Design School – Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools

Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d – 30.09.2011

ISBN – 9781592537594

When it comes to a design career, there really isn’t a better moment than university, well despite the lack of pay. However when it comes to projects you don’t find anything better because of the lack of budgets, scope and of course lack of a real life client with all their misdemeanours and often complex and illogical nature. Design School – Extraordinary Class Projects from International Design Schools by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico and published by Rockport brings together the best university graphic design projects from around the world in one neat book. Consider this an end of year show on steroids with the only absence being bad student projects.

Design School is compiled from over 50 teachers covering numerous top art and design schools. Some of these schools include: University of Art and Design – Helsinki Finland, Bologna Academy of Fine Arts – Italy, Berlin University of the Arts – Germany and much more. Teachers were asked to showcase the most interesting and challenging projects from their cohort and what a stunning collection it is. There are some truly fascinating, creative and inspirational projects featured throughout. There is a great mix of projects as well from interface design, graphic and system design. This will certainly appeal to all those product designers out there who find themselves delving into this space as often product designers need to present or contextualise their concept in the best possible light by visualising things like labels and packaging. Projects range from labels, packaging, advertising, point of sale, fashion and accessories, games, puzzles and typography, but really there is a lot more than that.

Design School initiatives by detailing the anatomy of a successful project, it does this by showing both the teachers and students perspective. There are some very interesting projects like a paper scooter and visual storytelling in a narrative form. One of my favourite projects is this toy doll which is promoting support for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. The project uses a hyperbole on western commercialism and the ridiculousness of our desire for riches when so many suffer in an urgent humanitarian crisis. Some other projects include a way-finding totem for hospitals and an array of modern chair designs, but I won’t spoil the book anymore.

There is quite a lot of text to get through in the book and I feel like the primary font selection in Design School (which I believe is a straight Museo font) although it is clear and it is a beautiful font for headings, as a primary font it is slightly irritating and detracting on the eyes; even a standard arial or helvetica 55 would be a welcome choice. To counter-act this amount of text some full page images would be a great addition to this title; it is a surprising loss considering so many other books in this portfolio genre seem to revel and pride in this presentation means.

One of the great highlights of Design School is that despite its variety and international compilation the book is very well standardised and structured. For example every project is split up into 3 sections: project brief, project goal and project outcome and this format works well for keeping text relevant, relatively concise and still delivers an element of serendipitous discovery from page to page. Design School features some outstanding projects making it a necessity for students in their penultimate year at college or university to gain an understanding of quality expectations. For everyone else there is also inspiration to be garnished. It is a challenge for us persevering in the daily grind that can way down upon is in the workforce to not be scared of trying things differently. Challenge clients, disseminate briefs, undertake research, harness teamwork and professionals these are the subliminal challenges thrown out by Design School.

[rating:4]