As a consequence, we have decided to divide the journal into a number of thematically focused journals, plus a highlights journal which contains reprints of top-ranked and invited articles from plenary speakers at the Design Conference.

This development will have a number of advantages to authors and readers. The journals will be of a more ‘normal’ size. Individual papers will be published electronically and as a single-article paper offprint as soon as they are ready, followed by the full issue of each journal on regular, scheduled publication dates four times per year both electronically and in print. The journals will be more accessible and coherent, as more closely aligned articles will now be better grouped. For these reasons, the new journals are likely to gain enhanced recognition in journal indexes and citation counts.

In the area addressed by the Design Principles and Practices knowledge community, these will be the journals into which articles will be published:

• The International Journal of Design Education
• The International Journal of Design in Society
• The International Journal of Designed Objects
• The International Journal of Visual Design
• The International Journal of Design Management and Professional Practice
• The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design

Each of these thematically focused journals will be clearly linked to the highlights journal with the following subtitle, ‘A section of Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal’.

Authors can request which of the thematic journals they would prefer for the publication of their article, should it receive a favorable review and a reviewer recommendation to publish. Alternatively, when the author does not opt to make a selection, the Common Ground editorial team will curate each paper into the appropriate thematic journal.

Authors will not submit directly to the highlights journal. This journal will consist only of reprints of articles from the thematic journals. This will not be a second publication of the article, and the subtitle of the highlights journal will clearly indicate that this journal only consists of reprints of highlights of general interest from the thematic journals.

Participants at the Design Conference and members of the Design Principles and Practices Open Institute are provided subscription access to all journals in this family of journals for the 12-month period associated with their conference registration or Institute membership dues.

This is an exciting development for the Design Principles and Practices knowledge community, one which we believe will greatly benefit both authors and readers.

The latest issue of Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal includes:

• Understanding Urban Segregation: Issues of Ethnicity, Age and Gender in Nicosia’s Public Space by Nadia Charalambous.
• Learning Design Basics in Foundations Education Utilizing Digital Media by Soo C. Hostetler.
• Liveable Streets in the Context of East and West¹: A New Perspective by Manish Mandhar and Kathleen Watt.
• The Search for Innovation Styles II by Anthony Nix, Robert Stone and Kathy Mullet.
• Teaching and Learning Graphic Design Basics through “Play Metaphor” by Elena Caratti.
• Crisis Drift: A Meta-gogical Glue for Learning & Teaching Design by Dale Scott Nason.
• Towards Controlling Differentiation for Enhancing Architectural Design: Morphogenetic Computational Design for Nonstandard Geometries by Emmanuel Ruffo Calderon Dominguez.
• Designing Curricula for Fostering Transformative Learning by Larry Riggs and Sandra Hellyer-Riggs.
• Design Management: A Comparative Analysis of the Professional Status of the Occupation in the UK by Sotiris T. Lalaounis, Bruce M. Wood and Dorothy Evans.
• The Lasting Meaning in Ephemeral Architecture by Lancelot Coar.
• Conceptual Thinking: The Design Concept in Interior Design Education by Stephanie Travis.

As a special offer, all orders placed by 29 February 2012 receive the introductory price of US$20 (RRP US$30). You can order online here.

Sustainability Research by Designers: An Anthology is an interdisciplinary volume featuring written sustainability research by accomplished design practitioners, researchers, and educators selected from the recognized peer-reviewed scholarly journals Design Principles & Practices: An International Journal; The International Journal of the Arts Society; The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability; The International Journal the Humanities; and The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge & Society.

 Sustainability or green design is an area of growing concern many design researchers from a wide range of experiences and disciplines, including graphic designers, architects, design theorists, environmental designers, artists, students and educators. These researchers are exploring the topic of sustainability through discourse, studies, and reflection — defining what sustainable design currently means and potentially means as a new, interdisciplinary design profession.

Lisa M. Graham, MFA, LEED AP, is an award-winning visual communicator, author, and an Associate Professor of Visual Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington.

• Increasing the Value of Cultural Heritage by Using Social Media by Michela Sarzotti.
• Geometry as a Key Component in the Education of a Skillful Designer by Margo Kondratieva.
• The Changing of Concepts in Tourism Structures by Burcu Pehlivanoglu.
• Developing a Visual Language to Enhance Knowledge Transfer in the Design of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology for the Active Ageing by David Taylor.
• An Analytical Approach to the House Design in the Walled City of Nicosia in Cyprus by Yasemin Mesda.
• Design Research and Cultural Heritage: Activating the Value of Cultural Assets as Open-ended Knowledge Systems by Eleonora Lupo, Elena Giunta and Raffaella Trocchianesi.
• The Poetic Dimension: Reading Words and Reading Images by Donald Tarallo.
• The Rawashin Ornamentation as a Source of Creativity by Faredah Mohsen Al-Murahhem.
• Development of A Practical Instructional Video for Sustainable Disaster Management by Takayuki Kumazawa and Mieko Saito.
• The Typographic City: Social Commitment and Graphic Design in the Urban Space in Two Late Modernist Italian Projects by Luciana Gunetti and Gabriele Oropallo.
• Living with Design Objects: A Qualitative Study of iPod Relationships by Andrew Scott and Ian Woodward.
• Eco-efficiency into the Lighting Design: From an Environmental Quantitative Analysis of the Available Light Bulbs to Qualitative Guidelines for Designing Innovative and Sustainable Lighting System by Cristina Allione, Paolo Tamborrini and Marta Elia.

