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militarygrade
Apr 7, 2011
I like writing. I study BA English Lit at University College London. I write lots of creative stuff, have performed at festivals, have had a job copy writing while living in Berlin. Right now, I'm trying to work out how I can turn my enjoyment of writing into freelance paid work, to remedy the crippling costs of London town.

I am putting together a website that showcases my writing so far, but ANY advice that anyone could give with regards to monetizing my creative medium and turning it into something more that just a hobby.

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Gray Ghost
Jan 1, 2003

When crime haunts the night, a silent crusader carries the torch of justice.

militarygrade posted:

I like writing. I study BA English Lit at University College London. I write lots of creative stuff, have performed at festivals, have had a job copy writing while living in Berlin. Right now, I'm trying to work out how I can turn my enjoyment of writing into freelance paid work, to remedy the crippling costs of London town.

I am putting together a website that showcases my writing so far, but ANY advice that anyone could give with regards to monetizing my creative medium and turning it into something more that just a hobby.

I would also be interested in knowing other folks' responses to this.

Dabbo
Aug 20, 2010
Is it normal for an Art Institute to not require a portfolio when applying? I was under the impression that they would require a portfolio, but the place I'm thinking of applying to only requires an essay.

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost
Don't go to the Art Institute. It's a diploma mill.

Dabbo
Aug 20, 2010

pipes! posted:

Don't go to the Art Institute. It's a diploma mill.

I checked this list to check for more schools I could avoid, but the one in particular I want to go to(Art Institute of Portland) isn't listed. This is wikipedia though, so it makes sense that they'd go in and edit their name out. Is there reliable list out there of diploma mill schools to avoid like the plague?

When I went everything seemed really professional and constructive, so I guess I really don't know how to tell if a place is legitimate. Is the lack of a portfolio requirement a good warning sign, or does that usually not matter? Sorry for all these dumb questions aaaa

Edit: I'm an idiot who doesn't know the basics of Google- Apparently AI is run by EDMC which is pretty loving awful. Thanks a ton for the heads up.

Dabbo fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Aug 3, 2012

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost

Dabbo posted:

This is wikipedia though, so it makes sense that they'd go in and edit their name out. Is there reliable list out there of diploma mill schools to avoid like the plague?

You can always read the edit history and see if something shiesty went down.

Dabbo posted:

Is the lack of a portfolio requirement a good warning sign, or does that usually not matter?

Yes. Another good rule of thumb: If they run ads on daytime TV.

Dabbo
Aug 20, 2010
It kind of sucks, because a ton of people I know graduated from AIP and were really excited to recommend it to me. That and like a stupid loving dumbass I already went in and talked to an admissions counselor and got a lot of stuff set up... At least I didn't pay for anything yet :\

Blows my mind that scams like this are actually legal, but if it gets those 15 people who manage to graduate jobs at Home Depot and Toys R Us I guess it can call itself valid.

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost
I mean, an education is what you make of it, especially with something like an art education, but if the school is more focused on churning people through to maximize profit you have to wonder exactly how positive your experience will be.

Beat.
Nov 22, 2003

Hey, baby, wanna come up and see my etchings?
If you're looking at a school, think really seriously about the particular field you are interested in. Look at the faculty work - the quality of the work, and what they do on the side. Do they show? Are they represented by ->quality<- art galleries? For designers, are they associated with any well known design studios on the side or do they do design work that is noteworthy? Do they have examples of student produced work that impress you?

Look at graduates of that department. They should have online or readily available examples of recent graduate work. Do you think this is good work?

I have/had a tough time getting motivated by instructors that I feel are poor or even average artists. I can't take a teacher seriously if the poo poo they make is only, in my view, "decent." In my city we have an Art Institute and I know some of the teachers. While they're nice people, and decent artists, I definitely don't think they're of the caliber that the well known / more respected programs are able to maintain. If you're going to drop piles of cash, its worth going to a school that will provide you with faculty that are top notch, and not all faculty are once you start getting to know your field of choice.

