Launching an inquiry

It's 1 am and I am suffering from performance anxiety. No, not that kind…I resume teaching classes at Massey University in the morning after a six week break.
For some reason the thought has me in a panic of sorts. Odd really because I normally enjoy it. The papers I'm teaching are Design Research Methods - which sounds dull (and can be) but is actually the one I like most. It is probably the most important topic that the students will approach and I will be able to predict with some confidence how good a designer they will become based on the enthusiasm with which they embrace the topic. It separates the designers from the decorators and aesthetic re-arrangers.

The other paper is marketing communications. I haven't guite the same enthusiasm for this topic (mostly because it seems all too familiar) but it allows me to explore ideas about contemporary brands with the students. This is an interesting time to be facing a career in this area. Disciplines are overlapping, the days of advertising being a dominant force are diminishing. It strikes me as odd that the advertising paper precedes this one in the course structure given that advertising is a sub-set of marketing communications.

Wish me luck…getting to sleep.

Footnote

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