1. We’re impractical.
People often have this idea that job opportunities are slim in the field of art and design. While it may be more competitive and you’re less likely to have the job security of an accountant or a doctor, there are so many different paths that someone with an art or design major can take.
Art doesn’t just refer to fine arts and design doesn’t just refer to fashion design. I can’t tell you how many times someone has assumed that I’m in fashion design and someone has joked about having me sew him or her something. I’ve never used a sewing machine in my life. Just some of the art and design majors offered at my school include: Illustration, Graphic Design, Advertising Design, Photography, Exhibition Design, Packaging Design, Jewelry Design, Interior Design, Textile Design….the list goes on.
At most art and design schools, you are required to declare your major right away because the amount of material you need to learn to earn your diploma is massive. At my school specifically, this material usually adds up to about five classes per semester of just major-based courses. That being said, art and design majors have to be absolutely positive that this is the field they want to study before they even leave high school. Anyone who is studying art most likely already has a plan for after college. Trust me, we’ve thought about this and we know what we’re getting into.
2. We have no homework.
It’s true, we don’t have as many essays assigned to us as the average college student. Instead, our homework is art projects, but that doesn’t mean we like the assignments. The odds that we have a professor that allows us absolute creative freedom on projects is nearly impossible. The department plans our assignments for each and every course out so that we learn a new required skill by doing each and every project.
Any time we have a project due, which is usually either on a weekly or bi-weekly basis we have an in-class critique. We have to have thick skin. We have to not only listen to our professors who have worked in the industry, but we have to take the constructive criticism from our peers. Every day is an oral presentation where we have to back up our reasoning for each and every decision we make. You have to be intellectually smart to be able to defend your font choice and explain how your poster will attract the eye of the consumer. And we aren’t just graded on concept; we’re also graded on neatness and craftsmanship. One of my classes last semester revolved around cutting out the basic shapes and making them cohesive together and ultimately creating a design. If you’re pattern/design wasn’t cut out in a perfect 4x4 square and didn’t match up next to all of your other ones, you were in trouble. A sixteenth of an inch will affect your grade. I challenge anyone to try to make a perfect 4x4 square, it’s harder than you may think.
Some days I would honestly prefer to write an essay.
And the big one...
3. We aren’t under any stress.
When I went home for winter break, my friends from home asked me how school was going. To which I replied, “It’s hard.” Their response back was a surprised, “Really?” Yes, really. I have to take seven classes per semester to graduate on time and for five of them I have big projects due every week. I have a professor this semester that would argue that art school is just as hard as law school. Now maybe that’s a stretch but I can tell you that there is such a thing as being creatively burnt out.
Another one of my professors this semester partially grades us on our “design process”, referring to how much we struggle with a project and how much frustration it causes. If we have a meltdown and can’t solve an issue at some point, she sees that as a success because afterwards it get’s easier. It’s normal. It’s like a runner’s second wind. When designers are stuck and don’t know what to do it’s their creativity being depleted before coming back in a rush, just enough to finish what we started. The most rewarding part about being a designer is that ending. To finish a project for me is more rewarding than getting a good grade on it afterwards.
Others might have the idea that we aren’t having a hard time at all in school because what we’re studying sounds and seems fun and it’s something we love to do, but that doesn’t mean it requires any less work than a regular degree. We may have picked a hard major but in the end we will be creating beautiful things and getting paid to do it, and this struggle right now will all be worth it.
