Guide to Design

What is Design?

Design involves processes and people who create for the end user rather than for beauty alone. Form follows function, as we say.

Certainly the quality of 'beauty' influences why and how we choose to utilize or select one product over another, and visual aesthetics are vastly important in both the 2-D and 3-D design worlds, but 'beauty' is not the end in itself, as is defined in art-making. It is interaction between the user and the product that is of prime concern, and a never-ending process of re-evaluation, market survey, process improvement and invention energizes the design field.

"Human factors" and "ergonomics" describe the way the industrial design process looks at how something works and how it can work better. "Readability" and "visual impact" describe the way designers in the print and advertising fields measure the success of their work. These analytic models are not always perfect, but they provide the design process with data in a way that is not intrinsic to the "art" process.

To understand the immensity of this huge design field, let's jump into an exercise seeing what we typically come into contact with that requires "design" during an average day:

• The furniture we sleep, sit, and eat on begins the day.
• The tools, appliances and gadgets we use to make our food, get through the working day, and entertain ourselves are all designed.
• The newspapers, magazines, computer screen displays, billboards, packaging, and television and movie set designs we gaze at are all designed by creative people, and many of the production supervision at all levels in everything that is manufactured requires design expertise.
• The clothing we wear and the cars we drive are giant sources of work for design professionals, and the advertising specialists who sell them.
• Finally, the vast complex of interactive and interdependent processes that involve the "assembly line" of manufacturing, the "farm" to "table" of the agribusiness world, and the visual planning of our transport networks and urban interfaces have increasing degrees of input from design workers. 

Who are Designers?

Design professionals are the people responsible for supervising, creating, and analyzing the success of all the aspects of modern life with which we come into contact with.

The manufactured world we live in depends on quality and competitive improvement, and designers work within manufacturing, transportation, telecommunication, and print reproduction disciplines to improve everything we hold in our hands, read, or use around the house or business.

The mind reels at the breadth of professional possibilities in design, as a brief survey of theses design specialists shows:

• Exhibit designers
• Industrial designers
• Advertising designers
• Retail designers
• Layout designers
• Manufacturing designers
• Automobile designers
• Packaging designers
• Set designers
• Costume designers
• Fashion designers
• Magazine designers
• Urban planning designers
• Landscape designers
• Product line designers

The size of the field and the volume of the work involved often directs practitioners into highly specific aspects of this world of design, but many of the top names work across many disciplines, and lend their own design look or design style to mass-marketed products.

  

An Edge in Design Education

The designers' work products and delivery methods, office environments, client relationships, and future rewards and expectations will vary immensely depending on discipline, specialty, where they locate, and how successfully they market themselves as independent designers -- if they choose that route.

Products

Work products can involve presentation sketches, brainstorming summaries, computer printouts and project status updates, models, and even final designs that are printed, produced, and test-marketed. Working office environments will continue to demand efficiency of process, with clear thought and superior internal and client communication often the major factor in getting a project successfully completed on deadline.

 

More comprehensive and cheaper digital output offers new ways to integrate quality into product and print. Clients may want the design presentations to be conducted in their company environments, necessitating well-planned and portable ways to present data and visuals. The working environment of the designer may be where the client wishes to come and be provided the latest information and status reports.

Designers make decisions all the time about whether to keep some tasks "in-house", using their own salaried talent, or "farm-out" specific sub tasks to independent contractors -- such as writers, concept artists, service bureaus, or presentation and layout designers.

The ability to sketch and communicate ideas verbally helps both the internal function and the presentation function of any successful design relationship, and computers are not the answer to everything in this most human of service industries.

Work Environment

While many designers work in small or solo situations that often include a home studio, it is more common for offices to be constructed around working teams of designers with different roles within the project matrix.

Some design professionals (principals, owners, and the most experienced practitioners within the firms) often specialize in sales (generating new clients) and account management (serving the existing clientele). These designers may have their business day totally involved with travel, meetings, phone calls, and project supervision. This leaves the process and presentation end totally up to younger designers and those who get their job satisfaction from the pure process of design, information analysis, and search for aesthetic quality.

The resulting 2-D or 3-D products are tested and utilized in the marketplace, and serve their clients' audiences and users rather then the creators.

Successful design yields further contracts, and failures tend to make clients look elsewhere for their creative development. It is also common for many parallel projects to wind through a design firm at the same time, so it's important for every designer to be organized, to help the business run efficiently.

Realities and Options in Design Education

If you're interested in design, many programs for prospective design school students exist.

Design Schools

Large public and private colleges and universities offer a broad university-level curriculum, and can have highly respected focused design programs within their schools. Smaller colleges and universities are less likely to have this type of breadth of course offering and specialization, but particular fine programs exist in this collegiate demographic.

