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Many who work in graphic design refer to it as a profession. While I realise 'profession' has a generic meaning today, if we apply the true meaning of the word, I don't think we can consider graphic design a 'profession'.

In her recent article 'Research and Graduate Education', Meredith Davis (College of Design, North Carolina State University) said, 'Professions have documented histories and substantive literature that inform their members of essential knowledge in both the core discipline and its application and practice. Professions also place importance on methodology and exhibit some member consensus around codes of ethics and standards of fair practice. Finally, professions unlike trades have individuals and segments of practice devoted exclusively to criticism and research.'

Though we may take what we call a 'professional' approach to our work and client service, I don't believe we can honestly call ourselves a profession if we use these criteria.

What we're currently doing is emulating values and attributes based around these criteria - and there's nothing wrong with that. Davis also says that graphic design is, 'An evolving profession with roots in the trades of typesetting and printing'. So you could say we're a young profession.

In the past decade or so we've come to acknowledge that we can't conduct business without knowing about business. The computer irrevocably dissolved our links with traditional trade origins and a growing understanding about how design can function as a business operation has taken hold.

Brand strategy and identity management are manifestations of the designer's broadening role. Design practices are becoming more interdisciplinary and more dependant on expert knowledge from outside the creative area.

'These changes,' says Davis, 'have made it unreasonable to assume that young designers can achieve competency in all areas in four years of study.'

Several American universities are responding with graduate programs in design research. Yet it's early days for them and, in a country that runs on free enterprise, the understanding and take up of design research is still slow.

Still missing to a large degree are the development of research skills and the fostering of curricula that encourage research opportunities. If this is true in America, it's certainly true here.

I hope the Master of Design responds to the need to expand design practice and encourages future designers (or those interested in design) to build a design research culture. If our program also contributes to developing Davis' criteria for a profession, we'll have done well.

Russell Bevers FDIA

Russell is Discipline Leader of Communication Design and Program Coordinator of the Master of Design online program at RMIT University.

He is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, a past Board member of Icograda and a member of the Design Management Institute.

Russell was also National President of AGDA for two terms.

"Good article. It's a pity that salary for most designers as a profession is less than for secretarial personnel. We need to establish a professional body similar to the law institute, to prevent our indusrty in monitoring salary and accreditation structure."

"This is an interesting argument and it makes a number of good points. I tend to feel that the field of graphic design is diverging into two streams - craft and consulting. In order to get respect for our craft and to be able to charge high rates for our consulting, we tend to wish oursleves into the position of a profession.

Patently we are not a profession in any meaningful sense of the word. Our 'professional organisations' can not even get us to commit to a code of practice or a code of ethics.

We're a service industry, the propaganda arm of capitalism if you like. We can do a lot of things and make a large difference to society. But we have to be honest with ourselves about who we are and what we do.

Ross Floate "

"Accreditation can only be established when all professions within the graphic design environment have been recognised individually. A problem that seems to be at least partly a result of the academic environment's failure to define these varied positions is that many courses are generic and vague. This makes it difficult to discriminate between applicants who are suitable for enrolment and those who aren't.

Courses seem to go one of two ways:

1) Focusing on enrolling students who are academically gifted; or
2) Training students to use computer applications.

Neither way seems to give priority to a student's artistic or creative talent. It simply isn't the prime consideration to course placement in many institutions.

I think a negative effect of this current trend is that the creatively talented youth coming out of high schools today, are being disenfranchised due to nothing more than poor academic grades. Many illustrators and designers (whose talents are likely to have developed due to the fact that they spent so much time doodling in their school books instead of studying) are far better suited to expanding their skills for careers in the graphic design industry, but are disadvantaged by not being exposed to the broader aspects of commercial graphic production at a tertiary level simply because their academic grades were below entry-level for courses.

So I think we have a lose-lose-lose situation:

1) Many creative people aren't establishing the financially healthy careers that they deserve;

2) Young people are being trained somewhat irrelevantly, and for an industry that they were never suited for in the first place; and

3) Small businesses can't run competent design departments unless they can afford to employ several specialists, because most graphic practitioners lack a broad enough range of skills.

It also seems that potential trainers and lecturers need spend very little time in the real world practising a trade before they're "qualified" to go back to a tertiary institution and teach the subject. The main consideration given to their suitability for an academic position seems to be whether they've previously earned a degree somewhere along the line.

Case in point, here's a sample "positions vacant" notice from the AGDA site (identities removed):

---

XXXXXXX is recruiting Graphic Design & Multimedia professionals to take on teaching positions within XXXXX.

Responsibilities:

• Design and deliver course curriculum materials in both Graphic as well as Multimedia Design
• Develop students' creativity and problem solving skills through study, research and practical projects
• Ensure student discipline

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree in Art, Graphic Design, Multimedia Design, Visual Communications or equivalent
• At least 5 years' industry experience with a credible portfolio
• Preferably 2 years lecturing experience in Animation, Design Principles, E-Commerce, Graphic / Multimedia Design, HTML, Internet Programming, Video / Post Production, Web Design or any other relevant study areas.
• Can adapt to a multi-cultural setting with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to handle students of different nationalities.

---

On the good side, they at least require a "credible portfolio", but what the academic field considers credible is dubious, if the standard of graduates' portfolio that we receive is anything to go by. But what gets me is that the applicant needs a Bachelors Degree and two years lecturing experience in a whopping big range of industry areas.... but only FIVE YEARS' INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE!!!

Now, of course, it's important that lecturers do have proof of their ability to deliver knowledge competently, but the knowledge has to be there to begin with! Perhaps five years of concentrated learning in a condusive environment will provide enough knowledge to teach at a purely academic level for purely academic means, but I think what academia doesn't appreciate is that the commercial sector doesn't allow an employee to gain further skills or understanding of an industry at a quick and steady rate. A design studio is not a self-contained environment that supports intensive, progressive learning. There are far too many distractions and deadlines to be met for that to happen. The learning process is erratic at best, and stagnant at worst. When a junior artist or designer lands a job - and assuming they're lucky enough to sustain five years' experience without several bouts of unemployment disrupting their learning progress - those first few years will be spent executing the same chores in a very narrow field of the design environment. They will only begin to diversify to any extent that allows them to appreciate the broader aspects of their profession after proving that they've mastered the hack work and have progressed to a more advanced set of tasks and responsibility. Only then should they be trusted to impart any level of expert knowledge to junior ranks, and then only in regard to their previous tasks.

Because practitioners are allowed to re-enter academia after such a short period in the commercial world, they are themselves in danger of imparting a skewed understanding of the professional environment to their students, and should they then advance to a position of academic consultancy, then they are only going to reinforce the notion that future lecturers must have academic qualifications, while talent and experience should be secondary considerations."

"Great article Russell. I'm confident as the industry grows and matures it will have a closer tie to business, marketing and strategy - and I do feel it is up to industry bodies such as AGDA and courses such Masters of Design at RMIT to lead the way (and pave the way) to a bigger, professional, respected and brighter future for the Australian design industry."

"Thanks for the article, Russell, I can't agree more. For many years been a strong advocate of Design Accreditation and am currently on the AGDA Qld Council and where we are looking at Accreditation as part of the AGDA National Accreditation Task Force. This forms an important pathway to establishling a "profession" of accredited graphic designers."

"I concur with the statement of a young profession and feel it is necessary to take our hats off to the computer world for furthering our ambition for business. Soon, I hope to undertake study in the research field but feel that i am hesitant due to the limited history; what is there to reasearch?"

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