Issue 2

Is design school working? Yes? No?

If Milieu just jumped into that question in a manfesto-esque nature, we would be just dealing with me and some other authors opinions — not a conservation in any real way. To answer the question of design school working or not, we need to know why people come to design schools in the first place. People come to design colleges for certain intentions— and it's the implied agreement between the school and the student that a transaction will occur. I think we can make the assumption that if the students get what they want, design school delivered it's part of the bargain.

For Issue 2 of Milieu, I asked some of my fellow Communication Design students to finish this sentence:
Design School is worthwhile when…

This is the first step in this three part series on design education. Step two is to do a word search on all the posted responses to see if any patterns begin to appear and to visualize that as Issue 3, and then Issue 4 is to compared those general patterns to the rhetoric and related statics for designers (economic, social, educational etc.) to compare if what students want is what they are getting— and from all of this we can make a more substantial argument if design school is working or not.

Design School is worthwhile when…
… when designers have the same respect as doctors and lawyers.

People are surprised that you do need to attend a 4-year institution to become a designer, and the process involves more than scribbling down a pretty picture. When clients, family, friends, and the population in general not involved in design begin to understand the role of the graphic designer better, the more respectable our position becomes.

People hardly frown when lawyers command $100/hour for legal advice, but flinch when a designer asks $40/hour for design services. When designers are seen as equals, I'll say that design school is worth the time, energy and money... Otherwise business school is a better investment.

— Meng He

… my loans have been paid off and I'm sitting pretty at my dream job.

Monetarily speaking, I think the ultimate test will be when I finally graduate and enter the work force. I will then, be able to see if not only the name PARSONS has an impact, but if what I have been able to create in my time here, has an impact on my future employers.

When the loans have been paid off and we are sitting pretty in our dream jobs, I will hope that the last three years of (sacrificing) my life have all been worth it.

— Tara Kipirk

… I have the power to do want I want, when I want, as I wish to achieve it

Most designers live a life of being pushed around by clients to no end. We seem to be at the mercy of our clients, with the only hope of doing our job right being if the client "gets design," otherwise we're fucked and we have to just keep waiting for our prince charming — the dream client — to appear before us.

Replace "client" with man, and "designer" with woman and we see how fucked up this relationship seems to be.

— Thomas Jockin

So what do you think makes design school worth it for you?

Comments

[Yinan Xia]

Design School is worthwhile when…
I can design my own future.

I think the best part about going to a design school is the unpredictability and adaptability. They give us things we need to know, places we need to see and people we need to meet. In the end, each student will have enough resources to begin designing their own future.

[matthew Aubie]

Design School is worthwhile when I can look at a concept I'm working on, and realize I would have never done something like that unless I had paid for an education.

Those moments are rare, but they make me feel good about my choices.