Monday, 3 August 2009
Factory311
is an agency with a difference. Image specialists for the music and fashion industry, Factory311 is a photographic and arts agency that provide imagery that pushes digital imagery to new boundaries.
Too Many Design Graduates?
As a design graduate, I am increasingly becoming concerned by the lack of forewarning given to students that there may not be a place in the sector they are studying for. Many students are given rose tinted glasses as they enter their chosen courses and are led to believe that choosing design could be a good opportunity to pursue a career that they may enjoy. But if the statistics of how many job opportunities there are compared to the amount of students that are coming out of design schools were given at the beginning of the course then perhaps many students would think twice about choosing design as a viable pursuit.
I have an appreciation that colleges and universities need students to fill courses but do they really have the students best interests at heart? Or even the field of design’s best interest at heart? By churning out so many students a year, the market is becoming more and more competitive with more students fighting for limited places, and with a recession in swing these places are becoming more and more limited. I’ve read in many blogs that the integrity of good design is at jeopardy because of the amount of drivel coming out of design schools.
Too much emphasis is placed on the creative nature of design rather than the business side of the field. Students are graduating as design graduates but not as designers. My frustration is ‘why’? Why can’t institutions prepare their students for the reality of the industry. The first step of becoming a designer is to get a job and there should be more importance placed on making the leap from education to the real life environment of the studio. There are vital connections to make in the industry before this happens and a lot of students are left to fend for themselves in terms of networking and making these connections.
There seems to a catch twenty-two for graduates coming out of institutions with most agencies requiring experience from their candidates. But how are graduates supposed to gain experience if agencies won’t give them the opportunity? This leaves graduates with the quandary of finding experience without working in an agency. However, even self-directed projects don’t leave the graduate with studio experience.
Finding placements are the only viable option of gaining experience but even these leave graduates with yet another problem as most of these are unpaid or minimally paid. Taking on a placement means that graduates are left with the challenge of making ends meet, often at night through a part-time job.
Getting a job isn’t supposed to be a doddle but in most other sectors there seems to be a system or procedure that most graduates are able to follow, with getting the qualification being enough to get them a job at junior level. Yet in the design sector, it seems that this is not enough due to the volume of candidates applying for limited places.
I suppose you could argue that this is healthy for design as only the best will shine through and get to the position they deserve. But my experience, it seems that who you know not what you can do seems to get you in front of the people with the ability to offer positions.
On a number of occasions, I have known about so-and-so’s uncle getting them an interview or that whoever’s mate knows such-and-such who works for thingy-ma-bob. Does this mean that to get your foot in the door, you need to mix in the right circles to get anywhere? Because to get yourself in front of the people with the power is the hardest part.
The next step is to impress the socks off them. And with the emphasis placed on aesthetics and creative ability in institutions, this makes it difficult as most agencies are looking for professionalism and the ability to design for real life situations. Perhaps institutions should be looking to undertake live briefs as oppose to made up flowery briefs that graduates might not ever encounter in a real agency. It’s so easy for institutions to churn out design graduates that tick all the boxes but don’t offer anything special or bring something new to the table.
In order for design to keep striding forward, there needs to be fresh ideas that spring from grass roots which is why it is vital for agencies to give graduates the opportunity to how them what they’ve got. After all, in this economic situation we find ourselves in, there may be something to dig us out of this hole that has been overlooked because the graduate didn’t get the interview.