Session Organizer: Kimberly Elam, Ringling College of Art + Design | PDF
Nancy Skolos, Rhode Island School of Design
Ellen Lupton, Maryland Institute College of Art
Paul J. Nini, Ohio State University | PDF
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Design educators have spent the past two decades racing to keep up with dynamic media and the pace has only accelerated. Software manuals abound, but texts that merge design principles with dynamic media are in woefully short supply. The small number of publishers who handle design books can only publish a limited number of titles every year, and even the most ambitious book will take at least a year, probably two, to finally land on booksellers shelves. This renders some books out of date before they’re ever published.
Educators are faced with a scramble to build dynamic media pedagogy themselves, and are developing excellent teaching, research, and discourse in the design education community. The trouble is nobody knows about it. These activities are happening in a range of colleges and universities throughout the world where it remains a hidden resource, because there are not opportunities in traditional publishing nor is there an awareness of readily available channels for other forms of publication.
This panel presentation is about educator/author self-publishing. A wide-range of publishing opportunities now exist with internet channels such as downloadable ebooks, cost-effective CDs or DVDs, and digital print-on-demand hardcover or paperback books. Self-publishing has evolved from a vanity press perspective to a rich online resource whereby educator/authors can define their own content, publish at no or low cost, and communicate with the global design education community.
I know this can be done because I’ve done it. Having successfully published four books, I find traditional print publication highly limiting and have begun to self-publish. I will present design research, writing, and documented results from teaching as activities that can be fluidly published. I will speak from experience and will share insights about my own ebooks and print-on-demand books as well as invite others to do the same.
This panel presentation will open the door of opportunity. Ebooks, disk media, and print-on-demand books published by author/educators have the potential to enrich and supplement the design education experience and the profession at large. Design educators in any location can independently determine their own content and readily publish. The opportunity is available to all of us. We only have to choose to accept it.
