Career - School Advice, Creative Career advice and Full Time Job Postings

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Career - School Advice, Creative Career advice and Full Time Job Postings

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Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Pantothenate posted:

Boo hoo hooery aside, I do have a few legitimate questions: I've seen a couple of editing jobs posted, but I've never seen any postings to do with acquisitions, nor have I seen any postings within literary agencies. Hell, I've only seen one or two positions within non-textbook publishing companies as well. Is this just because the market is absolutely flooded with applicants? How do current agents, acquisitions editors, etceteras, get their start? Do you have to no somebody? Do most companies just poach interns out of universities?

So much to say here. Yes the market is terrible, but you didn't need me to tell you that.

You're seeing a lot of textbook publishers because a ridiculous percentage of the market is actually educational. There are maybe like 5 people doing literary fiction, and they will die at their desks before they give it up.

Agencies just don't post. If they need someone they need 1. coffee bitches 2. slush readers. And because it's their job to know everyone who's anyone, they always know where to get some young thing to intern with them. If you have previous slushreading experience you can try emailing them directly and asking if they need help. (Sometimes places will contract out)

Current editors got their start by being editorial assistants and working their way up. Small houses are better for early experience than large ones. Almost all editors are in "acquisitions", meaning they bring in their own projects from outside (pitched by agents). It sounds like you've been looking outside the traditional commercial publishers, which is good - copywriting and grant writing and other stuff like that is still legit.

mediabistro is good for NYC jobs. also craigslist for nyc jobs. indeed.com for the nuclear bomb approach to a city (search "publish*"). I don't know jack about canada, but if you are serious about this publishing thing, then be prepared to move to a city that has a publishing industry.

# ? Jan 16, 2010 20:14

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# ? May 16, 2024 20:19

some dillweed: Mar 31, 2007

some dillweed fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Dec 22, 2023

# ? Jan 18, 2010 19:07

Slashie: Mar 24, 2007; by Fistgrrl

Some dillweed posted:

I haven't read through the previous 21 pages to see who else has posted this same line of question, but I have a situation to deal with, and I'd like some feedback from people.

I'm currently taking intro creative writing courses at university, working towards a BA with a focus in Creative Writing. I'm finding that what's generally being talked about, the assignments, and (descriptions of) the content of the upper-level courses is all stuff I could do in my own time pretty easily, probably in less time, and without putting myself tens of thousands of dollars into debt. I'm just finding it really hard to justify the overall expense of the university degree when I think I'd get as much out of simply writing on my own, and I wouldn't have to work myself ragged while also going to school full-time. The thing is, I'd ultimately like to write for games and try to weasel my way into a spot on a design team. A lot of the job postings I've seen for game writer positions expect or give preference to people with at least a Bachelor's degree.

I know it's kind of an impossible question to answer, but would getting a BA really be worth it? How important is a degree in the games/entertainment industry, for the kind of work I'd like to do?

I'm not a game industry person, but in any kind of writing job, degrees aren't worth nearly as much as your portfolio. If you want to write games you should probably figure out a way to start doing that now - hooking up with a programmer or someone who makes flash games or something - because writing a bunch of short stories isn't going to tell anybody you know how to write interactive entertainment. Get your B.A. in something practical that could be relevant to the games industry without being too specific - design, programming, business, I don't know. A gaming person can tell you that. But as a professional writer, I can tell you that there's no degree you can get that proves you're a good writer. You've got to have stuff for people to read.

# ? Jan 18, 2010 22:37

Defenestration: Aug 10, 2006; "It wasn't my fault that my first unconscious thought turned out to be-"
"Jesus, kid, what?"
"That something smelled delicious!"; Grimey Drawer

Some dillweed posted:

I know it's kind of an impossible question to answer, but would getting a BA really be worth it? How important is a degree in the games/entertainment industry, for the kind of work I'd like to do?

