A CASE STUDY IN COLLABORATION: Looking back at the National Graphic Design Archive

Visible Language, 2004 by Remington, R Roger

ABSTRACT:

Inspired by the 1980s interest in graphic design history, an initially productive, but difficult to sustain, collaboration among three American universities from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, is the subject of this case study. The ideas behind a much-needed archival consortium, its organization and its difficulties in sustaining collaboration are examined. The essay concludes with constructive suggestions for reflection on collaborative associations between institutions.

Today collaboration in a professional design context is the norm, working as an effective strategy for individuals, groups, companies and institutions. On a basic level, even though design students often work individually on projects in school, when they enter professional practice, they must function as members of interdisciplinary problem-solving teams with shared responsibilities and specific competencies.

The word collaboration has at least two meanings. In the past, "collaboration" had sinister implications such as collaborating in a crime. During World War II it also had a negative connotation, referring to those individuals who identified with the axis enemies. Today collaboration has a positive bent; it stands for working together cooperatively. In his book, The Planning of Change, Warren Bennis (1969), a management science guru from the late 1960's, provided a detailed and useful definition of the collaborative relationship. He wrote:

a collaborative relationship is a complex series of expectations and encounters which include

- joint effort that involves mutual determination of goals;

- spirit of inquiry-a reliance on determinations based on data, publicly shared;

- relationship growing out of a concrete, here-and-now encounter;

- voluntary relationship between change agent and client with either party free to terminate the relationship after joint consultation;

- power distribution in which the client and change agent have equal or almost equal opportunity to influence one another;

- emphasis on methodological, rather than specific, substantive goals.

The history of the National Graphic Design Archive is an instructive illustration of collaboration among three institutions of higher education. This brief case study documents a vision that led to a national collaboration including determination of its purpose and its history. This essay concludes with commentary about the successes and shortcomings of the joint venture which will provide interested readers with constructive suggestions for entering collaborative relationships.

During the 1980's, an interest in the history of the field of graphic design emerged. This manifested itself in important events such as the publishing of A History of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs and the "Coming of Age" conference on graphic design history at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). In tandem with this trend came the need to preserve and document this history. Many modernist design pioneers were passing on; their professional archives were important historical records needing to be saved. Several universities began developing archive projects. The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) collected materials about the history of Chicago including special collections such as that from Container Corporation of America. Cooper Union (CU) had acquired the archive of designer Herb Lubalin and turned it into a center for history and interpretive exhibits. Rochester Institute of Technology acquired designer Lester Beall's archive, cataloged it and developed an interactive image bank. Professor George Sadek of Cooper Union in New York and colleague Marilyn Hoffner conceived a national project to bring together several leading institutions with the intent that eventually others might join in a national network. Initially the other participating schools were the University of Illinois at Chicago (Gretchen Lagana and Beverly Lynch) and Rochester Institute of Technology (R. Roger Remington). Each institution had its own collection focus, policies and working organizational structure. At Cooper Union, the Lubalin Center is part of the School of Art. At UIC and RIT, the archives were part of the university libraries. Each school had faculty and staff advocates who were teaching design history and utilizing the original source materials in the classroom. Although different in many ways, each school was in agreement about the importance of preserving historical exemplars of the history of graphic design and of the potential for sharing their experience and knowledge with others.

Cooper Union was successful in obtaining a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the formation of a consortium. Implicit in this was the fact that each school would be required to support the project with funding and in-kind resources. Meetings were held at each of the three schools and, after extensive discussions, a vision statement was written and adopted:

The National Graphic Design Archive is

...a consortium of individuals and organizations that will systematically coordinate the archiving, documentation and interpretation of the artifacts of the history of graphic design in America so that this heritage will be preserved for the future.