PIPER SCHUERMAN

︎︎︎ Design

Critique-ing the Design Critique - Conference Material, Research

︎ 2022

Informed by my personal investigation on critique format, I joined 4 other design educators to confront the status quo around critiques. During the Summer of 2022 we presented at the biennial international Design Research Society conference held in Bilbao, Spain. The full report of this research can be viewed here.


Presenting in the conversation section of this conference, Dajana Nedic, Gaby Hernandez, Bree McMahon, Alexandria Canchola, and myself aimed to facilitate a discussion about traditional assesment methods in design education. The session was held in a hybrid format allowing for virtual and in-person attendees to contribute to the discourse in a meaningful way. I was responsible for designing a risograph-printed zine that acted as a mediating artifact throughout the conversation. It contained questions that following the timeline of the session. When unfolded, the reverse side of the zine acted as a place to gather final thoughts.



The visual language I developed was then implemented in the conference material as a whole, from the collaborative Miro space to the presentation slides. 
 

Participants answered the three guiding questions what, why, and how do we critique? using sticky notes (of both physical and virtual nature.) The contents of these sticky notes became points of discussion for our shared experiences with critique. Coming from diverse backgrounds, everyone had such unique insight to share. Our collective understanding of critique carried undertones of a desire for change, and we speculated about what that shift might look like. 




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