DON'T GET A BFA IN CREATIVE WRITING :siren:

This applies to everyone. Take all the upper division workshops you can, but major in something that has transferable skills.

# ? Jan 18, 2010 22:40

some dillweed: Mar 31, 2007

some dillweed fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Dec 22, 2023

# ? Jan 19, 2010 15:41

Pantothenate: Nov 26, 2005; This is an art gallery, my friend--and this is art.

Some dillweed posted:

I'm finding that what's generally being talked about, the assignments, and (descriptions of) the content of the upper-level courses is all stuff I could do in my own time pretty easily, probably in less time, and without putting myself tens of thousands of dollars into debt. I'm just finding it really hard to justify the overall expense of the university degree when I think I'd get as much out of simply writing on my own, and I wouldn't have to work myself ragged while also going to school full-time.

Yeah, in spite of the gist of most of your replies, I would suggest trying to take the writing courses, even if you don't stay as a CW major. Yes, you could do the readings and exercises on your own--but frankly that's not what you're paying for. You're paying for the professors. Talk to writing majors and find out the teaching styles of the profs, and take the courses taught by those who are best suited to your style of writing.

That being said, I don't care who you are; any degree alone will not get you into video game design. Experience, industry contacts, and a crapton of luck are your only chances.

To echo what your prof said, if you want to end up in a creative think tank for any multimedia industry, it could help to have some art skills for concept work.

# ? Jan 19, 2010 19:23

Slashie: Mar 24, 2007; by Fistgrrl

And not to try and kill your dreams, but the video game industry has a relatively small, relatively young workforce (meaning jobs don't open up often), and most of the jobs in it aren't especially fun. Take "I like video games" out of the equation and think about what else you think you'd like about your dream job. Are there any other industries where you would get to do those things? Like, if you like collaborative, project-based, creative work there are about a thousand other things you could do besides compete for the like one fun job a year that opens up in gaming.

# ? Jan 19, 2010 19:28

some dillweed: Mar 31, 2007

some dillweed fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Dec 22, 2023

# ? Jan 19, 2010 23:47

Pantothenate: Nov 26, 2005; This is an art gallery, my friend--and this is art.

Some dillweed posted:

Vidya games, etc

Just a warning about the video game industry--and this goes for anyone who wants to work on them in any capacity: Video game companies are notorious for treating their workers like crap, precisely because it's supposed to be such a 'sweet deal'. One of my best friends is a programmer who went to Ryerson, and one of his classmates ended up working for EA.

You know how they illustrate Bellicovision in the Code Monkeys series? Yeah, it's apparently kinda like that.

# ? Jan 20, 2010 23:48

marshmallard: Apr 15, 2005; This post is about me.

This might seem like a bit of a silly question, but when you hand your notice in, what do you actually write?

I've just had my second interview for a job I'm really hoping to get, and I'd like to have my notice prepared, but I don't know what to put. I'm on very good terms with the person I'll need to give it to, does that make a difference? I don't want it to seem overly formal, unless the letter is just the formality and the real conversation happens verbally.

# ? Jan 21, 2010 00:18

Slashie: Mar 24, 2007; by Fistgrrl

marshmallard posted:

This might seem like a bit of a silly question, but when you hand your notice in, what do you actually write?

I've just had my second interview for a job I'm really hoping to get, and I'd like to have my notice prepared, but I don't know what to put. I'm on very good terms with the person I'll need to give it to, does that make a difference? I don't want it to seem overly formal, unless the letter is just the formality and the real conversation happens verbally.

Use standard business letter format, and start out by saying you've decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Clearly state that you're giving x weeks notice, as of the date of the letter, thank your boss sincerely for the opportunity you've been given there (if you're really close you can even throw in a line reminiscing about some thing that happened), and express what a pleasure it was to work with everybody there, especially the recipient of the letter. Address any back pay/unused vacation time or other loose ends, like "By my records I have three days of unused vacation time, so please remember to add that to my final paycheck" and include your contact information in case they have any questions.