Don't listen to the poo poo people say. Look at what they do, and the work they make. That will help guide a decision better. Every school you go to will piss up and down the street about how fantastic they are and all the poo poo their graduates do.

And for the record I definitely don't think you have to pay through the nose to be a good artist or designer. If you're motivated, the most important thing to do is be in an environment where you can make work - even if it's your own home. If you have the discipline for that. You have to make, and make, and make, and learn as much as you can about the poo poo you're making. If you're not ready for that kind of commitment, any art school is really going to be a waste of time and money.

Dabbo
Aug 20, 2010
Oh man I'm really glad I decided to do some research instead of jumping right in. My boyfriend graduated from AIP about a year ago and was only able to land a really lovely part time job that he already hates. I figured it was mostly because of the lovely job market in general but uh

He showed me his portfolio he put together from all his college work- about 60% of it was ~whimsical~ stick figure drawings that barely took up the pages at all. Like he had some pretty good and inventive design work but the majority of his portfolio was loving crude stick figures that looked like notebook doodles. This is what he graduated with. :psyduck:

I obviously don't have an art education, but my immediate thought was "wow how do a bunch of stick figures show for years of study? How the gently caress did this not get him chewed out by every professor he had?" And holy poo poo, apparently portfolio review was just a few professors flipping through your portfolio, giving you a 1-10 score and a sentence or two of their initial thoughts. That's all the loving feedback he got. And none of the comments he got were constructive, just poo poo like "cute drawings, I like youre(sic) use of color."

I guess as great as his education at AIP was it wasn't quite enough to tell him "hey every nerd whos read xkcd is going to try the quirky stick figure bullshit, employers will laught you out of their office." Also he can't draw anything that isn't in a super simplified style where everythings drawn in a crude 'loopy' way or a vectorized basic shape with a UuU face on it. Ask him to draw anything a bit more complex and he won't be able to do it and make a million excuses. I mean I like his work but he was literally trained to never ever challenge himself or improve.

I might be biased here, but my boyfriend's not an idiot, and he worked his rear end off through his college career. But apparently(he admits this himself, now that he thinks back on it) you can cruise through if you just crank out any assignment they give you, memorize the very basic rules of art/design, and show up for class. They don't actually make any attempt to help you improve and rarely give you any critique or criticism. This is loving toxic as hell, especially for a kid out of high school who doesn't know how important those are.

All our other friends that went to AIP have even worse portfolios. All of them are employed a year out of graduation, but none of them actually have decent jobs. Christ. They're up to 100,000 dollars in debt and this is what they have to show for it.

Sorry for this long off topic wall of text, but I guess if anyone comes in curious about art institutes this can serve as a warning. I'm really glad I asked questions instead of getting too excited about potentially going back to school.

Dabbo fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Aug 3, 2012

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.
I went to a top notch design program, and we did a lot of drawing, and the professors told us off the bat to knock off the anime/fantasy/bullshit and actually learn how to draw. You'd get called out if you had "unicorns and other fantasy bullshit" in your class sketchbook.

If the instructors aren't forcing you out of your comfort zone, then they aren't teaching you anything, in my opinion. What's the point of taking drawing classes if you're not learning how to draw stuff beyond your signature stick figures and anime? I mean, does your bf have other drawing stuff like life studies, still lifes, perspective drawing, etc in his portfolio? If the school can't even help their students generate quality portfolios, then it's a sucky school.

Also, when you're visiting these schools, I'd highly recommend breaking off from the canned tours and wander around the studios and talk to the students and look at their work. I way learned more about the schools I was considering from poking around the studios than from tours and meetings with admissions people.

Dabbo
Aug 20, 2010
Actually his big thing was retro 50-60's stuff. In school he found out he really liked simple, bold graphics like those of Saul Bass, but rather than have it hammered into him that he still needed to learn the basics, he was able to cruise with just "ok i need to think of a relevant, easy to draw shape i can throw together in illustrator." Like, the design work(that isn't stick figures) he has in his portfolio is really well done imho, but at the same time it alone just shows he's *really* good at making simple shapes and arranging them neatly.

