Short answer? Yes, it is.

Long answer? Not every school is the right fit for every student. Some people will become great designers without having set foot in a design school Others would fair better at one school, rather than an other. Since you are only in your Sophomore year, perhaps it is not too late to transfer to another institution, if you feel like you'd like more intellectual challenges and/or student–teacher interaction.

You really only get better through practice and curiosity. What the school offers you is a potential social network and access to a variety of expensive programs and other tools. In between the assignments, exploit this access as much as you can while you still don't have to buy the software yourself at the prices designed for businesses. College is an environment in which to tinker with lots of different stuff at low risk. Occasionally, you might even learn something useful from one of your teachers, but don't count on it. The social network will be more significant.

The key: Do whatever you can to get work in the field before you graduate. Because when you graduate, you'll be competing with everybody who graduated at the same time as you for the same few jobs. And not long after you graduate, your diploma will be worth jack diddly zero.

I recognize a lot of what you're saying from my time in Design School(s). I too used to look at school assignments in comparison to 'real work': thing is that school isn't the real thing. Be glad, because this way you can experiment a way thats not always possible in 'the real world'.

Furthermore, school is about discovering and enriching yourself by learning from teachers, other students and so on. If you feel there's a gap between your wishes and the curriculum, maybe take it up with that one "good" teacher. Maybe he can help you with either a switch or an extended curriculum?

In the end, for me, it was worth the while. Too bad i'm not in school any more...
Best of Luck, Marco

Somebody once said that education is the lighting of a fire not the filling of a pail. As others have said stay in school and make the most of it - you earn a degree - it is not given to you. I still remember some of the worst teachers I had as they taught me what not to do.

I hate Design school. I love Design School.

Depends on which day it is. Im a super senior at the Academy of Art in SF. I strted out going to class first semester and liking the new approach (studied journalism and communication at the Univ. of Arizona (getting the college part done) I now take all of my classes online because like you, the phyiscal calss was piss poor and a waste of my time. I now get to live in my dream town and finish theremainder of my degree online whilsst also balancing a heavy freelance schedule as well as working fulll time as a web designer.

Stick with it, it sucks but hopefully if design is for you, you will develop a neverending fondness and passion for it that wil compel you through the darkest or hardest of times as a student.

I have Marc English as a teaceher (marcenglishdesign.com) and hes the biggest hard ass in the world. He's inspired and push me beyond my limits and patience and its been great. It takes a few great teachers to help you along the path. Ive found that the harder the cclass the better your work, and the better you become.

My opinion of school here is lame, It's way to expensive, no one can afford it, but if we want to do anything with our lives (for the most part) we have to get a degree. So get one. My girlfriend went to school for 8 years paying for it her self, shes noow a massage therapist, atheltic trainer, and phyiscal therapist with a doctorate. She'll be paying off her school for the next additional 40 or so years. Drives us both nuts.

Enough rambling, time to get back to work.

Hang in there, its worth it in the very long run.

A. You are a sophomore and have much to learn. Sophomore projects tend to be less real-world. It is like learning the alphabet before you learn to write.

B. You are not a child anymore. Don't wait for things to be handed to you. Take the initiative and meet people and learn things which will help fulfill you.

C. Sometimes certain classes or teachers just suck. Again be a grownup and make something out of it. Learning initiative is a big part of success in the real work world. The spoonfeeding and nurtchering you had earlier is history. Make it happen for yourself. After you graduate, there will be no ne but yourself to rely on.

D. It is worth it yes but, like Dan says, if that school does not work for you, go elsewhere but don't just sit and wait, go for it.

ChrisL

I'm going through the same issues with my design school, and so are a lot of other design students across the country. This came up a few issues back in Comm Arts; design schools are teaching curricula invented for the mid-twentieth century, but it's 2007. From the conversations I've had with design teachers about this I know that they are aware of the problem, but most of them don't know how to get past it. They don't understand that the new generation of designers really don't need a month or two and fifty revisions of sketches just to design a book cover.

