Vol. 10 No. 1 (2016): Teacher Artmaker Project

This special edition of JACE on theTeacher Art-maker Project (TAP) draws together a range of insightful contributions from accomplished teacher-artists spanning from 2012 – 2015. Its production has embodied the creative process, gradually emerging in an organic fashion that is indicative of the way artists work collaboratively. Despite the time elapsed between the inception and completion of this edition, all the articles remain poignant: each author revealing a deeply personal yet theoretically and artistically astute exploration of the complexities, conflicts and triumphs that accompany their navigations of the teacher-artist role.

This JACE TAP edition is different from other JACE publications in that the design of the journal is a deliberately iterative exploration of its own construction.The intent was to reveal a playful interaction with content, openly connecting ideas with loose graphic narratives, through constantly changing form. Approaching the content of this issue of JACE is purposefully artful. The usual conventions of academic publishing that often relies on a restrained vernacular, gives way to experimental interpretations of content.

The approach to this piece of visual communication immediately presented a paradox of an ‘open brief’.That is, it did not prescribe the usual (and orientating) parameters of a visual communication need.The hidden scripture of a formal design brief often belies the ‘play’ necessary during the creative process. In this case, the brief focused on play as driving the graphic appearance of each individual article. The openness of the brief allowed the journal to develop organically with the designers working as visual authors responding to the articles with the language of visual communication. The culmination was a final piece of visual communication discovered in the design response to each individual article.