Where did you go?
Thatâs true. A program specifically dealing with, say, web design wouldnât typically need to cover much about print. The basics maybe, but not the details.
As for cursive, I was discussing this with writer who specializes in books for âtweensâ â children between the ages of, say, 9 and 14. She said sheâs stopped putting any cursive writing in her books after receiving complaints from parents who say their kids canât read it. She even went so far as to say these kids get tripped up on italics. It makes we wonder how come cursive handwriting typefaces have become so popular if most people under, maybe, 30 have trouble reading them.
Yeah. The subject of licensing for graphic designers comes up every now and again.
SUNY Oneonta - Computer Art was the degree.
Hate to bash my own school. I learned enough to get where I am as a designer for a small business but⊠We were required to print enough projects that youâd think they wouldâve used these prints as opportunities to teach us anything about printing.
Something like using printing a poster as an opportunity:
- why are we printing on this paper?
- what would it look like if we printed on different paper?
- why did we set our colors as cmyk?
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Every school is different, but many graphic design programs consist of classes with instructors who teach design as a series of art projects. This is especially true in schools like SUNY Oneonta and the school I went to, the University of Utah, that include their design programs as an academic discipline within the schoolâs fine arts college or department.
Most of my college classes were in art history, life drawing, sculpture, and other art-oriented subjects. The school assumed that its students were studying art and that graphic design was just a subspecialty, like painting or ceramics, within the more extensive fine arts program.
I had a great time in college. I enjoyed it, worked hard, and learned a great deal about visual art. After graduation, I found how inadequate that education was in preparing me for the practical realities of professional design. Fortunately, I had some great internships and part-time jobs during college, where I picked up much of what I didnât learn in college.
I have no experience with the newer for-profit schools. But my experience with the graduates of those schools is that they often assume that graphic design is a matter of learning the software necessary to express their creativity. My wife graduated with a BS in illustration from a state agricultural university (of all things). She had no exposure to fine arts or the practical side of the profession in school. Everything was about drawing and creativity.
As I mentioned, every school is different, but I wonder if any of them get it right.
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The ones that get it right are the trade high schools. We work with a local one and take on interns occasionally. Unfortunately Trade High School does not get considered under the â4-year degree Rule.â
I have no experience with trade high schools. However, I think that a solid liberal arts education is important and useful for any designer.
The general curriculum classes of a university education are, in my opinion, just as important as the professional courses. The best designers are those with wide intellectual interests, broad knowledge of many things to draw upon, and the critical thinking skills needed to put it all to good use.
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Critical thinking is no longer taught. Especially not in a liberal arts curriculum.
A lot of times, the practicality of real life is pretty good at teaching that part.
As for broad knowledge and âintellectualâ interests⊠well⊠weâre sorta at opposite ends of the âTrades vs Intellectualsâ scale so⊠⊠âŠyeah.
Ha! Yeah, you have a point.
The two largest universities here in my state are Brigham Young University (BYU) and the University of Utah. Theyâre on nearly opposite ends of the social/political spectrum.
A few years back, BYU offered me the job of Creative Director for their media operations (TV, radio, newspaper, website). They insisted that I agree with their conservative views, sign an honor code, agree not to disagree with their religious doctrines, and get a note from a Mormon bishop saying I was worthy and no longer drank beer. They said theyâd hold the job open for three months until âI got my life in order.â Itâs a private university, and they can do as they please, but the whole things creeped me out. I told them my life was already in order.
Two years ago, The University of Utah hired me as marketing & communication director of their College of Education. Half the faculty seemed to be living on an alien planet. The rest were covering their butts, staying quiet, and going along with it. For example, several faculty members advocated for a student uprising to overthrow the university administration as the beginning of a Marxist revolution â I even needed to write a glowing press release about it, as though it was normal stuff. The school was obsessed with âwokeâ sorts of social issues to the point that training teachers seemed to be a secondary concern to group-think indoctrination. I lasted six months and couldnât take it any longer. If thereâs been one silver lining for me in the whole COVID-19 thing, itâs that it got me out of there.
So yeah, forget what I said about liberal arts education in the U.S. What it should be, I agree with. What it actually is, um, not so much any more.
Print is becoming a niche product. I donât mind. The more other designers screw up, the more I look like a genius, and the more I can charge.
An institution canât really teach print unless they are able to print, or send things to print. Students have to be able to see how their choices translate on to ink and paper. Universities used to have print shops. Not copy shops, but actual print shops. I donât think those exist anymore. So they take the cheap way out and just teach digital presentation. And thatâs how you get students who donât understand color space, or bleed, or Pantone C, Pantone U, etc.
A hundred years ago the emphasis in college/university education was on Socratic teaching and critical thinking. Think John Houseman in The Paper Chase. The purpose of a higher education was to develop the ability to distill a situation, ask the right kind of questions, dissect problems and formulate solutions.
Students today arenât interested in that approach. I say that as a former lecturer in the California state university. Students pay top dollar for their education and they want a return on their investment, which means what they really want, what they demand, is job training. Thatâs different from critical thinking. Unlike the past, these days colleges/universities consider their students to be customers, and âthe customer is always rightâ. And the customers want you to teach them how to do nifty whiz-bang things in Photoshop that will look rad in a portfolio. But thatâs not design.
Good education in graphic design will incorporate a look at history. What roads have already been traveled? What issues did the artists who went before us face, and how did they solve their problems? It incorporates a lot of criticism, giving students a vocabulary for evaluating design and making judgements as to its client value. A good education provides a framework for understanding aesthetics and how audiences interact with design. Aesthetics education develops an artists ability to engage an audience and move them to specific responses. And lastly, a good education teaches technique, how to use the tools of the trade.
Great graphic designers solve problems. Unfortunately, a lot of design education today strips away or minimizes the history, criticism and aesthetic components, and just teaches how to use the tools. âTeach me photoshop, and donât criticize my work because it feels like youâre criticizing me personallyâ. Itâs a disservice to students to pander to what they think they want. A good education will give them what they need to succeed, and there will be moments where it is merciless.
[quote=âMojo, post:29, topic:18213â]
Print is becoming a niche product. I donât mind. The more other designers screw up, the more I look like a genius, and the more I can charge.[/quote]
This where people undervalue the design process especially for print material - they have or will have issues with people designing crap that canât be printed - then they donât think itâs worth the money.
I used to buy my vegetables in a cheap grocery store, just because they were cheaper, and it was just veg. But most days it had gone off before I got to use it. Now, I go to the a higher quality grocery store to buy my veg.
Itâs the opposite with design - they get bad design, it goes off the next day, and they go back to the market to get it cheaper because the cheap shit they bought the last time went off. And somehow buying it cheaper again seems like a good option.
This is true - although the college I went to had film output, platesetters, bookbinding, letterpress, foil, embossing, litho print machines, and even oldstyle printers with manual formes, coignes and all that jazz.
Yet, all the stuff they had was severely outdated, and itâs understandable, the colleges/universities canât be expected to have the latest and greatest in the industry they are likely looking on getting their hands on obsolete machines for cheap/free.
I remember the last place I worked with a litho crew that they bought a 10-colour KBA - how do you teach that in college when it wasnât even invented?
So college is a tool - itâs a learning groove - it teaches you to learn, adapt, and use what is there, learning to use tools that are available. Adapting and knowing what youâre doing, and why youâre doing it.
And then it comes down to the adaptability of the class. I was in a class of 10. By small break at 9.30am the whole class was across the road in the pub downing pints as the next class wasnât until 12.30.
Which sucked, they were half-cut, and not interested, and lessons were slow. And then they had the gall to complain to the head that the teachers werenât teaching them (as they were flunking).
But having an academic approach to a problem is a good idea - but it needs to be tangilbe with a real-life career.
I couldnât use any of what I learned in college for printing as it was about 10 years old. But I didnât mind - at least I got to experience the hardships and the old ways and where some terminology originated from. And I really appreciated the modern techniques that I was learning on the job.
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Coming from one of the for profit we had teachers who worked in the industry but each school certainly had specialties that you would want to pay attention to when applying. We met once a week for 4 hours so weâd have actual studio time. The number of non-design classes that needed to be taken for graduation were far fewer than design classes.
I wish I could remember more of the classes I took but some of them included print production, environmental design, color theory, layout design, publication design etc.
Portland AI had a really strong design program because we have companies like Nike, adidas, W+K, Nemo, Lincoln and others who are huge design companies so the need for design teachers is higher than say a city that has more focus on cooking or fashion like New York and LA.
Do you (or anyone else who can help) have any resources to where I can learn this is type of stuff? Iâm a current graphic design student, and youâre correctâŠnone of this is included in the curriculum. However, I donât foresee myself JUST producing digital artâŠI like to make things that people can actually hold/touch, and are meant to being seen in person.
Start with those - learn the different types of print process.
Prepress
Plenty to look into in the terminology on this page
The A-Z of terminology
Of course not the only source
Free months trial here
And so on.
DO NOT start using YouTube tutorials of random people - use accredited websites and learning websites.
Use the navigation on the left to filter to your course you want to learn
You can also look up prepress training courses in your area.
Lastly - get in touch with some Local printing companies - find out what equipment they might have and if they would be willing to have you one or two days a week to learn - if you have the time to do that.
No better way to learn than by doing.
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@thatsartaf, Iâll add this to the list â Pocket Pal. Itâs a small printed book, but it was a lifesaver for me when I first started out and tried to figure out all the practical stuff I missed in school. I donât know what the current version covers, but I suspect itâs good.
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Now that you mention it
You might try contact the authors to see if thereâs a more up-to-date version
https://www.peachpit.com/store/learn-adobe-indesign-cc-for-print-and-digital-media-9780134878393
https://www.peachpit.com/store/real-world-print-production-with-adobe-creative-cloud-9780321970329
Iâd like to view this for a laugh, but alas, no Linked In account.
What would be funny about it?
If vinyl transfers are vinyl sign lettering, think about it. Where is your cost break on doing a one-off sign or graphic panel in silk screen? What are the panel size limitations of screen printing? What is the smallest letter sizing appropriate for vinyl? When would you be better off doing a phenolic or imaged powder coated sign?
I want to see the rationale behind first even considering vinyl for a job that should be screen printed.
Unless they mean printed iron on T-shirt vinyl transfers. In which case, screen printing, all the way. Those vinyl iron on things stink to high heaven and donât launder well.
Yes, and when you started in the industry did you know any of that?
The idea of the courses and the academic side of it is to learn the principles of creating such things, doâs and do not.
You arenât expected as a juinor/intern/beginner to be offering advice on substrates, printing methods, or anything like that. Youâre going in with an open mind and knowledge of how to create - from a set of instructions.
Usually the MD/Sales/Print Buyers take in work, understand projects, then pass the task on to the Designers - who a Senior designer will take the tasks, and sub divide tasks to Mid level and Junior designers.
So where itâs great we all know this now - donât forget that you didnât at some point.
I guess what Iâm saying is, less nicely, I wonder if that particular video is as full of schlock as some of the other ones that caused me to cancel my Lynda subscription a long while back.