What to expect when starting Art school

When I first started art school I had no idea what to expect. You may think that you will spend all day drawing and etc. But in actuality it will be the total opposite. Because you have to learn the process with how designing, illustrating, web design and etc goes from beginning to end.

Then after learning the basics and moving to more advanced classes the workload can seem to overload your brain. When you have projects that will seem to be insanely huge the best thing to do is to work your ass off and get them done ahead of time. Because the worst thing is to be finished with a project the day before and have to get it printed that night. So have the project completed to the best of your ability the at least 2 to 3 days before.

Doing what the project requires or blatantly ripping off an idea that you seen someone else do is not allowed whether in school or in the real world. You may get away with it in the real world but eventually you’ll get caught and the same goes with art school.

Partying or designing can be a tuff decision to make. Simply because your in college and you feel that’s what college should be about having fun and whatever else you can think of. But the main thing to remember while your going to parties, skipping class and not doing your school work your paying for it. The professors are going to get paid regardless if you show up or not.

So with that all said remember

1. Go to class

2. Do your work

3. Partying is only temporary your future is more important

4. This is not high school

5. Being the class clown in college nobody really cares

6. People actually want to learn in class

7. Your paying for this class so go and get your education

8. If this was easy everybody could do it

9. Remember sacrifice a good time now for a great time later

10. Leave your ego and whatever you feel your entitled too at home nobody knows of you yet

11. Have fun with this and love it

To Go to Art School Or Not?

I used to have the mentality that going to art school was a waste of time. When actually depending on your level of skill already it may not be. The reason that I chose to go back and finish is because of what I learned from Robert Greene’s Book called Mastery.

Then you have to think about how quickly you will learn on your own compared to learning in a classroom. I’m not saying learning on your own is bad. Because I am constantly teaching myself things and learning on my own. For example being self taught in learning spanish and learning from doing so many design tutorials.

You can learn the technical side of how the programs work in school. I remember when I first started my journey into design I was more of a technical type of designer knowing how to use the programs swiftly. Then after I was told the programs will not help you design better.

I will leave you with this quote from John Cleese

Teaching creativity easy being creative is whats hard.

Learn from those who have came before you and how they developed their skills and etc.

Learning is in the Process

At first this was something I never quite understood involving design. When I watched the Eames documentary the architect and the painter I was exposed to it. Because sitting in class in art school you feel as if learning comes from a teacher and not the process.

This is also in relation to learning how to play sports. Not saying that you cannot learn from books but the real learning comes from doing. Nowadays there is unbelievable amounts of free information on whatever subject you want to learn. Because if you want to learn something you have to be willing to go through the process of failing until you become good at it.

In the process of designing you start sketching and then after your done sketching you move to the computer. While working on the computer you see what is working and what is not working. Those moments are where the real learning is taking place in being a designer.

Remember

Art resides in the quality of doing, process is not magic. – Charles Eames

How to Believe in and appreciate your design work

When I first started learning about design I honestly had no clue what I was doing. I knew the technical side of things but I did not understand the thinking. Which started to frustrate me day after day. Attending art school you can start to become jealous of others who get praise for their work when you’ve spent hours upon hours on your work and receive little or no praise.

I learned from Debbie Millman to be prepared for what could happen if a client or someone does not like any of the work you’d do for them. Also to just shut up and listen to what they have to say regardless if you agree with them or not. Because people who hire us to do design they do not understand design. So always try to remember what it was like before you learned what you know about design.

This video will symbolize what every creative person will go through in their career. I went through a period of doing crappy work and I am still working to get better. I am working every single day to get better as a designer. I learned awhile ago of the formula “work 10,000 hours to become an expert”. So if you do a little designing everyday just think of how much better you’d be. It does not mean that you will have to sit at a computer screen it can be photography,sketching,video just something creative. But none of this will matter unless you want to become better then you are currently. So in order to appreciate your work remember that everyone starts out doing crappy work and they work everyday to get better. One thing I will continue to do is to keep my old design work to look back on and reflect to see how much I have improved.