Abstract: This paper posits opportunities to explore a critical space for visual communication design research. Through current education strategies being explored and tested we re-apply the typologies of the discipline through the lens of a critical practice in two distinct areas: first, as independent design investigation, process and research outcomes in its own right; and secondly, as meta-practice, enabling knowledge transfer and the facilitation of outcomes in trans-disciplinary research fields. We challenge assumptions of next-iteration practice as merely that of ‘collaboration’ and ‘service’. The paper documents two case studies that have recently been implemented through teaching, learning and research strategies of the UTS Visual Communication Design degree in a university context.

The Design Journal presents an annual International Award for Excellence in the area of design principles and practices. All papers submitted for publication in the Design Journal are entered into consideration for this award.

The review committee for the award is the International Advisory Board for the Journal and the Conference, who select the winning paper from the ten highest-ranked papers emerging from the referee process and according to the selection criteria outlined in the referee guidelines.

The latest issue of  of Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal includes:

• Value Added through the Design Process by Dorothy Evans.
• Interior Spaces and the Layers of Meaning by Petra Simona Perolini.
• The Impact of Acid Rain on Historical Buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Mohamed Zaini Omar and Main Rindam.
• A Plastic Bottle, an Abaya and a Thobe: Designing Products for the Longer Term by Alia M. Khairat.
• Overarching Metaphors and the Configurations of the Western City by Tom Darby.
• The Craze for Design Thinking: Roots, A Critique, and toward an Alternative by James Woudhuysen.
• From Object to Objective: Reframing the Goals of Product Design Education in a Postindustrial Context by Patricia Beirne.
• Self-Expression in Product Design by Mary Maclachlan, David K. Harrison and Bruce M. Wood.
• Beyond Typography: Experiments in Form by Jesvin Puayhwa Yeo.
• An Analysis and Categorization of Architectural Design’s Definition in Early Centuries of Formation: Iran’s Islamic Architecture by Ali Hossein Pour Hajjar, Mohammad Nagizadeh and Bahram Aminzadehgoharrizi.
• Developing a Collaborative Design Toolkit for the Personalisation of Running Shoes by Matthew Head and C. Samantha Porter.

• Blanca Acuña - Digital Pre-Hispanic Cultures: The Design Process of the Digital Interface
•  Kelley Beaverford - Community Partnerships for Architectural Education
• Anselmo Canfora - Initiative reCOVER: Transitional Disaster Recovery Housing Prototype Project
• Saemi Cho and Ji Woong Park - Metamorphosis: An Aesthetic Approach to Orthosis Design
• Amy Crumpton and Beth Miller - To Design or Not to Design: How Do We Find the Best Interior Design Students?
•  Matthew Head and C. Samantha Porter - Developing a Collaborative Design Toolkit for the Personalisation of Running Shoes
• Margo Kondratieva - Geometry as a Key Component in the Education of a Skillful Designer
• Chutarat Laomanacharoen - Kandinsky’s Effect: Reflections on Synesthetic Lesson in Abstraction
• Dave Wood - A Can of Worms: Has Visual Communication a Position of Influence on Aesthetics of Interaction?
•  Jing Xiao - Contemporary Cézanne’s Doubt: Towards a Discontinuous Embodiment of Architectural Composition

Volume 5, Issue 6 contains:

• Design Research in a Non-linear World: Adapting to a Ubiquitous Playground of Content by Erin Mariel Mays and Cynthia Kossayan.
• Method to the Media Madness: Using Free and Open Source Software for Online Instruction by Eddie Gose, Catherine Fulford and Rachel Boulay.
• Is it Still Valid to Teach Principles of Two- and Three-dimensional Design? A Documentation of Design Foundation Courses in European Design Universities by Angela Blachnitzky.
• Sustainable Process in Design Thinking: Beyond Aesthetics and the Ordinary by Marco M. Bagnasacco.
• The Importance of Design [In] Visibility: Beyond Appearance by Maria João Barbosa.
• A Constructivist Studio Enviroment for Interior Design Education by Ozlem Ucar and Ozge Kandemir.
• The Critical Exploration of Materials for the Design Project: A Method of Analysis below the Levels of Consciousness by Beatrice Lerma and Claudia De Giorgi.
• The Impact of Capitalism on the Representation of Some Contemporary Modern Architecture in Thailand by Atip Utaiwatananont.
• Critical Method: A Pedagogy for Design Education by Alexander Wright.
• Illustrating with Type: Typographic Exploration of Nursery Rhymes by Delana Gabbard.
• Spatial Ability and its Influence on the Design Process by Anthony Philip Williams and Ken Sutton.

