Design

Nancy at the MoMA Design Store in New York City.

After reading the innovative and engaging articles focused on contemporary design in this issue, I thought it would be interesting to see how (or if) design was addressed in early art education textbooks. It would serve as a reminder of how much design education has changed over time.

The first art textbooks I encountered as an elementary art teacher were the six volumes of Laura H. Chapman’s Discover Art series, first published in 1985 by Davis Publications (SchoolArts’ parent). She followed this in 1998 with Adventures in Art, also published by Davis. Since I have copies of both of these series, I thought I would start there.

I earned a degree in graphic design before I changed my focus to art education, so I have long been interested in the topic. But first, let me define the term design as it is used in this issue. We are not referring specifically to the elements of art, but to the plan for arranging the parts or elements of an artwork. The design of a work of art is its plan. I like that definition.

When I first started teaching and had not yet encountered any art education textbooks, I remember trying to help students recognize and understand the part design plays in their everyday lives—in their clothing, their homes, their cars, their toys, and just about everything else made by humans. Every object has a plan and a planner.

In reviewing Discover Art and Adventures in Art, I looked in the fifth-grade textbooks of each for units or lessons on design. Discover Art had two lessons: “Graphic Design” and “Changes in Design.” “Graphic Design” was a lesson on package design. “Changes in Design” was about product design. (Rachel Wintemberg’s high-school article, “Adventures in Package Design,” includes both of these topics.)

Adventures in Art, published thirteen years later, has a whole unit on Living with Art that includes lessons on Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Lettering, and Clothing Design. (Jane B. Montero’s elementary article, “Riding the Infographic Highway,” encompasses both graphic design and lettering; Janine Campbell’s middle-school article, “Laser-Focused on Design,” features a lesson on wearable art.)

This brief comparison shows that Laura H. Chapman was certainly a pioneer in art education, and we owe her a great and grateful debt for her many contributions to the field. (She also originated the idea of SchoolArts’ ClipCards.) I think she would have been excited about how the addition of digital media has offered students new ways of living with, thinking about, and making art.

How can your students recognize and understand the part design plays in their everyday lives?