First of all, let me clear that here in this article I’m talking about studying graphic design at a college or university only, but not in any design institute that teaches all kinds of creative stuff like VFX, videos, cinematography, design etc
I will share one of my personal experiences at a college when I went there for the admission of one of my close friends for a design and animation degree in B.Sc in Design and Animation.
I won’t disclose the name of the institute and the name of the student, but will tell you the complete story.
Generally to join the degree program you have to complete a 10+2 or basic schooling till intermediate, and then you have to apply for it.
So after getting the application for this degree me and my friend went to this college and met with the joining officer, who was also the principal of that college.
The shocking thing is that he of that college didn’t recommend the student to join in that course, and suggested to take some other course that was available in their college like B.Sc in Computer Science and B.Sc IT, B.Sc Mathematics, as these things could get you jobs, but not the one with design, as they just the existing designs and put shops in the roadside for smaller tasks. You are not meant for that. Do something else – he said that!
It was quite shocking for both of us. As I have been a professional graphic designer for 5 years and the student was also interested in the design course. But shocking their management refused us to join in this course!
But what’s the reality?
Is there a future in design and animation? Should you join a college or university or learn it yourself?
Let me answer all of the above questions simply.
There’s no necessary norm to learn design in any institute. If you want to get a job in the design field, your portfolio and resume are enough. and you’ll required to have basic English skills or the local language of the country or state where you’re going to work.
To learn the design, you can learn them from various design YouTube channels. Especially if you are from India Pakistan or Nepal then you can go through the below channels to learn design in 360*.
For basics to advanced these two channels are enough.
But if you want to learn in English. There are a plethora of channels available to learn design or any kind of creative arts or to follow your passion. Just search them with their keywords on YouTube.
Okay, the final question. is a design degree required?
No. For freelancing, a degree is not required. Only a few big companies or corporations especially are asking for some kind of certificate, but even those certificates you can get online through various platforms like Google’s own certificate programs, Udemy, Coursera etc.
For eg. I’ve my own UX Design certificate from Google.
So certificates you can earn through various reputed online course websites, and can produce them during your interview.
I hope you got my point.
Because the professors teaching at that college are not up to date, and not aware of the trends, they just teach for salary and survival. For passion, if you have to search for the alpha content on the internet, you’ve to put in your efforts.
All the best.