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1. Graphic Design is a highly technical area. Who on here knows about pre-press processes, spot colors, required number of pages, kerning, leading, color theory, composition, perception? Sure all of you internet trolls will now say you do, but you don't. I know this because I do and in my line of work I'm often left dealing with small businesses like engineering offices (marine engineers and structural engineers) that don't know the first thing about print. They submit advertisements or material for advertisements that doesn't work from a conceptual standpoint to get them business or from a technical standpoint of being able to go to press.
2. Graphic Design is dying and worthless. Graphic Design has been around longer then nearly any other profession. Where do you believe the alphabet comes from? Graphic Designers. When you purchase a new product, buy a car, look at a stop sign, your websites, the signs on buildings, the warning labels on machinery, the tags on your clothing - all of it was designed by us. (Historically these would have been a variety of professions but now it is all Graphic Design)
3. An MFA is not meant to be worthless but sadly it often is. This isn't because of the degree though or because of the profession. It is often worthless because students go for the wrong reasons. They go because they couldn't find work off their portfolio so they think an MFA will solve that or an MFA will get them a teaching position. It doesn't work that way and its not what the MFA is for. The MFA is for research in the advancement of Graphic Design as a whole. Students getting into it for the wrong reason is the problem. The same goes for any fine art really.
I look at this thread //www.city-data.com/forum/colle...-thoughts.html and its a perfect example of someone pursuing an MFA for the wrong reasons. I've had discussions with department heads that will even say they often reject letters of intent because in a nutshell the student says this and that but really is just going back so they can try to teach.
4. You can't earn a living with a design degree? Well what do you classify as a living? Aside from the Operations Manager where I work I'm the highest paid person there. I regularly see job openings in the 40k, 50k, 60k, 70, 80k and even 90k range. You have to know where to look though. Just because you're so separated from the field of graphic design that you downplay its importance doesn't mean everyone does. I just did a quick search and there's an opening for a publishing specialist offering $105,211.00 to $136,771.00 / Per Year. Jobs in the city I currently live in are plentiful for people with experience and are generally in the 30k-50k range which isn't bad at all where I reside. Those jobs that get up over the 70k mark require MFA or comparable.
Kids with illegal software claiming to be a graphic designer isn't the problem, people hiring them is the problem. Luckily for me and other competent designers when you take the file that kid gives you and it looks like **** when printed or your printer comes back and says it can't be printed you'll quickly learn that its worth the money to hire someone that has training and will get it done correctly the first time.
There are Art History Ph d's. I have a BFA in painting. Worked as an illustrator, then an Art Director, but that was years ago, when we did everything by hand, then reduced hand lettering or Letraset, photographed, pasted up with wax, cut our hands continuously with our exactos, had to ultrasonically clean our rapidiographs, used ruby-lithe, and amberlith, and cropped photos with a hand held --edited copy, wrote printing specs. We fueled ourselves with doughnuts and coffee and stayed up 48 and more hours straight to meet deadlines. I supported my husband through his PHD in physics that way.
Graphic arts is very competitive now. Computer generated, although an artist I know in a prominent Chicago agency==Pepsi, keebler elves, etc. is know for his quick hand drawn story boards and for that reason, he says, he has been kept on and promoted again and again. The problem is many kids today do not know how to draw.
An MFA is pretty useless unless you want to be in galleries that cater to that crowd. I might go back and get one for fun after my husband retires.
Some of the most successful artists I know did not get an art degree at all. They are in galleries in NY, Santa Fea, and San Fran. The life of an artist is also cyclical ==styles come and go. Many end up having to do workshops, or teach. Most small and mid level galleries have had a really hard time in this economy, and many have closed. The high end ones have had the competition of the corporate collections dumping their collections on the market.
Galleries are interested in art that will sell. They like a story about the artist, some kind of hook. Art to them is just a commodity. If you don't believe me =go to Art Expo in NYC just once. There are piles and piles of art just waiting for galleries to scoop it up at discounted prices.
My three selling galleries went belly up, I am experimenting and changing my work= I married well. So I can do what ever I want.
Schools like Ringling in Sarasota and The Art Institute of Chicago have a great network for jobs. (no I didn't go there, I went to a major university==but that was 40 years ago and everything has changed since then).
No interest in dirty pipes or clogged toilets. With an MFA you can teach at the college. MFA in Fine ART.
