Abstract:

The undergraduate population in the graphic design program is over 200 students representing four academic levels. With this large a group, it is challenging to create a strong sense of belonging and community. It is therefore critical and challenging to create and nurture a strong sense of community and inclusiveness among this diverse group of students. To address this challenge, the faculty has created a week-long celebration of graphic design in a conference style format. Graphic Design Week is a four-day experience held early in the fall semester that includes students at all academic levels, all graphic design faculty, external faculty, design professionals, and alumni. The conference style format includes in person hands-on and digital workshops, social events and community-building activities, presentations by design experts, and interactions via zoom. The variety of presenters, content and delivery formats make this an exciting and invigorating experience for all involved.

The process of organizing Graphic Design Week is much like planning a design conference on a much smaller scale. Faculty, professional experts, and alumni submit abstracts for workshops or activities, which are selected based on diversity of format, approach, content, learning outcome, value to student learning, and enhancing the graphic design program objectives. External faculty, other alumni, and practicing designers are also contacted to submit proposals to supplement the options provided by our faculty.
The workshops and lectures led by our faculty focus on review content for students, and the visiting experts provide fresh and new options for the department. Each offering is introduced by an enticing and compelling title to entice participants.

Once this process is complete, the schedule is created around the existing weekly schedule of classes. Students are expected to attend their usual classes with the special workshops offered by their instructors or guests, and extra seats are opened for each class session to accommodate other interested students or faculty. This requires planning for new spaces and resources for the week's activities.

The week-long event is not all work...a social event is provided mid-week for everyone to eat and mingle, and the event ends with a screening of a design-related film to wind down from a hectic and exciting week.

The benefits of this event are numerous: students and faculty get to know and work with each other in a relaxed environment, and students review skills and learn new skills that are not provided in the normal class setting. Most importantly, the diverse population of participants become a community unified toward a common purpose for the academic year ahead.

Keywords:

Diversity, inclusion, community, design, event, conference, workshops.