Graphic design and the aesthetics of place

This paper describes the early stages of a doctoral project entitled “Envisioning Design: The Role of Visual Communications in Place-making” which engages University of Western Sydney (UWS) Bachelor of Design (BDes) Visual Communications students in the process of co-designing places for learning and practicing graphic design. Through a series of focus groups, BDes students identify factors that shape their undergraduate experience and explore ways to renovate or create new and more inspirational places for their emerging community of design practice. The focus group is unique because participants are users and young graphic designers, and it is assumed that their emerging expertise in visual communication, design production, and student experience will enable them to make a particular contribution to place-making at their university. Place-making emerged in the 1970’s and as a relatively new practice. It is typically manifested through the collaborative efforts of architects, planners, builders, interior designers, engineers and landscape architects. Revitalising and in some cases redesigning public spaces is certainly on the agenda around the world and in Australia –‘place’ has become an ‘in’ word, with increasing acknowledgment of its importance in contemporary human existence. In this context, the project seeks to understand if and how graphic design practice can make a contribution to the methodologies of place-making, and speculates on what form/s may emerge from a re-directive commercial graphic design practice.