FIDM?

March 11, 2007 2:59 PM

Should I go to FIDM for graphic design?

Currently I'm a second semester Freshman and a California State University. I've heard great things about our design program and it's supposedly not that easy to get into, but I'd like to transfer my junior year. I'm 100% sure I want to study graphic design.
I went to FIDM in San Francisco with a friend who is interested in attending and I found out they have a graphic design program. It looks like the type of program I'm looking for and I'm especially interested in their career center which, so I'm told, is a great resource as far as finding jobs within the industry.
So has anyone gone/had friends that have to FIDM? If not FIDM, what other schools have good graphic design programs? Or should I just stay at my school?
I've heard that when hiring graphic designers school doesn't even matter much, it's what your portfolio looks like. Is that true?

posted by ad4pt to education (14 comments total)

If it helps, this is where my best friend is headed this fall: The Portfolio Center. Their two-year design program is all about the portfolio---no degree is offered.
posted by changeling at 3:42 PM on March 11, 2007

Well, what kind of design do you want to do? Do you want to work in fashion? Do you have any idea what you are interested in?
posted by miss lynnster at 5:28 PM on March 11, 2007

I've heard that when hiring graphic designers school doesn't even matter much, it's what your portfolio looks like. Is that true?

that is true, all I look at when hiring a graphic designer is the book, but you have to be in the right place to be able to gain the knowledge to understand what great work is. a great college will give you lots of knowledge you did not expect to get out of it - the stuff you already know is important will come anyway.

portfolio center is a good school, as is pratt, as is risd, as is my alma mater, art center. since you are in sf and accd is in la, I'd suggest you go on a daytrip and check that place out. I would consider all schools I just mentioned in a league far above fidm, no offense, in both the educational value and financial commitment required.

get a copy of the ca graphics annual and check out who you like. see where these people went.

again: I am biased. I went to accd and I consider them top of the line.
posted by krautland at 5:34 PM on March 11, 2007

I went to ACCD a bit too, but I couldn't afford a degree (most of my friends that went there had between fifty to over a hundred thousand in student loans -- I just couldn't do that). I'm actually walking proof that it's your portfolio that matters & not a degree. But I took the hard road. I started out by doing typesetting and working at print shops, I did production, I retouched movie posters, I did ANYTHING that was given to me & tried to learn everything I could. I read books, took classes and worked my rear off to figure out how to be better and faster on the computer than anyone else I knew. By the time I took a photoshop class at Art Center, I could've taught it. I worked loooong hours and I paid my dues a million times over. In some ways it made me a better designer in the end, but in some ways it didn't. I still get insecure, even though my work has been featured in design books and design magazines. (There are moments where I still feel like I'm fooling people into thinking I'm a professional... even though I've been doing this for 15 years.) Fact is, the only reason I ended up having the confidence to take the leap from production artist to Art Director was because I got carpal tunnel and knew I couldn't spend so much time on the computer -- my arm was going numb -- so I started taking more concept work.

Anyhow, nowadays those efforts are definitely paying off, but there are times where I wish I could've taken things a little easier in my 20s & spent more time in school just absorbing. I was busy being obsessed with paying rent and trying to educate myself enough to overcompensate for my lack of degree. I mean, I knew I wanted to be a designer before I was even in high school so if this career didn't work out I had NO idea what I'd end up doing with my life... all I knew was that I definitely wasn't made to be a stay at home housewife. Thank God I ended up becoming a pretty decent designer after all. Phew.

Art Center is wicked pricy, but I'll agree that it's definitely a top of the line (if intense) school for design. I hear RISD is pretty good. Actually, Cal State Fullerton even had a good reputation for a while.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:04 PM on March 11, 2007

P.S. -- The people who will be hiring you? They just want a design machine who can come in and give them something the client will love. If you can do that (on time & under budget especially!) they could care less where/if you went to school or if you were raised by wolves in the mountains. If you make people money, you solve their problems without drama, and your work makes them look good... you are an asset & they will want you there.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:07 PM on March 11, 2007

between fifty to over a hundred thousand
I graduated with about 130k. that's a lot to worry about when you get out and it certainly hurts not to have that cash around when SM begins coming after you but I think it paid off for me. I'm four years out and the debt is gone.

miss lynster: there are different levels of designer out there. I don't think your last remark ("They just want a design machine") is a fair bottom line for the industry but more of an adequate assessment of entry-level positions. accd is a way to bypass a lot of the "paying your dues" part. it enables you to develop enough of a professional portfolio, work ethic and grasp of relevant issues to move directly to a design management position. it sets you up to be leading more than executing yourself within a few years. not everyone will make it, just like in any other industry, to a top-level position at a place where your creativity and oversight are really valued (i.e. pentragram, landor, stardust, motion theory and all those joints) but a ivy-league place like accd should stack the cards in your favor.

ad4pt: the one question you have to ask yourself, no matter which colleges you end up looking at, is this: can this place equip me with what I need to outdo everyone else in my field? there are a lot of people you will be competing with and a lot of them will be very passionate and very good. make sure you find a place that allows for and fosters your professional growth. it is your responsibility to try to get as much as possible out of any place (i.e. pickin the right classes, working hard) but the place you choose is key in the first place.
posted by krautland at 8:08 PM on March 11, 2007

Actually, the "design machine" comment came more from the environment where I worked in Los Angeles. And I wasn't entry level. It's just really really competitive there. I was a design machine, even when I was a Sr. Designer of Toy Packaging at Disney.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:45 PM on March 11, 2007

Toy Packaging at Disney.
case in point.
posted by krautland at 10:10 PM on March 11, 2007

Exactly. (Although gee, that sounded like an insult. Having Mauschwitz on my resume has opened many great doors for me, though.)
posted by miss lynnster at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2007

I'll go ahead and put one more vote in for Art Center. I'm currently a photo student there, but have been dabbling in the graphic design program here and there. From what I've seen, the work of my peers is pretty interesting stuff. The program is intense for sure and you definitely learn a lot. But like other schools, it's also what you make of it and how much you put in.

There's also a teacher that is a legend amongst us here called Roland Young. I'm pretty sure that his class is required for first term. And if you somehow find yourself not in it, make them put you in. The guy will open your eyes. Go here to get a taste of him...

If you have any questions I can answer,feel free to hit me up. I can also give you the contact info to a couple current students who'd be happy to let you know what life at Art Center is like. Good luck!
posted by arishaun at 11:20 PM on March 11, 2007

Oh my god. I just had a serious Art Center flashback.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:46 AM on March 12, 2007

I didn't mean it as an insult to you. but I've met the eisner-iger-clan and I know why I ran.
posted by krautland at 7:15 AM on March 12, 2007

I ran too. But like I said, it still opens doors years later. It was good experience.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:50 AM on March 12, 2007

yes, roland is god. we had the best fights ever (and he loves me to death for those). but for the record: he's great when you get in, he wakes you up. don't make the mistake of taking him over and over again though, he's a one-or-two-time experience.
posted by krautland at 8:51 AM on March 12, 2007