Where did Art History and plumbing come in? Oh...right YOU brought in in in attempt to obfuscate my point. The MFA is the terminal degree in fine art. Do you need a link to "Fine Art" ?
No interest in dirty pipes or clogged toilets. With an MFA you can teach at the college. MFA in Fine ART.
Where did Art History and plumbing come in? Oh...right YOU brought in in in attempt to obfuscate my point. The MFA is the terminal degree in fine art. Do you need a link to "Fine Art" ?
I have a BFA in Painting which is in Fine Art, I am a galleried, collected artist. So What??? I just said that there are Ph d's in other disciplines in art==such as Art History. Yes he could teach with an MFA, but good luck at getting a job. The cost is not worth it, if he is as talented as you say, he should get his BFA, and take many other electives.
I took business and real estate, but never needed it. Luckily or not my journalism in high school, leading to acceptance at summer institutes at two different colleges taught me enough of my graphic arts to successfully beat out others for a great job at a major ad agency. It didn't hurt that I could actually draw without tracing.
The economy is hard now and will be again ==it is a cycle. Getting discovered is largely luck and who you know and where you are. You can get into local and regional galleries if your work is excellent. If you do not sell for them you will be dropped. Craftsmanship is a must. A newbie really needs a fall back position. People are hardly breaking even on the art fair circuit==I don't mean Art Basil, or the Expos.
Just trying to be realistic. With the INTERNET, digital cameras, and all the paint/draw programs everyone thinks that they are an artist. The mass copy Chinese workshops can turn out jaw dropping paintings.
Art is a commodity, a decoration now.
I love it and live and breath it. Kudos for your son to want to do it.
An MFA is pretty useless unless you want to be in galleries that cater to that crowd. I might go back and get one for fun after my husband retires.
I disagree on this one. I've been working as designer since I was 7 years old starting in MS Paint and working my way up. I think MFA's have their place but its what you choose to do with it.
Doing an MFA with a large emphasis on something like psychology, communications, political science, comp sci, marketing or any of a number of other topics and research how these areas blend together is a very powerful skillset.
Doing an MFA to get into art galleries and stand around acting like a pompous ******* trying to explain why the red line represents war and the blue circle represents peace or some other bull**** is a complete waste of time. On of my best friends is about to finish her MFA and she like most in her program were looking at some sort of asinine social issue - in her case she was research and using art as a way of creating a dialog about capitalism. Now she wants to just find a teaching position in a university mostly because she doesn't want to work in the "real world" and wouldn't be able to afford a studio for herself.
Stupid and worthless, this isn't what the MFA was originally intended for and schools shouldn't be accepted thesis of this nature. Its the dumbing down of our discipline. An MFA Thesis should be a written, published piece discussing the usefulness of your chosen medium with case studies, analysis, and extensive research.
I disagree on this one. I've been working as designer since I was 7 years old starting in MS Paint and working my way up. I think MFA's have their place but its what you choose to do with it.
Doing an MFA with a large emphasis on something like psychology, communications, political science, comp sci, marketing or any of a number of other topics and research how these areas blend together is a very powerful skill set.
Doing an MFA to get into art galleries and stand around acting like a pompous ******* trying to explain why the red line represents war and the blue circle represents peace or some other bull**** is a complete waste of time. On of my best friends is about to finish her MFA and she like most in her program were looking at some sort of asinine social issue - in her case she was research and using art as a way of creating a dialog about capitalism. Now she wants to just find a teaching position in a university mostly because she doesn't want to work in the "real world" and wouldn't be able to afford a studio for herself.
Stupid and worthless, this isn't what the MFA was originally intended for and schools shouldn't be accepted thesis of this nature. Its the dumbing down of our discipline. An MFA Thesis should be a written, published piece discussing the usefulness of your chosen medium with case studies, analysis, and extensive research.
To get an MFA as Sheena's son's pure art (??) is seriously ok if he doesn't really expect to make any kind of living with it. It is not a guarantee of a job teaching at a university, as your friend will soon find out. Studios and supplies are very expensive and you need an income to pay for them and the time and energy to execute the required body of work to market. I was only trying to point out that she should be more realistic.
Commercial art in all of its forms has long been the bread and butter of aspiring fine artists, or even high faulting pure art artists (like Sheena's son).
The truth is that if your work doesn't sell you won't make any money. Maybe it will sell after you are dead.
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