Home — DCA 2024

Design and design communication continue to stand at the edge of significant transformations in the profession and in society. With the recent emergence of artificial intelligence, the digital and analog worlds of communication face challenges and opportunities. In both worlds, ‘lines’ play a pivotal role—whether as physical marks on a page or lines of code—design communication relies upon the distinction that lines create. While lines (marks) are a fundamental component of design communication, this conference invites an exploration of those elements and non-elements, that exist between the “lines” we use—ideas explored, questions asked, answers suggested, spaces constructed, volumes deconstructed, media chosen, media discarded, viewpoints included, viewpoints altered. Lines can demarcate an edge, a distinction or a joining of ideas and explorations. The space between lines can be physical, textural, or virtual but it can also be temporal through the sequential act of making.

We read between the lines as “we look for or discover a meaning that is hidden or implied.” We often strive to color outside of the lines—which still recognizes the space between. Ultimately, the lines construct an ever-changing space in which we can work, design and imagine.

The DCA 2024 conference theme looks at how design communication navigates or guides the processes, aspirations and challenges that exist between—and outside of—the unique lines of our current time. The conference promotes papers and presentations that demonstrate current trends and future directions both in education and professional fields of design and allied disciplines.

The conference will take place from September 4th to 7th, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana and Chico, Montana.

(A detailed conference schedule will be announced in 2024.)

General Schedule:

Call for Abstracts: December 15, 2024

Submission of Abstracts: February 15, 2024

Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts: March 30, 2024

Full Paper Submission: June 15, 2024

Conference & Presentation of Papers: September 4 —September 7, 2024 (in person)

We are pleased to announce the Call for Entries to the 2024 DCA Juried Drawing Exhibition hosted by the School of Architecture at Montana State University. The exhibition is open to students, practitioners, and faculty in the allied design disciplines.

Theme: Between the Lines.

Please review the full Call for Entries at this link. Also, please use this Entry Form for drawing submissions.

The jury includes three distinguished members: Jane Grealy, Janice Shimizu, and Bryan Cantley

Please pass this announcement along to your colleagues in the allied design disciplines.

We look forward to receiving the entries!

DCA co-exhibition coordinators,

Dwaine Carver and Román Montoto

The Design Communication Association (DCA) and the School of Architecture at Montana State University will host the 2024 International Design Communication Association Conference September 4th to 7th, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana and Chico, Montana.

Primary venue for the conference will be at Chico Hot Springs.