Basically he spent $60,000+ to play on fancy equipment for a couple years while never being forced to step out of his comfort zone. He would have gotten far more out of an Associates from the community college half a mile away, and not nearly as huge of a debt.

It really blows that he had to learn this way, but I guess it's a good thing I was told about all this before we were both saddled with impossible debt.

Aaargh I just want to go to school why is there so much poo poo like this

Magic Pus
Mar 28, 2010
Ok, here's my two cents as a RISD grad. No matter how good of an art school you go to, you are going to have a very difficult time finding gainful employment, let alone employment in your field. This isn't meant to discourage you- I have no regrets about going to RISD- but you need to consider your motivations. You're absolutely correct that if you're making lovely work after four years, you've wasted your time. However, even after attending a school that guides you to making phenomenal work will not necessarily land you a job. Most of the most talented artists I know and graduated with are either unemployed or marginally employed. They keep plugging away and hopefully things will turn around. I would also like to point out that the best artists can be the worst teachers and visa-versa. What's important is that a teacher recognizes what you're aiming for and helps you to better articulate it rather than impose their idiosyncrasies on you.

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost

Dabbo posted:

Basically he spent $60,000+ to play on fancy equipment for a couple years while never being forced to step out of his comfort zone. He would have gotten far more out of an Associates from the community college half a mile away, and not nearly as huge of a debt.

It really blows that he had to learn this way, but I guess it's a good thing I was told about all this before we were both saddled with impossible debt.

Aaargh I just want to go to school why is there so much poo poo like this

Being able to abstract things down in a Saul Bass style is great, so long as you have a comprehensive understanding of how this abstraction works. If you're just parroting without context it's just going to always be a case of monkeys and typewriters to see if you make something that works.

Similarly (and this is my own personal opinion), relying on personal style is a bit of a crutch. While you might be able to really focus your craft, you're basically banking on being the best in a self-carved niche, and a lot of potential work might pass you over because your style is too specific.

As for school, some really good advice I actually heard here years ago was to take your annual tuition and divide it by the number of days spent in class. It really helped to ground the cost and gravity of schooling. Another good idea was to treat your classes as 4 years working for a client, and not 4 years experimenting. It really helps learn good working habits and train up your professional approach to things.

ass cobra
May 28, 2004

by Azathoth
Does anybody here have any experience with being an agency freelancer?

I'm going from a pretty drat good and respected New York and Amsterdam-based agency back to Norway now since I didn't get a renewed work visa in the US, and don't want to be full time in the Netherlands.

I would say that my experience is really good compared to what's already in the city that I'm planning to move to, and therefore I'd really like to make (Norwegian) freelancer rates moving from agency to agency and taking on projects that I really want to do.

But seeing as there are only about 6 serious and maybe 10 semi-serious agencies in said city, I'm worried about non-compete clauses and the like. Also, can I still charge normal freelancer rates as I'm probably offsetting a lot of the usual freelancing worries to my client?

I would really appreciate some advice.

SVU Fan
Mar 5, 2008

I'm gay for Christopher Meloni
Hey guys, I've been going to an art college for the last year and am enjoying it, but I am going to be moving 7 hours away to Los Angeles for a job contract. I'm only going to be there for the duration of one semester, or more likely 2 semesters, however I still want to be going to school so I don't fall behind and am still learning.

Any advice on what the best course of action is here for something temporary like this? I'm not looking for a 4 year curriculum, but rather somewhere that will take me as a temporary student of sorts and not make me waste the whole two semesters on low level pre-req classes.

The only real requirements I have is that I don't want to be taking the classes online, and it needs to be FAFSA supported.

This is for 3d modeling, but ideally I want to fill my semesters with something like 1 sculpting class/1 lighting rendering class/1 figure drawing class/1 texturing class or something similar. Hopefully this isn't a ludicrous thing to be expecting, but it would be really really awesome if it worked out this way.

