design school or self-taught
Out of context: Reply #33
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yeah you dont learn too much at art college or a design school if you have the talent already.
if you dont have the talent already then the tutors will spend the time with you rather than the talented ones to help you out.
my dad has been a graphic designer all his life so its kind of in my blood and i spent a lot of time fannying about in the office while growing up.
i trusted his opinion more on the work i was doing at art college rather than the tutors. they were mostly old school typographers etc so its fine if you're into that sort of thing. but art college is a time for experimenting, not following rules.
i was really into Tomato, anti-rom and Attik stuff and that was kinda shocking to the tutors.The guy we had teaching us multimedia was shit hot - i knew him from years back as he used to be an illustrator at my dads work. in fact, many of you will have seen his stuff - http://www.xl5design.com/ and Rustboy stuff http://www.rustboy.com/
heh really inspired me to get into multimedia more.
i had the net at home and taught myself basic html and got a portfolio site up. something all my classmates werent doing.The secret to a good portfolio is to do stuff outside college too, stuff you are interested in and stuff that will grab 'cool employers' attention and put your work above your peers.
I got a job at blackid.com (now non existant) before i'd even got my honours degree.
That was about the bext job i couldve got in scotland and i was working with some amazingly talented guys including limmy (limmy.com) and hoss (h69.net). they got me into using flash as i was designing stuff for them to build and i was fascinated by what it could do and HAD to get into it.
so they taught me the basics and from there is was eally just self R&D.You could get a good job without going to artschool if you have the talent and an impressive portfolio. but art college does teach you certain disciplines and also teaches you to take criticism about your work. something that you DO need when you're out in the real world as clients are usually a nightmare! hehe.
Another tip for learning is to get a job at a good place if you can where there are a lot of other talented individuals that you can learn from and bounce stuff off.
I'll always be thankful to the people who have inspired me and worked with me as I might not be in the position i am today.
if they ever stumble across this, this is a little thankyou to them as well as advice for the original poster of this thread.