I began writing this article a couple of weeks ago as an exploration into how a good designer-printer relationship can often improve design. Whether it’s cutting costs, being more environmentally-friendly or just trying out an exciting new technique, having a printer that’s clued up and willing to help can often be invaluable.
However, this article may have to wait for another rainy Sunday afternoon. Having had a couple of eager work placement students in over the summer, and finding myself trying to explain that Pantone colours are more than just a set of colourful coffee mugs to bemused students, I have decided to change tack a little. I intend instead to discuss whether the print process and perhaps even basic design and artworking skills should be taught at university level, or whether the old adage of learning through doing and ‘being thrown in at the deep end’ in the industry is still the best way to learn?
Having worked in the industry for just over a year now I could easily relate to the feelings of annoyance and even betrayal that the work placement student felt towards their respective universities. I can easily remember how shocked I was to discover after working for a few days how much I didn’t know about the print process. Whilst at university I’d been taught the rules of typography, basic colour theory and even knew how to put a crude website together. In those respects I’d been well equipped for work in the design industry. Unfortunately however it looked as though one of the most vital points, the print process, had been totally forgotten about.
This leads me to the case in point. Should basic design skills required in the industry (such as how to set up a document for print) be at the heart of our design education? Shouldn’t the difference between CMYK and RGB colour be taught alongside seminars on Postmodernism and endless hours spent on a dissertation? Many design graduates that I have spoken to, complain that their courses didn’t prepare them properly for work in the ‘real world’. I’m not implying that universities courses should cover every aspect of the printing process but often even the most fundamental knowledge is completely missing.
This led me wonder whether or not this omission of base knowledge occurs in other subject areas? Having recently watched the ‘design entertainment’ programme Design for Life, In which 12 budding product designers battled it out to win a work placement with Philippe Starck, I was intrigued to realise that a similar thing seemed to be happening. After spending hours designing their products the students were horrified when Starck asked them about their material choices. Many of them had no idea how their creation would be realised and some had created objects that proved next to impossible to create.
Perhaps it is this, the implementation and realisation of the design, a lack of knowledge of how the end product will be produced is what is missing. After all, often a good knowledge of the process can influence and often better the design in the first place.
There are some simple steps that design courses might be able to take to ensure some of this knowledge is gained at university level. First and foremost a visit to a printers should be a mandatory part of the course, along with a brief explanation of the process. Perhaps even an entire module could be dedicated to basic design skills. This could range from teaching basic software skills even through to time management and basic entrepreneurial skills.
Another step would be for all university courses to have compulsory work placements whilst students are still studying. Often students have to find time (and money) during their holidays in order to try to find work experience. Space should be allocated within the curriculum for students to do work placements. This would not only solve the debate of whether students should be paid for work placements (in my opinion only graduates should be paid, but that’s a different matter) it would also provide all design students some knowledge of the industry before they apply for their first job.
Lastly, and probably the most simple thing to do would be for institutions to employ local printers to impart some of their knowledge through visiting seminars and lectures much the same as many designers do.
I do realise that things vary from institution to institution, and I don’t intend this article to be a screaming indictment of UK design education. Some of the ideas mentioned above may not be the correct solution, after all there are many colleges out there doing a fantastic job. I just feel that this is an issue that needs addressing. I’d be interested to see if others agree…
Your Voice
What do you think? Fill in the form below to submit any discussion points you like to raise and we'll do our best to get a debate going, in the immortal words of Bob Hoskins, it's good to talk.
No doubt this is a problem across the board in any discipline, and I assume internationally, because the same issues are here in the States. I have a friend currently at Quiksilver U.S. that would often bring up the idea of pitching universities to create a new course outline to address this issue, specifically because it was missing from his (and many others) university education and the subject being so obviously critical to a successful workplace transition after schooling.
The idea was simple, create some type of design related ‘real world’ preparation course for artists and designers to better prepare them as they move into the workplace.
In reflection, it’s absurd to think that this preparation isn’t emphasized more, although I’m sure there are exceptions. I’ve seen plenty of examples of the effect of this lack of preparation through friends and acquaintances across various disciplines.
