The Department of Graphic and Industrial Design seeks applicants for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor.

Candidates should demonstrate exceptional skills in research and graphic design. We invite applications and nominations of individuals who can teach research skills in new cross-disciplinary coursework for bachelor’s masters, and doctoral students, as well as professionally-oriented coursework in graphic design. The position also requires securing external funding through grants and sponsored research projects that involve students and faculty, as well as responsibility for publishing research findings. Teaching responsibilities involve studio and seminar courses, including courses related to the department’s Research Across the Curriculum initiative.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in a related discipline, as well as bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in graphic design. They must demonstrate research and publishing competencies and an understanding of the role of research in professional design practice. Contract begin date is August 16, 2013.

To learn more about this position, and to apply, please visit:

http://jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/16286/. Applicants are requested to attach a letter of intent describing qualifications and interests along with resume/cv, and copies of academic transcripts. Required digital portfolios and research publications may be submitted as “Other Documents” thought the online system, or mailed to: Meredith Davis, Brooks Hall, 50 Pullen Road, NC State University, Campus Box 7701, Raleigh, NC 27695. Do not submit these materials via email. Review of applications will begin January, 2013 and continue until position is filled. Inquiries and nominations should be directed to: Meredith_davis@ncsu.edu. Additional information on the position is available on the web at: http://design.ncsu.edu/gd-id-research-faculty.

NC State University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religions, sex, age, veteran status, or disability. In addition, NC State welcomes all persons without regard to sexual orientation or genetic information.

Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations in the application and review process, please call (919) 515-3148. Final candidates are subject to criminal and sex offender background checks. If the highest degree is from an institution outside of the United States, final candidates are required to have their degree verified at www.wes.org. The degree must be obtained prior to the start date.

NC State University participates in E-Verify. Federal law requires all employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States.

RESEARCH ACROSS THE CURRICULUM INITIATIVE

THE PROFESSIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT FOR RESEARCH IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

Graphic designers who were educated under modernist philosophies of the mid twentieth century anticipated rather stable definitions of design and well-articulated career paths for entering the profession. Most design students of the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s learned the craft of preparing art for print and began their careers in the technical production of more experienced designers’ ideas. Once they served an apprenticeship period – and if they exhibited an affinity for design work such as attention to detail, craftsmanship, and the ability to carry out someone else’s vision – they graduated to projects in which they were responsible for the invention of communicative ideas and form. Designers who established long-term working relationships with clients sometimes moved into the development of more comprehensive business strategies, but only after they mastered managing their own firms and understood how commerce worked. The field relied heavily on expert intuition and clients rarely demanded research that supported design decisions; there was no research culture in the field.

The democratization of software, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, changed that career trajectory. Today there is too much to know about technology to consider it simply as a steppingstone to making decisions about form. While there is still a pre-press role to be filled in the printing industry, much of the work created by the digitization of communication is in the management of technological systems and is not preparatory to a career in the development of expressive form, communication strategy, or user-based research. And because people untrained in design can now make “professional-looking” communication using expert software, often publishing on the web or in digital printing without the imprimatur of a publisher or sponsor, many projects that required the technical or form-making services of a design professional have disappeared from the work of design offices altogether. Company newsletters, for example, can now be done by the office secretary or webmaster and delivered online. Filling the gap in the industry are projects that require deep understanding of communication design strategy and the development of new tools and systems through which others create their own communication. At the heart of this new work is research that responds to increasing demands for accountability in informing and anticipating the outcomes of design action in professional contexts. As a result, students graduating from college design programs now enter these segments of the profession laterally, rather than through a scaffolded series of increasingly demanding apprenticeship experiences, with professional bachelor’s and master’s degree students holding primary responsibility for the research and strategy components of practice.

Accreditation and professional standards for the education of graphic designers have shifted to reflect these changes in practice. Because the field offers undergraduate study through associate’s degrees, bachelor of arts degrees, and professional bachelor’s degrees, in addition to the terminal master’s and doctoral degrees, the accrediting body (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) and professional association (AIGA) have emphasized the necessity to create clear distinctions among degree offerings to communicate clearly to employers what students know and are able to do. New national standards now call for the development of research predispositions as a defining characteristic of students graduating from professional bachelor’s programs and for research methods and research practice opportunities as features of terminal master’s curricula. Similarly, the two associations have articulated new standards for doctoral research programs in design, anticipating growth in the number of American PhD programs in design and declaring evidence-based curricula (as opposed to practice-based doctorates) as appropriate content for the PhD degree.

RESEARCH IN THE COLLEGE OF DESIGN AND DEPARTMENT OF GRAPHIC AND INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Faculty in the College of Design have led the way nationally in both the development of these standards and in modeling curricular approaches that are studied by educators from around the world (including through the 2010 AIGA New Contexts/New Practices conference; in the development work for the NASAD national standards for graphic design; and in the development of doctoral study in design in the United States). The logical next step is the further development of research education within the curricula in Graphic Design and Industrial Design.

The courses being proposed under this initiative are consistent with discussions in the College of Design about building research capacity and with experimental master’s offerings that the Graphic Design program has offered. Non-major access to these courses would continue under this proposal.

