Things to look for/ask about a web design degree?

my friend who is a professional graphic designer and focuses largely on using programs such as director and Flash is now attending RIT in New York to get his masters in the field. I would say definitely look into higher education in graphic design because very few people actually get master's and Ph.D.s in that field.

The problem is, a lot of school don't have very progressive design programs, meaning that you'd be lucky to learn Flash, etc. by your final year -- though my friend is very much enjoying the work he is doing at RIT.

Anyway, if you are good, you will find work...he has already gotten teaching positions (during the summer) at Penn State due to his professional and academic experience. I would definitely say go for it and have a strong foundation in traditional art and learn those new programs, even if you have to self-teach yourself...and go for the Ph.D., become a professor and enjoy the easy life...while doing the work you love on the side...

First of all, your picking a very tough market to get into right now. Everybody and their mom knows html so they think they're web designers.

The one plus about the market being so over-saturated right now is that (for the most part) only the most talented people are getting jobs. Where as three years ago if you had a "html for dummies" book you could get a job, not anymore.

Right now, I'd say even more than a degree employers are looking for strong portfolios. If you have a great background with alot of work in your portfolio you stand a much better chance of getting a job than some fresh graduate.

With that being said if you're serious about doing web design, I suggest you go grab a couple of books and start working on stuff (even before/while your going to school). You'll want to have as much work under your belt as possible when you go to get a job.

As far as books/tools. Stay away from just about any WYSIWIG at first. You really need to have a fundemental understanding of html,dhtml, css, javascript, xml, and cgi when you start out.

Using a program (dreamweaver, frontpage, etc) will only hamper your ability in the long run. Later on when you understand all the stuff, and can code a page by hand, sure you can use those if you're doing a really complicated table or something.

But at first, learn to do EVERYTHING by hand.

Uhm...as far as schooling, I'd say any graphic design/multimedia design stuff will help you. With the market how it is, diversity is key so knowing lots of stuff about lots of style is always a good thing...


Uhm, yea...went off on a little rant session there, and I'm to lazy to spell check right now. :)

Of course everything above is just my personal opinion, so take it as such.

yeah i thought it was odd that my school offered nothing in way way of a masters degree in comm graphics. they have a generic fine arts masters program and a metal smithing and pottery program...wtf!? right now im pretty good at using photoshop and illustrator as well as quark for layouts (tho most places ive seen want you to know pagemaker which in my opinion sucks). ive had several animation classes (traditional) but have yet to try my hand at the electronic stuff (flash et cet.).

thanks for the replies so far fellas

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Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
yeah i thought it was odd that my school offered nothing in way way of a masters degree in comm graphics. they have a generic fine arts masters program and a metal smithing and pottery program...wtf!? right now im pretty good at using photoshop and illustrator as well as quark for layouts (tho most places ive seen want you to know pagemaker which in my opinion sucks). ive had several animation classes (traditional) but have yet to try my hand at the electronic stuff (flash et cet.).

thanks for the replies so far fellas

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Specialize on one or two aspects of the field, and go get Becoming a Graphic Designer....it covers everything, entry level salary, portfolio preperation, etc....

A jack of all trades masters nothing.

I got my latest job on the strength of my technical illustrations. Anybody can apply a filter in Photoshop...

Quote:

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Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
ght now im pretty good at using photoshop and illustrator as well as quark for layouts (tho most places ive seen want you to know pagemaker which in my opinion sucks). ive had several animation classes (traditional) but have yet to try my hand at the electronic stuff (flash et cet.).

thanks for the replies so far fellas

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If you know Quark, you can use PageMaker -- it's really barebones design software. If possible, try to learn Adobe InDesign, which is much better than Quark, in my opinion. It basically combines the elements of Pagemaker, Illustrator, and Photoshop in one program. You can do some really amazing stuff with it...

It seems like you could go two ways--you could become like a lead programmer and learn the html and all that stuff or you could go the more artistic route and have a strong traditional art background and do more stuff with Flash, After Effects, Director, etc...which you would definitely want to go the Master's and Ph.D. route for...