At the same time, there’s nothing quite like actually holding down your first post schooling job and learning in a ‘real world’ environment, with more at stake than your average temporary internship. There are certain things a course will never be able to teach, but at the end of the day, it seems that extra preparation should be a priority.
The solution to this is another discussion altogether though, I just felt compelled to comment on this subject since it’s come up often between myself and my peers over the years.
It will be interesting to see what others take on this is and what conclusions this discussion leads to.
Keith, I think this is a very valid point. I left university and went straight into a placement at Browns. My first job – to typeset a price list for a Browns exhibition. An easy task right? or so I thought. On presenting my first draft I was asked…. what baseline grid have you got it set up on? dumb quotes? N rule, M rule,? tracking? base line shift? tabs?… the list goes on…. Instantly it became apparent that I had little or no knowledge about typesetting.
The steep learning curve began….
On my first printing job I was asked to put a print spec together – what’s a print spec? pantones/specials? proofing – wet, digital, scatter, plotters? imposition? how many pages fit on a sheet? what size is the sheet? SRA1, SRA2? What is the size of the press your printing with? B1 or B2?
I could go on and describe my first 2 years at Browns that pretty much continued like this on the various projects. I’m still learning new technologies and processes now, 5 years in!
I think Universities need to have a module on the basics, invaluable information for any graduate heading into the industry. While this should not take time away from students creativity and exploration, I’m sure there are a number of modules that could be adapted.
Too many students I interview have spent their education in the woodblock room doing self initiated test prints while the time would be much better spent learning the basics.
This is not the fault of the students but the lecturers and Universities. Any students reading this article should think about sending a link to your lecturer and with a bit of luck we might be able to influence future teaching and therefore helping future students.
I would have been bored senseless if my university had given me comprehensive preparation for the technical aspects of the print process. University for me was a space to breathe and explore the nature of design for myself. No design studio should expect graduates to be complete designers, just as no student should want to be a complete designer on graduating. Where is the fun in that? University is a place to experiment and test yourself in a way that becomes increasingly difficult to do once you’ve graduated and the pressures of finding/keeping a job moving house paying rent, paying bills occupy your every waking thought.
In addition, I’ve found it an interesting challenge having to teach myself these more mundane aspects of a designers life. There are many meaningless and illogical traditions associated with the designer/printer relationship, which I have found are more apparent when looking at it with fresh eyes.
Knowledge is power.
Whether you find it boring or not. To learn the print process early on only arms you with the knowledge needed to be a designer. Print has its limitations which you must master in order to work cleverly within them. Being a good designer is about working intelligently.
In these tough economic times a student armed with good print knowledge or any other knowledge for that matter, not taught at University would give them the edge on the thousands of other graduates applying for the same position.
Personally I’d rather have spent the time learning in the class room rather than many a late night in the studio.
Of course I agree with you on familiarising yourself with the limitations of print, but I feel that when faced with these limitations in a professional context and a deadline approaching, even the most clueless recent graduates have a way of learning very quickly what may take weeks of ‘lecturing’ at university. Think about how much of your knowledge of design actually stems from your professional life as opposed to your student life.
I may be alone, but it is my opinion that a design education teaches nothing more than what design actually is. It is up to you and the decisions you make after graduating that define you as a ‘designer.’
I don’t disagree Thomas. Would be good to get some other opinions on here. Keep up the debate!
I feel that the point of a design education is to inform, studying graphic design should at least have some aspect of process. It is then this informed teaching, that forms a belief and passion for an aspect of this massive discipline.
My second year at college was dedicated towards points made here. We all had to find and take part in industry placements, learn basics of IP and were set projects based on commercial printing techniques.
Granted it was not a massive in depth look into the subject but it was an informing period in vital areas of being a designer, and learning that being a designer is not simply about an idea and (lovely) result. It is a process of making the idea and having the knowledge to emphasize the idea through the process of design.
I do however suppose todays formal education of 4 years specializing in a area, there is alot to fit in over this small period of time.
Maybe the answer could be through a longer period studying, a real world experience being vital, half way through your training. Maybe applying the same course structure as a architecture degree?
