Team Droid - Slot Challenge - PshycoDelic

The high school I attended offered a dual enrollment course for digital media that fell in the same accreditation as Full Sail (which is rare) So many of those credits transferred. I started at Full Sail an hour short of an Associates degree which completed in the first month. I was in a unique situation given my credit hours and the programs they offered. I finished the program and earned a Bach of Science in the Digital Arts and Design program in the class of 08' (only person in my class of 30 to not drop out or change programs) And I also completed the Masters program in ent. biz online. For some reason it still says graphic design, but I am listed in the Grads on the Move section of the website in the Digi Arts, Graphic Design, and Ent Biz sections with a Master of Science.

On another note... I do NOT recommend this school for graphic design or game art. I had 2 roommates there in film and game art. The one in game art dropped out 2 months before graduation because he found out that Full Sails accreditation does not meet the standards of any major colleges or educational agencies. (which makes getting a job very hard) The roommate in film graduated and it working on-set as an intern somewhere in LA shooting commercials.

My class started with 30 students and got down to 5 near graduation for similar reasons. Of those 5, I was the only one who graduated because I already had a math credit, and only 1 of the other 4 passed the basic math class, and he switched to the web design program. So I graduated all alone.

After graduating, I got several freelance jobs and worked full time at a local magazine doing ads for their customers who advertised in the magazine as well as pre-press and image optimization.

After that, I started working with the creative director at a major corporation called @!*@T on my portfolio. (The career development staff at full sail kind of fell short on that end)

Anywho, he was impressed with my work and knowledge of the software and my work-flow skills and eye for detail to the point of offering me a job at said corporation where I work now and LOVE it.

So that's my design background.

You can scrutinize all you like, but as Mr. Oliver (my portfolio creation instructor at Full Sail) always said..."it is what it is..."

 

Held up to high standards, being 1 of 5 students to pass (that's sarcasm, btw).

Just a heads up but anyone who isn't immediately in the field of major graphic design will find a random combination of boxes and colors to be appealing, it really means nothing. There is a reason those same people hire graphic designers to make shit (just like shaggy trying to give me direction for a skin, the skin he wanted was horrendous).

Freelance work falls from trees. ****, in high school I could whore myself out to make a solid 20-30k a year no problem (and did this actually) without a degree just out of boredom because I felt like designing. When I go back and look now I realize a few things 1 - still better than anything I've seen you do on the site, 2 - they could still easily fetch 1-2k, 3 - I didn't listen to a thing the people who hired me asked me to do because that limits your artistic boundaries.

As far as my comment about graphic design courses and what I meant... I was advising that if you actually took graphic design with being even *remotely* into the field before taking the classes then you would have realized what a crock of useless shit it is and how useless any form of degree is in a field based almost anything in the arts because you can't be taught how to design something amazing. You are taught what colors work well, what shapes work well, how to guide peoples eyes along the page and create flow and depth, you are taught the very, very basic portions of design that you could frankly learn in a couple of hours over at pixel2life.com.

 

I agree with most of that... You really can't learn anything artistic from anyone other than yourself. But art and design are very separate skills, yet both need each other. Design, Color Theory, Client Relations, Psychology, Geometry, Drawing, Pre-pro, Work Flow, and Basic Design skills can be acquired in the class room. I also was doing freelance in high school and went into college expecting to learn nothing with my high school background in design.

As for how to use photoshop... I learned a few nifty short cuts and really dove into scripting with the Extend Script Toolkit (which rocks)

Other than that... nothing else.

However, I did pick up some valuable knowledge about how to work in a design environment, how to be inspired, and how to work with others.

Most importantly, I learned how to represent myself as best I can as a designer. This got me a job.

So, does a degree make me better at photoshop? No.

However, my degree got me a good job in a really crappy economy and taught me a valuable skill set and helped me discover some underlying talents within the field I didn't know I had.


Worth the tuition? Definitely. Would I have rather gone to a different school?... maybe.

