Abstract:

In this study, an approach of teaching a theoretical course, history of Graphic Design in a way to make the students become a part of the teaching with visual research and presentations in two different programs. The first program is the teaching in a Graphic Design Program in Fine Arts Faculty of Anadolu University which is a public university and the other one is a Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program in the Communication Faculty of Bahcesehir University, as a foundation base university.

Like many similar courses, History of Graphic Design is an informational / knowledge-base course which in general has a schedule of conveying the topics as the timeline, the style and the technological history that formed the styles and movements, mainly with visual documents, sometimes with discussions and research homeworks. What is observed critisizing the traditional methods of teaching is that once the student is aware to find any information necessary on the web, he loses the interest on the course. The one-source teaching makes the students unable to resolve, analyze and syntesize the styles in order of deconstruction, by the lack of interest.

The innovative method of teaching to this topic is to make the students find the re-interpretetion examples of the products in the specific style weekly, according to the schedule, photograph them to make a short comment on them to see how it fits the style for the following week. The photographs are asked to include the student himself, to avoid downloading imagery from the web and to make the students become aware of their enviroment, sometimes as herritage and sometimes as every-day-objects.

An additional method to this is to ask for a research on a spesific style to present it to the class. What differs this method from the common methods is that the presentation itself to have the characteristics of the style. The students are free to choose any medium, or any way they like; they can make a small theatrical sketch; they can make a humorous video; an installation; a performance; a booklet; a documentary; an animation; short film..etc. any technique of art or design they wish to present. Their only obligation is to represent the style; to design the product or show pointing out to the highlights. The more interesting the presentation is; the more interesting the subject becomes.

In this study, with the methods mentioned, alternating methods and the examples of student works of two semesters will be presented as well as the outcomes of the strategy will be discussed.

Keywords:

history, graphic design, innovative learning, theoretical course.