Archive for January, 2008
Continued Education?? :/
When I think about going to school beyond my undergraduate degree, it makes me cringe. I have really never given continued education a lot of thought, I just had it in my head that I would be done in four years and never have to go back to school again.
Of course I would hope that wherever I end up getting a job at, they would offer to send me to some workshops and classes to keep up with the forever-changing programs. Even if the company I work for does not offer that, this is something that I will most definitely want to keep up with on my own as much as I can. I totally agree that it is important for the teachers to have enough experience with skills and the actual field of design. The real-world experiences are what teach us how to work with other people and have an idea of what it is like at a real job. Internships are a big help with this issue, but I still feel like we need it within our other courses.
I think that this is very true and that all designers should stay up to date with everything new that is going on in the design world. This is one reason why I realized that I am, in some way, going to continue my education beyond my undergraduate degree. I am always going to have to be learning something new about some kind of program or technique to make my designs better and up to date.
Undergraduate study is the most crucial course of study. Unlike a lot of incoming freshman, I knew that I wanted to major in graphic design. I became interested in graphic design in high school because my high school offered a class based on graphic design. I always knew that I wanted to do something in the art field, and I’m grateful to my high school for opening this door for me.
Some students that want to go into some kind of art go straight into an art school and others have to go through a lot of other courses first. I chose not to go to a school that was solely based on art because I wanted to meet people outside of my major. I felt that being thrown straight into everything art the very first semester and everyone around me was doing the same thing would make me go crazy and I was afraid to get burnt out on it. I feel that some of the classes I have taken that do not relate to art are a good break sometimes. It is nice to be around people who know exactly what you are going through when you’re in class. But it is also nice to be able to come home to my roommates and not have to talk about it if I don’t want to.
Most design programs offer the typography, theory, and portfolio classes, along with technical instruction. I feel that I have been through all but the technical instruction part. Our ArtD115 class was supposed to teach us how to use these new, foreign programs. I went into that class not knowing a thing about any of the programs. But, I don’t feel like I learned very much in that class. A lot of what I know is for me teaching myself and looking through books. There are a lot of skills I learn just from watching fellow students work in these programs.
There is argument that undergraduate study is just an extension of high school studies. I have never thought of college as just an extension of high school. To me, college was where you went to get ready for the real world and to learn what you want to do with your life. I have never really considered graduate school because I always expected to be done and ready after the four years of undergraduate study.
I agree that it is important to have a pretty good idea what you want to do with your degree. Sometimes continued education is something that will really help you in your job, and other times it might not be necessary. It all depends on the person and the job that you want to have.
I also feel that it is important to have the education and the work experience. The ideal internship would be at a place where the work being produced is what you are interested in. If you are in a job that you do not enjoy, it is just not going to be a good experience.
I have started to think about what I need to do after my undergraduate studies. I need to decide exactly where I want to go with my degree and find out what kind of continued education, if any, that I need to be successful.
