The Graphic Student

Meaning_Making, a series of videos I found discusses the Graphic Design Thesis II work done by University of New York (I think I’ve linked to the right department there) students Michael Mallon, Joseph Mazzaro, Patrick Walsh and Melissa Washin. It’s asks questions about ideas, process, execution, etc. You might find the videos a little pretentious or slow at times, but what the students are saying is very interesting, and a lot of the work shown is fantastic. One piece that caught my attention in the 2nd video is the stenciled statistic on the recycling bin “a plastic milk jug takes 1,000,000 years to decompose” - seems like the perfect place to educate people on that issue! If you’ve got the time, go check them out. Here’s a link to each specific one (but watch them in order): 1 2 3 4 5

Imagine people accepted the advice of a designer with the same confidence they would have in the advice of a doctor.

Being a working student designer can be very frustrating…

Maggie Martz (aka Bipo), a graphic design student at Conestoga College, has started posting her incredible illustration work on flickr. It’s always refreshing to see such organic work amidst the sea of computer-heavy graphic work coming out of a lot of students these days.

The School of Visual Arts graciously has a section on their website dedicated to showing the work of their students. It seems to me like every designer who’s on the verge of being a household-name has gone through this school at one point in their educational career. Anyway, check out the work.

The above piece was done by Amanda Spielman.

Check this out. A project in which graduates design posters for first year students for inspiration and motivation. It’s not only an unbelievably fantastic idea, but the work is beautiful. Imagine coming into your first year and receiving a poster done by someone who graduated from the program you’re entering? If I received one of these posters, I would be incredibly excited about my next 3 to 4 years.

If you’re not fortunate enough to be one of the first years receiving a print, all the posters are for sale here. I found this link through The Serif.

This poster (by graduate, Gemma Correll) is one of my favourites of the bunch… a little advice for all you students moving out:

Listen to this…

When designing a book, it can be expedient to select a format or trim size that is based on the proportions of the letters with which the book is to be typeset.

I am reading some incredible design books right now. This little tidbit of advice comes from Visual Grammar by Christian Leborg. I just wanted to share it with you - it’s a layout method I had never heard of before, but it makes so much sense!

Alright, this video is of pieces of the 2008 Kingston (London) University Degree Show. I have seen three of the pieces they show on different websites and admired them all separately - I had no idea they were done by three students to begin with or that the students went to the same school. Major boost for Kingston University in my books. There is so much thought put into the work and the execution is top quality. This is great work from great students from a great school.

We’re showing this not only because the work is incredibly, but also because the video appears to double as a promo video for the school - so here you have this week’s SPV. I’m now split as to whether this video, or Konstfack’s is more effective in attracting students. I think for myself, Kingston University’s video excites me more and catches my curiosity… I want to see the schooling going into these talented students!

I was browsing Marc Hummel’s blog today, and came across a post of his that caught my attention:

Going to School for a Career in Graphic Design is a Joke

(For me, anyway.) I started off as a super-enthusiastic student… staying up 
late to work on assignments, reading everything I could about design. I either 
got burnt out or a heavy dose of reality: graphic design is just not for me.

During my last semester studying design I would struggle to work on every 
project I was given, perpetually putting them off in favor of listening to NPR
or re-writing the copy in the very project I was avoiding. I spent days working
on my art history paper. The visual thesaurus was my favorite tool. I enjoyed
my English classes the best, by far. The dormant writer in me was active and 
craving attention.

Going to school for something like painting or graphic design stifles the 
very creativity it’s supposed to invoke. It’s not that I can’t handle the constant 
critiques, but that I feel so much more free to make good, meaningful work 
when no one’s looking; telling me what a client would say or to make it more 
“sellable”. Perhaps it’s a sign of low-self esteem that I couldn’t shake the advice, 
or that it’s hard for me to work for others. But I think it’s also my self-seriousness 
and wanting to do well, wanting to impress a professor and my classmates, that 
created expected, boring work. Maybe it was an acknowledgment of risk in 
making fresh work but without the motivation to suck it up.

Or maybe I’m just full of shit and it really just comes down to this:

-I’m a good graphic designer, but I don’t think I can be a great one

-I’m a good writer, and I think I can be great

I don’t know about you… but it’s usually around this time when I start to long for school again. Come the end of April, I don’t want anything more than to be done with the semester, but once summer’s half way over, I’m more than ready to go back. This terrifies me, as I don’t know what’s going to happen when I’ve graduated and still miss the classroom.

Clement Gallet, a graphic design and new media student has some great stuff on his site. Flip through the print work for sure - but if you only look at one thing, watch the videos on his site. Great work.