Preparing to Co-design new Design Education for Tasmania, Design Island

Centred on a new design degree program under development for the island state of Tasmania, Australia, we outline the early phase of a curriculum co-design process between two schools spanning art, music, theatre, architecture and design, and the state’s small but vibrant design community. Through applying design thinking, critical issues associated with our present dispersed design offerings are identified via four problem frames – a mismatch between graduates and future practice, limited exchange with our design community, dated conceptions of design, and geographic dislocation. These are explored in relation to emergent design practices and discourse, notable design curricula elsewhere, and some strengths of our current design courses and pedagogies. Through articulating our working positions on graduate and practice futures – especially in relation to sustainability and critical making – we venture strategies for progressing the next phase of course and curriculum design for the Bachelor of Design (Hons) to launch in 2019.