Three paragraphs ought to do you. It's okay to err on the side of formality for HR documents. Two weeks notice is standard. Since you're leaving on good terms this really is a formality, just so they can have all the relevant information in one place. Talk to your boss in person about this as you hand in the letter, working in basically the same order. Loosely explain why you're leaving, express how much you liked this job, say your thanks, and discuss the businessy stuff like when you'll be leaving and what they should do about your last check.

It'll be fine! I hope you get the new job!

# ? Jan 21, 2010 02:21

marshmallard: Apr 15, 2005; This post is about me.

Slashie posted:

It'll be fine! I hope you get the new job!

Thank you, that helps a LOT

Unfortunately I'm on three months' notice rather than two weeks (!!!) but hey, it'll end eventually...!

# ? Jan 21, 2010 11:47

Artistic Monkey: Jan 8, 2004

I recently decided that I want to go back to school for graphic design, i have no idea what i'm doing however. I was looking at doing the 2+2 program from my local college to RIT.

BUT my grades from my previous semesters weren't so hot. Mainly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing at college anyways. I was going for a degree in liberal arts with a focus in history, however once I switch majors the majority of the low grades should be written off. I'm not really sure what i'm doing here.

In a separate note, is there something that could start teaching me the basics of html and php and css and such? And by basics, i mean reaaaaal basic.

# ? Jan 26, 2010 03:59

Authentic You: Mar 4, 2007; Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.

Artistic Monkey posted:

In a separate note, is there something that could start teaching me the basics of html and php and css and such? And by basics, i mean reaaaaal basic.

W3Schools is very helpful for learning about about the basics of HTML/CSS and web scripting when you come knowing nothing.

# ? Jan 26, 2010 06:29

RobertKerans: Aug 25, 2006; There is a heppy lend
Fur, fur aw-a-a-ay.

An amazing tutorial for building a Wordpress theme, which goes through HTML, CSS and PHP, is here. Work through it, it would definitely be worth your while. Also, make sure you take notice of him, and type all the code. If you copy and paste, you'll likely get errors from things that don't parse (eg `), as I found when I first started learning.

W3Schools you should work through, and HTML Dog is excellent as well.

Probs add the Web Developer Toolbar to firefox, alongside Firebug, to be able analyse & edit code from within Firefox. YSlow as well, if you want to ensure speed, which you will once you've figured the basics out, and it'll tell you what to fix in a design.

Just pulling stuff from my delicious, but CSS Play, Dynamic Drive, Floatutorial, Code Sucks will all give you examples of how to acheive certain (mainly presentational) effects, you'll want to see how other people have solved various problems, and look at and understand the code.

Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web and articles by Mark Boulton for typography. A List Apart for good articles, SmashingMagazine as well. Building Accessible Websites, though some sections [on tables] are outdated, is good and well written.

EDIT: Subtraction 6.5 redesign. <canvas> element/HTML5/processing.js particle engine demo. Not that these are useful for learning basic web design, but you need pretty things to inspire.

RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jan 26, 2010

# ? Jan 26, 2010 14:02

GreatJob: Jul 6, 2008; You did a Great Job™!

Hello! I recently graduated with a bachelor's in Graphic Design from an accredited state university program. I have two questions!

1. What do you do when you go to a job fair and nobody there has heard of Graphic Design?

2. What does it really mean when a prospective employer says, "Your resume and qualifications are impressive, but we decided to go with a candidate more in-line with the offered position. Please continue to apply at our company"?

# ? Jan 26, 2010 21:03

Zurich: Jan 5, 2008

GreatJob posted:

Hello! I recently graduated with a bachelor's in Graphic Design from an accredited state university program. I have two questions!

1. What do you do when you go to a job fair and nobody there has heard of Graphic Design?

2. What does it really mean when a prospective employer says, "Your resume and qualifications are impressive, but we decided to go with a candidate more in-line with the offered position. Please continue to apply at our company"?

