Visual communication skills for business and engineering students

Abstract

Much effort has been made at studying creativity and how this can be taught. The teaching of art and design has been expounded as one good way of nurturing creativity, particularly to non-art and design students. This paper explores this through an elective course on “Creative Design in Communication and Marketing” conducted at Nanyang Technological University targeting primarily undergraduates majoring in Business and Engineering. The pedagogical approach is presented with details of the course structure and delivery. Observations on the learning outcomes and the students’ learning experiences are made through analysis of their design works and their interaction and responses during the course. This paper concludes with an assessment of the implications, benefits and relevance of such a design course in nurturing visual communication skills in business and engineering students.