edumacation...

**Anonymous** · 03-25-2002, 02:56 PM

Well myself and the other captain are Tyler School of Art graphic design graduates. Tyler is basically Temple University's art department, but nicely located at it's own campus, safe from the stray bullets of North Philadelphia. Anyway, Tyler has an excellent graphic design department with a core group of professors that are amazing. I myself had a very strict fine arts upbringing, and Tyler's program gave us captains a lot of room to experiment while still learning design fundamentals. Tyler's design portfolio's are top notch. But the best part of the whole deal... it's cheap. It's a state funded school. And Temple offers a really great study abroad program. I spent my sophomore year studying art history in Rome, which had a bigger impact on me than any design course I ever took.

**gooch** · 03-25-2002, 03:37 PM

I'm kinda in Chachi's camp. I went to an art school that had a really shitty design program and a great fine arts program. I majored in design but took tons of printmakinga and drawing--choosing the "design major" mostly as a title.

I actually learned design from this pre-press place I worked at in and after school (this was pre-mac). It was open 24 hours and I could just sit there and abuse the equipment (stat cams/film/etc.) all night long--and build up a decent portfolio.

That said, I don't think I would have even reached that point without first getting immersed in the artworld proper. Something about getting feedback from strangers (as opposed to friends) and interacting with other "artists" really helped me gain some insight (at least to my young brain) and discipline. I don't think it would have been the same had I been surrounded by only books.

So yeah, some combination. And just keep in mind that it's more of a means and not and end.

**vibranium** · 03-25-2002, 05:15 PM

A vocational community college program and one really good teacher is all it took for me.

becoming a designer was accidental for me (I registered for the wrong class) nonetheless i fell in love/obsession with it. i narrowly avioded running into a world of newsletters and pizza hut coupons because of ONE encounter with an instructor.

it was he who equated design to my love of comics and other vernacular junk, and instilled a passion. created a monster he'd say, i bet.

anyway, for me, my career (my life as well) is a series of accidents and choice encounters. talent, i'm embarrassed to say plays little part in my career and it's few low-level successes. i have an insane desire to be the BEST and the unmitigated-bulldog-jawed-tenacity to attempt it. thats all.

**5Rock** · 03-25-2002, 05:47 PM

i have an insane desire to be the BEST and the unmitigated-bulldog-jawed-tenacity to attempt it. thats all.

I really like that statement.

**Jeff Kleinsmith** · 03-25-2002, 05:56 PM

Wow, Vibe, almost sounds romantic. I couldn't have said it better myself... On some levels I can relate. It's similar to my experience except I had two of those instructors.

5 years of college to get my BA, the last year and a half as a design major. So, I paid for five years of college to get a two-year design degree with a literature minor!

Like Gooch, I had a year at a pre-press/copy shop with after-hours access to all the copiers, and drill presses, and computers, and waxers. I even slept there a couple of times.

I really learned (for better or for worse) everything I know in four years at The Rocket magazine here in Seattle. I couldn't have had a more intense and fulfilling learning experience than that. I started there shooting stats, pasting up ads with line tape and zip-a-tone, and making coffee. When I left for Sub Pop four years later I had learned everything there was to know about how to finesse together a monthly music/arts magazine with the meagerest of budgets and a ton of ingenuity. Trial by fire.

**rotodesign** · 03-25-2002, 06:42 PM

The most important thing you get in real life that you don't get in school is experience dealing with clients whose primary interest is not a cool looking design. Learning to incorporate the real world needs of the person paying the bills into your poster/illustration/ad/whatever is trickier than pleasing a classroomfull of art students who are inclined to like design for its own sake.

Or maybe I just picked the wrong school...
http://modernhumorist.com/mh/0111/artschool/

----
Pat Broderick
http://www.rotodesign.com

**5Rock** · 03-25-2002, 07:24 PM

Jeff, wow, how pathes cross.

The Rocket is responsible for me being a designer instead of an illustrator.
I was shopping some of my illustration work around Seattle in '95 and was asked into The Rocket offices to show my wares. The meeting was positive until they asked me to write and draw a monthly comic to supplement the classified section... they wanted the comic to center around futuristic, grunge musician vampires (for free)... no joke, and it wasn't supposed to be tongue and cheek. I knew then and there I would never make it as an illustrator.

I went on (years later) to design at The Stranger briefly, and then art directed a weekly here in Richmond.

Ah, the waxer. The most expensive fan motor - heat coil combo ever invented. I would bronze one for my apartment if they weren't so damned expensive.

**art chantry** · 03-26-2002, 07:00 AM

xxoo

**Jeff Kleinsmith** · 03-26-2002, 07:26 AM

5Rock,

Sounds like we just missed each other, as my last issue was the holiday issue of 94. I don't know who the editor was in 95 but I can't imagine it was anyone I worked with. Ughh. I apologize anyway. I'm not the one to be telling the stories, but there are many.

Jeff

**5Rock** · 03-26-2002, 07:41 AM

Art, you had an art budget?!

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