The value of experience
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- Corvo20
I think the trouble of being self-taught is,
1. some lack of confidence in your own work (validation) and
2. discipline, since one of the big advantages of formal education is being in a studio with a schedule and entirely dedicated to one task.
- Pupsipu0
so where did all this experience get us in the design world? What about experience in other industries, like industrial design and engineering. The same shit keeps being made unless someone (usually without that much experience) invents something better.
It seems that more experience just makes you a more efficient production monkey.
- and being a production monkey their whole life never made anyone famousPupsipu
- That is the most ignorant thing I've ever heard.NotByHand
- is there a famous production monkey? It's ok not to be famous I guess.Pupsipu
- are you retarded?magnificent_ruin
- well I can actually put a sentence together that most 5 yr olds wouldn'tPupsipu
- This doesn't even make sense. It may be a sentence but not a productive one.nicole_marie
- uberdesigner0
I didn't go to school and look at me today.
- uberdesigner0
I used to wish I had gone to school for design. That way I could have scored some major tail.
- this is every man's dream.monNom
- I would have been swimming in ituberdesigner
- Better yet, a Japanese universityPeter
- winnie_the_shit0
the more I got paid, and the more time I had, the better my work got
- seansuth0
I went to school and opted to drop out several credits shy of an Assoc. degree. I landed an internship several months later and the rest is history. I had goals set in my mind of exactly what I wanted to do right out of high school. I have busted my ass to get where I am at today.
Now, after working for about 2.5 - 3 years, I'm a Senior designer. In my mind, I would've liked to have have been at this level a couple years down the road, but I have enough confidence and ambition in myself and my capabilities to know that I can execute work at this level.
At the end of the day, some people ask how I have worked with such clients and they say that I must have some great talent. Do I agree? Yes, but, it is also how driven and open I am as an individual to learn and grow with my career...
(end preach)
- dirtydesign0
neither. its the work.
- styleplus0
fuck experience.
fuck education.It's all about SKILL.
- with experience comes skill. especially in the interactive realm.uberdesigner
- Sooo... let me make a crazy shot-in-the-dark guess here... you don't have much education or experience?NotByHand
- NORAD!Fariska
- DUDE, U R AWESUM!magnificent_ruin
- or a bit of a twat, can't decide whichmagnificent_ruin
- ok, twat it ismagnificent_ruin
- powertoni0
oh style_plus....you never fail to disappoint.
- nicole_marie0
I feel like you have to use your job to fill in the gaps where your school did not. I went to a very design oriented school, did not teach technical related classes or such, so I felt it would be best for me to find jobs that would allow me to grow in those areas.
All in the effort to be a well rounded designer that doesn't just "make things pretty".
- ribit0
I figure you have years of experience ahead of you when you start work (like 40-50), why rush into that bit when you can add formal education into the mix as well? There's time for it all..
- Sadly, only 40 seconds after writing this post, Ribit was struck by a rogue object and passed away.NotByHand
- *moment of silence, resumes doing linesmagnificent_ruin
- nose candy?tcmmct
- I'm not dead yet!ribit
- tommyo0
I didn't go to school, just kind of picked it up, fell in love and kept at it. I'd say around year 4 or 5 I started feeling much more take-on-the-world-confident. I'm sure this is consistent across the board but one thing I really really loved about the early days is the 'Oh shit I leveled up!' feeling. That's really the best way I can describe it, like one day you wake up and all of a sudden you've gained some sort of new enlightenment. Those days seem to get a little farther and farther apart as the years go on. But those 'oh shit I leveled up!' start adding up and I guess that's experience eh?
One thing I'll say that I really liked about being self-taught is that I never quite knew where the boundaries were. I never learned where my responsibilities began or ended - so I ended up trying to learn everything: identity, process, print, typography, web, AS programming, illustration. Which to be honest, is kind of maddening, but also liberating knowing that you can figure anything out.
Where Corvo2 said, '1. some lack of confidence in your own work (validation)' I think this is close to being correct, at least for me. But taking this a bit further I think it's more of a fear of being 'found out.' Eventually it goes away, but for me I felt like I was constantly scared that I didn't know something I should.
I always hated the whole 'it's who you know' logic. Just comes across like it's something you're not really responsible for, like it falls from the sky for no rhyme or reason. If you bust your ass, you have some semblance of talent and you're fair, you'll know the right people.
- GetRefresh0
Been doing it 20 years. Began to click between 5-10.
- wordsinyourmouth0
uhhh......
- Stugoo0
knowing what you do is good.
confidence in your abilities and being able to back it up.
thats what counts.
- neue75_bold0
You can become a good designer through education and experience. But to be great at anything, that takes a lot more than those two things alone. It's a matter of insight, sensitivity, intelligence and to a large degree, how you were raised — the way the world around you at a young age affected you, your views and understanding towards the way that the world and it's inhabitants truly 'work'.
Many good designers today have just been good at understanding things like — what makes design A. better than design B. They become selectors, knowing which samples and inspiration are most relevant to the project and can be taken from and more importantly, what should be left out. That in-itself comes from experience and moderate intelligence. Almost any of us with passion and desire can reach that level..
But to be great, to be a visionary, to see what everyone else has seen and think what no one else has thought, that comes from somewhere within and cannot be taught nor learned...
- Thanks. I now feel even more shitty.
:)Peter - I'm talking completely out of my ass here and am possibly still drunk...neue75_bold
- that was beautiful, snuggs. i am weeping.paraselene
- we probably both need sleep ;)neue75_bold
- you're right.Corvo2
- Thanks. I now feel even more shitty.