Like many designers of my generation, I’m mostly autodidact. In the early 2000s, I was part of a small group of people practicing interface customisation as a hobby. I attended two years of design school, but found it to be a poor place for me to grow.
At a certain stage in their careers, design educators who don't keep up with changes and trends may become disconnected with "the future." Some curricula also age out. It's great to understand design principles and introduce students to a variety of tools and such, but there's need to be able to direct students to remedial, additional, or supplemental resources and materials to help them chart their specific future path.
Glad you were able to find your path and follow it to where you are now an "educator" too. Within you well as you share you knowledge and inspire others.
Thank you Segun. Looking back at my experience then, I think multiple things were going on. There was surely some atrophy from it being run by older designers not specialising in visual design. The education wasn't educating people for the future, but rather more conservative positions in long standing fields (I'm sure these jobs still exists). I was also a young rebel with a selective and restless mind, so probably not the easiest of students 😅
I'm happy that I was able to find my way through it all anyways and humbled that other people can find inspiration or learning from some of the things I do today.
Thanks for sharing your story! I went to art school myself and found that it included a lot of things that didn’t interest me too. But it still had some value, I learnt how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. And it sparked an interest in design.
P.S. Your course sounds amazing, I definitely plan to check it out!
Thank you Heidi. I'm glad you had a better experience than me with art school. I have since spoken at a few schools (including the one that rejected me for my Masters Degrees 😂) and I think the field has improved vastly since the early 2000s.
At a certain stage in their careers, design educators who don't keep up with changes and trends may become disconnected with "the future." Some curricula also age out. It's great to understand design principles and introduce students to a variety of tools and such, but there's need to be able to direct students to remedial, additional, or supplemental resources and materials to help them chart their specific future path.
Glad you were able to find your path and follow it to where you are now an "educator" too. Within you well as you share you knowledge and inspire others.
Thank you Segun. Looking back at my experience then, I think multiple things were going on. There was surely some atrophy from it being run by older designers not specialising in visual design. The education wasn't educating people for the future, but rather more conservative positions in long standing fields (I'm sure these jobs still exists). I was also a young rebel with a selective and restless mind, so probably not the easiest of students 😅
I'm happy that I was able to find my way through it all anyways and humbled that other people can find inspiration or learning from some of the things I do today.
Thanks for sharing your story! I went to art school myself and found that it included a lot of things that didn’t interest me too. But it still had some value, I learnt how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. And it sparked an interest in design.
P.S. Your course sounds amazing, I definitely plan to check it out!
Thank you Heidi. I'm glad you had a better experience than me with art school. I have since spoken at a few schools (including the one that rejected me for my Masters Degrees 😂) and I think the field has improved vastly since the early 2000s.