Thanks a lot!

mutata
Mar 1, 2003

As specific as your wants are, you'd be best served taking that money and buying some training DVDs and getting some good instructional books and self-educating for 2 semesters. It'll be good practice for after school and you have to do that anyway. Not to mention waaaaay less hassle and most likely much cheaper. The other option is a local community college but the quality of instruction and your selection of classes will vary widely.

Chitin
Apr 29, 2007

It is no sign of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
Talk to whoever is in charge of transfers at your college (dean of students?) and talk to them about your options. This is a relatively common thing, though your program is a little rarer than most - it's similar to being an exchange student, except you stay within your own country. I don't know anything about 3D courses or LA specifically though, sorry.

SVU Fan
Mar 5, 2008

I'm gay for Christopher Meloni
Thanks Mutata and Chitin. With this advice, I think I've found the perfect solution. Gnomon VFX school offers the standard 4 year or whatever major paths, but they also have something called Individual Courses that are specific to people in my position. I talked to an admissions rep, and they said that anybody that meets the skill requirements of the classes is able to bypass applying to the school, and is able to just take those classes whenever they want.

http://www.gnomonschool.com/

Rolled Cabbage
Sep 3, 2006
Does anyone have good advice about getting into copywriting?

I have been working as a copywriter, as well as doing transcreation in-house for about a year, but I am very dissatisfied with the behaviour of my employer and would like to move somewhere else.

Through my job I've developed a very large (if narrow) portfolio, but I didn't go to school for copywriting and this is my first job doing it. Is this going to harm my chances, is going back to school something I would need to do? What kinds of places should I be looking for copywriting jobs?

Vaporware
May 22, 2004

Still not here yet.
You can investigate doing copywriting on odesk or elance for a while to get some other portfolio pieces.

Spatulater bro!
Aug 19, 2003

Punch! Punch! Punch!

I'm needing some advice.

My fiance has decided to pursue a career in graphic design. She already has an MS in geology but doesn't feel it's what she wants to do with her life. She loves art and is quite talented and creative. Now she's searching for the right place to get a degree.

My questions:

1. Does she even need a degree? Would a Bachelor + Masters in an unrelated field, an impressive portfolio of artwork, and skill with Photoshop be enough for her to land a job?

2. So let's say she does need a degree, does it matter what kind? Will an Associates be worth a drat or will she need the BA?

3. Additionally, we can't spend a whole lot of money on the degree program. We're really looking into online programs. Is this a bad idea? Will most jobs frown upon an online degree, or is a degree a degree?

4. Going the online route, what do you recommend? Are there any to avoid? American Intercontinental University has both an Associates and a Bachelor online program and is fairly inexpensive. Is this college any good? What others do you recommend?

Thanks for any help.

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.
Generally in creative fields, your body of work is the most important. However, a real design degree, from what I've seen, does a lot to set you apart from self-taught designers. For example, a classmate of mine worked a couple of summers at a graphic design firm that specialized in restaurant menus. They employed mainly self-taught designers. But he quickly got promoted above them because one to two years of design school was enough to make him an objectively better designer than many of their self-taught designers. You learn more in design school than just how to make things pretty and how to use software, so yeah, a degree, while not entirely necessary, does help set you apart, especially with how many self-taught designers there are out there.

However, if your fiance really wants the design degree, go to a real, reputable design program. Many state schools have perfectly decent programs. My dad spent some time involved in the hiring process for a top notch interior design firm, and driven, capable people from state schools (i.e. [Midwest State] U.) were selected over people from online/for-profit programs every time. That's just one firm, but I definitely picked up that there didn't seem to be much respect for online/for-profit schools or Art Institute type places (if you weren't phenomenal) in general.

If I were your fiance, I'd go to a design program at an in-state public university over some online thing any day. Chances are the degree from a real university will be the better deal. It could very well be cheaper than some online thing too.

So, direct answers:

1. Technically, no, but a BA in a design field would put her above a lot of the competition.

2. I've personally never heard of any reputable two-year design program.

3. My vote would be to stay away from online stuff.

4. I've never heard of American Intercontinental University before. Google tells me it's for-profit, so I'd stay away.

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

I would consider it nearly impossible to get the level of feedback you need for design from an online school, a big part of it is presenting to groups and collecting live criticism/feedback and being able to deal with that is at least as important as being able to design the stuff in the first place.

