Do You Need To Go To School To Be A Graphics Designer
So you may be thinking, do I really need to pay for an overpriced degree at a design school? Is the stuff I’m going to learn really going to help me & be relevant after the 3-4 year before i get to even use it? Does me getting a degree actually guaranty me a job in my field after I graduate? Do companies require a degree or is there something I can do to get around having to have the degree.
Well, if you look at the statistics you need it. 3% only have a high school diploma, They are not even listed for what their wage would be. A person with some college/associate degree on average only earn $46,544. The caveat with that is cities are more saturated with those salaries like New York, Boston, L.A., Seattle, Miami, and Washington D.C.. However, most of the largest cities have the large colleges with Bachelors degrees and are much more saturated within that field.
So do you really need to go to school to be a graphic designer? No but if you want to be a successful one then I have to say yes. At this point in time within the design industry you will almost always be passed over for someone with a degree. Why? Well, It’s risky to hire someone who isn’t trained. If they fail it costed the company time and money.
If you want the fastest route to a good paying job go get the degree. By the time you learn enough to get a entry level job someone who started the same time you did but when the route of getting a degree will already be more advanced and be promoted to a better pay before you.
Let me tell you a little about me. I did go the route that almost all professionals go. I graduated from a design school with a bachelors degree in Graphic Design. The one good thing was the professors. My first tip for you before going to a school is to ask what their professors do or did before teaching. If they are working or worked in the field they teach and were successful then it’s a good school. The professors I had provided a wealth of knowledge that they were happy to share with their students.
Where I learned the most though, and what most people in the industry will tell you, is on the job. I had only an 11 week class on photoshop but I use it everyday even now as a brand manager.
I have to do stuff as simple as change colors or create something from nothing. I spent years working with on it and watched every video I could find on YouTube of the latest tips, tricks, hacks. You don’t stop learning when you graduate you are just learning what your particular employer needs from you and those lessons are what will allow you to grow into new roles.
So that brings me to what is really important here. Is it the school? The physical degree? All those other “required” classes? No, it’s the knowledge passed on to you from someone who has actually been there doing what you want to do.
But Jeff I can’t afford to go to college for 3-4 years.
OK, lets say you just can’t go the route of getting a degree. Maybe you are your families provider and it’s not in your budget. You want to know how to get around going to school but still be a good designer.
You can learn programs on your own, on YouTube, or from people who use them. As long as you are disciplined and treat it as though you were in school. Programs and their functionality are really no different then musical instruments, video game controls, or driving. It’s something that takes time and practice to master. Like I said I only got 11 weeks in school and it wasn’t enough to go beyond a quick rundown of each tool in the program. I learn my of my skill from practice and experts on YouTube. I learned the most from FDZSCHOOL who’s has a background as a video game designer.
Now, design skills on the other hand are harder to learn online. You can do the same as how you learn programs but you don’t have that professional there to break you of your bad habits, correct you when something is wrong like your perspective is off, that color doesn’t go with that color, or just to teach you what you don’t know.
So how do you combat this? How do you learn from a professional without going to school. Well, I believe the professionals in the design industry needs to take over teaching the up and coming designers. Why should these schools, who basically except everyone regardless of if they have the skill set to even become designers, get paid to teach in a cookie cutter style. A one size fits all style. They shouldn’t do they really even care about the success of the designer as a person or just about the money they bring in? Where as, a professional is putting their name on you. They are saying “Yes, I mentored this person to the best of my ability” that is why they are so awesome. To me it just makes sense.
Ya jeff that sounds great but how? How can I get someone to take time out of their busy schedule and teach me? I’ll be honest, I don’t know the answer to that. I haven’t seen anything out there that will allow you to do that. BUT I do think it’s worth trying. Here are a few things you could try:
Work Small Jobs
Apply to small design related companies or boutiques as someone that does simple design and mock-up packages. I know one designer who has done that. He started out taking care of printing, mock-ups, simple engineer drawing changes, and doing minor office tasks. After a few year he was trusted with much more product illustration work and did a good job for someone who didn’t go to school for that.
Pay A Professional
Just like is sounds if you have the money pay someone, who has been in the industry you want to pursue, to teach you. If you can’t pay them ask them out for coffee to pick their brain. Ask some questions on how the industry works and if they know of anything that could help get you where you want to go.
Apprentice
This one will be the hardest to accomplish but the most beneficial. Finding a mentor that you can work for, get paid, and train to be a great designer will be by far the best way to succeed. It wont be easy to find them as you will have to find one that can afford to pay you or be willing to work with you on the side.
This is how it use to be. You use to be an apprentice learn from the masters and eventually go off on your own. I hope eventually we can get back to that. There is no reason schools should be so expensive when they teach you just the basics and nothing specific to your desired career path. Plus, you are playing for it dang near the rest of your life.
Learn Online
With education being so expensive, spending a $1000-$2000 on online courses could be what you really need. Make sure you do tons of research before paying any money. Look to see if people are happy with spending money for the course.
Let’s say you don’t want to spend any money on a course right away. You can learn the basics online. The hardest part is if you don’t have someone to critique your work who knows what to look for. For instance, if you are working on perspective drawing you wont know when you make a mistake like accidentally moving the perspective point half way through your drawing. You may be able to look at it and know something is wrong but you don’t know what.
Some basic skills you can learn online are:
- Typography
- Perspective Drawing
- Freehand Drawing
- Adobe Programs
- Color Theory
- Branding
- Hierarchy
- Space & Balance
These are just a few of the basics but a great place to start.
Learn From The Masters
What you can do is look up the best designers through history and learn what it is that made them so great. Look up everything you can for those pieces of artwork. Look up what it means and if the designer ever put out what their mindset was when they did that particular piece of work.
Create An Inspiration Board
You can do this one to help you see what the pros do, what they have in common, and to also see what is trending in design at the time. Let’s say you like ads, Collect all the advertisements you can lay them all out and see what they all have in common. Is it placement of information, is it similar layouts within an industry, maybe it’s same props within the photos, the same type treatments, colors, ect.
Practice Practice Practice
Find what you love in design. Maybe it’s logos, packaging, motion graphics, web design, advertisements, or maybe it’s product design. Whatever it is practice doing it. Design packages every chance you can. Learn about dielines and see how many you can come up with. Aim for 50 layout variations for one package. Find a product that is poorly packaged and work to improve it. Take a product and see home many different ways you could package it, try packaging it for a different department within the retail space. Try improving the way the call outs are done.
If you go the no school route know now that you will struggle. You will have to be disciplined like no other. You will have to work harder then those that go the route of getting a degree. You’ll find people that can’t fathom that someone has any skill without a degree. People may not give you a chance for that reason only. You won’t get the same pay as someone out of school when starting out.
