Clarification details
Updated May 2015. This document has been updated to address issues that have arisen from moderation.
Social factors
The standard requires students to describe social factors that influenced the chosen design era. Explanatory Note 6 lists some of the social factors that could be considered. For example, the student could describe the political and social upheaval of World War 1 and the emergence of the Bauhaus movement in 1919, and give reasons for its demise in 1933.
Design ideas
At Excellence, students need to demonstrate increased depth and complexity in the links between the characteristics of the design era and their own design ideas. The design ideas that are developed must include characteristics that have transformed design ideas either in a product or a spatial design.
There should be increasing evidence of the links between the characteristics of the design era and the design ideas as students move from Achieved to Excellence
Era versus designer
At Level 2 the standard requires a stronger focus on a design era or movement rather than focussing on only one designer. It is essential that students refer to the elements of design which characterise the design era.
Designers from within an era or movement can be used to describe or explain the elements that characterise that era or movement, but the focus must be wider than just a designer.
Other Information
Further examples that show the expected type of evidence expected can be found in the annotated exemplars section on the DVC (Graphics) webpage.