There are some younger teachers who get it, teachers who came of age when Postmodernism was exploding, but it's going to be another decade or two until they're deciding how design schools function. Until then, design students just have to suck it up, learn what we can while in school, and then move on with our lives. The important thing to remember is that there is still a universal method of dealing with the problem: everybody needs to get together a couple times a month to drink beer, eat pizza, and kvetch.

There is a big difference between learning to design a cover and learning to explore design problems. This has nothing to do with when you were trained or PoMo. Students tend to be impatient and think the first thing they come up with is always great. This is the only time in your life you will get to explore a design problem from many perspectives, enjoy it while it lasts. Real-world clients are going to make your teachers look like pussycats. Design is work. Beer and pizza are something else.

ChrisL

design schools are teaching curricula invented for the mid-twentieth century, but it’s 2007 … They don’t understand that the new generation of designers really don’t need a month or two and fifty revisions of sketches just to design a book cover.

Sorry. What the design school is actually doing (or at least trying to do) is not trying to teach you to design a book cover, or anything else specific. Instead they are trying to teach you to see differently, to be creative, and to think in a problem-solving manner. College is not about job training. Your career will far outlive any technical specifics that you will learn in college… most of us will be working for several decades. A 21-year old graduating in the USA in 2007 will probably have to spend the next 50 years working before he'll be able to retire. The creativity will stay with him much longer than whatever multimedia gimmick he had to learn for one class or the other.

"Merriam Webster:
Main Entry: soph·o·mor·ic
Pronunciation: "säf-'mOr-ik, -'mor-, -'mär- also "sof- or "sä-f&- or "so-f&-
Function: adjective
Date: 1813
1 : conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature
2 : of, relating to, or characteristic of a sophomore --a sophomoric prank

American Herritage:
ADJECTIVE: 1. Of or characteristic of a sophomore. 2. Exhibiting great immaturity and lack of judgment: sophomoric behavior.

Sophomoric reasoning

Sophomoric reasoning is rationalizing about what one understands poorly. It's often apologetics (starting with a conclusion). Though not highly regarded, it's superior to parroting aphorisms.

If one's understanding is below freshman level, sophomoric reasoning may seem a desirable achievement. Nonetheless it shouldn't be regarded as an educational achievement.

Among certain groups it masquerades as "critical thinking".

Dictionary.com:
2. suggestive of or resembling the traditional sophomore; intellectually pretentious, overconfident, conceited, etc., but immature: sophomoric questions."

ChrisL

What the design school is actually doing (or at least trying to do) is not trying to teach you to design a book cover, or anything else specific. Instead they are trying to teach you to see differently, to be creative, and to think in a problem-solving manner.

Yes, but technology allows us to approach problems in very different ways than Gropius and Co. could when they developed the basics of contemporary design education. Artists before them didn't have things like reams of cheap tracing paper, light tables, graphite pencils or synthetic erases, and they worked differently. The world changes, people think differently, and have new options available to think with. That's why design education needs a swift kick in the butt.

It's good to learn them too, though. When I was in design school in NYC, the only "drafting" we did was on a table, with a T-square, a wonderful mechanical pencil with big leads, and a funky sharpener.

Architecture schools gloss over that now, and presume everyone knows AutoCAD and will take rough sketches straight to a computer, which is fine, except that doing it the old way sure gives you an advantage in thinking about how things actually go together.

Quick example: a surveyor friend of mine was laying out some roads in a new subdivision when the developer's plans changed and an extra entry from an existing road was drawn in by someone back in the office on a computer.

Now, while it was easy enough to put the nice radially curved bit of roadway in on the computer to link the two, once they tried to do it out in the field, it was a joke: the roadbed only ran 20 feet and the curve had a 4-mile radius. Needless to say, they made it straight in the field. :-)

If the designer had learned on paper, it would have never happened.....