1. Move to a different city.

2. Mind posting your portfolio/experience and what the job posting said?

# ? Jan 26, 2010 23:36

RobertKerans: Aug 25, 2006; There is a heppy lend
Fur, fur aw-a-a-ay.

You've just come out of university, this is just standard unfortunately.

Also, in specific regard to 2., if it's not a graphic design position, and you've emphasised design experience/that your ideal job involves design, there will be the [possibly correct] idea that you won't be fully comitted to the company you've applied to. If it is design, well, just keep applying. Ring them up though, and get feedback, you should do this for everything anyway.

EDIT: \|/ and yeah, there's never going to be design jobs at a uni jobs fair.

RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jan 26, 2010

# ? Jan 26, 2010 23:37

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Job fairs are totally useless for designers. Get your portfolio online and use the power of the internet.

# ? Jan 26, 2010 23:38

GreatJob: Jul 6, 2008; You did a Great Job™!

Thank you for the responses!

Here is my portfolio. Any critique? I'm certain there are things I should improve. Please tell me them.

As for the company I received that email response from, it was a marketing/promotional intern position at a book publisher. They wanted an intern who would talk to their illustrators and authors, shadow their marketing people, and also do clerical work. The email was the only response I received from them.

I have three years of experience with fine art, print design, and publishing. It was all intern work. I've been hoping to make the leap up to a junior design position, but I would settle for another paid internship.

I've gotten one interview for a full-time position and one commission since graduating in December. I am excited about those!

# ? Jan 27, 2010 02:12

RobertKerans: Aug 25, 2006; There is a heppy lend
Fur, fur aw-a-a-ay.

Add an 'about' section, put the resume and the downloadable portfolio pdf in there, add a 'contact' section, just have those in the header. Add a margin on the left hand side of the body, and use a different font. Serif would be nice, small caps for the title. For example:

code:

font-family: "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, Palladio, "URW Palladio L", "Book Antiqua", 
Baskerville, "Bookman Old Style", "Bitstream Charter", "Nimbus Roman No9 L", Garamond, 
"Apple Garamond", "ITC Garamond Narrow", "New Century Schoolbook", "Century Schoolbook", 
"Century Schoolbook L", Georgia, serif;

or if you want to keep it cleaner

code:

font-family: Frutiger, "Frutiger Linotype", Univers, Calibri, "Gill Sans", "Gill Sans MT", 
"Myriad Pro", Myriad, "DejaVu Sans Condensed", "Liberation Sans", "Nimbus Sans L", Tahoma, 
Geneva, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

There are other things like not using tables at all, and maybe dropping the font size a little, but that would immediately do a basic cleanup.

RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Jan 27, 2010

# ? Jan 27, 2010 10:19

some dillweed: Mar 31, 2007

some dillweed fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Dec 22, 2023

# ? Jan 27, 2010 15:50

GreatJob: Jul 6, 2008; You did a Great Job™!

Thank you RobertKerans! I want to keep it sans serif. My print promotional materials are set in Kabel, not a websafe font at all, so I knew Helvetica would be all right for the website. What is confusing is I'm being told to use a different font, and then the exact same font I think I specified is in your list of suggestions. Is there something in the code telling the font to default to something else on other computers?

Thank you for pointing out the email error, Some dillweed. I appreciate it!

I would like to have a more standards-compliant and attractive website! Keep the suggestions coming! I don't know how to use anything other than tables as of yet. Looking at the Wordpress theme modification tutorials linked earlier on, I know where I'm going to head next.

I will incorporate some suggestions for a duct-tape fix now and consider others for my final website.

# ? Jan 27, 2010 19:42

RiceTaco: Jul 15, 2003; by Ozma

Your resume off of your site... needs to be redone. It needs to fit on 1 page. If I try to fit everything on one page to print, it's too small. If I try to print it on multiple pages... that's 3 pages! A HR manager would easily toss out a resume like that without even reading the first line.

