Multimedia or GD degree?
aquablue
Would it be best to do a GD degree instead? Would it be more focused and
have more depth. I am concerned, how are the new-media people supposed to
know video, music, design, type, programming? I don't want a degree that
just teaches software.
Thx
ad
Dan
Graphic Design is a core skill; so is motion picture photography; so is
music. The fashion will change, but the fundamental skill in each of those
will remain the same throughout your career.
Expect the tools to change (and some will completely disappear). Software
may be "old school" in 10 years. Computers won't be anything like they are
today in 10 years. If your core skill(s) are in place, you can learn to
apply whatever new tool is in favor to get the job done.
Dan
http://www.FreelanceWorkshops.com
"aquablue" <luck...@erols.com> wrote in message
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aquablue
"Dan" <D...@FreelanceWorkshops.com> wrote in message
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Dan
What is it that you eventually want to do? If you want to be a Graphic
Designer, Art Director or Creative Director, make sure you attend a school
which offers design and art classes which lead to a professional-grade
portfolio. Naturally, you will also need to know software, but let your work
dictate what you need there rather than being limited by what you can make
the software do.
Just learning software without having the design skills will keep you in
low-pay production jobs.
Dan
http://www.FreelanceWorkshops.com
"aquablue" <luck...@erols.com> wrote in message
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Matt Bostock
I'd do fine art. If you can't draw, you won't fulfill your potential as a
designer. In fact, you may struggle to be a designer at all. In the end I
chose philosophy instead. If I go into the design business after uni, then
I'll rely on my portfolio and maybe some night classes. I'm 95% self-taught
so far tho.
Just IMHO.
Matt
--
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
"aquablue" <luck...@erols.com> wrote in message
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aquablue
new media degrees?
"Dan" <D...@FreelanceWorkshops.com> wrote in message
news:i%0Hb.28678$gN.19841@fed1read05...
Dan
then you need to learn design. That's a core skill.
Learning software is like learning to use a hammer. If that's all you know,
you may find yourself stuck in jobs were you have to beg for enough RAM to
keep your software running.
Dan
http://www.FreelanceWorkshops.com
"aquablue" <luck...@erols.com> wrote in message
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woodsie
what's what.
none of us can suggest what u should do unless u tell us what YOU want to
become (re: dan's "What is it that you eventually want to do?" question).
In article <3fecd064$0$4758$61fe...@news.rcn.com>, "aquablue"
Tony Pax
degree is it IS so broad that my portfolio by the time I graduated was so
broad that I was too unspecialized to get a job. (it could have to do with
the fact that I suck at design, but hey, who cares about details like that
when you have a degree ;) ).
Specialize what you want to do. If you don't know yet what you want, then
choose a broad degree and find out, but don't graduate with the multi-media
degree, it will just leave you short-handed in the portfolio department.
</advice>
Pax
"woodsie" <no...@none.com> wrote in message
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Matt Bostock
art too, since it gives you some of the 'core skills' needed for design.
HTH,
Matt
--
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
"Matt Bostock" <ma...@mattbostock.com> wrote in message
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Carol Ott
There are some basics that you just HAVE to learn, and 99.999% of those are
taught in fine art classes.
Carol
"Matt Bostock" <ma...@mattbostock.com> wrote in message
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Barefoot Kid
for me then :(
---------------------------------------------------
Hung Diep
New Media Designer
www.intro-spect.co.uk
0795 6576 319
"Matt Bostock" <ma...@mattbostock.com> wrote in message
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Carol Ott
(just kidding.)
Carol
"Barefoot Kid" <hung...@intro-spect.co.uk> wrote in message
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Brian Mays
wrote on 12/26/03 6:48 PM:
> You seem to still be missing the point: If you want to *design* (anything),
> then you need to learn design. That's a core skill.
>
> Learning software is like learning to use a hammer. If that's all you know,
> you may find yourself stuck in jobs were you have to beg for enough RAM to
> keep your software running.
The two-year college where I teach is geared toward software. But when my
students ask about the best direction for them to take, I encourage them to
transfer to a 4-year institution upon graduation. My alma mater plays well
with the credits they earn at our college.
One of the things I try to instill in them is how to think and solve
problems. Many design students everywhere love to have things given to them
in a prefab box, or have someone tell them what to do. Some of them have
said they don't see the need to learn "theory." And my response to them has
basically been the same as what Dan has said here. You may do OK in a job
that's software oriented, but if software is all you know then you may not
go very far in your career. In fact, you'll likely be looked at as no more
than a disposable computer user.
The students that think for themselves...that figure out a way to solve a
problem in spite of obstacles...those are the ones that eventually go
places.
Some of them that have initially bristled at that have come around and are
looking at learning theory and becoming better designers. This resulted
from them meeting with industry professionals and going on a few interviews
and being a bit surprised.
