Design is now a university-level first-level discipline of Zhejiang A & F University. The discipline was founded in 1999 as Design Art, and was one of the earliest disciplines set up. In 2006, the second-level master’s degree program of “Design Art” was set up, and recruited postgraduate students for the first time in 2007; that same year, Design was upgraded to a first-level master’s degree program. At present, there are five professors, 16 associate professors, two people with doctoral degrees and three Ph.D. candidates.
Design discipline has the following four research directions:
1. Research on Visual Communication Art Theory and Practice Creation
2. Research on New Media Theory and Practice Creation
3. Research on Fashion Theory and Practice Creation
4. Research on Fine Art Theory and Practice Creation
Talent Cultivation
1. Undergraduate cultivation:
Since Art Design was listed as “a university-level key major of Zhejiang A & F University” in 2003, the professional construction of the discipline has been carried out in holistic manner. Guided by social needs, we have adjusted our teaching plan and revised the new syllabus to make the course structure more reasonable. At present, there are more than 800 undergraduate students, majoring in Visual Communication Art, Fashion Design, Digital Media and Photography.
2. Postgraduate cultivation:
With respect to the discipline, we supervise the inspection and implementation of the initial steps in paper proposals, in-process inspections, and paper publishing; we practice in strict accordance with the requirements of postgraduate cultivation programs. After becoming employed, the graduates are praised by the employers for their work performance. A postgraduate “Innovation Team” was set up, to edit and publishDesign and Life, which is the internal magazine of the college, and regularly publish thework collections of our graduates.
Scientific research: In 2012, the following were increased: one program in humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, one program of the provincial Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, three programs in the provincial Department of Education and three horizontal topics. In 2013, the following were increased: one program in the National Social Science Fund, one research program in the humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education, two research topics of the provincial Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, one planning program in philosophy and social science in Hangzhou, one program of “Anji Practice for the Development Road of Ecological Civilization in China” of Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department, and the program in theTea as a National Drinktextbook compilation from the China International Tea Culture Institute. More than 60 articles have been published in academic journals at all levels, including one in a first-grade journal, one in ISTP, 28 in core journals and 19 standalone works.
Discipline Platform: The college has perfect teaching equipment and facilities, and has scientific research platforms including Art and Design Institute, Institute of Fine Arts, Institute of Modeling Language of Paintings in Han Dynasty, Institute of Wu-Yue Culture and Tea Food Institute. There is one Zhejiang Provincial Art Foundation Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, including pottery and sculpture laboratory, model making laboratory, fine arts copying and appreciation laboratory, fashion design laboratory, photography foundation laboratory and digital media laboratory; as well as an Experimental Teaching Center for Humanities and Tea Culture, including an Advertising laboratory, a Chinese laboratory and Tea Leaf Processing laboratory.
Academic Entrepreneurship: The subject teachers guide students to participate in “Multimedia Design Competition for College Students in Zhejiang Province”, “2012 China Packaging Creative Design Competition”, “2013 China Packaging Creative Design Competition”, “2012 Fifth Computer Design Competition for College Students in China” and other domestic and foreign discipline design competitions, achieving excellent results. As of now, there are five teams entering into cultivation enterprises in science and technology incubation bases, covering all the major directions in design. The discipline also undertakes a number of design projects inside and outside the university, and has undertaken the design of related social projects such as “Chinese Tea Song & Tea Set Brand Design”, “Interior Design of Modern Education Center in Spare-Time Schools for Workers in Lin’an”, “Luoya Coffee Brand Design”, “Overall Environmental Design for College of Environment and Resources”, “Changhua Chicken-Blood Stone Packaging Design”, “Competitive Tender Design for School Name Change and School Logo” and “Linzhiyuan Pecan Packaging Design”
Academic Exchange: Each year, the students participate in major academic conferences both at home and abroad, including the National Outstanding Works Exhibition for Art Postgraduates and Education Forum, the First Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta Design Postgraduate Academic Forum, the Seventh National Vision Communication Design Education Forum in 2013. The domestic and foreign experts have been invited to give lectures in the college on more than 30 occasions. It has successively held its own events, such as: the “Outstanding Works Exhibition Tour in National Colleges and Universities in Global Chinese Design Contest for Kan Tai-Keung Design Award”, the “Visual Communication New Works Exhibition”, the “Works Exhibition of Art Design Graduates”, the “Field Investigation Report Exhibition”, and exhibitions for publicized achievements from our courses, such as “Pattern”, “Composition”, “Poster” and “Book Binding”.
Social services: It has successively undertaken the overall image designs of the “Mulaolao Toy Company”, the “New Donglin” Pecan trademark packaging design, the “Innovation Research on the Development Bamboo Fiber Accessories and Tie-Dye Art”, the “Study of National Forest Certification Image Design”, the “Special Fashion Design for the Eighth Games for the Disabled in the People’ Republic of China”, the “Study of Fashion Design for Hangzhou Culture, Radio and TV Presenters”, the “Qingtian Stone Culture Study and Communication”, and the “Study of Interior Design and Display of Modern Education Center”, which has allowed us to explore some experiences for the discipline to serve society, produce and practice in a professional manner, and to navigate and explore the field safely.
Social Reputation: The cultivation of art design talents not only pays attention to the cultivation of students’ design and application abilities, but also emphasizes the improvement of students’ artistic culture, and makes efforts to cultivate good professional moral qualities in students, such as innovation consciousness, hard work and teamwork. Therefore, our training objectives are:
To obtain high-quality, resourceful, practical special talents for the front line of production, who can skillfully use the related design software, and are engaged in related graphic art design, advertising design and production, packaging design, film and television post-processing, animation design and fashion design; and to develop morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically in holistic manner. In recent years, the employment rate of undergraduates has maintained above 95%, the various professional evaluation agencies have provided good evaluation data and assessment that the graduates of this discipline have a solid foundation in their major, strong practical ability, a teamwork spirit, and graduates are highly accepted by employers.
