Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Big decisions. Well folks, I'm on the eve of a major decision. Tomorrow is crunch time. To give you a little background, I am currently in my second year at the Australian Academy of Design. The second year is almost finished and it's part of a three year course (Bachelor of Arts: Graphic Design). I have to say, I've never considered myself to be a true graphic designer. Graphic design is an incredibly challenging industry; it's also an industry where you need to be skilled at many things. One day you might have to do a web design, the next day you might have to do a TV commercial or a packaging design. Apart from the fact that any freelance business is incredibly tough (whether graphic design or journalism), freelance graphic design in particular always involves a process where you are designing something for someone else. Quite often, you aren't designing something that you even like (for example, a new logo for a brand of diapers or something). I have two traits that really bar me from becoming a freelance graphic designer. For one thing, I need to be excited about or interested in something in order to do good design work for it. If I have absolutely no interest in the product, then chances are, my design will reflect that. Secondly -- and somewhat related to the first point -- I tend to be very careful about where my work goes and how it is used. I am very protective over my own content, whether it's on the web or whether it's in print somewhere. So, why choose graphic design? Well, I would relate all of this to the field of medicine. If you want to be a plastic surgeon, you can't simply study plastic surgery right off the bat. You need to become a general practitioner first, then a surgeon, then you need to specialize in plastic surgery. My interest has been, for a long time, things such as web/digital design, video production, animation and special effects. But it is difficult to simply jump right into that field. It's necessary to learn the fundamentals -- to study graphic design as a broader subject, before moving into a specific field. It was with this knowledge that I chose to study at the academy in this particular course. Despite the fact that it's a three year course, my intention was to study for only two years. This was in order to fulfil a prerequesite, which basically means that I kind of build up some credit to allow me to enter more specialty-based courses. However, I've decided to withdraw from my school as of tomorrow. Why? Well, there are multiple reasons really. Apart from a few areas where I've been disatisfied with school in general, there are some specifics that stand out. The first thing occurred last semester. Two tutors took me aside after one of my presentations and proceeded to scold me for only using black and white in my development work. Now, when you create a project, you use a development journal to basically jot down your ideas. It's just a series of notes that contain your own working. These notes can ostensibly contain anything; you can write paragraphs, you can draw sketches, you can stick items in. We were always told to approach our development work in our own way. We were told to "develop our own styles" and not to try and conform our work to a particular design style. So here I am, being told that I will fail unless I resubmit my development work with some colour in it. On top of that, I was also told off for my drawings being "too sketchy". Huh? Why was this never brought up before, in the year and a half that I'd been studying there? I'd never received a complaint. And moreover, it's the way I draw my concepts. It's the way that I work through things on paper. I sketch. Sketches (my ones, anyway), tend to be black and white. And they tend to be, you know, sketches. Despite the fact that I was quite surprised about this revelation and apparently sudden change of heart, I did what I had to do. I resubmitted and tried to conform my journal to their standards. How ironic. But the second thing that happened really made me annoyed. Each year, our school (like all tertiary institutions in the country) has an open day for prospective students to come and check out the place and our work. The tutors decided that they would take my first piece from this year and put it up for display in the open day. Sounds fine? Wrong. There are two problems with what they did. One, I was never told and/or asked about this. Nobody came to me and expressed a desire to display my work, or to use it for promotional purposes. That in itself is unprofessional, however, you might still say that it's not such a bad thing. I mean, afterall, my work is getting free publicity. However, there is one other major problem. The piece was mounted by me, with my own specific mount. The mount contained not only the title of the work, but also my own personal logo. Since the beginning of this year, I have been branding all of my work with that logo in addition to the other details that are required. Whoever decided to display my work at the open day not only did so without my permission, but they removed my mount (and logo) and replaced it with their own. I don't know about you, but I find that to be pretty incredible. To make matters worse, I'd never have found out unless another student had told me -- a full two months after the event. As a result of these issues and as a result of my general dissatisfaction with the way things are going this year, I've decided to withdraw completely. I only have a term left (well, I only have a month and a half left anyway), but I'm going to withdraw early. And I'm going to take my work with me. At the moment, my intention is to apply to an alternative institution, or to simply spend my time working and attend another school down the track a little (perhaps a mid-year entrance in 2005 or something). I have to say, it's a big decision and it's a little scary in some respects. But increasingly, I've felt that it's the right choice for me at this point. Sorry for the length of the update, but...I felt I really needed to get that off my chest.

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