You have a design degree, but can you design?
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- doesnotexist0
college dropout
booya.
- randommail0
Journalism is actually the most "useless" major in America.
- zoozoo0
i would put Latin or Philosophy as more useless according to my fine research.
- hektor9110
I have a marketing and computer science degree with a certificate in e-commerce, but no design at all. Im not sure if they have serve me well.
- oey0
If the question was, for example, anything like:
"Do you think you need a design degree to know how to design"I would reply "not necessarily, but it might help"
- freshdude0
They didn't put Philosophy or Anthropology on that list.
- freshdude0
Architechure is super important. That's like saying fashion design is useless. Avante Garde is stupid, but normal building and clothes are essential.
- tOki0
Having not gone to university to study design, and watching my girlfriend work through her visual communication degree, I have to say that it seems like the benefit is that it helps to push you.
I think that a good designer with natural talent does not need the degree, but doing so would help them to become better more quickly as it's a pressured environment (in a good way). Compared to one of self discovery/learning which is only as intense as YOU can make it. I also think the competition with other students actually raises the bar and students benefit from seeing their own inadequacies compared to others. The reason I say this is that my girlfriend started university with absolutely no skills or experience, and has struggled subsequently - but she is learning far more quickly than I did of my own devices. The competition and barrage of assignments is the key there. But for the students who already were half decent designers who knew the software, and the degree really just gives them a further platform and quickens their path to a decent job.
For me In hindsight the formal training probably would of been great to underpin my work with theory, but I don't lose sleep over. I think I've done pretty well without it :)
- +1
Nothing's stopping you from reading the history, either.monospaced
- +1
- monospaced0
Along the lines what tOki just wrote, I feel that a design degree does add value beyond being self-taught and naturally talented. Knowing the history and learning from industry leaders really helps one's design knowledge and how to apply it to current predicaments. In order to execute a visual strategy to create a "look," one must rely on the visual cues that various cultures respond to. Yes, one can be aware of these, but school definitely helped put them into context and history. Armed with this kind of knowledge, most easy learned in design school, a designer should technically be better in his ability to create a strategy and execute on it. Just my opinion.
- Agreed, but what I was more hinting at is that it depends on the person as to how much and what kind of benefit is receievedtOki
- monospaced0
Without school I may not have studied the "great" designers through history and the context of their work. Learning about what timeless design is was one of the best things I got out of school. I found design idols that I probably wouldn't be aware of otherwise, and I received feedback from individuals with several decades of experience, feedback that really exemplified the career's historical worth and that really improved my work, then and now. I think most designers who had a decent design education would agree at least on that.
- nthkl0
Have a BFA, but have never been required to shown it to anyone, except for teaching :) So I guess you can lie about having a degree, but I sure fucked up a lot in school. Rather have done it there than at an agency, plus Art School is a cocaine fueled orgy. Why wouldn't you want to go?
- d_rek0
I have a BFA in Graphic Design. The name drop from the school I went to seems to be very attractive to most prospective employers, as they typically value the type of training / critical thinking skills that were imparted upon me.
Although i'm still learning and growing every day i am quite confident in my ability to design meaningful and beautiful visual artifacts.
In retrospect, the whole college experience was a catch-22, massive debt and whatnot. But at least it's gotten me to where i'm currently at in life which is surely a helluva better than before I had my degree.
- +1. Would have worked at UPS or a runner for the gas company and surfed every day. Doesn't sound bad actually. Hm.nthkl