The Visual Communicator

We are living through a moment of exposure. Artificial intelligence did not create the crisis in design education. It revealed it. If what we call design education is essentially a course in software and producing polished outputs, then that version is already obsolete. The machine does it faster, cheaper and without complaining. If schools do not fundamentally rethink what they are for, they…

How artificial intelligence exposed the quiet bargain education made with itself and why the reckoning can no longer be deferred There is a particular kind of institutional discomfort that does not announce itself. It accumulates quietly, in the gap between what we say we are doing and what we are actually doing, until something arrives to make the gap impossible to ignore. For British…

Design has been domesticated into a polite, portfolio-friendly profession—sanitised, aestheticised, stripped of its teeth. But design was never meant to be safe. It was meant to expose, to question, to disrupt. If you want the comfortable version of “how to become a designer,” close this window now. If you want the real version—the one that burns away illusions, then read on. You don’t become a…

Jac Batey In a recent episode of Design Education Talks for The New Art School, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jac Batey, a distinguished educator, illustrator, and researcher. With over 25 years at the University of Portsmouth, Jac has made significant contributions to the field of illustration, both in academia and practice. His insights into the evolving landscape of design education and…

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 17 Pro, much of the attention turned to the product’s design and hardware innovations: the elongated plateau camera, the refined titanium body, and the increasingly minimal industrial form. Yet for typographers and designers, the most striking shift was not physical but visual. It was the new typographic voice: a bold, extended wordmark spelling “PRO” that departs…

 An Expanded Manifesto by Lefteris Heretakis Introduction We are living through a time of breathtaking acceleration. Generative systems now compose images, invent typefaces, and arrange layouts in the blink of an eye. Predictive engines complete our sentences, pre-empt our searches, and even simulate taste. Yet the more we allow such systems to anticipate our intentions, the more we risk losing…

AI appears intelligent not because it truly is, but because education globally has been systematically dumbed down. What we often interpret as technological brilliance is, in fact, a mirror reflecting the collapse of human creativity in formal learning. For decades, the educational system has prioritised assessment over imagination, efficiency over exploration, and outcomes over understanding.…

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.”, John Ruskin There is no enduring success without commitment. Anthony Robbins said that, and he was right. Yet few principles are as neglected in contemporary design education as commitment. In an era of instant results, accelerated tools, and algorithmic creativity, commitment has become almost unfashionable. We live…

The future of design is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, yet Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma, reminds us that the discipline remains profoundly human. AI today is not a full creative decision-maker but a tool that enhances efficiency. It can generate icons, layouts, or colour variations, but the final decisions about aesthetics, usability, and meaning still lie firmly with the…

Inspired by content from Dan Vlahos, AIGA DLand Steven Cotroneo Watch the film here: Introduction: Redefining Design’s Place and Purpose Design is a word that defies simple definition. It is both a noun and a verb, a process and a product, a practice that spans millennia yet remains elusive in its academic and cultural positioning. The short film Towards a Dynamic Discipline of Design embarks…

I’m delighted to share my recent interview with Cooter Mag titled “Igniting Creative Minds.” In it, I reflect on my journey as a designer, educator, and podcaster, and on the values that continue to shape my work—curiosity, observation, and the belief that creativity can transform not just individuals, but whole communities. It was a joy to have this conversation and to explore what it really…

Based on a lecture given by our mentor John Taylor Gatto The most famous discipline in the Western tradition is not a statute or a curriculum. It is a person and a practice. Jesus of Nazareth did not found a school in the modern sense. He did not set up an institution with timetables, exams, or attendance registers. He issued an invitation: “Follow me.” Some did. Some did not. There were no…

In design education today, we are surrounded by theory. Curricula are heavy with strategy frameworks, critical lenses, typographic systems, design thinking toolkits, semiotic analysis, and the endless language of “research methodologies.” Walk into a contemporary design classroom and you are as likely to encounter Post-It notes, process diagrams, and references to Deleuze and Baudrillard as you…

As posted on the guild of St Gorge on the 1st of September 2025 In an era captivated by fleeting trends and hollow profits, the voice of John Ruskin, the 19th-century artist, writer, and social critic, resonates with striking clarity. His words, steeped in a reverence for truth, beauty, and justice, offer a compass for navigating our fragmented world. I recently spoke with Companion Lefteris…

The Future of Design Education: A Conversation with Jack Batey In a recent episode of Design Education Talks for The New Art School, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jack Batey, a distinguished educator, illustrator, and researcher. With over 25 years at the University of Portsmouth, Jack has made significant contributions to the field of illustration, both in academia and practice. His…

Introduction Welcome to Design Education Talks, a podcast by the New Art School where we delve into the stories and wisdom of creative trailblazers. Today, we’re privileged to host Brian Grimwood, a legendary figure in British illustration whose vibrant, fluid brush style has left an indelible mark on the industry. As the founder of the Central Illustration Agency (CIA), an international…