All In Degrees

Recently while I was entering the local gym for my daily work out routine (hint hint Jeff… kidding) I was asked by the counter clerk about what I did for a living again. Well, when I am finally able to get a job I will be a Designer, but for them I just said I am “Freelance Designer ” (which I am but would love Full Time somewhere), then I was asked which school I went to. I responded with “Kutztown University of Pennsylvania”. After the initial question of: Where’s that? (duh), I was then pressed with what programs and any website tutorials I use. This lead me to respond with the Adobe suite, some sites and then a question from me to them in the form of: “Why all the questions?”. I was then given the opportunity to get into the pros and cons of Design School/Education.

Where do I start?

From the time we are young we are told that in order to get a better job and position in life we need to go to college. I am a believer in this, however, I do have to admit that there are some self taught Designers that are good. I let the clerk know this view because they were telling me how they were not interested in schooling because there is a local (semi-local) Designer in Clinton that is apparently really good and proof of the above being not true. I basically, fell into a position of defending getting a degree in my field by saying: “If you want to break into a place in New York or Seattle, get your foot in the door… most places will not look at you unless you got that degree”. The retort was how they just wanted to stay local and do logos and such. When I said: “Does such involve printing?” The answer was yes and I just gave a response of : “Well, you’re going to need someone to teach you how to do things properly. Also you do realize things are going more towards Web and Motion Design?” The response was a swift how they did not want to get  into that area and I responded with a retort of how things are moving there and you need to do those things on some level regardless. School helps you understand the foundations of it all before you get in over your head, something that just may happen when you are learning on your own. I did not even bother to inform them they would need some web skills since all/any good solid Designer has their portfolio up on the Web.

By this time I was fed up with hearing once again how this local guy gets really good jobs and such I need to make the point that it is great and fine if you can do it without schooling however, regardless of talent most people without a degree will not be in a Rob Sherdian situation and be able to trade off the name of Nine Inch Nails for their rest of their career. Bottom line is most employers (and even freelance clients) will want that degree. I think most employers and clients (along with myself) see a degree as a sign of respect for your field (and amongst peers), willingness to learn your skills better and flat out shows you learned about how the field works.

Once home I did some initial digging. This self taught Designer seems to have a background in Marketing Communications (for a large company around here… pretty sure they were looking for someone with a degree) and surprise (!) no portfolio currently up and running. If and when it comes back on-line I will let you guys know how the designs look. The conversation and the digging made me think of a good friend of mine who is a Web Designer with no formal training in the field, just using his natural art abilities and computer skills. Yet without that degree he knows he is stuck in the thankless job that he has dealing with an extreme hot headed CEO/Creative Director. That to me is the biggest con yet pro for a degree: You can have the ability to move around and move on from a job.

Also let’s face it. People without degrees out there right now in the field are lessening our degrees and salaries because they are charging less and depending on talent (and skill levels) possibly giving us all bad names.

So I throw it out to you guys. Do you think degrees matter? Do you think naturally talented people should be able to just go out and do this without training? What does this mean to you? Are there any cons I missed in some way? Any pros I did not think of?

I hope to read some responses to this. I am sorry if my post is disjointed in the thought, I tried to sit back the last few days and outline it a bit… I am just very Pro-Degree. I think it is a sign of respect for the people in the field, the field itself and the people we can work for/with on projects. I am all for talented people that can do this without a degree but I  think that degree is important in the long run.

ENJOY!

MH