There is also potential for these courses to be used as part of a bridge experience for doctoral applicants from non-design majors. PhD admission currently requires a previous design degree, yet the doctoral program often gets inquiries from students in related fields who want to do design research but who are not interested in becoming professional designers or studio teachers. The PhD faculty has discussed transitional work, much in the spirit of the one-year Master’s of Philosophy degrees in Europe. The proposed courses would contribute to instruction for that audience and expand the research potential of the PhD program.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INITIATIVE

• o To differentiate graphic design offerings at NC State from non-professional degree programs and other programs nationally by addressing new standards for education in the discipline
• o To introduce undergraduate students to research concepts that define high-wage employment in contemporary design practice and prepare them for graduate study
• o To train graduate students in the use of practice-based research methods in solving complex, interdisciplinary problems and to attract research partners for work with these students
• o To expand the scope of content in the study of empirical research methods for doctoral students to include communication design research
• o To maintain supervision of doctoral research in communication design and to account for such supervision in faculty teaching loads
• o To address the succession of tenure-track faculty with respect to growing research capability in the Graphic Design programs

PROPOSAL

The Graphic Design faculty propose hiring new faculty with PhD qualifications in the discipline who would teach the following courses:

GD 470 – INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH IN DESIGN PRACTICE: An elective course designed to introduce undergraduate students to how research is done in professional practice; the use of research findings in the design process; and the role of interdisciplinary research teams in the management and execution of complex projects that require formative and summative research strategies. Students would be encouraged to develop undergraduate research proposals for submission to the university for funding.

GD 475/575 – APPLIED RESEARCH PROJECTS: A topical offering designed to support the engagement of upper-level undergraduate and master’s students in applied research projects with outside partners. The course would seek funded opportunities and require dissemination of research outcomes in an effort to build a story of research capability within the college.

GD 574 – GRADUATE SEMINAR IN DESIGN RESEARCH METHODS: A graduate-level seminar on research methods used in professional practice and research proposal writing. Specific methods would be linked to stages of the design process. This course would enhance work on final projects and prepare students for academic and professional positions that require research skills.

DDN 795 – SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMMUNICATION DESIGN RESEARCH: Supervised doctoral research in communication design. This course would reflect PhD teaching in the full-time load of faculty (for parity with other PhD faculty on campus) and would provide specific experiences related to communication design (the College of Design research methods class has an architectural slant in its case study examples).

DDN 810 – PHD IN DESIGN COLLOQUIUM/RESEARCH MANAGEMENT and PUBLICATION: Contribution to teaching the required doctoral colloquia on the development and management of research investigations and on dissemination of research findings.

AREAS OF POTENTIAL RESEARCH WOULD INCLUDE:

• o Articulating how designers think and the application of these cognitive behaviors to work in areas other than design
• o Determining what people want and need, with special attention to user-centered research methods and the move from designing discrete objects to the conditions for user experience
• o Determining what the context demands (including issues of economic viability, technological feasibility, and social and physical sustainability)
• o Optimizing how design is produced and distributed, including investigations of design methods and business strategies
• o Evaluating the consequences of design action, including an understanding of form and its implications for meaning and use
• o Developing tools and methods that are particular to design for researching these issues

NC STATE UNIVERSITY:

NC State University is one of two research universities in the 17-campus University of North Carolina System. A land-grant university with an emphasis in science and technology, it enrolls approximately 34,000 students and has extension offices in 100 counties.

The Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design is one of four departments in the College of Design at NC State University. With Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Art and Design, the Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design offers professional bachelor’s and master’s programs in each discipline. While under one administrative unit, the Bachelor of Graphic Design and Bachelor of Industrial Design are separate degree offerings that allow students some crossover in elective coursework. Undergraduate students in the college are admitted directly to majors but undertake one year of design study common to all majors. The Master of Graphic Design and Master of Industrial Design are also distinct offerings and are managed by Directors of Graduate Programs who report to the Department Head and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. In addition, the college offers an interdisciplinary PhD in Design, only the second in the US admitting students with graphic and industrial design backgrounds. Faculty from the various departments in the college hold affiliate status in this program and PhD students often serve as teaching assistants in various departmental courses.

Programs in Graphic Design and Industrial Design are accredited under single-program reviews with NASAD and completed their most recent re-accreditation reviews in 2010 and 2011 respectively. The department hosted the most recent AIGA Educators Conference titled, New Contexts/New Practices (http://www.ncsu.edu/graphicdesign/ newcontexts/). Students in Industrial Design have a lively chapter of IDSA and are frequent winners of their competitions. Overall enrollment in the College of Design is approximately 800 students, with the department enrolling 250 bachelor’s and master’s students in the two disciplines, making it equal in size to the School of Architecture. There are approximately 25 active PhD students, with the program having graduated roughly 30 students since its inception in 1999.

The college has excellent facilities and provides dedicated studio space to all students, freshman through doctoral levels. Students purchase their own computers and are supported by central labs and four full-time IT staff. The shop is well-equipped, including a laser cutter; 3-D printing; CNC cutting for wood, metal, and plastic. It is staffed by three full-time employees. The college research center houses doctoral students and college research initiatives; annual research funding generated by faculty is approximately $2.5 million.

The college also operates a downtown studio, where students work with community groups; a year-round study abroad center in Prague, Czech Republic; the Fish Market, a student-run downtown gallery; and the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Raleigh’s warehouse district. CAM coordinates the college programs for high school and middle school students, as well as a full schedule of exhibitions.

The university’s Centennial Campus is a 1000-acre complex adjacent to the main campus that supports research collaborations between the university, government, and industry partners, who are resident on the campus. Students serve as interns for some of these companies. The campus also includes a middle school with an adjacent center for educational research.

Raleigh is located near Research Triangle Park, home to the research and development divisions of a number of high-tech companies. Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill are within 1/2 hour driving distance; NC State students have reciprocal registration and library privileges under their university tuition and attend special programming offered by the other two research universities.

Raleigh is an easy commute to cities on the east coast. Flights to Washington (45 minutes), New York (1-hour), and Chicago (2-hours) leave regularly from the brand new Raleigh/Durham Airport. Raleigh is among the fastest growing cities in the US and is frequently selected as one the best places to live and do business. Wake County Public Schools are among the best in the country.