I’m glad this article has created such debate. Perhaps Stephen has hit the nail on the head here. Should design education be taught in the same way as art based subjects? Perhaps apprenticeships , learning through working in the same way that typesetters used to, would be a better way to teach design?
Thomas, whilst I do understand you view that university is a time to ‘learn through play’ but I don’t think a couple of hours a week learning basic skills would have any affect on students creativity.
Interesting comments and original article. My mind is split in two here. One part of me says yes I wanted to learn more of this and 8 and a bit years on its only now i am truly comfortable getting print sent of and back as I expect it. The other part agrees with Tom that university is about teaching creativity, critical thinking, exploration etc etc and vocational elements though important shouldn’t impact on this too much. If I had to choose one thing to change about my course (Bath Spa) it would the quality of the critical studies teaching and lectures. I found the tutors ignorant about design and famous design, everything got shifted back to fine art, film and popular culture which while all excellent and good to know about became a bore at times. I deviate but what I mean by saying this is time is short in the 3 years you are collage and it was only by my 2nd year that I had begun to get my head around what graphic design truly was. If we had been having lecture after lecture on baseline grids i fear it would have put many people of. Which would have been a shame.
Oh and Stephen, not that many people would admit it on here, but I rarely use a baseline grid, depends on the kind of designer you are I guess. (I should note I don’t often design books or magazine anymore)
Yeah we discussed the whole baseline grid v’s no basline grid once before! Still makes for interesting reading for those that have not read it:
http://www.designassembly.org/2009/06/04/ajax-and-the-grid/
I was lucky enough to study at a university which catered for all the points mentioned in the article.
Not only did my department have an actual working print unit on the premises, I also received lectures in print procedure and print processes, given by working printers and pre-press staff.
On top of this, I spent the last two years of my degree working on live jobs, where I was responsible for everything from arranging a meeting with the client, through to handing over artwork to the printer. This was all done whilst doing degree work at the same time. By the time I graduated, I was as comfortable artworking a finished design as I was sketching out initial ideas.
In my opinion, this side of design is essential to graduate designers and can give them an edge over other graduates when it comes to finding that first job, especially in the current climate.
Its is not a case of being a type of designer. What I wanted to debate was the idea of structure in education. The way we learn and develop at early stages results in a much more informed designer who have professional outlooks within education.
Also as a Grad, the debate on unpaid placements could be worked on through a year in our education where we are financially back by a student loan, (you can plan for your expenses when you are not worrying about extra work, and college cost) and this vocational year would allow design grads to fulfil their development without the fear of experience, and the need to gain more experience at the point where a designers can feel the most overwhelmed.
I worked as a printer for a couple of years. I’m now a ‘designer’, and due to that schooling in the real world of inky fingered devilry, I’m able to do what I do now. Totally invaluable.
Now here’s the strange bit. I went back to college a few years back as an experiment to see if I had really missed out on the design education I thought I’d missed out on. What I went looking for wasn’t there in the slightest and the students who I met were generally clueless and not motivated to produce amazing work. It was thoroughly depressing. Whilst I was doing that I scored the job I’m in now, after putting myself through months of interviews. I pushed myself all the time. And that’s possibly the difference. I wanted ‘it’ so bad… and they didn’t. (What’s wrong with these people?)
I met our intern today. It became apparent early on in the conversation that they didn’t know how to talk about their work, nor did they know about what would be expected of them as a designer (they being a final year student). I sense a steep learning curve for this one and I’m actually looking forward to the challenge. I hope the feeling is mutual.
I agree wholeheartedly, nothing has changed as far as I know course wise in the 11 years I since leaving my degree course. I assume the usual CSM and LCC courses are prepared for this? It should be interesting to see what Ravensbourne does with their new building in Greenwich - it’s aimed at education/business relationships bringing the two together.
Didn’t Michael C Place write a course for them too? I remember reading that it was shelved, which is a shame. If he reads this maybe he could shed some light on it.
Maybe Shillington College have got it partially right? http://www.shillingtoncollege.co.uk