O.K. Does anyone have any construcutive criticism besides “I haven’t seen any good work come outta there”
Western Washington or UW. Any help on these two schools. I live in Seattle and want to stay here if I feel I can get a good ID education. Any others schools nearby?
Well i believe that any program in this field is going to be what the student makes of it. One program is not necessarily better than another, just better suited for individual needs.
I would suggest taking the time and researching the difference between product design and design engineering. they are two distinctly different fields whose margin of overlap is vast. but you are going to have to be honest with yourself and find out what your intent is in design, what truelly motivates you to be a designer, what are the day to day realities of the design life and where do you see your self in the scheme of things.
This field is one in which the practitioner need to generate their own niche, there are many avenues to get to design and sometimes an industrial design program will not get you to an area of design you had envisioned.
As a student here at Western, the benefits of taking ID here are vast. Not only is the degree a BS, but being a member of IDSA helps generate contacts that will be invaluable later on.
The review process here at Western is extremelly competative, but your true competition will be your ability to honest with your self. Though from the outside the projects, seem innovative and exciting the work itself is ardouse and involves extremelly long hours. Your true asset by taking ID here at Western will be you access to your fellow classmates and the open door policy the upperclassmen tend to lend to everyone in the department.
I would suggest taking a tour at the institute of interest, the IDSA Western Conference will immerse you with working designers in the field, and any conversation had with a graduate you will find to be invaluable.
There is a school up in Vancouver BC you should check out, the name escapes me, other than that your closes option is San Fran.
Emily Carr
I visited it, and their work seemed pretty good. It just wasn’t for me.
Look into the Art Institute of Seattle, I went there, but I’m at Pratt now, so I can’t really give it a glowing reccomendation. The IDT degree is a pretty good foundation for ID, but It’s expensive.
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I’m a student at Western and couldn’t be any happier with the program. Like stated above, we graduate with a bachelor of science, and are located within the engineering department. I think this greatly benefits us as we get to work with other students in the engineering department on a few projects. Another sweet aspect of the program is that every year, we go on a trip over spring break, and visit various design firms, museums, and schools. Its a great opportunity to meet some people, and sort of get a feel for where you want to be after school… which will help guide you into being more honest with yourself as a designer.
As far as the level of work is concerned, I cant really say anything as I’m kind of biased. I can link you to our website though, which has some examples of student work: www.wwu.edu/id
It’s fairly competitive. There are two reviews that you must go through in order to be admitted into the program. An initial portfolio review is required to declare you as an industrial design student. This is followed by an annual sophomore review. In the past few years, as many as 30 students have applied (with avg. about 22), and this number is cut to only 12 which are admitted into the junior class…
Hope that helps a little
-joe riehl
Thanks for the first hand insight Joe_
A link straight to the projects: