Well, I’ve done it again; been pretty absent from these parts – apart from a bit of lurking and the odd ranty spewed opinion. I have been somewhat occupied in a way I haven’t in many years. In all my years of work, I have never had a portfolio and all of a sudden I needed to prove whether I pass muster as a designer.
The reason; I’ve applied to do a masters and just a few days ago was offered an unconditional acceptance, which I am very excited about – if tinged with a soupçon of trepidation. It has been a while since I have done anything in design that scares me, so I decided now was an apposite time.
I think I reached a point where, though I know I can do my job, that can bring with it a narrowing of creativity and an over-use of well-worn paths. So, I decided I wanted to shake things up a little.
I had always said that if I did an MA it would be type design at Reading University, but in the end, I decided I didn’t want to do the schlep (at least 4 hours each way) every week, not mention all the other disadvantages and associated costs. So, I looked at credible online Masters courses and narrowed it down to two. One was the University of Arts London and the other Falmouth University. The latter suited my aspirations and approach more. Their attitude was great and they are happy for me to tailor my direction of study to being more type design focused and they have links and connections in this area. Studying a masters will be a very different experience to an undergrad degree and should be much more self-initiated and self-determined, certainly in the latter part of it.
Anyway, we’ll see over the next two years. It is part time, so I will combine it with shifting my direction of travel business-wise.
Where I will go with it exactly, I have no idea, but that is the point of doing it and half the fun. I felt the need to open my head up again and see where learning new stuff leads me. New doors, new adventures.
Congratulations, I think. It’s a big commitment, but the intellectual and practical rewards from graduate school can be substantial and challenging. You’re right; it’s different from undergraduate school.
I always had my sights set on an MA or an MFA, but I needed to make a living after my BFA, which put that on hold for a few years until I found an employer who would pay for the MFA. Like you, I wanted to study type design, but I chose a more practical path focused on the future of publishing, which, of course, leaned heavily toward typography and technology. Unfortunately, it didn’t align perfectly with the school’s fine arts focus.
You might have an entirely different experience, but since we’re both experienced designers, the one thing I’ll share is something I didn’t fully expect. For me, that “one thing” was discovering that the design professors who seemed to know everything in undergrad school had somehow become academic knuckleheads, divorced from reality.
Of course, it wasn’t them who had changed; it was me. By then, I had ten years of work experience under my belt, which shifted the dynamics. I found myself avoiding the tenured professors as much as possible and focusing on interactions with the adjunct professors, who were typically better grounded since they also had non-academic careers.
I don’t know how this might play out online, but I’m eager to hear more. When do you begin? This is pretty cool.
I think most of the professors on this also have professional practices.
One thing that did strike me was a recent seminar with the course leader, who is about my age and with my experience – almost uncannily so. Music Indusrty, branding, book publishing.
It worried me a little, because, like you, at undergrad level, you knew nothing. However, this will be more collaborative, so feeding off people with similar experience is not a bad thing. It’s been 20 plus years since I worked in studios with the feed from other designers, so doing this in an educational environment, I am hoping will be a good thing and just what I need.
I know someone who is just 3-4 years younger than me and did the same course a couple of years back and it completely gave him the new lease of (creative) life he was looking for,g for. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
In my experience, the tenured faculty were usually really good at theory, criticism and history. The adjuncts were better at tools and production. Adjuncts are part timers, and most have a day job in their field of expertise.
Best wishes on your endeavors! I thoroughly enjoyed the process of getting my MA.
It’s a big commitment, but the intellectual and practical rewards from graduate school can be substantial and challenging. You’re right; it’s different from undergraduate school.