Design Education: a 'new' paradigm, design and provenance

The author has developed throughout the preceding two years both a pedagogic philosophy of design, the culture of which, is passed to the students through a unique paradigm and secondly certain curriculum modes of operation with which, to enhance students knowledge of design, in general, and understanding of the philosophy, in detail. However, this development was undertaken from a global background that has changed dramatically in the past eighteen months, particularly in design, production and financial terms, creating a 'new world order'. The 'consumption' of products in Europe continues to grow and is intrinsically linked to design 'the globalisation of the markets meant that the culture of design was drawn ever closer to the culture of consumption'. Set against this, the mass production facility of Europe continues to fall and China, post Olympics and post 2008 autumnal financial crisis cannot now be described as a 'non initiator' as discussed by Friedman et al in 1995. The original papers developed from the total design activity described by Pugh, through Julier's domain and Rosen's social interaction, proposed an undergraduate curriculum, delivered thematically with broad based modules to equip 'T shaped' designers for industry and commerce. One can now begin to question, whether or not, the accepted value and profile of the 'Tshaped' designer will sustain a meaningful career as a Product Designer, the author argues, it will not.