# ? Jan 27, 2010 20:55

GreatJob: Jul 6, 2008; You did a Great Job™!

RiceTaco posted:

Your resume off of your site... needs to be redone. It needs to fit on 1 page. If I try to fit everything on one page to print, it's too small. If I try to print it on multiple pages... that's 3 pages! A HR manager would easily toss out a resume like that without even reading the first line.

Thank you! I changed it to my HR-friendly version.

Let me know what you think.

# ? Jan 27, 2010 22:00

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

Put your resume in HTML on your site as well.

# ? Jan 27, 2010 23:18

RobertKerans: Aug 25, 2006; There is a heppy lend
Fur, fur aw-a-a-ay.

GreatJob posted:

Thank you RobertKerans! I want to keep it sans serif. My print promotional materials are set in Kabel, not a websafe font at all, so I knew Helvetica would be all right for the website. What is confusing is I'm being told to use a different font, and then the exact same font I think I specified is in your list of suggestions. Is there something in the code telling the font to default to something else on other computers?

Emm, okay this is going to be pretty long for what is essentially a fairly minor issue, buut:

The preceding fonts in the stack are better choices the Helvetica/Arial, but not everyone has them on their computer, so the browser will just go through the list of fonts until it hits one that is installed on the computer. Helvetica doesn't look great as body text, it can just be a fallback option. ALSO, if you do want to keep a short list of fonts, put a newer Windows font like Calibri, in front of Helvetica/Arial — they look better onscreen, though they're noticably smaller.

To expand from this. If you can hack a little more work and you want the typography to match [or at least get as close as you can] to the Kabel used in the resume:

What this will do is tell the browser to load Kabel (or similar). If it (or similar) are not installed, it will use a font file available on your website. Failing that, it will fall back to the default.
go to http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface
download (get kit) the 'Comfortaa' font in the sans-serif section. It is possibly the closest to Kabel (though there are other options, this is just as an example), and will allow the typography to somewhat match your resume if you want it to, and if the user doesn't have Kabel installed.
UPLOAD THE VARIOUS PERMUTATIONS OF COMFORTAA (or whatever you d/l'd) TO THE SAME DIRECTORY AS THE PAGE

at the start of the

code:

<style>

section, copy and paste this:

code:

@font-face {
	font-family: 'Comfortaa';
	src: url('Comfortaa_Regular.eot');
	src: local('Comfortaa Regular'), local('Comfortaa'), 
local('Comfortaa_Regular'), url('Comfortaa_Regular.ttf') format('truetype');
}

@font-face {
	font-family: 'Comfortaa';
	src: url('Comfortaa_Bold_1.eot');
	src: local('Comfortaa Bold'), local('Comfortaa-Bold'),  
local('Comfortaa_Bold'), local('Comfortaa_Bold_1'), url('Comfortaa_Bold_1.ttf') format('truetype');
	font-weight:bold;
}

Replace font-family{whatever} in the <style> section with

code:

font-family {Kabel, "Kabel LT",//Ideal font - will need variations in name, eg Kabel LT
Comfortaa, //replacement font
Calibri, /* common, fallback font, matches size with my Kabel, but Segoe UI might be a 
better match, if not very readable. Also, a common linux font could be included, eg "DejaVu Sans Condensed" maaaybe */
Arial, Helvetica, // default common fonts, should Kabel not be present, and  @font-face not supported
sans-serif // final fallback  }

Possible extra fonts to stack: "Futura Std", Futura, "Gill Sans Std", "Gill Sans",
"Trebuchet MS", "Fontin Sans", "Fontin Sans Rg", "Segoe UI". Some of them will have slightly different names which will need to be googled to check. But these should take up [approximately] the same amount of space on your page regardless of which font is displayed, and keep the look the same.

