I got into school for graphic design.

July 28, 2008

That’s right, I’m school-bound once again. Two more years of weird sleep schedules, assignments, cliques, teachers, and too many people walking around in pajama-bottoms.

Joking aside, I’ve decided to go back to school for Graphic Design. Over the past two plus years, I’ve felt that though I’m reasonably good at programming, it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve had a good run at my current place of employment, but I feel that it’s just not the direction I want to go in the long-run. You see, as I worked along side everyone I constantly felt myself obsessing over certain points; namely UI design, usability, and common sense in design.

Designapalooza – Part Six

January 16, 2008

This is the sixth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

More learning

This is a continuation from the fifth portion, because had i combined them the article would never be read through fully. They’re long people, I can’t help that. Well yes I can, but I refuse to censor myself. Here I will continue to explain to the best of my ability questions that I had asked way back in the first part of this series. Let’s continue.

Designapalooza – Part Five

December 19, 2007

This is the fifth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Don’t Freak out.

Now for the section that makes or breaks a would-be designer. Realizing that you know nothing about design. Everyone hits this when they start, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Have you ever shown someone some of your work and when asked why you did what you did, you responded with something like “because it looks cool”? Believe it or not, this is not a valid explanation for artwork. Well okay, sometimes it is but most of the time, this is the stamp of an amateur, or someone who knows how to use a program.

Let me stress now that knowing how to use a program in no way dictates your understanding of design.

Designapalooza – Part Four

December 3, 2007

This is the fourth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Mess around.

In this section I’m going to be fairly resource-heavy, and hope that it helps some people out. When I say ‘Mess around’ what I mean is literally get your hands on some of the tools you know you’ll be using, and go to town. If you don’t know what tools you are going to be using, do some research. Check out those schools I talked about previously, and find out what software they’re going to be using. Dig around a little to see what others in the field tend to use. Since I’m trying to get into graphic design, I know that my primary tools will most likely consist of the Adobe family, though I will also give an honourable mention to 3Ds Max, Maya, and ArtRage 2 (if you want to have some really impressive paint effects).

Designapalooza – Part Three

November 26, 2007

This is the third part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Self-education in the workplace

I admit this part is properly inaccurately named, since it really bleeds into other posts that I will be making in the future. Therefore I shall clarify: this article relates to actions you can take to get yourself educated while you wait for your school of choice to accept you, job-wise.

Designapalooza – Part Two

November 23, 2007

This is the second part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Choosing a school

As stated, this is a difficult section to write because a lot of this comes down to the personal feelings of the person.. I’ll do my best, but in the end it is obviously up to you. Having said that, I will pass on my own thoughts on the subject, as they have been fresh in my head for a while now.

Designapalooza – Part One

November 21, 2007

Recently I’ve made it an active mission of mine to learn more about design. I’m not talking about what colours go well together, or what Web 2.0 looks like when dissected into XHTML valid bites. These are a part of design to be sure and things that should be given at least a passing thought, but not what I’m talking about. One of my life goals is to become an honest-to-God graphic designer. Anyone who has talked to me in the past year or so will tell you that this was something I’ve wanted to do. But going along with an earlier post I made, I’m trying to make it happen for myself. Hell, I will make it happen for myself. I’ve gone about this a couple ways, and I felt that I would share my scheming with the internet. Probably not my brightest idea, but whatever. I’m a fan of open information.