Brian Mays
Barefoot Kid
---------------------------------------------------
Hung Diep
New Media Designer
www.intro-spect.co.uk
0795 6576 319
"Carol Ott" <cs...@csottdesign.com> wrote in message
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Matt Bostock
He's enjoying it, but I wouldn't do that degree in a million years... he's
basically being taught how to use Flash, Director, and then probably some
accessibility rules and design skills. To me it just doesn't seem right to
do a degree on a piece of software. What happens if Macromedia go into
liquidation next week? That's half his degree gone down the plughole. At
least he may have some transferrable skills from learning Flash and
Director, but I dunno, just seems like a funny degree to do.
Matt
--
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
"Carol Ott" <cs...@csottdesign.com> wrote in message
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Dan
>>>The students that think for themselves...that figure out a way to solve a
problem in spite of obstacles...those are the ones that eventually go
places.<<<
Too true. This profession changes way too fast to hang your hat on software,
tools or *any* method of doing things except for possibly pencil and paper.
I got into this business when newspapers were still set with hot metal.
Gone. Then cold type and paste-up were king. Gone. PCs changed everything,
then the Internet changed everything again.
As a designer, I'm not sitting over here learning programming or being too
concerned with the next hot software. I concentrate on Design, Writing and
Sales skills. True, I only need to make these work for a few more years, but
I would advise anyone wanting to get into the creative side of this business
*long term* to put your efforts into Design, Writing and Sales. Those will
never be obsolete.
Dan
http://www.FreelanceWorkshops.com
"Brian Mays" <bma...@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:BC12DCCB.27D16%bma...@sbcglobal.net...
Davide Montellanico
famous graphic designers of the 20th century weren't illustrator or painter
at all. A lot of them came from typography.
Of course, important contributions to graphic design history were also from
artists *painter included*,
Toulouse Lautrec, Mondrian, Tristan Tzara, Andrè Breton, Fortunato Depero,
Marinetti..... for example.
Nowadays there is an interesting trend in graphic design, many graphic
designer try to learn illustration skills.
The boundaries between illustration and digital graphic design continue to
blur as the French-Chinese illustrator Chiu Kwong Man tell us:
"The boundaries between illustration and all of the other disciplines which
fall under visual communication are becoming less defined. It's as though
image-making seems a more appropriate discipline to have. Whereby digital
and traditional image-making become sub-disciplines."
Anyway I think there is yet an important place for what I personally call
"pure graphic design". Design that is based upon the folowing skills: visual
communication, information architecture, typography, colours perception,
psychology, media hystory and so on...
Chiu Kwong Man's phrase is from the book:
Hand to Eye - Contemporary Illustration -- edited by Angus Hyland and Roanne
Bell.
www.laurenceking.co.uk
cheers and I hope to see many contributions in this interesting thread.
--
Davide
"Barefoot Kid" <hung...@intro-spect.co.uk> ha scritto nel messaggio
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Gary
design arising out of my activities as a copywriter and marketing
consultant. Along the way I hired many designers and illustrators to
bridges gaps I could not brudge myself due to my initially meager and
eventually devleoping skills and confidence.
My experience is that the least productive designers seem to be former
artists and those who bill themselves as "illustrator and designer" (the
word order being somehow important). By "least productive" I mean that
the project seems to become more of a struggle than it needs to be in
terms of bringing it to a graceful close in which the communications
goal is achieved, the clients feels he or she got more than he or she
expected, and the result is visually interesting and innovative.
Generally those who are trained in design know at some level that it is
a communications art and that it is only kinda sorta like art, but not
really. It does not take a degree to figure this out; however if someone
has managed to get a degree and not figure it out, then that person must
be really dense or the school really lousy.
Gary
In article <vyBHb.14266$VW.6...@news3.tin.it>,
Dan
>>>Generally those who are trained in design know at some level that it is a
communications art and that it is only kinda sorta like art, but not
really.<<<
Absolutely right. I have seen many talented artists/illustrators washed out
of this business in less than two years after graduating with their BFA. I
have had to fire two myself. Design and advertising can become a nightmare
for the sensitive artist type. I put the bulk of the blame squarely on
parents, teachers and career counselors for forcing these souls down the
wrong path.
Having said that, *designers* can benefit enormously from art classes.
Dan
http://www.FreelanceWorkshops.com
"Gary" <ga...@gary.erg> wrote in message
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Brian Mays
> I have seen many talented artists/illustrators washed out
> of this business in less than two years after graduating with their BFA. I
> have had to fire two myself. Design and advertising can become a nightmare
> for the sensitive artist type. I put the bulk of the blame squarely on
> parents, teachers and career counselors for forcing these souls down the
> wrong path.
One thing I try to address when I've been teaching is the "sensitive" part
of it. I used to be the same way, and this was the biggest hurdle I
overcame in design school. I try to get through to them that when their
work is being criticized it's the WORK that's being criticized, not the
PERSON.
I have also encouraged them not to be weenies...if they really have good
reason to stand behind the work they've produced and believe in it 100%,
then do it in spite of what others say about it. I had some pieces in my
portfolio after design school that many of my instructors didn't like but
when I was applying for jobs they were some of the pieces I got the best
comments on from designers.
I've even gone so far as to tell my students to realize that my critiques of
them are just one person's opinions. Some of them have begun to realize
this.
That being said...work that doesn't have attention to detail or strong
craftsmanship can't be defended well.
Brian