By: Rocky Alvarado
When I was 17 years old, I was obsessed with art. I was at that point in my life when college was looming and I had to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Based on my talents I was set to be either a starving artist or homeless. Then the concept of being a graphic designer was brought up to me by my art teacher. I rolled with it since the idea of being able to take my love of art and find a way to make a living with it was pretty enticing. I enrolled at the Art Institute of Houston and began my training. My time at AIH was wonderful, and I honestly believe that it was a good decision to go there.
11 years later, I am literally one of the only people I know who actually still works in the field that they studied. So needless to say I have felt pretty good about my choice to go to a vocational school, but with my current perspective I see that the graphic design field is utterly and hopelessly over-saturated with sub-standard talent, and these schools continue pumping them out semester after semester.
Not to bash the AII (Art Institutes International) of course, as I believe they provide a quality education in design. But the staggering success of AII has given rise to many startup technical schools who's commercials run during daytime TV asking "Do you want a career in graphic design? In 6 months we can have you in the career of your dreams!!" I have no problem with someone wanting a career in graphic design. But these schools portray design as a simple set of technical skills that anybody can learn. There are classes in photoshop, illustrator etc. but no classes in any sort of artistic principle, which is where I start to have serious issues with these programs.
To be a quality designer, you dont have to be a great artist, but you absolutely MUST understand the concepts behind great art like color theory, balance, and composition amongst other things. As a result, the market has been flooded with "designers" desperate to make a buck who bring down the value of design by severely undercutting standard priced bids. And once they get the project, they do a poor job and now our price is not only devalued, but they have added to the idea that designers are unreliable and shady.
At the end of the day, I am luckily in a position experience-wise where I don't really ever have to get tangled up in this mess, but I fail to see how a quality designer who is just starting out will be able to fight their way though this thick undergrowth of mediocre designers. I am aware that I may sound pretentious, but this is a real and legitimate problem that threatens not only graphic designers, but web, and interior designers as well.
So the bottom line is this: Print is dying and while our avenues of revenue are narrowing, there are steadily more and more designers to contend with. I guess that I have no real answers since as long as these kids are paying up, these schools will run rampant, but I have real concerns for the future of our field.
I guess the only advice I could give a young designer is: Keep your head on a swivel! The saving grace of design is that it is connected to technology, which is always changing and as long as you can stay ahead of the curve, you will always have something that not everyone else has. Print maybe dying, but with the rise of the Ipad and all the inevitable knock offs, print design is finding a home as online publications. Everyone's a web designer now?? Learn how to design mobile sites. The trick, as always, is to stay one step ahead.
Rocky Alvarado is a lead graphic/web designer at SPAR Design in Houston, Texas www.spardesign.com
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