I was not new to the world of design when I came to university, I had worked in-house for a national gym franchise as well as working as a part-time freelancer for a couple of years, and as a result I was very shocked by the way in which universities see ‘the real world’.
One would expect to go to university to learn all about the
world of design and be prepared for the industry that you’re set to earn you
living from, this however, is simply not the case. I spent a lot of my time
there frustrated at what I was being ‘taught’ and the fact that if I were to
even mention the words ‘corporate’ or ‘industry’ I would be looked at with a
stare that said “Are you having a laugh? You don’t get to be a designer by
actually preparing for a career in it!”
Time after time we would be tasked with briefs that to me
seemed more like something taken from a fine art course than a course based
around the art of design, briefs such as ‘Boredom’. Yes that was the whole
brief, one word. One word which we were then to let our minds wander and create
anything we wanted as long as we could roughly, through a long winded bullsh*t
answer, relate back to that one word. Now, as someone who had worked in the
industry before, and does again so now, I have never come across anything like
that and I doubt I ever will. We work to briefs, we get told what a client
wants, and we use our skills and knowledge base to best satisfy their needs.
This happened, a lot.It became clear to me that what was being created was a class full of free thinking artists that would dream up elaborate concepts with no regard to practicality, time, or cost implications. For someone who had come straight from lower education to university to be taught this I feel is endangering their chance to work in the industry, after all you don’t just become the new Sagmeister overnight.
I ended up leaving university midway through my final year,
as I was so fed up of this idea of what design education was, and set up www.mark-sims.co.uk to work as a
freelance designer again. Whilst many people at university may never want to be
a freelancer I doubt many have the skills to do it after being taught in the
manner they are at university. They would simply not turn over enough work to
make it sustainable; I feel this would also be true for working at an agency.
This is obviously just one man’s point of view, who studied
at one university, and it may be a lot different for many others out there. A
lot of people will have studied at university and learned a whole host of
skills they now rely on as an employee of the design industry but from my
experience I imagine these people are in the minority. Now I’m not saying
everything about university was bad, because it isn’t. The main benefit for me
was that it gave me time to get perspective and mature enough to know this is
what I wanted to do for a living, as well as the added bonus of meeting lots of
new contacts who can come in useful from time to time. Had I tried to set up as
self-employed before coming to university I would have failed miserably.
So, is university worth it? It’s a bit vague really, from
the perspective of someone looking just to get a qualification and learn new
skills for the world of design employment? Probably not. Just go and get some
experience somewhere; you will learn far more and your portfolio will speak
more for you than a degree ever will.
If however, you are looking to simply have a bit of time to
think things over whilst still being in a creative environment then yes,
university is a great option. Even through the frustration of my 2 and a half
years I still had a great time and met some great people.
If you are thinking of a career in the design industry and
are thinking about university, really think about what you want to get out of
it and do your research on the course you’re looking at. Find out from past
students what it is ACTUALLY like, not what the course tutors tell you it’s
like.
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