JPad,
It is not about technique, nor technology nor, lead pencils, it is about thinking. A slick technique can get in the way of open thought. Whatever technique or tool you learn now will be obsolete in a few years and you will have to pick up the new ones on the fly. You have a few short years to excersize your brain and uncover some problemsolving ability before you are thrown into the cruel cold world. Learn to use your mind now, the technique is the easy part--way easier than what it was a few years back. Don't lock yourself into slick. Slick hides fundamental failings. Learn to see first. That will never go out of style. Yes, it is much harder than just cranking out slick software tricks.

ChrisL

School is not a place where you go get an injection of knowledge or a fast-food pickup window. Do the work, crack a sweat, learn something. Cliffnotes leaves stuff out.

ChrisL

Find a better school - really. One that fits what you want to do. If it feels like a waste of money then it's because it is.

I thought the same way most of the time I was in school, and it wasn't until I was out and using that "little" knowledge in real world situations.

Honestly, you'll NEED the degree to get a decent career, but I'm not surprised you don't feel as if you're EARNING it. Don't be afraid to ask for a challenged. Approach your professor and demand a project that's rooted in real world applications. Trust me, it's better to make the mistakes in college than suffer them when the client/art director is breathing down your neck. Join design oriented clubs, like a literary magazine. Scourer the campus for freelance jobs.

If you aren't getting the education in class, you'll have to get it somewhere else. Even more so, if you quit school.

P.S. If you can, get into an Internship. I missed this opportunity and I've kicked myself ever since.

Chris, I was counting on you to add that it might be more than the design schools that need a swift kick in the butt!

Others have already said it above, but I too think school is worth finishing. It's a luxury to be able to approach a problem the way it's done in school, and you will miss that once you've graduated and have a "real world" job.

And as others have said, technology is no replacement for learning how to think like a designer, or being able to express an idea with pencil and paper. Technology is just a tool we use to express an idea in the most appropriate way, but there has to be an idea there to begin with. That's where school comes in: ideally it will show you how to think AND how to use the tools of the trade... But like many other things, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. Take advantage of your school's library, start a student magazine with like-minded classmates, participate in class, question your thinking when you are working on an assignment, question your professors -- if they are good, they will be more than happy for your active participation and curiosity. Don't expect everything to be handed to you.

ChrisL

Make a poster with Wolfgang Weingart's AIGA 2002 report and put it up for the class discussion.

It’s a luxury to be able to approach a problem the way it’s done in school, and you will miss that once you’ve graduated and have a “real world” job.

If that's the case I'll be ditching design for law school.

Learn to see first. You da bomb Dezcom!

supermanism - push those exercises and small projects to a point where you can demonstrate a clear understanding of the techniques - and then push them further into your own style. In short - develope your own voice in design. Don't just do the exerices - speak them right back at the prof through your own designs.

Kick it!!

And if you have time on your hands, I suggest you go seek out those 'design professionals' in NYC who are laying it down and hang out in their offices/studios. Bring them a bottle of single malt - that'll get you off on a good foot :)

Above all - learn humilty and respect. Don't take sh*t from anyone - and don't blindly believe in anyone either. Just because someone has a 'name' - that don't mean sh*t. Question what they're saying and how they're saying it!

Put those lessons to good use and develope a solid foundation.

I'm beginning to ramble...

__________
Hiro

jpad, when I was in school a lot of people used to complain that our university's approach was too theoretical -- which was true, but on the other hand we learned how to think, and we had time to work on design problems, make mistakes, see what our classmates came up with, pick our professors' brains -- all the stuff that Marco, Dezcom, Dan et al were talking about above. That's what I mean by luxury. You won't get that at work. Also, once you hit the street, you don't always have a chance at design work (as opposed to production work). Or, if you get design work, you have to arrive at compromise solutions. Believe me, at those times you will appreciate having gone to school.

The agony of being a student will never outweigh the agony of job-hunting without a degree. I know this is little comfort now, but it's better to suffer now than to starve later.

