The resources listed on this page began as initiatives developed by AIGA Design Educators Community steering committee members.

Design Faculty Research Grant

The Design Faculty Research Grant is an ongoing initiative. Through a competitive, peer-review process, one grant of $5000 is awarded annually to provide support for design research. This includes scholarship that generates new knowledge, integrates design knowledge into other disciplines as an influential force, or explores new pedagogies through the teaching of design and evaluation of learning outcomes. The research projects that we have been funded can be found here.

Promotion and Tenure

Issues surrounding Promotion and Tenure (P&T) of Design Educators in US institutions of higher learning have often been a point of confusion and frustration for both individual faculty members and institutional administrators. The purpose of this information resource is to provide guidance to those involved with Promotion and Tenure (P&T) processes of Graphic Design and Visual Communication Design Educators at US institutions of higher learning.

Standards of Teaching

Serving as a complement to AIGA Standards of Professional Practice, the AIGA Professional Standards of Teaching 1.0, define the expectations of a design educator and represents the distinction of an AIGA member teaching design. As the document outlines, a design educator adheres to values that demonstrate respect for students, other educators, academic institutions, the profession, the public, society and the environment.

NASAD Briefing Papers

Thanks to the efforts of Meredith Davis, there are a number of valuable briefing papers on various aspects of graphic design education and directed towards a number of different audiences. These papers are posted below. The AIGA Design Educators Community steering committee is currently working on a 2-year education briefing paper.

AIGA Internship Guide

This guide helps students and young designers to make good, informed decisions when searching for internships. The guidelines define internships, explain the opportunities that internships provide, propose strategies for finding internships, describe good practices that hosts and interns should follow, and explain compensation scenarios. View the Guidelines.

Design Educators Salary Survey 2008

Design Educators Salary Survey 2008, developed by Christopher Vice and Dori Tunstall, is the most complete compensation data available for education professionals in the United States covering communication design disciplines. View the full survey

2006 National Survey of Design Education

As a service to the design education, professionals who are seeking to hire graduates and to prospective students, AIGA has prepared the first-ever national survey of design education programs. This authoritative comprehensive directory of programs helps deliver an understanding of the nature of the programs currently existing. Download the survey here.