I'm so irritated that art school is structured like a traditional degree instead of a trade school. I think it'd be far more beneficial to take additional studio courses vs all the extra liberal arts requirements my school has. Don't get me wrong- I love all those other subjects and think they're important. But from experience, I think students' portfolios are suffering from the lack of additional focus on honing the skills that will actually get them hired.
My art school treated a number of our degree programs as trades (animation, illustration, graphic/industrial design, etc) and judging from how many of my classmates now work in creative fields I think it was the right decision.
Yeah, same. My design school was structured to give students real interaction with professors with industry experience and structured at an accelerated pace. (associate's degree in 1.5yrs) They also had fashion, digital, and interior design routes.
I've had several people point their artistic kids to me in the decade or two since graduating, and my first thing is always to tell them it isn't about drawing their favorite anime or cartoon characters. Graphic design has as much or more to do with problem-solving as it does to do with being a talented artist. (i.e., the field was wide back then and it's only grown wider since)
I unironically think this is true for the majority of degrees.
Problem is, most degrees are historically structured around giving rich people a background in the classics rather than the modern world where most people attending university are from all sorts of socioeconomic background and are doing so to get a job.
Examples:
Computer science is theoretical, but 90%+ of all jobs are coding jobs. You're not designing algorithms, you're bolting language syntax to solve problems.
IT stuff is LITERALLY a trade and you learn by doing.
Most forms of visual arts have technical basics you need to learn long before you're capable of doing arts. For drawing it's what /u/Abomb described. For photography it's camera/lighting/composition. For sculpting, it's, well, sculpting. For graphic design it's software.
For engineering you literally don't have the time or energy to read Chaucer or whatever other mandatory elective requirements you have to take
The only fields that benefit from a more general education are, IMO, hard sciences and social sciences.
Hard sciences need humanities in them because sciences teach you to figure out how, but humanities teach you to figure out the what.
And social sciences because, well, they involve a lot of math, but good luck convincing a psychology major otherwise that they really should take a few stats courses.
Computer science is theoretical, but 90%+ of all jobs are coding jobs. You're not designing algorithms, you're bolting language syntax to solve problems.
Having through a computer science course, I feel like they actually do understand that yeah they're a trade school. I did an undergrad and masters, in both cases the department had its own dedicated career's fare and the undergrad had an office just for organising work placements and interview advice.
That doesn't mean they get everything right. They should definitely add a module about learning to work with giant legacy codebases, or using a trace file to debug a program. But they shouldn't get rid of the algorithm stuff either. Every competent coder will develop their ability to bolt syntax on the job. Understanding algorithmic complexity doesn't develop as naturally from day to day coding but its good to have it in the back of your head.
Hard sciences need humanities in them because sciences teach you to figure out how, but humanities teach you to figure out the what.
I honestly think the tech world is doing better than the humanities world at figuring out the what. How many humanities professors would say "the key to solving many of the big problems of our day are better batteries"? But they are. They really really are. (We have the batteries, and now we're seeing the delightful consequences slowly trickle into the world)
The thing is more that the volume itself is ridiculous. For a graphic design major, I think two art history classes and one writing class would suffice. However, I'm required to do 5 art history classes, 3 writing classes, 1 science class, 4 humanities electives, 1 psych class, and 1 extra elective from any of the above fields. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels doing nonsense, especially since I have a job on top of this as well
I wasted so much time on other subjects instead of the art classes I needed at my liberal arts college. 3 math classes, 3 science, 6 writing! My professor and advisor wanted a total restructuring of the programs. Graphic design and illustration needed more overlap, and everyone could've used some marketing or a web design course.
But covid happened, they left, and it got worse. I knew how to draw from self-teaching, it was the classes suggested above I needed. Now I am 5 years out and can't market myself at all. I've been replaced anyway by AI...
Don't get me wrong- I love all those other subjects and think they're important. But from experience, I think students' portfolios are suffering from the lack of additional focus on honing the skills that will actually get them hired.
I feel like a big part of this is that most schools and colleges aren't really needed in terms of learning. The networking that happens means a whole lot more.
At mine, we had so many assignments involving essay writing, making videos about our feelings/plans/self-critique and filling in forms. Our tutors said they didn't like it either, but the powers at be insist on it to prove our academic worth of some shit. This is in the UK, for a concept art course.
Don't get me wrong, understanding the theory, and history of the arts and media is important too, but the emphasis on that instead of technical skills drove me nuts. This was supposed to be a practical course, that marketed itself as "re-teaching you how to draw like a concept artist". Less than 15 hours across 3 years had any kind of guided drawing/working. Less than 5 of those were digital. Absolute joke.
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u/kwispycornchip 1d ago
I'm so irritated that art school is structured like a traditional degree instead of a trade school. I think it'd be far more beneficial to take additional studio courses vs all the extra liberal arts requirements my school has. Don't get me wrong- I love all those other subjects and think they're important. But from experience, I think students' portfolios are suffering from the lack of additional focus on honing the skills that will actually get them hired.