Thought from a pro
August 11th, 2008 posted by Matt Aubie in Design
I work part-time at a small art supply shop and this weekend I helped a customer who owns an advertising/branding agency. We started talking about his schooling back in the 70’s compared to what I’m experiencing today. He had one complaint about schools today (well, he had a number of complaints actually) - he was upset that schools are now teaching how to design and not why. He said he gets hundreds of portfolios and resumes from students who are great at knowing how to design a webpage - but not enough who know why they designed it. I can’t stop thinking about this and what it means…I love getting customers like this.
hey, that sounds pretty interesting.
Have you any more to say on the matter?
hope to hear from you. Do you know who the guy is you spoke to?
cheers,
james.
James - I do have the person’s name and website, but I try not to advertise any non-student work/companies here.
As for what he said - I’m finding more and more in the city I live (medium sized), the majority of design work follows exactly what he said: the idea of “how”. There is lots of photoshop work - bad photoshop work, but people who at least know how to use the necessary programs. It’s the content and depth of the designs. Everything is made to look flashy with only one intention: to get peoples’ attention. That’s the extent of research and concepts. This isn’t why brochures, signs, and labels are designed. Sure they should grab the attention, but their NUMBER ONE purpose is to inform and convince.