Design Educator Community
DEC: Examining Design Educator Pain Points (January 2019)
Course Planning
Writing a Syllabus
The Course Syllabus, A Learning Centered Approach, Second Edition (published by Jossey-Bass)
How to Create a Syllabus (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Teaching Graphic Design: Course Offerings and Class Projects from the Leading Graduate and Undergraduate Programs (Steven Heller)
creating a Rubric
A Case for Using a Rubric (Robin Landa)
In The Classroom
Critique
How to Give and Receive a Good Design Critique (Kate Lawless and Shannon Crabill)
How to Survive Critique: A Guide to Giving and Receiving Feedback—Part 1 (Karen Cheng)
How to Survive Critique—Part 2 (Karen Cheng)
Functional Criticism— How to Have Productive Critiques in the Creative Classroom (Yoon Soo Lee)
teaching assistants
Handbook for Teaching Assistants (John Bowers)
Collaboration
Collab + Design Ed: Collaboration in Design Education (Marty Maxwell Lane and Rebecca Tegtmeyer)
Student Resources
advice
This is Design School a podcast for the growing designer (Chad Hall and Jp Avila)
Advice for Design Students (David Airey)
How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul (Adrian Shaughnessy)
professional practice
Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Strategies To Evolve Your Creative Business (Emily Cohen)
Nail It: Stories for Designers on Negotiating with Confidence (Ted Leonhardt)
Building Portfolios
Stand Out (Peachpit)
Flaunt (Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit)
Build Your Own Brand (Simon & Schuster)
AIGA Career Guide (Juliette Cezzar)
workshops / study abroad programs
Design Futures
formerly known as the Designer of 2025
Introduction (Meredith Davis)
Bridging Digital and Physical Experiences
Making Sense in the Data Economy
Accountability for Anticipating Design Outcomes
Select Publications
Curriculum / pedagogy
Teaching Design: A Guide to Curriculum and Pedagogy for College Design Faculty and Teachers Who Use Design in Their Classrooms (Meredith Davis)
The Education of a Graphic Designer (Steven Heller)
Assignments
Taking a Line for a Walk: Assignments in Design Education (Spector Books)
37 Assignments (edited by Linda van Deursen)
Teaching Graphic Design (Steven Heller)
Foundations
Graphic Design: The New Basics (Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips)
Graphic Design Solutions, 6th edition (Robin Landa)
Visual Communication Design: An Introduction to Design Concepts in Everyday Experience (Meredith Davis)
2D: Visual Basics for Designers (Robin Landa, Rose Gonnella, and Steven Brower)
Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design (David Dabner, Sandra Stewart, and Eric Zempol)
The Language of Graphic Design Revised and Updated: An illustrated handbook for understanding fundamental design principles (Richard Poulin)
Typography
A Book Apart: On Web Typography (Jason Santa Maria)
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts (Simon Garfield)
Designing Type (Karen Cheng)
Elements of Typographic Style (Robert Bringhurst)
Better Web Typography for a Better Web (Matej Latin)
Thinking With Type (Ellen Lupton)
A Type Primer (John Kane)
Grids
Making and Breaking the Grid, Second Edition, Updated and Expanded: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop (Timothy Samara)
Grid systems in graphic design: A visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers and three dimensional designers (Josef Müller-Brockman)
Theory
Graphic Design Theory (Graphic Design in Context) First Edition (Meredith Davis)
Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field (Helen Armstrong)
Color
Design Fundamentals: Notes on Color (Rose Gonnella and Max Friedman)
The Designer’s Dictionary of Color (Sean Adams)
Participatory Design
Participate (Helen Armstrong and Zvezdana Stojmirovic)
Inclusive Design
The Senses: Design Beyond Vision (Ellen Lupton and Andrea Lipps)
Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) (Kat Holmes)
Creativity
Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire)
The Storm of Creativity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) (Kyna Leski)
The Art of Critical Making: Rhode Island School of Design on Creative Practice (Rosanne Somerson and Mara Hermano)
Interaction/interface Design
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (Steve King)
Thoughts on Interaction Design (Jon Kolko)
Design History
Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design (Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit)
Teaching Graphic Design History (Steven Heller)
Megg’s History of Graphic Design 6th Edition (Phillip B Meggs)
100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design (Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne)
Graphic Design and Architecture, A 20th Century History: A Guide to Type, Image, Symbol, and Visual Storytelling in the Modern World (Richard Poulin)
motion design
The Theory and Practice of Motion Design: Critical Perspectives and Professional Practice (Editors R. Brian Stone, Leah Walin; Routledge: 2018)
process
The Art of the Process: Establishing Good Habits for Successful Outcomes (Beth Costello)
The Role of the Designer
The Designer As… (Steven McCarthy)
Citizen Designer (Steven Heller)
The Design Activists Handbook (Noah Scalin)
Thinking/Writing
Writing and Research for Graphic Designers: A Designer’s Manual to Strategic Communication and Presentation (Steven Heller)
Design is Storytelling (Ellen Lupton)
Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs) (Ellen Lupton)
Online Resources
More Resources coming soon. Please submit suggestions— particularly ones related to teaching, critiques, assessments and rubrics—to info@teachingresource.aiga.org