Producing Knowledge with Billboards: Graphic Design & Research

This article contributes to recent debates regarding graphic design and research, in this journal and elsewhere, by reflecting on my own project that may or may not be considered research. London is Changing, was staged online and on large-scale networked digital billboards in Central London during 2015. It engaged the participation of more than 5,000 Londoners in a discussion about the future of the city. Reflection on the significance and outcomes of London is Changing, in particular why it is so difficult to frame as research, provides the basis for a broader reconsideration of the definition and valuation of graphic design research. One key question is whether it is productive for graphic design, a discipline that can arguably be defined by its experimental approach to publishing, to focus on conventional or externally prescribed forms of scholarly publishing in attempting to strengthen its position as a field of research? I conclude by arguing that graphic design’s potential contribution to wider scholarship in the context of mounting pressures on all academic fields to demonstrate “impact,” is rooted precisely in the integrated approach it takes to the production, form, and circulation of knowledge