ORGANIZATIONS THAT FOSTER OR SUPPORT DESIGN RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP:
Many of these host peer-reviewed conferences and publish their conferences’ proceedings. Some facilitate juried exhibitions and workshops.
College Art Association (CAA)
“CAA opportunities offers continuously updated information for artists, scholars, museum professionals, educators, and other members of the visual-arts community.” (calls for papers, calls for entry for exhibits, calls to host theme-based sessions, etc.)
Cumulus
Cumulus is the only global association to serve art and design education and research. It is a forum for partnership and transfer of knowledge and best practices. Cumulus consists currently of 226 members from 49 countries.” (conferences, events)
DART+ : foundations for early career researchers in design
Design Advanced Research Training website (DART), a open portal for resources aimed at postgraduate research education.
Design Incubation
“Design Incubation is a venue for educators and practitioners of Communication Design to discuss their design research and practice. Our aim is to create a community in which graphic designers can assess creative work through a lens of scholarly activity and academic review.” (colloquia, published abstracts)
Design Principles & Practices Community
This community is brought together by a shared interest in the process of design and their conceptual foundations. The community interacts digitally through social media, as well as through an annual face-to-face conference, a peer-reviewed journal collection, and book series. Members include academics, designers, administrators, educators, consultants and research students.
Design Research Society (DRS)
A multi-disciplinary learned society for the design research community worldwide.The DRS was founded in 1966 and facilitates an international design research network in around 40 countries.
Design Studies Forum
A College Art Association Affiliated Society that seeks to nurture and encourage the study of design history, criticism, and theory and to foster better communication among the academic and design communities.
International Association for Societies of Design Research (IASDR)
The purpose of this international Association is to promote research or study into or about the activity of design in all its many fields of application, through encouraging collaboration on an international level between independent societies of design research. The Association will promote, amongst other activities, the organisation of biennial International Congresses of Design Research, at appropriate venues around the world.
International Conferences on Design History and Studies (ICDHS)
“Advance the discipline of History and Theory of Design around the world.” (biennial conferences)
Minnesota Center for Book Art
“We celebrate the book as a vibrant contemporary art form that takes many shapes. Our mission is clear: to lead the advancement of the book as an evolving art form.” (exhibits, competitions, programs, etc.)
Service Design Network (Germany)
The Service Design Network is the leading institution for expertise in service design. SDN is a partnership of professionals and an open-minded, knowledge-sharing network. Through national and international events, online and print publications and coordination with academic institutions, the network connects multiple roles within agencies, business, and government to strengthen the impact of service design, both in the public and private sector.
The Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD)
“SEGD’s Education programs include conferences, workshops, and webinars spanning a wide swath of design practice areas, including branded environments, exhibition and experience design, technology and interactive experiences, user experience, healthcare, practice and technical topics, wayfinding, accessibility, and the business of design.”
University and College Design Association (UCDA)
“…national summit for design educators, chairs, and students, continues an ongoing community created specifically for graphic design educators with many opportunities for professional participation and development.” (annual education summit, competition)
TYPOGRAPHY ORGANIZATIONS:
ATypI, Association Typographique Internationale
A global forum and focal point for the type community and business.
The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA)
The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, study, and support of type, its history and development, its use in the world of print and digital imagery, its designers, and its admirers.
JOURNALS:
Communication + Place
Communication + Place is the official research journal of the Experiential Graphic Design community. Published online, the journal features articles from both academics and professionals advancing the XGD profession through creative research, curriculum development, project reviews, and user-centric testing.
Design and Culture
The official journal of the Design Studies Forum. An interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published three times annually.
Design Inquiry
DesignInquiry’s topics and team-based gatherings generate work for DesignInquiry publications, exhibitions, and presentations. Conceived as a collaborative laboratory, our publications and events give gathering participants and our other contributors, an opportunity to test their research, articulate their conclusions, confront new questions, and commence a dialogue with the broader design community. DesignInquiry’s publications and events program is a vehicle for sharing design knowledge and shaping design discourse.
Design Issues
The first American-based academic journal to examine design history, theory, and criticism, Design Issues provokes inquiry into the cultural and intellectual issues surrounding design.
The Design Management Journal
The dmi:Journal is a refereed journal devoted to articles and academic research exploring how design—in products, communication, and environments—is an essential strategic resource, a component of every organization that can be effectively managed to make important contributions to the bottom line and to long-term success. Founded in 2000, it is published once a year and offered (along with the DMI Review) as part of DMI Membership. Contributors include many of today’s leading educators and practitioners.
The Design Journal
Established in 1998, The Design Journal is an international, refereed journal covering all aspects of design. The journal welcomes articles on design in both cultural and commercial contexts. The journal is published four times a year and provides a forum for design scholars, professionals, educators, and managers worldwide. It publishes thought-provoking work that will have a direct impact on design knowledge and that challenges assumptions and methods, while being open-minded about the evolving role of design.
Design Philosophy Papers
The Design Philosophy Papers [DPP] project is about getting more people to think deeply about design as a world-shaping force, be stopped in their tracks by this recognition and then participate in developing more informed design thinking and action. The main project elements are the online journal appearing six times a year and an annual collection of selected and commissioned essays in print plus a CD of the all the journal issues of the year.
