On the opening day of the recent AIGA Head, Heart, Hand conference more than 200 design educators from around the country converged on Minneapolis for the AIGA Educators Conference. In addition to several workshops and moderated conversations, there were six panel presentation sessions for a total of 29 presentations on topics related to design and design education. These events were planned and organized through much of the preceding year by the Steering Committee of the AIGA Design Educators Community.

49 abstract proposals were submitted after a call for proposals then peer-reviewed in a blind process that resulted in the selection of 29 abstracts for presentation. Each of those abstracts was then developed by their respective author(s) into both a 20-minute presentation and 3,000-word paper. Although the presentations covered a wide range of topics, some common themes including collaboration and interdisciplinary work emerged, which were consistent with concepts identified in the Designer of 2015 Trends.

We hope that you will enjoy reading the selected abstracts, most of which link to the final papers.