reaction 2. meredith davis

My initial reaction to her keynote was that it lacked very little cohesive structure. I had to re-read the article several times and it still could not understand the points she was trying to make. In the end I just thought of my own design education thus far.

What kept popping up in my head was the thought, 'What does the client want?" This, to me, is the mantra of graphic design as a profession. Now, how does a school go about teaching that as a complete curriculum and still address the my other mantra which is "Design is not happenstance."

I believe that the two mantras go along hand in hand. When you find out what the client wants you take to the task of finding out what is in their best interest based on research, thumbnails, sketches and such. This is where "Design is not happenstance." steps in. In a world where any image or photo is available in an instant, today's graphic designer must have had the educational background to be able to have the vision to begin to pull the project together. This means as a student it is imperative to learn the reverence of graphic design history, the importance of process as a discipline, how to utilize the technical operations (Adobe) and the ability to make thoughtful choices.

I am a transfer student from Lane Community College. The two year program shone in many ways. Most importantly I was taught by almost all my teachers that graphic design is primarily a service industry. During my tenure at an internship at a graphic design firm this last summer that was made very clear. I was set up to work on a logo/branding project for a non-profit agency. I had to meet with the client(s) and skillfully marry their ideas (not designers) and mine (the designer). This means being flexible and to create a slight of hand maneuver that says to them you're listening to my ideas and for myself the room to create good design. This would have not been possible had I not have had that background education of technical,marketing and artistic skills.

This is my first term at P.S.U. To date I'm not sure what I think of the program. Quite frankly, I don't feel like I've had sufficient instruction. I do not mind researching on the Internet and looking for outside sources to make what ever project I'm working on successful, but that does not take the place of a teacher coming to class to teach. To me this means lectures, examples, in class exercises and constructive crits. I must say that last weeks crit on the fashion project was much better than my other classes where the entire class just sits and stares at the crit board as the teacher repeats, "Does anyone have feedback or comments?" Cue the crickets chirping in the background.

The only links I could think to post for this reaction were a very small sampling of design history I learned in my classes that I use for reference in my work today. In my history classes we did not spend time just studying these particular designers/schools of design and the images they created, but we also looked extensively at their design processes. This is what I kept as a component of feeling successful in my design life. 

bauhaus

swiss!

mr. rand

Plus this movie. It forces me to really look very closely at typography.

wonderfully opinionated designers galore!

This list could go forever and is quite varied but in terms of education these links made a big impact. I frequently refer back to the images/designers on this list.