Designing Our Future
Posted by Jen Clark on 11th January 2010
One of the debates that has continually fascinated me in my time working in the Australian design sector to date, is that of the value of formal design education to one's career and the likelihood of success working in what is undoubtedly an increasingly competitive (and over-saturated) landscape.
As someone who has only recently embarked on a formal education (I never felt - and let's be honest - really wasn't ready to commence hard-core study until recently) I was formerly a staunch advocate for the non-traditional (that is, on-the-job based learning) pathway into a design career. To me, this had always seemed the best option - despite the actual reality of practical learning being fairly on par with a push into the deep end of the pool. Once you'd learnt to swim however you were able to adapt your skills to almost any situation, and were not sheltered from the ups, downs, politics, novelties, game-playing and perks that come with working in a fast-paced, ego-driven and often fragile corporate environment.
From the outside, it also seemed many tertiary institutions were simply behaving like number-crunching factories - accepting into their doors a set quota of students per year and relentlessly marketing to those groups of prospective students they considered most lucrative financially. Putting in place an innovative, quality-driven and flexible syllabus and attempting to make courses genuinely accessible to those students who may be culturally or economically disadvantaged seem(ed) a far off priority for many design schools. I therefore felt discouraged and demotivated to join the ranks of the student population.
That said, at 31 years of age I am now underaking a Master of Design (Graphic Communication) via distance education and really enjoying it. I have found the quality of feedback I've received from lecturers to be thorough and that a healthy and constructive dialogue exists between students. Those whom I am studying alongside seem motivated, enthusiastic and eager to learn. And although it's early days, I'm finding the course content to be relevant and interesting and have gained useful knowledge that can be applied in a practical sense from the subjects I've completed so far. So regardless of the degree costing me a small fortune, the going's pretty good.
Interestingly and timely enough, the Victorian Government body Design Victoria recently commissioned a report entitled 'Designing Our Future', which sought to examine the following:
- Quantity, quality and employability of design graduates
- Relevance of course content
- Opportunities for interdisciplinary design course work
- Course satisfaction levels among design students
- Standard of Victoria's design education compared with the world's best design institutions
Given my curiosity, I was very interested in reading about some of the conclusions that were drawn as a result. These were released in December, 2009 and included:
1. Despite a high satisfaction rating of courses by students themselves, design education falls short of the criteria that define the leading design schools around the world.
2. There is a need to provide design students with opportunities to engage across disciplines, particularly with business and commerce.
3. A range of deterrents to entering design exist, from course selection in VCE to lack of understanding of potential careers in the design industry.
4. There are a lack of partnerships between educational institutions and corporations with training and employment potential.
5. A significant proportion of educational institutions are already planning course improvements.
There were also many more detailed conclusions drawn in the formal report, some of which were surprising and some of which were in line with my initial expecations. I acknowledge that this report and its findings are limited/applicable to the Victorian population only however am fairly confident they would have some resonance the country over.
Following on from this, I'm really keen to hear the thoughts of those of you out there who have established a career in your chosen creative discipline - what was your background and how inter-related do you think formal design education and career success are (if they are at all)? Do you think it's down to the attitude to learning (whether this be classroom or workplace based) of the individual that determines success? Can design skills really be learnt in the absence of a formal educational framework? Over to you.
For more info go to http://designingourfuture.info
1. By Simon McIntyre on 11th January 2010 @ 5.01 PM
Hi Jen,
A good article, and one I also resonate with on many levels.
I got my Bachelors degree in Design, and worked as a graphic and interactive designer for many years. I found that while university gave me some good creative process skills, I was quite out of touch with the realities of the industries I was entering into.
I know for a fact that this is still the case with the particular degree I did, and in fact it is worse now. Many design skills are not being correctly taught in this undergraduate degree, and the students are emerging with a real lack of actual skill.
I am now an educator, and we are trying hard to revisit how education links to the industry we are preparing students for. I think we have made some good headway into this, but I also admit we have a ways to go. The key is to be open, listen to feedback from your students and from the industry, and not be afraid to admit when you have it wrong or when something needs to be changed.
With this in mind, we have developed a fully online Masters degree in Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design (cross-disciplinary - the ability to work creatively and collaboratively between different disciplines is also a vital part of contemporary creative practice I believe), and one of its core features in sharing of knowledge and skills between students - most of whom are already practicing in a variety of creative industries. If you're interested you can read more about it here: http://online.cofa.unsw.edu.au
We also involve practitioners from different creative fields from around the world in the learning process - having guest lectures, discussion and feedback from people out there who can tell it like it really is - to give students the chance to make connections between what they are learning, and how this really does benefit them in professional practice. We learn a great deal from this type of involvement as well, and try to adapt our teaching strategies to reflect the themes brought into the learning environment from the professional realm.
I'd be very interested to know what some of my students thought about this in relation to the points you raise, and to also hear from others about their experiences.
A good article, and I hope it raises some good discussion!
2. By Michael Bojkowski on 12th January 2010 @ 9.01 PM
Hi Jen
Ace article. I can't hope to comment on design education having graduated over 15 years ago now (and being out of the country for about 9 years of that) but I do often ponder, from an industry perspective, why Australian Graphic Designers have such a hard time selling the benefits of good graphic design to clients. If there was a way for students and the industries they hope to serve to be educated in the benefits of good graphic design at the same time that would be massively beneficial.
Courses that assume students arrive with a certain amount of knowledge and then enable them to go out and work on real live projects as soon as possible can only help. I've noticed this happens in the UK quite often. A lot of students arrive fully equipped and use being part of an institution as back up to being able to put their pre-existing ideas into action rather being molly coddled (that's an odd term isn't it? anyhow...) and told the 'correct way' to go about things.
3. By Jen Clark on 13th January 2010 @ 2.01 PM
Simon / Michael - thanks for your comments and feedback. I enjoyed reading both your responses.
One of the core themes here seems to be the lack of exposure to real-life occupational environments, and the ability of designers to successfully integrate and strive in a business context. Graduates in particular I have found come in to a new job all gung-ho as to how proficient and talented they are technically, yet seem to lack even the most basic communication or interpersonal skills. In my opinion possessing the ability to relate positively with those whom you work with and for is just as important (if not more so) than being able to deliver a crackerjack creative solution. Hence, on the points you have made, I couldn't agree with you more.
So what do you think could be some tangible ways for us to address this issue? I like the idea of a design degree consisting of a compulsory practical placement year in a studio / business, but this might not be feasible for a variety of reasons - particularly financially and logistics wise (ie: not enough studios to fulfill demand from educational institutions). Do you have any other ideas?