II Bau Design Forum Barcelona. New perspectives in design and visual communication

Abstract

There has been a marked increase in conferences promoted by design schools aiming to provide opportunities for creating forums for debate about the social capabilities of design. Bau Design Forum Barcelona intends to draw on the work of different groups, including designers and theorists, to investigate new areas where design and visual communication acquire a clear social and political commitment creating new forms of praxis that aim to solve complex social problems through participation and collective work. Encouraging these types of meetings within universities and design schools is vital in order to educate students and equip them with tools that help them to practice their profession in a more conscious way, seeing the impact that their work has on the lives of many people.

Keywords:

• Design education
• social innovation
• graphic design
• visual communication

Notes

1. Many of the projects presented at the conference can be found on their website: http://www.zuloark.com.

2. Most of the political graphic interventions developed by the collective can be consulted at: http://www.enmedio.info.

3. Some of the projects he presented at the conference, such as CO2GLE, The Virtual Watchers or DEFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOREST, can be found at: http://www.janavirgin.com.

4. Méndez, Aitor. “La política del lenguaje en el diseño gráfico.” 451 diseño gráfico. Available at: https://e451.net/app/uploads/2016/12/la-politica-del-lenguaje-en-el-diseno-grafico.pdf(accessed 14 January 2017). The papers and texts of Aitor Méndez can be accessed at: https://e451.net

5. Manzini, Ezio. Design, When Everybody Designs.