Authentic You
Mar 4, 2007

Listen now this is your
captain calling:
Your captain is dead.

qirex posted:

I would consider it nearly impossible to get the level of feedback you need for design from an online school, a big part of it is presenting to groups and collecting live criticism/feedback and being able to deal with that is at least as important as being able to design the stuff in the first place.

A million times this. Crit was a Big Deal in design school. An hour or more of every studio class was dedicated to either group critique or work time where professors would go around and talk to students one on one about their work. Your professor can't grab some tracing paper and red-line your drawing in front of you while explaining proper techniques if he's on the other side of your computer monitor.

My professors were very hands-on, and the program in general was very collaborative. That face-to-face collaboration is extremely important for learning how to work with other designers and with clients.

Spatulater bro!
Aug 19, 2003

Punch! Punch! Punch!

Thanks guys, that all makes a lot of sense. So online is out. There's a really good community college near us that has an AAS program in graphic design and is only $80/credit. She's considering this. I know it's not a bachelor's, but at least it's something. And if she finds herself having a hard time landing a job, she can always continue on and get a BA.

Beat.
Nov 22, 2003

Hey, baby, wanna come up and see my etchings?
if you're in the sticks and there are no real programs nearby I would suggest reading a lot and working your rear end off in those community college courses

kidcoelacanth
Sep 23, 2009

So here's my deal. I'm a senior at my school now, getting a BFA in Graphic Design. My school is not known for art, and its design program hasn't been the best, but I can't really blame them for my disappointment in my portfolio to this point, because I know I haven't pushed myself nearly enough and I should be spending pretty much all my free time, you know, designing stuff. Part of it is I feel like I made a pretty big mistake in my school choice in not applying to art schools and rather more general schools with art programs (I attend The College of New Jersey fwiw, my top choice was Cincinnati (which I fell in love with (but it fell through because of money (sigh)))). I never really considered places like RISD or SCAD or Pratt because of Dumb High School Reasons and now I'm stuck with a mediocre program. But again I'm not trying to use that as an excuse for not being satisfied with my work, that's all on me. Probably also worth mentioning my portfolio's in my SA profile if you want to see for yourself.

Anyway the point of this rambling is this: Lately I've been considering Grad School a lot, for a couple of reasons: I feel like it could give me the art school environment I've been missing here for four years (in that I never really get good feedback or critique from peers, and I'm also bogged down with classes unrelated to my major a lot of the time), and I'd like to consider possibly teaching some time in the far future. I also think it could help bolster my portfolio a lot, obviously, and I'd like to do large-scale research type projects because I find those to be really interesting. My big thing in design is brand identity and I'd love to pursue a career in that, working for a brand design firm.

I've got a year or more to figure this out, but given the likelyhood of scholarships and the like being easier to find right out of undergrad, I'd like to consider these things as soon as possible (though I'm not even sure about that so help me out thread). My main question here is what are some of the better grad schools as far as graphic design goes and what exactly entails the application process, as I've really got no idea where to start. I'm going to be asking one of my professors as he's been through a lot of this before as well, but I figure more help couldn't hurt at all.

edit to add: I've already started compiling a list of schools with design programs, but I've got know real way of knowing which programs are worth checking out. I'd love another shot at Cincinnati so I know I'm going to look into that, but I want to know where else to look. I feel like being in NYC would be a big plus but I'm willing to look wherever.

kidcoelacanth fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 31, 2012

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost
A Master's degree in graphic design is about as useful as the Pope's testicles. If you're interested in higher education, pursue something you're also interested in that gives you more career flexibility (such as a teaching degree) and continue to develop your portfolio on the side.

mutata
Mar 1, 2003

It makes me sad when artists write off education that isn't directly tied to their one corner of art making. Art is informed and expanded by experience with the world in general, and a respect for knowledge and learning goes much further to making you a better designer than ~*the art school experience*~.

You would be surprised how often my Russian degree comes up in my work through no fault of my own.