RobertKerans fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Feb 1, 2010

# ? Jan 28, 2010 20:41

LEFTENANT RIGHTIE: Dec 29, 2008; LONGWINDED MISOGYNY GIMMICK

(sorry, long winded rambling. Nothing like waiting for college replies :shobon:

)

LEFTENANT RIGHTIE fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Jan 30, 2010

# ? Jan 30, 2010 05:54

Shnooks: Mar 24, 2007; I'M BEING BORN D:

I have a few questions for someone studying/getting their masters in museum studies or curatorial studies, or currently working in position similar to that.

Anyone here doing that? I felt this was the best place to ask. I'd rather speak one-on-one so if you could PM me or Email me that'd be rad as hell.

Edit: Its about Grad school

# ? Jan 31, 2010 22:10

zaepg: Dec 25, 2008; by sebmojo

I'm currently still a High School senior trying to pick out a school that would best fit my needs. As a long-term future in art, I can see myself getting a degree in education. But until then I want to build experience, freelance a bit, specifically doing work in the digital arts.

I'm considering SAIC
The environment is amazing. It's a nice name drop school. And from what I've heard there are a lot of art opportunities there. The only problem is that it's a liberal arts college. They shy away from any digital art majors. But would that really make a difference? Everyone starts with a BFA at any art college. Right? So spending the first two years here wouldn't be any difference degree wise than going to another art school. I'm still getting the same thing.

What kind of work will a BFA get land me? Do most people hiring graphic artists, animators, ect rely on a Portfolio or a BA in something like Graphics Arts?

Thanks to anyone who can help

zaepg fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Feb 4, 2010

# ? Feb 2, 2010 04:04

GreatJob: Jul 6, 2008; You did a Great Job™!

Thank you for the suggestion, qirex, it is something I'll definitely incorporate. Thank you for further explaining, RobertKerans. I totally appreciate the time you took to explain that concept to me.

For now, I'm going to teach myself more about coding and will return when I have a better website. (I appreciate further suggestions!)

# ? Feb 2, 2010 20:49

RiceTaco: Jul 15, 2003; by Ozma

So I manage to get a freelance gig at a graphic design studio to gain that all important "agency experience" every job ad seems to demand. Supposedly after 2 weeks, if I fit in with the company I might be offered to stay full time. It's been 3 days so far and I'm already dreading to go in due to possible exploitive work environment. Hell, even if they do offer the job to me, I might just turn them down.

So what are signs of a poorly run studio exploiting poor whiny designers?

Here's what I have encountered so far...

- Art Director that barely does any directing at all.
- They want everything done as quickly as possible. I was given a project (Motion Animation in After Effects). I'd say with the amount of work, with proper planning and resources, it would probably take a team of 2 or 3 to finish in a week. They expect me to finish it in a day, despite me telling them doing this kind of work is tedious and time consuming. They think it looks easy by looking at videos (pretty sure they never dealt with Motion Animation as they mostly deal with print).
- I manage to pull off 30 seconds of animation in about 9 hours, after busting my chops and taking no breaks, I was told to pick up the pace.
- They didn't even have After Effects! I have to work on my MacBook Pro.
- Pretty sure they want me to redo their website in Flash within the 2 weeks. The examples they showed me what they're aiming for is way too complex and advanced for me to do.
- Small studio... about 10 people. I only met half of those people as the other half is up stairs. As far as I know... I'm maybe the 3rd or 4th designer. I'm the only designer that knows anything beyond Photoshop and InDesign.
- Some of their files... using Illustrator to do layouts.
- Helvectica on everything! I know it's the world's most popular font, but using it all the time is just lazy.
- When I interviewed for the job... it went pretty bad as they looked uninterested of what I had to offer. It only lasted 10 minutes! I was surprised they called me back a few days later to do freelance.
- From what I overheard and evidences on the work computer I'm on, they've gone through lots of freelancers (probably with the same agreement of a possible full time job after 2 weeks.)
- I sent my resume to this place 5 months ago and they got back to me this month. Supports my theory that they've just been going through people quickly. Possibility from designers being burned out and/or people quiting?
- They have large quotes plastered all over their offices. Two of the quotes near me are not very inspirational. One basically sums up to don't complain about not having enough time. And the other quotes sums up to don't gently caress up and do it right the first time. Not to mention poor typography on these quotes... They need to work on their kerning and hanging punctuations.

