Grad school is most important if you ever plan to teach at a university. Most design jobs are gained by portfolio and interview. Grad school does get you connected to many more people in the field and increases the odds of you knowing someone who knows about an opening. If you are planning to be a type designer, the University of Reading in the UK offers an outstanding one year graduate program in type design.

ChrisL

I’m with Chris. Grad is only necessary if you a) want to teach at college level and higher (and some college’s don’t require a grad degree), or b) if the program is going to teach you something you won’t be able to pick up working (unlikely unless there is some star faculty at the school).

What about C) Simply want to enrich and/or stretch yourself more than you might be able to if you were working full-time.

I don’t find grad school enriching (I’m currently taking a Masters, but not in design).

Well, grad school was enriching for me and it stretched me too. I might never formally teach (again), but I am certainly better for having taken a year away from the grind.

I am all for enrichment. My comments were pointed towards the employment value. There is no question that intelectually, you would have more growth in grad school than not. There is a great value in education for its own sake.

ChrisL

Some more thoughts (personally I basically agree with Don)

http://www.typophile.com/node/17303
http://www.typophile.com/node/30313
http://www.typophile.com/node/4070
http://www.typophile.com/node/19332
http://www.typophile.com/node/1930

I’ll second tiff’s comments. There is an opportunity in doing grad studies (design or otherwise) to really indulge an area of interest — in a way that you might otherwise not be able to while working. If you’re looking for skills or credentials though, the experience will probably be a bit thin. As with any level of education, you’ll take from it what you put in.

I’m just finishing a masters, and think it was the best choice i could have made. That said, it also marks a rather significant career change for me, so that might be clouding my judgement. ;)

From what I’ve seen from the outside looking in is that grad school for graphic design is all about theory with very little practical application. I’ve seen very few examples of anyone using anything they’ve learned or achieved in grad school being applied to anything other than teaching. Am I wrong about these observations?

I didn’t attend graduate school but as an art director had ample opportunity to review portfolios of graduate students and I agree heartily with what Dan said above. I got really tired of seeing die-cut, 6-color, metallic, 5 kinds of paper thesis projects that no client in their right mind would ever let you do. I don’t disparage the theoretical education these students received, but in terms of preparation for a career in graphic design... not so much.

I guess the question is, is going to grad school for design the equivalent of trade school (such as med school or architecture school) or is it more like an MFA in painting, about education for education’s sake and/or preparation for a career in academia?

Personally, I think it’s a waste of money and potentially can teach you some things you will need to un-learn later on...

Right now the possibility of getting into a good grad school is the only reason I’m even finishing my BFA. I’m not sure if that helps you much, but why not.

I got really tired of seeing die-cut, 6-color, metallic, 5 kinds of paper thesis projects that no client in their right mind would ever let you do.

On a not-to-related note, does anyone else out there think that sometimes design education focuses too much on producing awesome portfolio pieces and not enough on stretching yourself? I’m amazed at how often I have to justify my desire to do something I haven’t got a clue how to pull off as opposed to just producing another crazy design project.

>producing awesome portfolio pieces and…stretching yourself?

Wait, isn’t that supposed to be the same thing? I mean, whenever I worked hard to produce what I considered an “awesome” piece, I know that I was stretching myself and my capabilities, as well as working a lot!

>I’m amazed at how often I have to justify my desire to do something I haven’t got a clue how to pull off as opposed to just producing another crazy design project.

Again, I think that crazy design projects come about most often when you pull off something you haven’t got a clue about what you’re doing.

“I got really tired of seeing die-cut, 6-color, metallic, 5 kinds of paper thesis projects that no client in their right mind would ever let you do.”

I have not seen this phenomenon with grad school portfolios in my 45 years of working in the field. I have seen it, much, much, more with people who have just had either a vocational school education or just a bunch of software courses and are trying to show every technique that software has to offer. The real wiz-bangy stuff is usually a coverup for the person who can’t problem-solve. Grad school people tend to be more big-picture and system oriented and have marketing and communications theory and research to help them communicate verbally with clients in a problem solving way. This kind of skill is less needed in a straight design job where the person just does book jackets all day. It is more suited for corporate identity work where a system of products is developed in a coordinated way that is purposively focused on customer groups.

ChrisL

Wait, isn’t that supposed to be the same thing? I mean, whenever I worked hard to produce what I considered an “awesome” piece, I know that I was stretching myself and my capabilities, as well as working a lot!

Trying something new and really pulling of something awesome doesn’t always happen the first time. Especially when one is trying to learn the ins and outs of typography—learning to manage all those little details don’t come quickly. Sometimes I feel like design students are being pushed to do works that can be passed off as high-concept, expressive, or wildly creative because it can distract from weaknesses elsewhere. I get a lot more out of my work by trying to really learn something while I work on it during a semester, but it often only reaches the level of impressive afterward, when I dig it out again, have it critiqued by people I did not go to school with, and push it farther.

Then again, it might be that I just worry too much about details that an undergraduate student shouldn’t be focusing on anyway.

It might be beneficial to step back and remember the point of conferring these degrees. A Bachelor’s degree conferred means that the recipient is supposed to be expected to be able to perform tasks as a designer independently. A Master’s degree should mean that the recipient is a master of a certain subject, probably the area of design in which his thesis was undertaken. Masters should be able to be expected to contribute to the greater dialogue of the field, and also to move the field forward a bit. A Doctorate is conferred after one has taken independent research or has researched a topic in depth and contributed new points of view to dialogue. A doctoral recipient is required to move the dialogue of his field forward. There are not that many doctoral programs in design, so it might be best to leave that aside for now.