Just my thoughts.

kidcoelacanth
Sep 23, 2009

pipes! posted:

A Master's degree in graphic design is about as useful as the Pope's testicles. If you're interested in higher education, pursue something you're also interested in that gives you more career flexibility (such as a teaching degree) and continue to develop your portfolio on the side.

Could you possibly go into more detail as to why a Master's in design wouldn't be useful, though? Would it just be limiting myself to one spectrum too much, or?

mutata posted:

It makes me sad when artists write off education that isn't directly tied to their one corner of art making. Art is informed and expanded by experience with the world in general, and a respect for knowledge and learning goes much further to making you a better designer than ~*the art school experience*~.

You would be surprised how often my Russian degree comes up in my work through no fault of my own.

Just my thoughts.

I can't deny at all that my learning hasn't really been as broad as it could have been, but I just don't really think I've found anything I have a particular interest in apart from design. Though that's on me not trying to broaden my interests, so really I've got no one else to fault here. Bleh.

I guess I just need to Do More Stuff.

mutata
Mar 1, 2003

kidcoelacanth posted:


I can't deny at all that my learning hasn't really been as broad as it could have been, but I just don't really think I've found anything I have a particular interest in apart from design. Though that's on me not trying to broaden my interests, so really I've got no one else to fault here. Bleh.

I guess I just need to Do More Stuff.

And that's fair enough, to be honest. And what you said about lack of effective critiques is applicable to the max.

Alls I'm sayin' is, if it were me, I'd be super wary of art schools at this point, particularly with the financial state of things. Art schools' prices are only going up and they're pumping out more and more grads and jobs are fewer and fewer, and all I've heard around these parts is that the quality of them in general is dropping as time goes on. When I look at all of that compared to the broad range of subjects you can be exposed to and pursue at a regular school, and considering if you REALLY want to set yourself apart from all those other artists you have to put in umpteen hours a day of personal project work outside of classes ANYWAY, it's almost a no-brainer to me.

mutata fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Aug 31, 2012

kidcoelacanth
Sep 23, 2009

Yeah I can totally agree with that. My whole problem for the longest time has been just a difficulty with effort in things and if I want to get anywhere in life anyway that's going to have to be the first thing to change. I mean there are fields I can look into related to what I do already like web and video stuff that I could start learning on my own (especially web design things which has been a huge hurdle because coding is loving hard god drat). I guess part of it is I don't want to miss any opportunity there might be with grad school but my plan originally was to wait a few years after I graduate to even think about that anyway.

pipes!
Jul 10, 2001
Nap Ghost

kidcoelacanth posted:

Yeah I can totally agree with that. My whole problem for the longest time has been just a difficulty with effort in things and if I want to get anywhere in life anyway that's going to have to be the first thing to change. I mean there are fields I can look into related to what I do already like web and video stuff that I could start learning on my own (especially web design things which has been a huge hurdle because coding is loving hard god drat). I guess part of it is I don't want to miss any opportunity there might be with grad school but my plan originally was to wait a few years after I graduate to even think about that anyway.

Grad school for design is only going to have you focusing on bullshit conceptual wankery, which you can totally develop in your own free time for far less money. If you're feeling that technical stuff is a hurdle and you're willing to drop the cash, why not, oh, say, go to school to learn it? Design schools are, as a rule, terrible for teaching code, and they still haven't really caught onto this whole "web design is a big loving deal" concept yet.

As for hemming and hawing about effort, I think you said it best yourself:

kidcoelacanth posted:

I guess I just need to Do More Stuff.

kidcoelacanth
Sep 23, 2009

Alright, cool thanks. Greatly appreciated :)

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

Here's some career advice I like:

quote:

Dirk Knemeyer (DK): Richard, what is the most important challenge facing the design industry right now?