Carl – lots of good advice here. But who is your student/class rep? And have you made your views known to them? Lecturers showing up late to class is something you have every right to complain about – but your school administration won't fix a problem that they don't know exists...

I was quite ambivalent about the degree course I took; so much so that I took a year's leave of study in the middle of it. When I went back I had a handle on some of the real-world stuff and it helped.

While I'd be the first to argue that there simply isn't enough industrial-strength software tuition on the majority of today's design education programmes (which incidentally is why I also argue for internships and apprenticeships), the computer screen is a rotten place to make design decisions – and that's what the class discussions and reflexive thinking and critiques are for.

I notice that this thread has (so far) no input from Satya or any of the other students at NID. Guess they're all too busy working...

Carl and James, from the few years I have been out of school (3) I have learned that the most valuable asset a designer can have is the hability to envision. Envisioning implies understanding a problem, thinking a creative (original and effective) way to solve it and planning it's realization.

This means that it is more important to know what has to be done than being able to do it (specially if you don't know what to do). The highest design positions are focused on envisioning and directing the creative work of others. Those with only the ability to make the tricks get to be production artists.

Design education will try to teach you how to envision but also will give you other valuable tools such as a title, communication theory, semiotics, history classes, marketing understanding, technical training, social networking, production experience and a program to grow by an adequate path (not in a chaothic and crippled way).

Don't expect fast outcome, take the time needed to train you for a lifelong career. I passed the first year of design school drawing models, taking art history courses, doing color charts, line grids and abstract excercises. It was until the second year that we were able to tackle some "real life" design projects and made corporate identity until the last semester (out of 8). Otherwise it's like entering the karate class and wanting to do the ninja stuff on the first month.

If you can afford it I would recommend design school, if not I would recommend trying to follow the program by your own. As said above if your current school doesn't fulfill you change it, you are grown up.

Héctor

Ironically, I found this article linked from an Industrial Design site my brother turned me onto that speaks to this issue in a unique way . . . Article Here

Stuart :D

PS: A satisfied graduate of the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale with my AS in Visual Communications

The question of quality of the instruction is an important issue. And I cannot address the question of the quality of design schools in general, nor of course of 'supermanism's school in particular.

However, as a former college teacher I can speak to the other half of the equation: student's role in his or her own education.

The students I enjoyed most were those who had been out in the world of work and returned for further education. They had these characteristics:

1. They knew why they were studying. They didn't just drift into studies for lack of another option, but had a goal.

2. They were willing to challenge the teachers, including me. When I say challenge, I mean regularly ask thoughtful questions, including asking what is the benefit of studying what you are studying. I don't mean to do this in an angry or impertinent way, but rather in expectation that there is an answer, and you want to learn it.

3. They know that the teachers are working for them. They are paying the bill, and they seek out instruction. If one teacher is not the best in something they want to learn, they find another. If that person is not in their school, they will go to a person in another place--school or private sector--for supplement, or change schools.

In sum returning students tend not to whine about their education, but to seek out excellence in instruction or go elsewhere. This quality of initiative, rather than passivity, is one of the best things a student can have to get the most out of school.

im a first year student of graphic design(undergrad) at NID(yay ben, the nidian has arrived!). Although, a lot of times i do feel like im not doing much, i actually am. NID is the only place ill ever get to freak out on stuff without having to worry about clients and deadlines and stuff. And its the only place where i can have access to the amount of resources that i have at my disposal now.
If you feel your faculty is inadequate or that the course isnt happening in the way it needs to, raise the isssue with the admin or whoever is incharge. Also, you need to take self-initiative if you want to do challenging work. Its easy to finish any assignment nowadays by just sitting on the comp. Google and the neccessary software take care of that. I may be a graphic design student, but i so wish that my skills were as good as my batchmates in animation.
In the end, the "real world" is going to be flooded with designers. Where you stand in relation to them matters. And that is solely upto you.