The journal has distinct sections: The Papers are its core – one or two substantial papers along with an introduction in each issue. The Sustainment is a regular column by Tony Fry that aims to take a leap beyond the exhausted rhetoric of ‘sustainability’. Hot Design presents polemical discussion on ideas and practices of design contributed by readers. A Reviews section for books and journals will be developed. Notice Board will be a reader-developed space to announce forthcoming events, publications, conferences, calls for papers and research projects.
Design Research Quarterly
Published by the Design Research Society, this is the quarterly newsletter of that organization.
Design Studies
Design Studies is a leading international academic journal focused on developing understanding of design processes. It studies design activity across all domains of application, including engineering and product design, architectural and urban design, computer artefacts and systems design. It therefore provides an interdisciplinary forum for the analysis, development and discussion of fundamental aspects of design activity, from cognition and methodology to values and philosophy.
Information Design Journal
Information Design Journal (IDJ) is a peer-reviewed international journal that bridges the gap between research and practice in information design.
The International Journal of Art and Design Education
The International Journal of Art & Design Education (iJADE) provides an international forum for research in the field of the art and creative education. It is the primary source for the dissemination of independently refereed articles about the visual arts, creativity, crafts, design, and art history, in all aspects, phases and types of education contexts and learning situations.
The journal welcomes articles from a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches to research, and encourages submissions from the broader fields of education and the arts that are concerned with learning through art and creative education.
International Journal of Design
The International Journal of Design is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to publishing research papers in all fields of design, including industrial design, visual communication design, interface design, animation and game design, architectural design, urban design, and other design related fields.
Journal of Communication Design (formerly Iridescent)
Interdisciplinary and Graphic Design Research, published by Bloomsbury since 2015.
The Journal of Design Research
An interdisciplinary journal, emphasising human aspects as a central issue of design through integrative studies of social sciences and design disciplines.
The Journal of Design History
The official journal of the Design History Society, the leading UK organisation that promotes the study of design history, and brings together and supports all those engaged in the subject – students, researchers, educators, designers, designer-makers, critics and curators.
Message
The aim of the Message journal is to explore and challenge the boundaries of visual communication within Art &Design through an experimental and developmental ethos, challenging the practitioner, the development and use of technology, as well as questioning visual communication values and social, ethical and sustainable practices. The Plymouth University Message cluster and journal is committed to enhancing the development of the visual communication subject areas, both in education and commercial design, through research and enterprise.
(University of Plymouth, UK)
Openings: Studies in Book Art
Openings is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes critical, historical, and theoretical articles, reviews, and interviews about book art and its pedagogy. Contributions from diverse perspectives are welcome as are interdisciplinary and international explorations of the relationship of book art to the broader art world and to related fields such as poetry, graphic design, printmaking, digital media, and other textual and/or visual disciplines.
(College Book Art Association)
The Parsons Journal for Information Mapping (PJIM)
A quarterly publication of the Parsons Institute for Information Mapping. PJIM focuses on both the theoretical and practical aspects of information visualization and its disciplines.
The Poster
“The poster-maker, the pamphleteer and the tagger aim to sway the popular heart and mind through visual public interventions. As new technologies rise, turning the public sphere into a transparent, ubiquitous communications medium and a global marketplace, is the privileged status of the poster doomed or are we seeing it transformed as part of a new wave of visual rhetoric? When the environment starts to become responsive to our very presence and aware of our individual nature what is the role of the ‘traditional poster’ delivering a classical rhetorical message? This peer-reviewed journal aims to lead the debate.
(Intellect Publishing)
Public Journal
PUBLIC Journal provides an unprecedented platform for the expanding Public Interest Design movement; where the world of architecture intersects the voices of activism, exposing a determination to provide good design for those that need it most, but most often do not get it.
She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation
She Ji is a peer-reviewed, trans-disciplinary design journal with a focus on economics and innovation, design process and design thinking. The journal invites papers that enrich the understanding and practice that enable design innovation in industry, business, non-profit services, and government through economic and social value creation. These papers may explore how design thinking can inform wider social, managerial, and intellectual discourses with an added focus on strategy and management. She Ji also publishes articles in research methods and methodology, philosophy, and philosophy of science to support the core journal area.
Touchpoint, the Journal of Service Design
The first journal on service design launched in 2009 and published by the Service Design Network.
Visual Communication
Visual Communication is a quarterly, peer-reviewed academic journal publishing top research in visual studies. It welcomes contributions from scholars in anthropology, sociology, history and scientific research. Articles cover still and moving images; graphic design and typography; visual phenomena such as fashion, professional vision, posture and interaction; the built and landscaped environment; and the role of the visual in relation to language, music, sound and action. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
(Sage Publishing)
Visible Language
An independent scholarly journal published continuously since 1967. The mission of Visible Language is to enhance human experience through the advancement of research and practice of visual communication. Working toward a balance between artfulness and science, between innovation and respect for human patterns of use, between research backed by evidence and intuitive exploration, between technology and its cultural implications for communication.