Richard Saul Wurman (RSW): What it is, what it has been, what it always will be - is to do good work. That expression comes from an interview with Mies van der Rohe done late in his life. In the end, all I am ever trying to do with every project I do is to do good work. Not for fame, fortune or money. Just really to do something good. Something that is true at that moment to myself and as good as I can do at that moment. Not in the academic sense where you try to make something so perfect that you never do anything. Not the same quest for perfection, which is a very self-conscious thing. Many of the people I speak with are really serving other Gods: the God of Beauty, the God of Style, the God of Swiss Graphics, the Poster God, the God of Money, Success, Fame, Fortune, and yet there is only one God that I serve and that is the God of Understanding. If you serve that God, all the others will be taken care of. My quote is: "The only way to communicate is to understand what it is like not to understand." It is at that moment that you can make something understandable.

ass cobra
May 28, 2004

by Azathoth
For people who are into digital/web design, coding or project management, I highly recommend Digital Media at Hyper Island in the wonderful city of Stockholm, Sweden.

It's a pretty intense two year program where pretty much everything is learn-by-doing, so if you put in the work, you are guaranteed to learn shitloads from both the projects and lecturers (who actually work in the industry).

At the end of the program there is a 7-month internship where a lot of the students go to big agencies in cities like London, Amsterdam and New York, since Hyper Island students are highly sought after at a lot of the top-tier production and advertising agencies.

From what I've seen the school has become a bit more profit-oriented and may have relaxed their intake process a bit since I graduated, but I don't know for sure.

The two years are about $30 000 if you are not a Nordic resident, which I have no idea how compares to US tuition rates because socialism.

ass cobra fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Sep 3, 2012

uglynoodles
May 28, 2009


Right so I went to an open day for a college back in December and I liked what I saw, the staff were very nice and the instructors are good artists who've all worked in the games industry. I signed up and after a placement interview and brief assessment of my work, I paid for the Foundations course in Game Art with the view to progression onto the Game Design course that offers a BA. This is in the UK, by the way.

So yesterday was the induction for the students in the games department and I met a fellow student who is on said BA course. He was a bit weird but whatever, said he'd done the Foundations course I'm on last year and hey did I want to have a look at his portfolio site.

Oh my God. I think it is the worst example of a portfolio I can think of. It's like a checklist example of what NOT to do as far as I understand it and this guy got onto the BA course, a course that did list a portfolio review for acceptance onto it.

I mean it when I say this guy's work looks like that of a six year old and at least 40% of it is traced from some godawful Christopher Hart book or something. If you're curious, it is a publicly viewable portfolio so here is the link. I'm not exaggerating, and I'm worried. (Don't contact this guy either. He means well.)

I'm bringing this up because if this guy is on the course, what kind of standards do they actually have for work? I'm now afraid that if this guy can succeed that I won't be getting valuable feedback and any accreditation I attain will be functionally meaningless. I never graduated highschool myself and this is my first return to education.

The college is called Futureworks, in Manchester. It's in association with the University of Lancashire.

Basically I'm hoping to get some skills to help me gain a better understanding of what's required of a person in a creative arts role in games or film and some skills to make a decent portfolio. So I figure no matter what it'll help somewhat... But I'm nervous all the same! :(

mutata
Mar 1, 2003

I guy I work with teaches classes at the University of Utah in their game design graduate program. He teaches 3D art. On the first day of his first class, he started "Ok, let's take a look at all of your portfolios. Who's first?"

No one volunteered. He coaxed them: "Come on, we're all friends here, who has a portfolio to show."

No one did.

In the entire class of graduate game design students, no one had a portfolio...

I guess that's why they're grad students and not employed? My career advice? Don't be like those guys.

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SleeplessInEngland
May 30, 2011
What up fellow UK goon! Personally, I'd be wary of anyone who is let onto a BA course with a portfolio like that. I think if a course is that good, they'd probably have too many applicants to let someone with a subpar portfolio on their course. However, it might be worth trying to check what everyone else's work looks like, or what previous students have gone on to do after uni. Perhaps he is an outlier & everyone else on the course is awesome!

However, it might be wise to start looking at other universities, if possible. My other half did a BA in Games Design (Or games animation, something like that) and he says that you should look at some of the courses in Scotland because when he was looking, they were better than any of the ones in England.

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