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Dr. Keith Robertson |
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Senior Lecturer, CD, and Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator |
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PhD in Sociology from LaTrobe University 2001
BA Hons (Sociology) LaTrobe University 1970
Diploma of Education LaTrobe University 1971
Certificate of Art (Graphic Design) Prahran Technical College 1966
Dr. Keith Robertson is Coordinator of the Postgraduate Coursework Masters Program and Lecturer in Communication Design teaching theory and research methods in Honours Core Subjects, Information Design and Visual Language.
Keith's education was first in Graphic Design, then an Honours Degree in Sociology from LaTrobe University. After a few years involved in film production, he was a founding member of the team that established Cinema Papers where he became their founding art director. Throughout the 80's, Keith joined McPhee Gribble Publishes as their founding art director during which he won a number of design awards. In 1990 he became a full-time lecturer in Graphic Design at Phillip Institute, later to be amalgamated into RMIT University where he taught Design Theory and Publication Design in the undergraduate program and was Program Coordinator of the Graduate Diploma of Graphic Design. While at RMIT, Keith was published in Emigre Magazine, Eye and Looking Closer 1. He returned to Sociology at LaTrobe in 1991 to commence his PhD on the sociology of graphic design, titled The Sign in Graphic Design.
On moving to Swinburne in 2004, Keith was Academic Leader of Communication Design in 2005 and active as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Design in the area of Communication Design as well as supervising many PhD candidates. Keith has been active at all levels of the faculty initiating and building the teaching and incorporation of research methods in both design research and design practice. As Faculty Ethics Representative he also represents the Faculty on the University Ethics Committee.
Qualified in both Graphic Design and Sociology, Keith has sought to bring together both disciplines in his PhD titled The Sign in Graphic Design. The thesis explores the social context of graphic design through the semiotic analysis of a wide range of contemporary magazines and explores the social function of design through the development of the Graphic Design Code and its social origins. Key areas of interest are the theory of Foucault and Bourdieu, semiotic analysis in design research, visual rhetoric, the expression of value in visual communication, the subconscious and visual language. He has published articles on some of these subjects.
Current interests also include design research methods, gender and visual language and the development a new program of online and ‘live’ postgraduate study.