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The Teacher’s Perspective

When asked to assess the goals and expec-

tations of their respective class projects, a dozen

design teachers all agreed (regardless of grade

or experience level) on three desired outcomes.

First, challenge the student: A project must of-

fer suffi cient variables and serendipity that

students can test their skills and talents and,

in the fi nal analysis, surprise both their teacher

and themselves. Second, inform the student: A

project must also provide enough unanswered

questions that students are learning something

new by doing something new. Third, elevate

the student: A project can propel students in

two opposing directions—either through suc-

cess or failure. While the former is obvious, the

latter way might seem perplexing. Often, how-

ever, only through failure can a student get the

best critique and truly absorb the right lessons.

Although failure will not produce a great port-

folio piece, it can have a longer-term infl uence.

Challenge, inform, and elevate are the building

blocks of a solid education, and to achieve this

mix requires a selfl ess devotion on the part of

the teacher and an intense willingness to learn

Anatomy of

a Successful

Project

Section 1

on the part of the student. A good, or great, class

project can make the educative experience real.

Yet from a teacher’s perspective, there is a

further outcome: a uniquely absorbing project

that is talked about and anticipated over time,

becoming legendary among students and teach-

ers alike, and a veritable signature for that teacher.

Legendary class projects are perennial (they

never seem to become dated) because the pro-

cess and results are so enlightening. More than

a few storied projects from some well-known

design instructors have garnered such status. In

the 1960s, for example, Milton Glaser and Henry

Wolf had students in their School of Visual Arts

publication class produce an entire magazine

of their choosing, and while this may seem de

rigueur today, then it was a novel approach to

teaching publication design by making the

students editors as well. The project fostered

community while highlighting the strengths (and,

of course, the weaknesses) of the participants.

A project of this kind becomes celebrated

because, like any essential resource of knowl-

edge or experience, it triggers expectations in

the student and in the teacher. It is as though

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