FABRICA PRESENTS ITS LATEST PUBLICATIONS, MANIFESTO AND IRIDESCENT, IN TAIPEI

Press releases

FABRICA PRESENTS ITS LATEST PUBLICATIONS, MANIFESTO AND IRIDESCENT, IN TAIPEI

ICOGRADA DESIGN EDUCATION MANIFESTO 2011

The publication designed by Fabrica will be presented in Taipei at the end of October

Treviso, October 2011. The International Design Alliance congress (Taipei, 24-26 October 2011) will be the setting for the presentation of the Icograda Design Education Manifesto 2011. Design and production were entrusted to Fabrica, under the supervision of Omar Vulpinari, Fabrica Expanded Media Director and vice president of Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

Icograda Design Education Manifesto 2011 is the fruit of two years of study and research involving key world players from the design education sector. It arose from the need to update the first Icograda Design Education Manifesto, 10 years after its publication in 2000, and it is created for the directors of university programmes and educators around the world.

The project was launched during a workshop hosted at the Shandong University of Art and Design in Jinan, China, in November 2010. University principals, researchers, teachers, students and design promoters from around the world were invited to explore the theme “The Future of Design Education”. The workshop produced the first draft of the new edition of the Manifesto, incorporating reflections from both the Western and the Eastern world, as well as innovative themes, such as interdisciplinarity, new technologies, entrepreneurialism, research, design and management and design thinking. The results of the workshop were then shared with a group of international experts from the sector, who were asked to contribute with theoretical essays on the topic of the future of design education. The contents of the first draft and of the essays together defined the final Manifesto.

Finally, to emphasise the educational nature of the project, six design teachers, assisted by six of their students, were asked to give a graphic interpretation of the manifesto in their languages, corresponding with the six languages of the United Nations.

The Manifesto is based on the premise that the boundaries between the various design disciplines today are more fluid than ever. For this reason, communication designers must redefine their role, adapting to the contemporary world, where methods of conversation have diversified. Among the guidelines provided, the following are held to be particularly fundamental: the need to adapt to the technological changes that are currently growing ever-more rapid and are conditioning our lives; the adoption of a transdisciplinary mindset, that recognises and implements links between apparently distant areas, and is open to relations with experts from other sectors, such as anthropologists, scientists, engineers, and architects; the search for an ethical approach that is respectful of human beings and the environment.

Overall, the project involved:

- 35 participants of the workshop in Jinan

- 23 essayists

- 6 pairs of teachers and students

for a total of 17 nations.

The publication was conceived as a geo-locational tool. Thanks to its distinctive arrow-shaped design, it can be used as a geographical pointer. By turning the compass shown on the side of each item towards the north of Taipei, the book indicates the origin of the various experts who have contributed to it.

The Manifesto was co-chaired and co-edited by Omar Vulpinari and Audrey G. Bennett, with the support of Ahn Sang-Soo, the editor of the first edition back in 2000.

IRIDESCENT – ICOGRADA JOURNAL OF DESIGN RESEARCH

Out in October, the first biennal hard copy volume of the online magazine, designed by FABRICA

Treviso, October 2011. The first printed volume of Iridescent will be presented in Taipei, during the International Design Alliance (IDA) congress. The online magazine from Icograda (http://iridescent.icograda.org/) is all about academic design research, with a particular focus on communication design.

The breadth of topics covered in Iridescent accentuates both the way in which local and global realities are intimately linked and influence each other, and the way in which design permeates every aspect of our daily lives, helping us to better understand life, and thus to improve its quality.

One paper, for example, sets out to give a visual illustration of the unusual verbal situation in Lebanon, where it is normal to combine three different languages in the same conversation: English French and Arabic. By creating a parallel between calligraphy and typography, between art and design, it becomes possible for Arabic and Latin characters not simply to coexist, but to blend together, visually expressing a cultural melting pot.

Another paper analyses the characteristics of design in ancient China, considered the starting point necessary for design education in contemporary China: once it had established itself, the Han culture had to interact with a multiplicity of influxes coming from the populations of the surrounding regions. Through the absorption of these exotic cultures throughout its long history, a pluralistic yet holistic design culture was created, with the Han culture at its centre. To this day, Chinese design culture remains both pluralistic and holistic, and continues to absorb foreign cultures through various channels. For this reason, now as in the past, it is called upon to promote “harmony without uniformity”, the principle that has enabled it to survive and prosper throughout the centuries, and which must be the starting point for design education.

A third paper explains how designers can contribute to the creation of a sustainable system in a community of disabled people: an approach based on human-centred design was applied to a case study in a disadvantaged community in Thailand, combined with sustainable principles, to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to members of the community, thus allowing them to achieve their goals.

The online magazine was created in 2009, and Fabrica was involved right from the start through its Expanded Media Director, Omar Vulpinari, who took on the role of Editorial Director. This first printed issue, designed by Fabrica, brings together the papers published online to date.

Iridescent's mission is to explore the many contexts in which design works, and to present the results to the international community of academics and professionals working in the sector. Using a blind peer review process, Iridescent publishes high-quality contributions and makes them freely available both on and offline. Indexed by DAAI (Design and Applied Arts Index), Iridescent accepts research in the six UN languages, and immediately established itself as an international benchmark in multidisciplinary design research.

Icograda's decision to invite Fabrica to design this publication is an acknowledgement of the cutting-edge role of Benetton's creative laboratory in the world of education and design, and places it firmly at the heart of the drive for innovation and development in art and contemporary design.

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