Only positive thing I can think of is that their office is pretty cool. So... are all design agencies are like this? If it is... god drat, I'm switching careers or sticking in-house.

RiceTaco fucked around with this message at 10:14 on Feb 4, 2010

# ? Feb 4, 2010 08:19

Jabe: Nov 18, 2006; APPLE IS A SHIT COMPANY GOD I WISH THEY WOULD JUST GO DIE OR SOMETHING JEEZ

^^ Welcome to the advertisement business

# ? Feb 4, 2010 11:24

Alien Lollita: Jun 6, 2009

I'm attending a school that's considering eliminating figure drawing from their curriculum because it doesn't fit the art department's philosophy. (The Sistine Chapel isn't art.) Before this happens, I want to transfer somewhere that doesn't write off representational drawing as trade, but gives you the option of pursuing a non art related degree at a related institution. I've been considering the SMFA in Boston/ NEU, but can't tell whether the SMFA is just as wrapped up in the conceptual art fad as my current school. Anyone have any experience with the place?

Alien Lollita fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Feb 5, 2010

# ? Feb 4, 2010 20:39

qirex: Feb 15, 2001

RiceTaco posted:

Only positive thing I can think of is that their office is pretty cool. So... are all design agencies are like this? If it is... god drat, I'm switching careers or sticking in-house.

The agency environment is not for some people. I am one of those people and have never regretted it for a second.

# ? Feb 4, 2010 23:42

Alterian: Jan 28, 2003

Some dillweed posted:

Game Industry stuff

[/jibba jabba]

Studios really don't hire pure writers to do design work. A lot of the time game designers are artists or programmers first. Writing for a game is a lot different than writing for a short story. You have no idea how frustrating it is to work with a game designer that doesn't have a background in art or programming. They usually have no idea what is actually possible to do in a game and ask for the most ridiculous things with no grasp of how long it'll take to do them.

# ? Feb 5, 2010 15:24

Beat.: Nov 22, 2003; Hey, baby, wanna come up and see my etchings?

Alien Lollita posted:

I'm attending a school that's considering eliminating figure drawing from their curriculum because it doesn't fit the art department's philosophy. (The Sistine Chapel isn't art.) Before this happens, I want to transfer somewhere that doesn't write off representational drawing as trade, but gives you the option of pursuing a non art related degree at a related institution. I've been considering the SMFA in Boston/ NEU, but can't tell whether the SMFA is just as wrapped up in the conceptual art fad as my current school. Anyone have any experience with the place?

If you're serious about doing graduate work with figures I'd suggest looking at cali schools that cater to the entertainment industry as that is where I hear my cohorts who are really good talking about. Be leery of rankings and consider your goals as an artist and teacher. If you live in LA (and maybe Chicago or NYC) you can go to figure drawing sessions every day of the week and get your skills that way, or study with a serious figure or portrait artists (which is basically what I do now.) Figure work is strong but I havent heard of a lot of MFAs that push it - but an MFA is for teaching. After I got to a certain point in formal schooling I really started to feel like I was being limited by schools "approach" to teaching figure drawing. Apprenticing with a real artist has put me in a much different space and really helped me take it to the next level. That is just my experience tho.