Specialized institutes and schools (often with online programs) offer much more specialized experiences that can produce employable design professionals. Graduates from these vocationally-minded schools often benefit from hands-on work experience and the chance to learn from older mentors within the field to learn design principles and problem-solving skills.

The desire of the student to specialize in a particular industry will quickly shorten their list of choices, as it follows that specialization in an industry drives specialization in higher education. I suggest that students serious about professional design careers investigate and interview professionals in the field they desire to enter to find out where those designers went to college. This is not a fail-safe system, but at least it will direct the serious young design prospect to key institutions.

Degrees

Students may earn a Certificate or Associates Degree at a smaller specialized institute or they may earn a BA, BFA, Masters or Doctorate in any of the following degrees: Arts, Applied Arts, Fine Arts, Science, or Applied Science at larger institutions.

Technically oriented career paths such as design will require the mastering of computer skills. Course offerings should include computer-aided design and drafting (CADD technology) and training in graphics software, art history, elective art courses to improve presentation skills, design project courses in specific disciplines (graphic, industrial, and other specific areas), design history, general history, writing, and important courses emphasizing design principles and problem solving. The humanities can help you find areas to work within (such as large institutions, government, corporate and business markets). Some highly specialized course offerings at the top schools can be automotive design, typography, print processes, all levels of fashion design, advertising design and presentation media.

After Graduation

Graduating students entering the job market should construct a portfolio, which is a highly edited personal package that visually states your strengths in your desired work area. The portfolio is always edited toward the convenience of the client/employer and not to show everything you've ever designed. Portfolios should show finished work and process work, and the interview is a place where you as a young designer can make an impression regarding your ability to work with others, follow directions, and keep an eye on the clock.

Young designers can often expect a period of apprenticeship where they work on presentation of others' ideas; frequently these are routine tasks under supervision of the design project managers. As designers become more experienced in their respective fields, they will decide to stay within a particular business and enjoy an increased amount of responsibility and challenge, or they will decide to strike out on their own as an independent.

What Kind of Design School Do You Want to Attend?

Large Colleges and Universities with Traditional 4-Year Programs

 

If you desire an education that encourages interaction with a variety of people and subjects in addition to design, and a range of degrees from the bachelor's level to the doctorate (Ph.D.) level, the university program is probably desired. Some very good departments are within the auspices of large universities, but often do not promote themselves as aggressively as schools specializing in design alone. Coursework at large schools emphasize the liberal arts outside of one's major field, typically in areas such as English, History, Humanities, and Science. The four-year program gives you the most freedom to focus later in your educational experience. You may get overwhelmed with design and switch majors!

Adaptability and many options are the benefits in this environment. The large resources of the endowments and monies at these institutions have caused a great deal of program improvements in these large, often state-supported schools, and tuitions are competitive especially for in-state students. The cost of new technology is often more easily assumed by these institutions as well.

Four-Year Design-Focused Schools

These schools offer intensive, studio-centered design instruction and theory with segments of liberal arts courses, granting degrees at the Bachelor's, Master's, or very occasionally the Doctorate level. All degrees offered are design-related and design career specific, and the required coursework outside of the studio design classes is more industry-centered.

These schools feature a career-oriented design focus with a few additional non-design course electives (writing, history, business, marketing, advertising) to broaden the young designers' perspectives. It is hard to change your major to something outside of design if this gets too overwhelming. You'll have to transfer if your needs are not being met. One advantage of these schools is that they are used to crafting curricula that mix a blend of full-time and part-time adjunct faculty providing a great range of practical and theoretical experiences for the student.

Vocational/Technical Colleges with Design Courses

A vocational/technical education is planned to teach you exactly what you need to know to get a job in a small segment of the design field, including programs in the applied arts, printing industries, and computer training.

These colleges and academies offer bachelor's, associate's degrees, certificates, and diplomas. Some may also offer master's degrees. Coursework stresses practicality and hands-on experience.

Employment networks are organized around these schools to help graduates find jobs after graduation.. If you have excellent drive, personal ability, and desire to self-teach, these schools can help you save money and complete satisfying career pathways in design.

Design Workshops, Trade Conventions & Special Design Programs

You can prosper from brief, intensive training in a desired subject or skill set by attending design workshops often publicized in trade publications or by mail that are offered in your preferred discipline.

Design schools, colleges with design programs, and other local trade associations like IDSA, GAG, and the AIGA (who often use universities and colleges as hosts) feature special programs bringing adults together to educate and congregate in design workshop settings that renew and update horizons in particular design trade segments.

Design workshops can focus training into a day or a series of days instead of taking the semester-length approach. Design students are often welcome at reduced cost. You may need to travel if there's nothing like this offered in your area, but this sort of design training can be well worth your while. You can also sign up for special design courses on a part-time and/or evening basis without enrolling in a design degree program.

  Source : Design Schools