My experience as a designer (a student at four universities in three countries on two continents, and as a professional designer who has also conducted interviews for three separate employers) does not align with Patty’s. In fact, I agree most whole-heartedly with Chris.

But Patty’s experience must be genuine as well. Unfortuantely, not all schools, teachers, and institutions are created equally. Some degree-holding people are just not going to be very good. Sometimes, this is their own fault, and sometimes it is not. However, there are a lot of schools around the globe that do manage to graduate good students who have done excellent work for great reasons. Someday Patty, I hope you’ll meet more of these people.

On the other hand, a little bit of “glitz and glamour” is not totally inappropriate for projects grad. stduents have done. They are expected to show mastery of their field. That they can manage four-color processing and normal print jobs should go without saying. They have to be able to do more than that.

Graduate schools have had a profound impact on global design trends. The graphic design world of the early 1980s was in large part shaped by the work of designers who had studied in graduate programs at Yale and Basel. In the early 1990s, Cranbrook changed alot of things in graphic design, whether you agree with these changes or not.

One does not need a degree in graphic to practice at all, much less practice well, and Patty, I think that this might be a bit of the reason that you don’t like design schools. They are establishments that tend to promote and institutionalise themselves. But we all know that your work is excellent! You needn’t fear the output of any school

What graduate schools can be exceptionally good at is exposing people to a lot of things really quickly. If someone would take a year off from work, they might be able to expose themselves to almost as much, too. But it’d take more work. If you don’t take a year or two off from work, you can still expose yourself to most of these things and learn them, too… but it might take upwards of five to ten years. I think that the money is worth its value in time saved… but that is only my opinion.

But we all know that your work is excellent! You needn’t fear the output of any school

Thanks! But I don’t fear the output. I just haven’t been all that impressed by it. And feel that academia tends to promote a certain hermetic quality, Cranbrook being a prime example. No offense to Cranbrook or its graduates, but the designs I see from them tends to favor theory over practicality. They need explaining. This may play well among the higher circles of design - and win awards and kudos from the AIGA - but in the real world of design I often find it labored. (I should add here that I wrote this last paragraph before I noticed that Dan mentioned Cranbrook as a positive example in his post above). I guess I don’t disagree with Dan in the fundamentals of what he says, but I have a different take on it.

Design needs all types - theoreticians and practicians. Both move the field along. I would never tell someone not to go to grad school if that’s what they want to do, but I still can’t help questioning the wisdom of spending the money and time if what you really want is to work in the field. It seems like a bit of a racket to me.

I was also lucky in that my first boss was a truly excellent teacher and guide.

I don’t know if I’d list Cranbrook as a positive example. But I do think that it is an example of where a specific program really did have quite an affect on graphic design everywhere, and the dialogue around design. But it was a short-lived thing in the grand scheme of things, I think. Maybe some Cranbrookers would like to debate me on that, though ;-)

Also, it is not just an issue of “should” someone attend grad school but “when” is the most beneficial time. I went to grad school 9 years after undergrad. I feel that it is best to get a bit grounded in your field with a few years experience before going back to school. If all you have known in your life is college, you are more likely to see things only in an academic way. I felt that I was able to bring more to grad school and get more out of it because I had 9 years of work experience to open me to real world conditions. There is no hard and fast rule for everyone or every school. Working for decades has its downside too. Sometimes it can be refreshing and rejuvenating to take a long break and revisit your profession in a school which is a good fit for you.

ChrisL

I will just note that there is a big difference between grad school for graphic design and grad school for type design (such as the Reading or KBK programs).

In the latter, there probably isn’t anything you couldn’t learn other ways, but I am pretty sure you’ll learn plenty of valuable stuff in the program, and very probably much more quickly than trying to do it on your own. I suspect a student is also a lot less likely to come out with odd “holes” in your overall knowledge and understanding of type design and production than if they tried to do it on their own.

Cheers,

T

Well put, Chris. I agree that working for a few years is the best start and you’ll have a much better idea of whether you should consider grad school. You may find that your career has taken off and you don’t feel you need it; on the other hand, if your job(s) isn’t providing the growth or stimulation you crave or pushing you in the right direction, think about going for your masters degree.

I think Chris is making good points about the topic. The one thing I have to concede that graduate degrees can accomplish is developing the ability to write in depth about the subject.

I also agree entirely with the notion that people should work in the field for years before going back to school for a post-graduate degree. My only knowledge is based on my limited exposure here in the US, but it’s very common for students to go directly from undergraduate school to graduate school and right into teaching without ever having to know anything practical about how graphic design works in the real world. An irony I see at the schools in my area is that the best and most passionate teachers in the universities are the professionals who only teach part-time, not the full-time professors.

Institutional credentials are of immeasurable value to underachievers, but to the truly ambitious they are merely perfunctory obligations.

Institutional credentials are of immeasurable value to underachievers, but to the truly ambitious they are merely perfunctory obligations.

Rubbish. I dropped out of college to start my first career, and not having learned many of the things I would have learned in school held me back over and over again. Nothing stopped me from learning them on my own, but I had to stop doing other things to learn them. By attending a design school staffed largely by working designers I have been able to draw from their decades of experience and it keeps me from having to pick up a lot of little things on the job.

An ambitious individual with a whit of common sense should realize that there is a great deal of efficiency in the model of learning first, then diving into work well-prepared for it.

Mr. Cooper Design, I think your comment belongs in this thread. It is a gross generalization to say the least. Ambition and obligation mean different things to different people.

“Institutional credentials are of immeasurable value to underachievers, but to the truly ambitious they are merely perfunctory obligations.”

I see you included tons of evidence to back up this missive of yours. Care to site the data that arrives at this conclusion?

ChrisL