Diagramming a Critical Alphabet

A workshop connecting critical theory to practice through visual communication

The Critical Alphabet was designed by Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel as a tool for designers and design students to reflect critical theory and concepts. The alphabet is a fantatsic resource in it’s clarity, brevity and also in its use of ‘Questions for Designers’ which are included after each entry to aid reflection on how theory might connect to practice.

In Unit 1 I introduce students to a set of visual research methods. This year I developed a workshop to introduce students to diagramming as a method, using the Critical Alphabet as the core content.

Over the course of two hours students worked together in pairs to discuss and negotiate their understanding of a term. They were encouraged to use simple diagrammatic visualisation as a way to do this. After generated multiple prototype diagrams they chose one which they developed into a final output. These were then collected together to create a group publication of the alphabet and a sort of handbook for further use in their practice.

Impact

This workshop was taught in the second week of the course and has two noticeable and distinct impacts on the students and their work.

The first is that many students have gone on to use diagramming within their own work as a tool for negotiating meaning and as a form for sharing their own theories. I am delivering a conference session on this with Adam Ramejkis at London Conference of Critical Thought in Summer 2022.

The second is that several students have developed their self-initiated projects around a term they discovered in this session, as such it has framed the development of their practice. You can find a visualisation of this impact below.