National Conference
on the Beginning
Design Student
Theme: TOOL(ING)
FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 2, 2025
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF DESIGN / RALEIGH, NC
Important Dates
Abstract Submission Deadline: October 25,2024
Abstract Acceptance: December 2, 2024
Full Paper Due: January 24, 2025
Presentation Upload: February 24, 2025
"We shape our tools and, thereafter, our tools shape us."
- (John Culkin, Media Theorist, 1967)
About the Theme: TOOL(ING)
Tools, their processes, and the media they shape intrinsically impact how we conceive design problems, generate alternatives, produce solutions, and test results. Therefore, immersion in diverse tool types and exploration of myriad creative processes they facilitate is a foundational component to beginning design education. Today more than ever, designers are responsible for navigating a wide array of tool types in order to forge and command their creative endeavors. This navigation spans traditional analog tools, emerging digital processes, iterative design procedures, and critical research methods. In contrast to seeing tools as a means to an end, this conference will explore the reciprocal relationship that tools have with their human users.
NCBDS40 seeks to explore what belongs in our design education toolbox towards equipping the next generation of designers to be creative, resilient, skilled, engaged, and empowered to tackle the wicked challenges of tomorrow.
We'll explore a wide range of topics
that tools and tooling processes touch, including:
Evolution of Tools
How have tools shaped design education and practice over time? What traditional tools remain relevant and essential? How have analog, digital, and hybrid tools evolved to meet current needs independently and collectively? How do we introduce digital tools and processes, knowing they will transform in the immediate future? How do designers work with emerging “tool-less” generators of content such as GP Chat and Midjourney?
Tools of Disruption
What tools do our students need to be resilient disruptors of the status quo? How have tools of the past, present, and future disrupted (for good and bad) design education and practice? What research methods and critical thinking tools are necessary to evolve practice and equip design students to tackle wicked challenges? What emerging tools are poised to take us in fundamentally new directions?
Tools of the Trade
What are the tools driving current and future practice, and what is their place in beginning design education? What tools of making are necessary to lead contemporary material-based practices vs. experience-focused practices? What “soft”, rapid prototyping tools are important for building facile design ideation skills? What “hard”, production tools are necessary to refine ideas and hone craft? What are the emerging teaching tools and methods transforming beginning design education from k-12 through graduate level curriculums?
Ways to Participate
/ 1 /
Paper or Project Presentation
Paper:
15 Minute Presentation + 4000-5000 word paper
Project / Short Paper:
5 Minute Presentation + 1000-2000 word paper
We welcome papers from all disciplines discussing theories, methods, and pedagogical practices related to the theme Tool(ing) for the beginning design student.
Submit a 350 word (Projects) or 500 word (Papers) Abstract for consideration by October 25, 2024.
/ 2 /
Come as an Attendee
Full Conference Access
Attend full conference events happening throughout the week including the Young Academics Workshop and K-12 Beginning Design Education Workshop on Thursday, paper presentations and panel discussions on Friday and Saturday, keynote speaker on Friday evening, and closing reception and dinner on Saturday. This is a great conference to get to know others working in the field of beginning design.
(New) Abstract Submission Deadline
October 25, 2024
About The College of Design @ NC State
Founded in 1948 as the School of Design under the leadership of Dean Henry Kamphoefner, The College of Design at NC State continues to be unique as an independent College of Design. From its early faculty members (such as Buckminster Fuller, Matthew Nowicki, Lewis Mumford, Eduardo Catalano, George Birline, and Harwell Hamilton Harris) to its most recent award-winning faculty, the College remains a leader in design excellence and design pedagogy. Since its inception, the College has been a pioneer in the development and evolution of a first year curriculum that integrates design thinking with interdisciplinary design studio fundamentals. Exploration through making has been at the core of the College’s curriculum, facilitated by decades of engagement with traditional and emerging tools across disciplines.
<span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Rubik", sans-serif; color: rgb(246,241,245); In addition to the undergraduate and graduate studio-based degree programs in Architecture; Media Arts, Design, and Technology; Graphic and Experience Design, Industrial Design, and Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning; the College of Design offers a Doctor of Design and PhD in Design as well as a non-studio based Design Studies undergraduate degree. To expand the impact of design education, over the last 25 years the College of Design has also developed innovative K-12 design education programs for students and teachers through the Design Lab.