Learning Through Making: Analog Processes as Pedagogical Tools in Graphic Design Education

Author Information

Jacqueline Soghman, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates
David Howarth, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This paper examines how analog making can function as a pedagogical tool within contemporary graphic design education. Responding to increasingly screen-first design workflows, the study investigates what students learn when typographic work moves from digital composition into physical production. The paper draws on a classroom-based analog typography project with undergraduate graphic design students at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, developed in relation to the UAE Year of Community initiative. Students collected material references connected to community life, including traditional crafts, domestic objects, family games, wedding traditions, and maritime heritage, and translated these references into typographic compositions through a hybrid process of research, sketching, digital preparation, silkscreen printing, testing, adjustment, documentation, and reflection. Evidence was gathered through classroom observation, student reflections, project outcomes, and a post-project survey of twenty-one students. The findings suggest that analog production increased motivation, strengthened students' awareness of ink, surface, pressure, registration, and type reproduction, and reframed mistakes as prompts for creative problem solving. The project also offered a refreshing counterbalance to screen-based work and encouraged students to recognize the value of hybrid pedagogy rather than choosing between analog and digital methods. The paper argues that learning through making should not be treated as nostalgia or craft demonstration, but as a critical educational strategy that helps students become more reflective, materially aware, and culturally engaged designers.

Save as a Favourite

• Category: Teaching and Learning

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

All Posts