How drawing is used to conceptualize and communicate design ideas in graphic design: exploring scamping through a literacy practice lens

Abstract

Most students in higher education are typically required to demonstrate their learning and thinking through the production of some form of written text, often an essay. However, in course environments where knowledge forms and practices are constituted visually or rely heavily on other semiotic resources for meaning-making, this is frequently not the case. Students in such academic contexts demonstrate their learning and give expression to their thinking in predominantly non-written and visual ways. This chapter draws on an aspect of a larger research study that used academic literacies as its theoretical and methodological framework. The study explored the literacy practices of students completing courses in visual art and media fields at a vocational higher education institution in South Africa. In these courses, students demonstrate their learning primarily through the production of visual, digital and print-based products such as film clips, posters, logos, photography, and three-dimensional (3D) product-packaging.