I have heard way to many people throw out where they went to school and try to get some respect because of that fact. But when it comes down to delivering some actual results in the work environment they are completely lost and like to quote something or talk about some theory that that have been exposed to.
What I am trying to say is that it doesn’t matter where you went to school as long as you have the energy and drive to work hard and push your design exploration.
i totally agree.
Yes, Energy and drive are very important;however, you forgot to add two equally important factors: talent and training. Without talent, all the energy and drive will be useless. I also believe that in design, more than fine art, training can be very important. Does it replace energy,drive and talent? No, However, it certainly is a fourth important factor.
yes energy and drive are the key factors. but if they are not applied correctly then they are wasted. with proper guidance and training one can make proper use of that talent.
Agreed, training is important and that’s where your school info can come in handy. Also when trying to convince new people of different ways of doing things that may work better than their current way, your name background can help make them more willing to at least give you a chance to prove it to them, otherwise your suggestions can fall on deaf ears.
For example, if some new hire suggested some technique for rendering that may work better/faster than what we do now, we may not give it much thought since what we already do works for us. Now if they reminded us that they were from Art Center, well we know that’s a specialty taught there, so I’d be more inclined to at least give them a chance to explain it. A name drop there can help make people willing to listen.
Or on the opposite end, if a new hire wanted to suggest some ways to improve a concept or to make it more appropriate, thorough and justified than we may not really listen to what they’re saying. Now if they reminded us that they went to RISD, well they definitely don’t spend 4 yrs honing sketching and rendering skills so what do they do all that time?..they work on big picture planning, learning how to come up with appropriate concepts and features to satisfy the goals, justifying their design decisions and critiquing like a futhamucka. So even though they’re not the best at sketching up their ideas, it would be smart to listen to that person when doing product planning, competetive feature analysis, etc and I’d want them there to point out the relevance of our design and defend our decisions during client reviews because that’s what they specialize in.
One part of getting results done is actually being allowed to do what it is that you know how to do well. If you’re not allowed to do things the way that you know how to do it best, it reduces your abilities to that of somebody with no experience and you won’t be as effective as you know you can be.
So for the person that’s name/theory dropping, it may just be a cry of frustration because things are being done differently than what they have experience with, and working in that foreign way doesn’t allow them to perform the way they know they can. Kind of like being forced to draw with your right hand if you’re left handed.
passion is great, and i think we all have it. That said, passion is not going to buy me a $4,000 Solidworks program. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars in tools that get us all wet just thinking about them. And that’s really the problem. It’s more than a little discouraging when you get out of undergrad and you have NO TOOLS!! So i think alot of us want to move on and make our work again.
blow me
classy