• Value Added through the Design Process by Dorothy Evans.
• Interior Spaces and the Layers of Meaning by Petra Simona Perolini.
• The Impact of Acid Rain on Historical Buildings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Mohamed Zaini Omar and Main Rindam.
• A Plastic Bottle, an Abaya and a Thobe: Designing Products for the Longer Term by Alia M. Khairat.
• Overarching Metaphors and the Configurations of the Western City by Tom Darby.
• The Craze for Design Thinking: Roots, A Critique, and toward an Alternative by James Woudhuysen.
• From Object to Objective: Reframing the Goals of Product Design Education in a Postindustrial Context by Patricia Beirne.
• Self-Expression in Product Design by Mary Maclachlan, David K. Harrison and Bruce M. Wood.
• Beyond Typography: Experiments in Form by Jesvin Puayhwa Yeo.
• An Analysis and Categorization of Architectural Design’s Definition in Early Centuries of Formation: Iran’s Islamic Architecture by Ali Hossein Pour Hajjar, Mohammad Nagizadeh and Bahram Aminzadehgoharrizi.
• Developing a Collaborative Design Toolkit for the Personalisation of Running Shoes by Matthew Head and C. Samantha Porter.
• Increasing the Value of Cultural Heritage by Using Social Media by Michela Sarzotti.
• Geometry as a Key Component in the Education of a Skillful Designer by Margo Kondratieva.
• The Changing of Concepts in Tourism Structures by Burcu Pehlivanoglu.
• Developing a Visual Language to Enhance Knowledge Transfer in the Design of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology for the Active Ageing by David Taylor.
• An Analytical Approach to the House Design in the Walled City of Nicosia in Cyprus by Yasemin Mesda.
• Design Research and Cultural Heritage: Activating the Value of Cultural Assets as Open-ended Knowledge Systems by Eleonora Lupo, Elena Giunta and Raffaella Trocchianesi.
• The Poetic Dimension: Reading Words and Reading Images by Donald Tarallo.
• The Rawashin Ornamentation as a Source of Creativity by Faredah Mohsen Al-Murahhem.
• Development of A Practical Instructional Video for Sustainable Disaster Management by Takayuki Kumazawa and Mieko Saito.
• The Typographic City: Social Commitment and Graphic Design in the Urban Space in Two Late Modernist Italian Projects by Luciana Gunetti and Gabriele Oropallo.
• Living with Design Objects: A Qualitative Study of iPod Relationships by Andrew Scott and Ian Woodward.
• Eco-efficiency into the Lighting Design: From an Environmental Quantitative Analysis of the Available Light Bulbs to Qualitative Guidelines for Designing Innovative and Sustainable Lighting System by Cristina Allione, Paolo Tamborrini and Marta Elia.
• Understanding Urban Segregation: Issues of Ethnicity, Age and Gender in Nicosia’s Public Space by Nadia Charalambous.
• Learning Design Basics in Foundations Education Utilizing Digital Media by Soo C. Hostetler.
• Liveable Streets in the Context of East and West¹: A New Perspective by Manish Mandhar and Kathleen Watt.
• The Search for Innovation Styles II by Anthony Nix, Robert Stone and Kathy Mullet.
• Teaching and Learning Graphic Design Basics through “Play Metaphor” by Elena Caratti.
• Crisis Drift: A Meta-gogical Glue for Learning & Teaching Design by Dale Scott Nason.
• Towards Controlling Differentiation for Enhancing Architectural Design: Morphogenetic Computational Design for Nonstandard Geometries by Emmanuel Ruffo Calderon Dominguez.
• Designing Curricula for Fostering Transformative Learning by Larry Riggs and Sandra Hellyer-Riggs.
• Design Management: A Comparative Analysis of the Professional Status of the Occupation in the UK by Sotiris T. Lalaounis, Bruce M. Wood and Dorothy Evans.
• The Lasting Meaning in Ephemeral Architecture by Lancelot Coar.
• Conceptual Thinking: The Design Concept in Interior Design Education by Stephanie Travis.

From Dezeen…

In January 2010, Heatherwick Studio joined the team leading the design of a New Bus for London. The project marks the first time in more than 50 years that TFL has commissioned and overseen the development of a bus built specifically for the capital. Working alongside specialist bus manufacturer, Wrightbus, the external design has been developed to reflect the functional requirements of the vehicle. A long asymmetric front window provides the driver with clear kerbside views, while a wrapped glazing panel reflects passenger circulation – bringing more daylight into the bus and offering views out over London. By incorporating an open platform at its rear, the bus reinstates one of the much-loved features of the 1950s Routemaster which offered a ‘hop-on hop-off’ service. The new design will also have three doors and two staircases, making it quicker and easier for passengers to board. In engineering terms, the New Bus for London will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than the existing hybrid buses and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double-deckers. More…

Norman Foster discusses the significance of two of Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic designs in this movie filmed at the Architecting the Future: Buckminster Fuller & Lord Norman Foster exhibition in the Miami Design District. His consideration of the Fly’s Eye Dome and the Dymaxion car leads to a description of Fuller’s architectural relevance in today’s society. For the video and more…