8 Things I’ve learned from going back to school

December 18, 2008

So a while back I mentioned going back to school. In fact, I even recall writing a collection of articles all about the subject. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in my twitter (or at the very least, bitched about it). Well unlike the real world, College gives you large, void-filled breaks between semesters. This allows people like me ample time to run out of excuses for things we should have either done, or been doing during the academic time frame.

In my case this revolves around:

  • My portfolio
  • Posts with real content
  • Reading books
  • Spending time with Theresa while she is down from that god-forsaken place North Bay.
  • Aimlessly trying to catch up on my games

Now since only a couple of those are actually proactive (I’ll leave you to decide which) I have to pick and choose what and when I do these things. What is the result? Well to give you a glimpse, it’s almost 2 AM as of the start of this post. This is after I applied to many, many bursaries through my school. Who knew that working two jobs wouldn’t be enough to actually stay out of debt? Guess I’ll have to get some more!

My financial woes are not what I plan to talk about today though. I plan to talk about what I can take away from my first semester.

Okay, technically this would be my seventh semester if you are counting the six from the last time I was in school. That is also part of this so read on!

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.