 

Colleges are for profit institution. Degrees are only necessary in very select markets these days because work experience for the same period of time as college gets you an equal amount (if not better) experience for the position. I would hire a 16 year old kid who has a portfolio like http://www.jimmybjorkman.com/core/webbdesign against someone who went to school and can't work up something better than http://www.abcreative.me/index.html

edit: also, who puts their resume on their website, especially with references and personal contact information?

 

Clash, I still don't see any indication from any of your work that anything you've said so far is remotely true.

Post some original work, and put your money where your very large mouth is.

 

I side with clash on this one, i have heard him talk since i got here about him going to fullsail. If someone can keep that tight of a lie, then he is probably extremely smart. because that would be very hard to keep with as many variables as it has.

 

TBH going to college for design or art is just stupid. Like you said previously you can't be taught how to create something great, you already need the creativity to do it. You can be guided a little and helped but ultimately if you don't have the creativity in you your not going to be successful. And a lot of things you can learn on the internet now a days.

 

I don't know. I spent a year doing a certificate of design at a Tech Institute last year, and we had a drawing tutor teach us 2 hours a day, and my drawing skills improve immensely.

 

the latter has the better designs in my opinion. At the very least he doesn't include his shitty work as the former did.

Though I will admit his resume is disappointing, it's 3 pages, it should be 1(MAYBE 2) so the formatting should be different. Treat MS word as though it were photoshop, have fun go crazy but make it clean.

 

If that's your Portfolio, Clash, I am impressed. It's significantly higher quality than I was expecting based on your sigs, but is probably a perfect example of what I was talking about.

Graphic Design and sigmaking have nothing in common. While you might be a good designer (although nowhere near the level you talked yourself up to, much of your work has little attention to detail, and isn't especially original), your opinion ability on sigs aren't up to scratch.

I was expecting more. Looking at your resume, I just realised that you don't have a Master's degree. You have an Associates degree, which is probably about the equivalent of the Certificate of Design I did last year at the Wellington Institute of Technology.

So it looks like I'm equally qualified as you are. Perhaps more, considering my I have much more Job Experience. I'd post up my Certificate, except I don't have a scanner...

 

first off, my portfolio is a brand strategy portfolio... focusing on logos and marketing strategies. I make no claims to be a web designer....and yet I wound up in that field...

Secondly, the second portfolio you posted wasn't impressive to me at all from a professional designer standpoint.

Also, I've never seen a professional design portfolio without a resume or PDF version of the portfolio attached.

 

The resume on there was made for a class using Full Sail's resume generator... I have another one I use professionally.

 

First off... this site and resume were created after the first few weeks in school. This is not my current professional portfolio.

As for work experience, I seriously doubt you even come close.

 

Well I did a year long course at the Wellington Institute of Technology, which included 60 hours of paid work experience at Weta Workshop, and 20 hours of paid work experience at Weta Digital. I'm currently an administrator for GoMedia, running their forum, and working on their Zine (although I recently took a 4 month hiatus, and will be resuming work for them soon), and I do freelance work designing logos/business cards/web work.

However, I've relatively recently given up on Professional graphic design. It's no longer as interesting and fun as it used to be. That's why I'm enrolling next year at Massey University and doing English/Writing/Journalism.

TBH this isn't a site I consider having anything to do with my graphic design experience. I haven't really made sigs consistently in a long time, and even when I did, it's really just a photoshop site, rather than a design site.

All the qualifications and professional skills in the world mean nothing here, since they rarely have any influence on the ability to make sigs. The skillset is totally different. You still haven't even posted a sig, yet. So until you do, I don't see any reason to believe your C&C is at all reasonable or informed.

 

Opinions are opinions, however the first portfolio linked is to an individual widely considered to be one of the best website interface designers in the field (alongside people like demondan666, etc.). Most of his designs fetch upwards of a few thousand dollars. Most of those designs are years old however, as I believe he's largely dropped the field as his old website is no longer up and running. My point still stands what someone with a portfolio like his (or kwaku's, or god knows any other top designer) would easily get a job over someone who has any remote experience in college but generates work at 1/2 the design value.