• Research either social/moral concerns or the aesthetic concerns of contemporary design that were also reflected in historical art styles.
• Choose a current (within the past 25-30 years), specific example from your design discipline that expresses that concern (for example, the lobby of a hotel; a designer’s couture collection; a line of décor objects from one design firm).
• In your short essay, you will compare and contrast the concerns of the past with current trends and concerns as seen in your example.
o Tell the reader how that concern is still relevant today.
o Examine how the artist/designer of the 21st century interacts with history and what our responsibilities or debts are to the art/design of the past.
• DON’T WRITE A REVIEW ABOUT THE HISTORICAL STYLE/PERIOD. If you do, you’ll get a failing mark.
• Your writing should be your opinions, conclusions, and/or reflections, expressed in your own words. You must defend your opinions and assertions with the current real-world example of design.
• There is no need to quote any other source.
Pick one of the following concerns: AESTHETIC or SOCIO-POLITICAL in a specific contemporary design
• The Beauty of Nature (Art Nouveau, Art Deco)
• The Beauty of the Machine and Geometry (Art Deco)
• The Importance of the Hand-made (Arts and Crafts Movement)
• Design Specific to Its Environment or Location (Organic Architecture)

Write 1-2 pages that clearly and completely express and explain in detail
• Why you believe this concern is important in your creative discipline today (important to the designer, the audience, the consumer or end-user, the discipline itself). Why do we need it? Why do we like it? How is it useful?
• How this concern is expressed in a specific, existing, contemporary design