Hey everyone. I’m a student at LAFS for Graphic Design. Super excited to learn anything I possibly can from fellow graphic designers as I begin my journey into the industry! Any Advice always appreciated! Can’t wait to learn more! Thanks for reading… 
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Welcome Aboard 
We have quite a few of your fellow students joining. Enjoy your stay
Thanks! We were actually assigned to join forums that were kinda specific to our course of study and we have to introduce ourselves and then write on what kinda of topics and issues are being discussed for our industries. It’s also suppose to help us with networking.
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What other forums were on the list?
digitalpoint was the only other for graphic designer. I definitely like this forum set up much better. I joined both.
Again weird. You had a choice of only 2?
I guess I should look, but is the graphic design course at a Film School more geared toward event graphics? Like stage or broadcast shows, large corporate rollouts, big multi-national managers’ meetings or industry shows? Like this stuff:
Cuz there are far better places to network for that than here… but I guess for a 101 class that covers multi-disciplines maybe that’s asking too much.
It’s for a digital literacy class which is a mixer of all courses right now. I think once we get farther in our studies we will be venturing out more with our industry. Although if you all know of any good sites for graphic designers I would love to check them out!
Define Graphic Designer.
There are subspecialties these days and there are focused organizations that meet the demands of each.
What does a Graphic Designer at the LA Film school hope to aspire to be? I’m sure hoping it is beyond the usual front office desktop publishing stuff.
Do you want to do show stuff? Theatre? Broadcast? Event?
Do you want to do educational stuff? Museums? Traveling exhibits? Interactive learning tools?
Do you want to do Experiential Design? Interactive? Wayfinding? Branded/themed environments?
Do you want to do plain old graphic design? Branding? Marketing? Advertising?
You need to think about where you want to be in 10 years and navigate a path towards it. There’s probably centuries worth of experience among all the regulars here that can offer some guide posts. But you gotta know what your goal is.
Honestly, I have always just loved art in general. Before i had kids i wanted to do Interior Design or Fashion Design, but now I am thinking more along the lines of Advertising for Movie Production. I am a photographer on the side right now. I am also partnered up with my fiance who is also at LAFS for Cinematology. We hope and plan to go into our own business once we both finish school.
Design is not art. If you are hoping to do this as some sort of self-expression, don’t. Go do fine art and/or art photography.
Also, don’t even think about starting a business without a number of years working in the industry. Starting a business is precarious at the best of times. You need to give yourself the best chance and learn your craft.
I am not trying to be cynical, but blind idealism won’t put food on the table. I’m not saying don’t do op it, but equip yourself before jumping.
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