UCreative

Forum, Graphic Design Gallery, and Social Network

Like This Page

Share This Page
Bookmark This Page
x
  • Design Float
  • Digg
  • Delicious
  • Design Bump
  • Design Related
  • The Web Blend
  • DZone

Learn by the book or through experience

Experience is the best teacher. Is it?

Way back when there was no Digital Arts, Fashion Design or Multimedia courses (Photography was lucky to have workshops at least) creatives just learn their craft through merely experience and experiments. New generation is lucky to have books and schools about it but veterans says nothing beats the classic.

 

Is it advisable to go to a graphic design school and learn the theories or experience is enough to get things done?

 

All ideas are welcome!

Tags: graphicdesign, school, theories, training

Views: 83

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Herrera on July 29, 2011 at 9:34pm
I've learned all I know from reading tutorials and articles on the internet but have never formally taken a class on graphic design. In my opinion, one should at least take a graphic design course or two and then decide if practice would make a better teacher.
Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on July 30, 2011 at 7:53am
@Dan Herrera I have graphic design friends who learn from Youtube tutorials and other graphic design blogs too and yeah they are good designers. Still they are looking on taking up a short course about it for formality I guess.
Permalink Reply by Dan Herrera on July 30, 2011 at 10:41am
It reminds me of the time I received my mechanical drafting certification. I spent two semesters using autoCAD before I took my certification test (one architectural and one mechanical). Before that, I had no idea how to use the program before that but with enough practice, I was able to get my certificate
Permalink Reply by Eric Weiand on July 29, 2011 at 11:04pm

Using myself as an example, I have a Bachelors Degree in Visual Art from a state university and I really learned a lot of fundamentals from my design, art and color theory classes but the few web design classes that I took were teaching old methods not even used in the real world anymore such as tables based layouts and never once touched on anything CSS. So, even though I went to school I ended up teaching myself a lot of what I needed to be able to design and develop basic websites. HTML/CSS and various software were no problem to learn on my own but when I started trying to learn more in depth types of coding I really struggled on my own so now I'm looking into going back to school to get some more training.

 

I've found that state run universities tend to teach old methods instead of new technology but their fundamentals are solid and some private/design/media schools are really up on the tech but lack a little in the fundamentals area. People should have a fairly solid idea of what they want to do and research, research, research any schools they plan on attending.

 

Ultimately, to answer the question of self-taught versus school, I think it depends on the person. Some people are better learning on their own while others need a structured learning environment and face-to-face instructor and others, like me, need a mixture of both. In any case, people just need to try stuff out and find what works best for them.

Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on July 30, 2011 at 7:58am
That's one of the reasons why others don't feel like taking up the course. I myself tried to study a design course but schools can only do so much. It takes effort and time for a learner to eventually become a graphic designer - I lack TIME and maybe effort to find time too. One sad truth is that some clients tend to ask if you got a certification that you are a Graphic Designer, making it hard for other who are self taught to market themselves.
Permalink Reply by Lila Campiz on July 30, 2011 at 5:28am
Honestly I think it depends on the person, everyone learns differently. Most of what I know is learning on my own through tutorials, but I have learned a lot as well inside the classroom. But I need to do something in order to learn it, I cannot just read it out of a book and automatically comprehend it all.
Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on July 30, 2011 at 8:01am
True. It really depends on the person. A good book is useless if the owner will just use it as a drawing table. After all, we all need to focus if we want to achieve something.
Permalink Reply by Lila Campiz on July 31, 2011 at 4:42am
Exactly. I have a couple of friends who cannot learn from tutorials. They hate looking them up or just browsing for ideas or whatever. While for myself I like to do that. Everyone is different, you just have to find what works for you.
Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on August 2, 2011 at 9:34am
That often happens to me too (sad). There are times that i get lost in the middle of a step by step tutorial. Hey, video tutorials works better for me. Have you tried doing one?
Permalink Reply by Lila Campiz on August 3, 2011 at 8:04am
Yes i have. I've actually watched many through Lynda.com. Have you heard of it before? I have had professors in the past that have a membership and we have watched some in class.
Permalink Reply by Jacque Huang on August 4, 2011 at 8:25am
Wow! Lynda.com is a surprise. I checked on the site and it has a promising list of video tutorials. Thanks for the share Lila.
0hq9ba6ttiekyPermalink Reply by 0hq9ba6ttieky on August 2, 2011 at 3:18pm

It helps to learn from both. Experience definitely is the best teacher but I should say that getting into a design school makes things easier. However, since that is not possible for everybody, one can always seek help online--through tutorials, forums, design blogs. It is also important to actually practice your craft. 

 

Personally though, I've always wished that the design course I took tackled more than traditional art so that I would know more about designing for the web. How easier life would have been! So yeah, I'd suggest getting both experience and a degree if you can. 

RSS

Advertisers

Follow Us on

© 2013   Created by Team Ucreative.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service