The design collaborator as the other: Investigating the intersubjective in communication design practice

My doctoral research investigated the intersubjective aspects of communication design practice through a focus on the other, and the roles that the other takes in practice. It did so in order to better understand the practice of communication design as practiced on a day-to-day basis. Communication design, as a practice, and a field, extends out of graphic design. This extension is due to a change in priorities; from privileging the graphic and artefactual aspects of practice, to prioritising consideration for the broader agency of design within a specific context. This research was accomplished through a practice-led methodology. Communication design projects formed the methods of, and the foundation for, the investigation. Seven individual research projects were designed and carried out. Each project incorporated different participants of communication design practice; new and existing clients, student designers and established practicing designers. This allowed the research to investigate its concerns from a range of roles and viewpoints, incorporating different perspectives into its observations and understandings. The research extends the work of Donald Schön and his investigation into The Reflective Practitioner (1983). It achieved this through a consideration for the roles of the other in professional practice. In order to reflect upon and articulate the results of this shift in focus to the other extensive reference has been made to the thinking of the twentieth century philosophers Martin Heidegger (2008 [1927-1964]) and Emmanuel Levinas (1990 [1963]). The research concluded that the other takes a critical role within the practice of communication of providing ‘provocative disjunction’. This provocative disjunction, as understood by this research, directly contributes to the generative shifts which communication design enables for all the participants involved in the design action; artefacts, clients and designers. The observations and understandings produced during this practice-led research enabled extensive insights into the practice of communication design, which contribute significantly to the broader communication design discourse in professional practice, education and research. This paper presents a project from the author’s practice-led PhD in order to discuss 'the design collaborator as other'. Seen in this light it is the design collaborator who provides the source of 'disjunctive provocation' and consequently has the potential to enable both epistemological and ontological change