MA Graphic Design Course Leader at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), Dr Philip Jones, has launched a new book entitled Towards a cognitivist understanding of communication design, published by Routledge and included in Routledge Research in Design Studies.
Introducing the book, Philip says, "Whether explicit or implicit, this book starts from the assumption that communication designers must have some understanding about how meanings are made and shared. Over the last few decades, new insights have emerged relating to how we construct meanings in cognition."
Towards a cognitivist understanding of communication design demonstrates the relevance and importance of cognitive linguistics when applied to the analysis and practice of graphic design and communication design.
Using examples from contemporary communication design, as well as more familiar selections from the graphic design, the book provides an account of how meanings are made by users and suggests new strategies for design practice.
Over 12 chapters, Philip explores how these insights might inform design thinking starting with the first section, Communication, which uses theory from the cognitive linguistic enterprise to discuss understandings about the nature of communication that may lie hidden within design practice.
He continues: "Section two, Design, works through stages in a design process, including scoping, ideation, and construal to examine the potential that such theory has to invigorate design practice. The idea that designed objects contain meanings is challenged; instead, designs are seen to provide cues that users must isolate and then integrate to allow meanings to emerge.
"The book seeks a convergence between the ways that graphic designers and communication designers think and talk about their practice and the theories emerging from cognitive science and aims to be of interest to scholars working in design, graphic design, the philosophy of art and aesthetics, communication studies, and media and film studies."