Figure work is, in my opinion, an art that is dying that has so much knowledge in its training methods that will probably be lost in the next 100 years that it's worth learning about now. So I feel you -- but an institution is probably not the best place to learn -- it takes too much time, and too much structure, and there are just so many different ways to go about doing it. My teacher/artist right now went to LA academy fig art. and speaks highly of it, but I don't even think they're accredited.

And I know people with great reputations who just kill it with figure work 24/7 and how did they get there? pure hard work, many of them without degrees, just going to figure drawing sessions and drawing all the time for years and years in their teens/twenties

# ? Feb 7, 2010 08:20

zaepg: Dec 25, 2008; by sebmojo

I felt I didn't specify my question as well in the previous post, so here it is a bit more refined -

I will soon be starting college, and I'm split minded between two different career paths

The First one is the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Route
The Idea is I would go here. Pursue a general BFA, while freelancing in digital art around the city. Ultimately, later in my life I would focus on a more sustainable career and major in Teaching.

What I Like: Chicago is a beautiful city, and I've heard many good things about it. Also it's a wonderful name drop school.

What I'm Nervous about: I want to focus on digital art. While I don't plan on making a permanent career on this. I'm afraid that by going to a purely liberal arts college such as SAIC, and getting a general BFA. That I'd be hindering my ability to find work in the computer/graphic arts field. And instead would best benefit by getting a BFA in a major such as Graphics Design or the such, at another school.

Should I go to a college that offers majors in digital art? Do those hiring look heavly for BFAs in the field of graphic design/animation and the such?

SHORT VERSION
Would I be better off getting a general art education, and freelancing my skill in computer art? Then moving my way into majoring teaching?

Or should I focus my energy first on majoring in graphic design, then transition into teaching?

# ? Feb 7, 2010 22:30

Slashie: Mar 24, 2007; by Fistgrrl

zaepg posted:

I felt I didn't specify my question as well in the previous post, so here it is a bit more refined -

I will soon be starting college, and I'm split minded between two different career paths

The First one is the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Route
The Idea is I would go here. Pursue a general BFA, while freelancing in digital art around the city. Ultimately, later in my life I would focus on a more sustainable career and major in Teaching.

What I Like: Chicago is a beautiful city, and I've heard many good things about it. Also it's a wonderful name drop school.

What I'm Nervous about : I want to focus on digital art. While I don't plan on making a permanent career on this. I'm afraid that by going to a purely liberal arts college such as SAIC, and getting a general BFA. That I'd be hindering my ability to find work in the computer/graphic arts field. And instead would best benefit by getting a BFA in a major such as Graphics Design or the such, at another school.

Should I go to a college that offers majors in digital art? Do those hiring look heavly for BFAs in the field of graphic design/animation and the such?

SHORT VERSION
Would I be better off getting a general art education, and freelancing my skill in computer art? Then moving my way into majoring teaching?

Or should I focus my energy first on majoring in graphic design, then transition into teaching?

If you want to Teach you are going to have to stop Capitalizing random Words. And using sentence fragments.

Graphic design, like pretty much all creative careers, depends on your portfolio. Do you feel you can teach yourself enough digital art to put together a professional-caliber portfolio by the time you graduate? A fine arts education will give you fundamental skills a lot of other graphic designers won't have, but I can't really say whether that will put you ahead of the field in the graphic design world. I will say that a teaching degree won't make you as skilled a teacher as just majoring in what you want to teach. You'll probably need an MFA to be a teacher most places anyway, so at the very least get your BFA in art, instead of "art instruction" or something like that.

Also the SAIC is a great school and a lot of the kids I knew who went there had very fine digital portfolios. If you really like Chicago you could also look at Columbia College, which is a little less academically rigorous, but has a strong focus on digital arts.

# ? Feb 7, 2010 23:00

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# ? May 16, 2024 20:19

some dillweed: Mar 31, 2007

some dillweed fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Dec 22, 2023

# ? Feb 8, 2010 17:12

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Career - School Advice, Creative Career advice and Full Time Job Postings

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