Our lead programmer recently had to hire a couple guys under him. Our boss woulden’t even let him hire anyone without a degree even though they were more qualified than other applicants. Not saying that is the same story everywhere but you will have alot more opportunities if you have that piece of paper, even more if its from a good school.
I’ve heard other people use “anymore” in this odd fashion. From where does this use of English come? I’m not saying it’s “wrong,” because I’m not so sure whether it is incorrect or not. It just sounds wrong, to me.
As far as a degree, seems to me like others have chimed in with agreement on my point. A degree for a career that is 99% skill / talent seems pointless. The higher-ups in the company just want to know you have some general education so they can justify paying you what you’re worth (regardless of a degree). It may also be that they fear some uneducated bum will somehow sneak into the company using a fake portfolio or something. Honestly, I have no idea how a college degree would help me at my job.
We have a receptionist who has an MBA, and she’s a complete moron. For example, she can’t pronounce “queue,” she pronounces it as “Q-E.” Or her complete inability to use a printer without seeking 2-3 other employees for help.
And like Joe said, they NEVER check. We wondered if she really had her MBA, and STILL we’ve never looked into it.
It comes from the Vrooominese dialect Pumice…
When I ran the art department at AAkron Rule, we printed lots of 2 or 3-color silkscreen, where we needed to do manual color separations. The people we hired from AIP had NO CLUE what color separation even was, let alone were they able to do it without major thinking. I mean come on. It’s simple shit.
there you go. it’s too bad, because some of the instructors and classes they have there are top-notch stuff. but theory wins out over practicality most of the time, and that’s why you get fresh young designers who can’t tell the difference between spot and process colors.
Again… programming and web design are not the same, but honestly I know a lot of “highly educated” programmers/developers that still do not write good code. Our lead flash developer, and our former lead flash developer are among the top in thier industry. They both have presented at national seminars, and have large clients from all over the world, and are both self taught.
Yes, there are companies that will look for a degree before they look at anything else… most of them are corporate entities that most likely need inhouse people, and arent the types of places i would like to work anyway. Besides, if you have half a brain, you could get around that and let your work speak for itself.
Another thing everyone needs to understand… A Graphic Designer is not a Web Designer, and a Web Designer is not a Graphic Designer. Some people understand the differences and can handle doing either, but its a rarity.
I am not a Graphic Designer and never claimed to be, even though my business card at my company says I am.
I know next to nothing about prepress and print.
I do know good design.
You can teach prepress/print technicalities fairly quickly if need be.
You cannot teach good design quickly, or sometimes ever. I still believe its either you have it or you don’t.
I believe AIP spent far too much time teaching software and not teaching principles and theory. (which is why I did it on my own, and why most people are useless out of school).
I still stay away from any print work because honestly other than doing the design work, I have no f-ing clue what I am doing beyond that.
The web is where I shall stay for now.
Ah so freaking true. I still don’t know jack shit about anything when it comes to the printing process. Occasionally I’ll have a teacher that says/asks something about color/printing and when they see my deer-caught-in the-headlights blank stare, they seem so disgusted…but nobody teaches it!!! At all.
So yeah ok, AIP sucks…and now I’ll hate it even more for the next 9 months with all these negative comments and stories. Thank you for reminding me that the rediculous amounts of money I’m spending on this place is so not worth it. Sigh.
Can I get books or something to teach myself these things???
i understand where you guy’s are coming from. and trust me i think i got most of it down…
but i want to goto school to learn all the misc lil minor shit i know i am missing.
i not only do design i also do programming. so id really like to learn ASP.net/PHP / SQL . i know the basics of those but would like to futher my knowelge on it.
I am not a web designer, and never claimed to be (although my business card says I am, mainly because I update our new site through proprietary programs, none of which is a direct html/java/css whatever editor.)
I know a wee bit about good design.
You CAN teach prepress (or xml, etc.) but I would think that if I were to plunk down $25-40K + benefits and perks on a new hire, I wouldn’t have to teach him the basics, yeah? teaching good design to somebody with no initail talent is like teaching a chimp to type. yes, they may have the fundamentals, yes, they may be able to coherently string together nouns and verbs occasionally, but no, they will likely not learn the nuances of the art.
I have had a few “graphic designers” give me commercial work that needs hours and hours of prepress operation to make it usable. that just means that I/we charge the company more for setup time, no skin off my back. many GD’s can draw pretty pretty pictures, but few can do that and make them functionable. A good eye and the grasp of the fundamentals is what you (and employers) want, even if you are just “good” at both.
it may sound roundabout, but I guess I am actually agreeing with dozr, just coming from the opposite end of the spectrum towards the middle.
try to locate a school that will give you a more practical approach to design, sounds like you’ve already got a good grasp of what tools you will need in a job. focus on web-ready specifics in programs, and grab some freelance stuff where you can.
notes: skill + talent + examples = job. x degree = job x 2.
tracy, AIP is not a complete shitbox, I learned a lot of finite tips that helped big-time in the long run. depending on your program, it’s either a “meh” or “hell yeah” place to go to school. graphic design just isn’t one of the “hell yeah” picks :meh:
edit: we have a “meh” smilie, awesome. 
I know. I know. I just really despise graphic design now. I’d rather work with my hands and raw materials or take pictures… but it’s a little late for that. Because we don’t learn all or any of the practical aspects of GD, that’s why I feel like it’s so repeatative and I haven’t learned anything new in 2 years now. But I went in there not sure of what I wanted to do because I had dabbled in everything and just couldn’t decide what to focus on…and was thus placed in the rather generic graphic design major. I just can’t wait to get out and do things in the real world because everything I do at AIP is so blah.
AIP is what you make of it.
Get an internship somewhere downtown since you are already there, and learn the ropes, even if its one day a week and unpaid. ITS WORTH IT.
If you think you need to be learning something that you are not… LEARN IT ON YOUR OWN. Noone is going to force you to learn everything, noone is going to force you to succeed. Its your call. The nice thing is that you are in school and they are going to encourage you to take your work to the next level, you also have a lot of people to work with, and great facilities.
like where?
I was talking to Vroom, regarding pittsburgh…
There are a lot of advertising agencies in buffalo, and only a handful of web companies… Most are very small shops. We are the biggest, but unfortunately not accepting interns at this point.
Choice One Online, Schneider Digital, Liquid Matrix, Crowley Webb, and Conbrio are some you could check with…
thanks.
Fuck this area, move to Florida. More opportunities for work when you finish web design school.
Or out west, lots of stuff on the left coast compared to B-lo