Student Standards
By megan dealOctober 10th, 2007
By Megan Deal
I am sitting at “work” staring blankly at my screen. I periodically move a block of text here…then there…then change the color one more time. I pretend to look completely engaged by the task at hand. My long stares and occasional mouse clicks must be somewhat convincing as my productivity level, (or lack thereof) has gone unquestioned for at least 30 minutes. A new personal record. Wasting away the minutes I find myself wondering, how do design students working or interning in a professional environment develop a personal voice? How do young designers retain the solid level of integrity that we learn in the classroom, when shoved to the bottom of the heap in the “real world?”
Many of us are working or interning within the graphic design field. Some of us are working for the experience while others of us are working out of necessity. Regardless of our personal reasoning, I would venture to guess that many of us feel like we have no voice, no control over decision making, and even less say in any finished work after it leaves our desktop. If this doesn’t sound like your situation, congratulations…you’ve found yourself a good job. But for the rest of us, we’re often forced to subside, so we diligently return to our endless routine of photo resizing. After all, wasn’t that why we were hired in the first place?
My interest here is not to neglect the role that experience plays in a young designer’s development. Surely, as we leave school, we’ll bear witness to the many ways in which design education continues long after graduation. But I believe that what is often going unrealized is the value of the design student while they’re still a STUDENT. Within our institutions we are surrounded by educators and peers who dive wholeheartedly into design process as much as possible. Our minds are in constant overtime as we successfully figure out how to write an essay, tile together a poster, and do 3 months worth of overdue laundry, all in one night. Our educators keep us on the cutting edge of contemporary design, exposing us to issues and ideas that are happening NOW! Our employers should recognized the value of having fresh minds around and allow us to play a role in every part of the design process.
Personally, I am constantly aware and thankful that as students we are given such a large amount of conceptual and visual space in which to work. In fact, I feel as if I constantly have to live up to the amount of freedom that we are given, it is very hard to make each little assignment a piece of work conceptually deserving of their creative possibility.
On the other hand, I would not (and do not) expect to have such a voice in design at work. I do not conceptualize and brainstorm for the city council woman’s election sign or subway advert that I am designing, and if I did my boss or the client would throw it out. However, at work I do spend much more time on formal aspects of typography and color relation, things which neither my boss or the client have any clue about, but that make me feel stronger about what I have worked on (even though they all invariably look like garbage when they are finished). I know that everything that I have designed is properly kerned and the color and type relations will be successful when viewed from 25 feet (or whatever).
Working at a sign shop, I am also lucky enough to be able to see first-hand the large scale production of things that I have worked on. Which just goes to show you, even though its ugly as sin, when its 5 feet tall, laser cut, lined with neon lights, and mounted 35 feet up on the side of the building, it doesn’t matter if its ugly, the sheer amount of work and materials that go into such a thing almost overshadow the bad design (at least to me).
This is where I ‘interned’ over the summer. Need I say more?
http://www.truckntow.com
Although my day to day activities consisted mainly of adding paths to and resizing hundred upon hundred of product shots, I did play a small creative role there. I was able to introduce a new format e-newsletter, produce homepage and other banner graphics (which unfortunately, seem to have gone the way of the warrior), and assist is multiple aspects of production in both web and print areas. It may not have been the most creatively inclined work but the experience was nonetheless valuable. And I think Adam has an extremely valid point; to bear witness to an undertaking so large (in my case, a mass-produced catalog) and be involved in the production gave me a deeper sense of pride(for lack of better term) about what I was doing.
This is the main reason why I have shyed away from the idea of an internship. I’ve heard mixed reviews from my peers regarding their internship experiences, many saying that they weren’t given fair or creative opportunities. This may not be true for all intenships of course, it I would rather continue to be a part of the rich critiques and exercise the creative freedom that is allotted here in the classroom than become the copy-machine-unjammer, at some agency for an entire semester.
Well, sometimes you just gotta swallow up your pride and let the man hand you a check.
i prefer copy-machine wrangler
I’m kind of in the same boat as admrwe. Is what I do overly creative? No. Is what get produced hideous in the end? Many a times. Would I ever put any of it into my portfolio…well…other than to show I was part of such a large project…HELL NO. My boss went to CCS way back in the day when it was pretty much just the Yamasaki building. He understands what I am going through and what my design “ideals” are…and that I’m really hoping to reach much further in the name of design than what I am currently doing. At the same time I am asked to do some comps for a logo or website layouts for a new division of the company. They come to me asking for my “fresh, new ideas…something clean!” and I give them a few samples to choose from…inevitably they fall back into their same rut. It makes me sick. I’ve learned to accept it now…thats why I wish I could put more into the creative side of school work…to even out the mundane cube life. I’ve looked for other “more creative” jobs but in the end, “The Man” is paying me pretty decent money and is 100% flexible with my schedule…I have no one else to fall back on to pay my car payment or health insurance if I can’t make it to work…hard to complain about a good employer when you’re in school.