I always find this conversation interesting so I will add my two cents. Here it goes, if you are dead serious about design and you live and breathe it, run to design school! This is an important decision and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly, primarily because design school will put a serious hole in your pocket. So if a person is not absolutely sure that this is what they want to do with the rest of their lives, by no means spend all that cash. Now in my view solid design is 30% creativity and 70% discipline.
Primarily everyone that gets into design are creative individuals, and there are a million creative people out there. So what separates designers in the long run? Again in my opinion it is control of craft from line, stroke to hierarchy from text to imagery to create a communication vehicle. These things can’t be self taught, they have to be learned in my opinion. Design is much more than pretty pictures and a trained eye from any large Design firm can tell if you are making pretty pictures or communication vehicles. Now I will say this there are a few individuals that just have a gift, and they just get it and no schooling is needed.
However it would take a trained seasoned designer to tell you that don’t guess get an opinion. In school you get those opinions all the time from professionals/professors and it is invaluable as you move forward. John Doe who raves about your designs at some forum or design site doesn’t cut it in the highly competitive world of design. You may find yourself scraping and bidding for design jobs with millions of others who found a design education mundane.
Personally I am working on my second degree and will keep going to get my Master’s in Graphic design, because I want to teach down the road. Look we can’t all be David Carson who had little to no education in design, but we can be the best disciplined designers we can be. So if design is what you want to do with the rest of your life go to school for it. Not for moneys sake at its core but for the love of design and the desire to be the best designer you can be the money will come I can assure you. Get use to my rants guys
