I’ve been joking for weeks about shattering the hopes and dreams of aspiring young designers at the AIGA Portfolio review but actually I found the kids to be pretty talented, serious about the industry and very open to feedback. The day really re-ignited my desire to get into teaching. I was very impressed that so many kids had traveled in from Delaware and Salisbury on a Saturday morning, professionally dressed, to have their portfolios reviewed (by me of all people). On the flipside I didn’t get one student from MICA, which is directly across the street. Maybe they’re too cool to get feedback from somebody who didn’t go to MICA, or I’m too intimidating, or there were just not any assigned to me over the course of 4-5 hours, though that seems unlikely.
So with out further ado, the POSITIVES:
The State schools are getting better at cranking out workplace ready designers, the gap between them the private art school kids is continuing to shrink.
The program at Towson (where I earned my B.F.A.) looks to have greatly improved, apparently benefitting from some staff turn over. The students have a much stronger understanding of production than I had when I came out of there and the projects they were doing we much more complex.
INTERNSHIPS! Thanks to a down economy, cash strapped companies are more willing to give students a chance to work the for free. These kids definitely had more options available than I did. I wish a certain education company in Baltimore would be more open to internships – I could use some slave labor.
A lot of students are hungry for more and asked about Grad School. I did my best to talk several of them out of going directly from undergrad to a MFA program. Go out, get some real world experience make sure you love the job before you commit to getting another degree in it, you’ll get more value taking a web design class in 5 years when the technology has changed from what you learned in undergrad.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Can you call my dad and explain that to him for me?”
And the NEGATIVES:
Where is the web stuff? Too many students didn’t even have basic HTML skills, and even more disturbing many of them had no interest in the web at all. I find that hard to believe considering they mostly grew up with the Internet.
PRESENTATION!: A lot of work wasn’t mounted – when you have no experience the emphasis falls heavier on presentation. I hate doing it too, but coming out of school it’s not optional. No untrimmed 11x17’s in a manila folder folks.
Book Covers – this is just a pet peeve, but why does every design program have students go through pointless project? I almost NEVER comes up professionally and it’s in every portfolio. I’d rather see less exciting/more realistic project like a black and white print ad laid out in different size formats.
Where’s Bob? I figured I’d get at least 1 ‘Robert Gillespie’ type who’d argue with me when I told him something wasn’t working. Maybe it was just the format but none of kids seemed to know how to defend their work when it was attacked.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY
“Are you graduating this semester?” – question from a girl in her early 20’s who apparently thought I was student. SCORE!
WTF MOMENT OF THE DAY
University of Baltimore hosts a portfolio review, in the Art building, full of graduating designers all of which are asking about Grad schools and there was not a single piece of student work from the UB Pub Design program on display anywhere. It was a golden opportunity to promote the program and they missed it.
It certainly wouldn't have happened if I were teaching there :)
