My son wants to be a graphic designer. Right now he is in 10th grade in high school. I don't know anything about graphic design so I came here for help. We've been thinking about colleges lately and I'm not sure whats best. We need a college in New York. We've looked at schools that have majors for graphic design such as Pratt Institute. But I'm not sure if it would be better to have more well rounded degree such as computer science. Right now he's kind of in the middle because he is not very strong at drawing which is a requirement at all graphic design colleges but he is an excellent designer. He does a lot of freelance work locally now and it is pretty amazing. Just give me some opinions or tell me what you did. Also, is it important or required to take a foreign language for this type of career. He would really prefer not to take one so he has room for more electives in High School.
Alrighty, first off - WOW, it's nice to see a parent with such concern for their child's well-being and career - I know mine sure didn't. I'm a college-trained graphic designer, but fresh - so I hope my insight will help. I'm just north of you here in Ontario, Canada and our post-secondary education system works a little bit differently, but since my sister took an arts degree in New York I shouldn't be too ignorant about things. Okay, so where to start - this is surely an exciting time for you to see his work grow, and if you're not nervous about him going yet as a parent, you're behind schedule! Graphic Design is a thinking man's game. I'll be right up front about that. I'm going to make a distinction between 3 'pillars' I see in education and the industry: Brains, Skills, and Communication. Now, for Brains I see it like this: Your son obviously has some natural talent at this, and you said he enjoys doing design work around town already so you know he's got his heart into it too. Here in canada we have 'Universities' that offer degrees, and they require a well-rounded education teaching you all sorts of useful stuff any person should know, but that isn't necessarily essential (or even related to) your chosen field of study. We also have 'Colleges' here in Ontario which offer a more hands-on training in a single trade, and the courses are shorter (1-3 years) and teach a skilled trade. Colleges only grant certificates, not degrees, but this doesn't hurt your chances of getting hired here because that's what most people have. Now, while it's great for your son to have a well-rounded education, as far as design is concerned I think even just Graphic Design is too broad for a job. Where you see Computer Science and imagine all of the different streams a CS student could go in, there are just as many different streams of GD. He could (and to be successful would need to) specialize in one aspect of Graphic Design and master it: print design, web design, flash design, typography, motion graphics, illustration, photography, and even more once you get past the initial most obvious ones. There is plenty plenty of room for expanding with further education, and plenty of jobs where his GD education will do him well that also might not be apparent when you first think about it. Design is creative problem solving - it's taking a challenge or problem, thinking of a concept, a strategy, and then using the skills you DO have to work towards a solution. Everybody can benefit from this, no matter what skills they possess or can grow - it's all about how to think and arrive at innovative solutions. If your son is showing signs of being creative, this will be a world of good for him. Skills? what about them? You mention drawing and his abilities and question if design is right for him. Throughout the course of his post-secondary, he'll take skills he already has and kick them into high gear, he'll pick up new manual art techniques, new software skills, and with the rate technology is moving, he might get training in software that doesn't exist today. Having skills isn't good enough though, he needs knowledge. If he sits at home and learns software, but doesn't understand what makes good design good, he'll never make good design.e I wouldn't worry about the lack of drawing skills - drawing is just one way to visually represent thought. You could limit yourself to simply cut-out paper shapes and still convey the same message if you're clever enough. I'm sure your son has some great skills already besides drawing, and I'm sure he's got plenty of other skills waiting to be cultivated. As for drawing, I suck at it! I really really suck at it, but I try my best and learn about it. I also hate photography. I have all the head-knowledge to do it, but I lack patience for it. Now, when it comes to typography, vector illustration or print-layout, I've got all the time and patience in the world. But no one designer is *supposed* to do it all. If he's not a good illustrator so what?! He'll learn about it, how to tell the differences, and it will equip him with the knowledge he needs to hire an illustrator, or buy a stock illustration and use it well in the future. If he doesn't draw, he doesn't have to once he's done - and it won't hurt him either! Communication: Well, touché. A designer is different from an artist because a designer's job is to communicate. The more languages your son speaks, the greater his range of potential clients will be - and I'm not just talking spoken language either. A good designer is a free agent of thought in society, and has to have a harsh and discriminating eye (like a charicature artist has for facial features) to be able to observe, learn, and communicate with all sorts of people. He has to be able to communicate to Google executives in their language if he has a job aimed at them - yet the next job could be aimed at 13-year-old girls spending their parents money at the music store. The more languages he knows, the wider his client-base can be. Certainly, the learning of a second (or third or fourth) language is WONDERFUL for the brain, and will really help remove him from his own mother tongue enough to critique and think about the words he already speaks, but that falls under more of a 'life' education category - it's not required for graphic design. There may be a day when he's typesetting a book in Mandarin or some other language he can't read, but he'll know if it looks good or bad because of the design education he learned. Conclusion: This is a wonderful/scary/exciting time for you and him - I wish I had somebody there to reassure me or tell me what it would be like before I ventured off into the dark mysterious world of college. Send me a PM if you want to ask further questions through email, I'll certainly respond to further discussion as honestly and quickly as I can. Good luck to you and your son, and whatever career path he choses! I've chosen design and I live and breathe it - I love it, and for me it's the most rewarding work in the world. I hope your son finds that same feeling, no matter what that work is for him