How design professionals are trained-knowledge and skills acquiredaffects directly the contribution provided for companies. In this paper, we report an initial investigation in how academics (students and teachers) and market (companies) value different skills in graphic design professionals. Through a survey with students, teachers and companies in Brazil, we unveil the relevance of 25 skills for both students, teachers and companies. Then, we compared those groups to find differences in how the skills were rated. Our contribution aims both design educators and practitioners: for the former, the skills highly valued by companies should be addressed through design education practices in order to improve employability chances for students; for the latter, professionals looking to improve their skills and position in the market can use our findings as a possible guide for self-development as a design professional.

This research deals with Audiovisual Design language elements, elaborated as an audio/visual/verbal system that simultaneously transmits all its elements, emphasizing their relationship and their transversal composition in time and space. Originally from Cinema, Audiovisual Design originate a new discipline in Design, develops along with Television, feeds from Graphic Design elements and improves with Informatics; it has its own process expedited by emergent digital technology post-1990. The evolution of pre-production, production and post-production in audiovisual mediums, more precisely in Cinema, plus an expanding perspective of creating more complex digital Audiovisual Design, leads us to a discussion yp identify the need of a model that would be able to demonstrate the plurality of these frail, unpredictable, "bubbles in the foam"-like elements. That was the beginning of the Audiovisual Foam Model thesis. The thesis fundaments come mainly from Lucia Santaella's theories of Language and Thinking Matrix, which are tools for understanding the mentioned relationships; and from the Dutch philosopher Peter Sloterdijk's work, that supported the Foam Model because of its metaphoric, systemic and complex character. As an empiric procedure, some study cases were made based on Audiovisual Design of Open Titles, and by the end of this process an experimental Project of the Audiovisual Foam Model was developed, leading to a 3D Immersive Installation named "Passion and Violence". This research aims to contribute to the academic formation and updating of designers in beginning of the XXI century, in the middle of its contemporary scenario, and to presents a comprehensive approach. The results brings about a clearer vision of the language elements of the Audiovisual Design, not only as "borrowed" elements from other disciplines but also as unique, hybrid, complexes elements on their own identity.

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