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No longer are you taking a chance not going to college... In fact it’s the opposite.
First let me just say this article has been written entirely by me, Gary Simon. I’m a 100% self taught designer. I run a successful design business (amongst others) and I wanted to write this article so that any aspiring designers might gain insight one way or the other. Since this is, for the most part an anti-college article, it should hold some decent weight since I’m an example of someone who doesn’t have a formal education and has been successful.
You can "learn design" on your own
Yes, it’s true. The internet is an invaluable resource for the self motivated individual. There are thousands of tutorials and communities available specifically for the purpose of design. Becoming an effective designer should be a process of trial and error. That’s how I learned. I learned what didn’t work, and what did work by necessity.
How do you know what works when you don’t have a guiding hand?
Easy. You can test how effective your design(s) are with tools like google analytics. If you’re designing a website in which the
intention is to persuade a visitor to purchase something, you can split test multiple designs / landing pages and see what really
works.
The ultimate goal of effective web design is to maximize earning potential and visitor experience. A great designer is able to do this and you don’t need a college education to help you do it. The best way to learn has always been through example, and what better way to learn than to immerse yourself into real world projects?
Professors. "Those that can't do, teach"
I’ve come across many school-bred designers, straight out of design school, who haven’t a clue on how to handle actual projects. They don’t know how to take a design in photoshop, cut it up and slap it into xhtml/css. Why? Because few professors don’t know how to do it either. Most professors spend time teaching on the “concept” of design, rather than real world relevance. You have to complete assignment after assignment that has nothing to *really* do with what you’ll be doing when you graduate.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather learn from someone who actually has real experience in my field. And it’s a crapshoot, most professors don’t have that essential experience.
A lack of relevance. "Course Stuffing"
The idea behind going to a school for design sounds ideal. But what it actually is, isn’t. Some of my friends who went to school to “learn design” would tell me of all these ridiculous projects they had to complete. It sounded exactly like all of the crap you’re forced to “learn” in high school. None of it holds weight in the real world. You don’t need to beat around the bush to help develop your design skills. The best way to become the best designer you can be, is to focus specifically on the medium at hand (whether that be logo design, website design, character design, etc...). Not by designing things like abstract circles. Hah.
College is expensive, no one will deny that. To warrant the thousands upon thousands of dollars students are dishing out, they create a 4 year degree program filled with completely useless information and courses. Let me be the first to tell you, writing a 10 page report on Van Gogh isn’t going to help you become a better designer. It’s only going to temporarily clutter your brain with useless garbage, until that fortunate point arrives when you forget it all. College is filled with unnecessary information and it’s there simply to justify spending thousands - problem is, it’s not worth it.
It's a waste of your time.
Whether you’re spending 2 or 4 years at college to become a designer, you’re wasting your time. This ties within #3 above, the colleges understand that no one is going to drop $45,000 on a course that only lasts 6 months or a year. And let me tell you, that’s all I’d need with an aspiring designer, maybe even less. You don’t need 4 years to help you become a designer. Sure, it takes years to fully develop your skills, but you certainly don’t need to live in a facility that costs an arm and a leg to do so.
I started designing when I was in 8th grade. By 10th grade, I was making a decent amount of money. I had clients, and projects. I was even offered a job making $30 an hour! The amount of time you spend at college when you could be learning on your own is the difference of no debt, and years gained.
It's a waste of your money.
College is so expensive. It’s insanely expensive. Let’s say you drop $45,000. Then you have loans to pay off, with interest... You’re stuck with half a house payment for years upon years. And it becomes even sadder when all this money is dropped on a design related degree, because it’s something you can learn on your own. A lot of my friends are finished with college now and they have so much debt.
Me? I have no debt. I don’t owe anyone anything, and I’m making more than my friends who have degrees for design. You could take that money you would normally spend on college, and invest it into a business and within a year or two, have already made it back and then some.
The value of the degree is dropping
Computer related degrees, especially when it comes to web design, hold no weight and more and more employers are understanding this. All you need is your portfolio. Your work will speak for itself. And because of the fact that learning how to design things like websites is something you can learn on your own, whether or not you have a degree doesn’t matter. It’s the work you do that matters.
And if you’re like me and want to be your own boss, a degree is as meaningful as the dog crap I stepped in the other day. Some people might say, “But a degree ensures you a job.” yeah, right. I can get a job any time I want, and almost anywhere I want because my portfolio shows that I have both skill and most importantly experience - experience with *real world* projects. Your degree is nothing but a piece of paper, and your “demo reel” or whatever you want to call it, shows that you completed a few assignments.
Now I’m not cracking on the idea of education itself. You should always strive to become more informed, and to develop your skills. But if you’re a self motivated individual, you can save yourself so many headaches, so much money, and so much time by skipping out on college. It’s scary for most people to think about doing, especially post-high school. It came natural for me because it’s something I started doing before even reaching high school. That’s not to say that you can’t do it.
Most college students support themselves by getting a part time job. Get a part time job and dedicate the rest of your time to learning on your own. You will make money a lot sooner.
This article was aimed towards those designers who want to do things like design and develop websites and corporate identity. If your intention is to do illustration / character / 3d style design, I can’t speak on that. I *know* you can learn all of them on your own, but I have no experience as to whether or not those types of companies require degrees. Of course though if you start your own business, you never need a degree.
Some of you might not agree with me, and that’s fine. But as I mentioned, I’ve had no formal design education and quite frankly, I’m doing just fine. :)