Shreyas

Short answer - yes? YES
You can learn a lot from design school - and that is good news, considering there aren't any apprenticeship programs up and about anymore... Learning from a master or masters -- is an experience for real world work - and one not offered by University.

However, what is available to you, even at NY School of Design -- is the networking and contacts you are making. Those will prove invaluable to you in your future endeavors. A professor who takes a shine to your work can help you into your first entry level position. A classmate who does well, may consider recommending you at a future date for a position in a great company.

You are only this age once in your life. Make the most of it. Learn, enjoy -- and then make lots of money (good investments) so that when you look back you can see it was all worth it.

Have a great life.

Yes, it is. I haven't had tons of success as a designer (I'm a recent grad) but I believe the whole experience bettered me. Among other things it definitely helped me understand creativity and the difference between something working and liking the way something looks.

I want to echo that if you can start networking now DO IT. If you can get freelance jobs or an internship DO IT. If you can challenge your teacher, your peers and yourself DO IT.

Wait, was that just a Nike campaign?

i guess you probably won't know the real answer to that question for years. but by then, i'm betting the answer will most likely be "yes," although it may not seem like it right now.
i can only say that just about every experience has been informative, and it sometimes takes a distance to see just what the lesson was.
when i look back to my education, there were many times i felt like i was spinning my wheels, but if someone offered to turn back the clock and take the experience away, i'd tell them to take a hike.

Our formal education is only half of our education. When at last you can readily identify lachrymal terminals and you subsequently take a postion inside an organization, you will shortly learn that handling yourself at meetings, building alliances, gossiping, strategic work-avoidance, blame-shifting, credit-stealing and showboating will serve your career as much as, if not more than, any carefully cultivated individual talent. These are skills too, and if you don't get good at deploying them with a deft politcal touch you will certainly lose your job to somebody who is. Deserving's got nothing to do with it. And that's not exactly a motto for higher education.

Design is very much a learn-as-you-go craft. But it's tough to even get started without connections and credentials. Every prospective employer/client you will ever have will want to minimize all risk to thier bank account and reputation, and recommendations and credentials are a cool hand on their fevered brow. You can be a genius or you can be a mile wide and an inch deep, but you will certainly out-compete those poor bastards who have nothing but their talent to recommend them. In the early stages, the statistical symbols of accomplishment—degrees, awards, association memberships, testimonials—are an indestructible advantage. In the later stages they serve as evidence of meritorious achievement. Either way, you have to have them or nobody knows what to make of you.

Carl, it is entirely up to you to set the limits of what you are capable when you are in Design School. If you feel that the classes you attend are not challenging enough, start your own projects; create a magazine, learn how to use a press and make posters, start a collective, design a typeface, learn a new skill, create something that will be of use once you leave school. If a professor gives you an assignment to design a logo, go ahead do the entire brand.
Get the idea?
Look, there will always be issues with the institution you attend, and its curricula; it is also up to you how to address those issues. Maybe there is an awareness campaign that needs to be done. Look at everything as an opportunity for you to shine. Believe it or not you are being watched closely by your peers and professors. They are your first network in your career, so go ahead and impress the hell out of them.
Best
Alejandro Chavetta

while connections, contacts and networking are important (and will remain important the rest of your career), it's kinda sad to hear that that's what so many design students are citing as the highlight of their education.
i could get very preachy here, but i won't. preachy about students, about instructors, about the field in general, and preachy about the trend toward expectations of immediate payoffs. believe me, i could preach.
instead, i'll say that education (even mediocre education, i hope) is a process of sowing seeds. some fruit may come early, but the bulk of it is later in the season.
i'm myself a professor of graphic design. one of the coolest things i can think of is when a former student calls back a year, two, three later to tell me of the epiphany.
all you kids out there -- stay in school.

Jackie's advice is excellent no matter what your degree course. There is no underestimating the value of networking. Who you know is often as important as what you know. Look at the career of Julius Shulman.