The Birth of Graphic Design in a School of Fine Arts: How the Specificity of a Learning Environment Determined a Course’s Vocation

Abstract

This study presents the context and circumstances in which the course of Design (Graphic Art) was created at the Porto School of Fine Arts in a post revolution period. This course, along with the Design courses created at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, was the first Design course in Portuguese higher education. The study outlines the first pedagogical experiences in the field of Graphic Arts carried out in the 1960s and 1970s within the Painting course; how the course of Design was initially structured; and how its first years proved to be fundamental to its vocation. The research methodology includes document analysis and ethnography, namely life-story interviews conducted with artists and designers who played a key contextual role, both as teachers and as students. The findings show a close relationship between the Design (Graphic Art) course and both Painting and Sculpture courses, resulting from a series of factors: the first pedagogical experiences in the area of graphic arts having arisen in the context of the Painting course; the fact that when Design was created, the curriculum included several subjects in common to both to Painting and Sculpture; and the evidence that during the first decade of the Design course, the subjects were taught by professors without specialized training in the area, a majority of them having graduated in Painting or Sculpture. This close disciplinary relationship contributed to determining the specificity and vocation of the Design course, essentially oriented towards the image, visual communication, and graphic design concerns.KeywordsESBAPFBAUPCommunication designDesign historyPortuguese design