From Graphic Design To The "visual Communication Design"

In the development process of the graphic design education in China, with the change of the social and cultural forms and the self-conditions of art design, it has different names: from"pattern design"to"commercial art", and from"decorative art"to"graphic Design", and even to"visual communication design". Other names include"packing decoration","book binding and layout design","advertising design","information design", and"digital media design". Some of these names match the reality, some are confused with others, some are juxtaposed parellelly, some are alternated with one another, and some are repeated over and over again. While arranging these names in series in a systematic way, we will discover without difficulty that each name represents a certain form of graphic design education in a certain period, as well as reveals the experiment, reform, change and development from concept to method, from courses to teaching, and from contents to forms. Therefore, by arranging and researching this phenomenon, we can get to know the clue of the development of Chinese education of graphic design to a great extent.With the evolution of professional names as the basic clue of narration and analysis, and with the reform of the types,contents and modes of design, through the change of curricular structure and teaching contents under the guidance of different professional names, this thesis has arranged the development vein of Chinese education of graphic design, as well as got to know the laws of its historical progress, thus having laid a foundation for the new experiment and new reform of design education in a new situation.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter has arranged and described the rudiment of the graphic design education in the late Qing Dynasty and the period of the Republic of China in the following basic forms: the lecturing and study in church workshops, the handiwork courses in normal schools, the pattern teaching in fine-art schools, as well as the commercial art and disciple-teaching in enterprises. The second chapter has narrated and analyzed the teaching forms and contents originating from traditional Chinese mounting technology, with decoration as their major technique, under the flag of arts and crafts and the concept of"decorative art", after the PRC was founded. The third chapter has elucidated the concept of graphic design, the relevant teaching reform, as well as the situation of the introduction of new courses, when the modern forms of art design and education emerged after the the policy of reform and opening-up was promulgated. The fourth chapter has demonstrated and analyzed the emergence of the concept of"visual communication design"as well as its capacity-increase and partial intersection with various academic disciplines after China gradually came into the information society supported by digitalized technology at the turn of the century. The fifth chapter has arranged the development concepts and models of different majors, the creation of multi-professional orientations, the setup of courses, and the juxtaposition, intersection, alternation, etc. of teaching contents under the guidance of the names of different disciplines at present, analyzed the vagueness of boundaries, the edgier aspects of modes and the complexity of structures, analyzed the curricular development and teaching experiment in different names, scopes and concepts, as well as thoroughly analyzed and reflected on the problems occurring during teaching observation. This thesis attempts to get to know the relatively complicated evolution process of disciplines on the basis of the reflection, as well as specify the teaching contents, curricular concepts and the experience of modes and methods covered up by the dazzling change of scientific names, so as to discover expected and possible landscapes for the future progress tense of academic disciplines.