Where all the Design Students at?

April 23, 2007 3:25 PM

Which Bay Area college has the best Design program?

Pursuing my Bachelor's degree: The longest ten yeas of my life!

I'm going back to school to finally get my degree in Design and Marketing, but I don't know who's hot these days. MeFi Design community, who has the rep? Who has the hot teachers, the daring programs? Which school is churning out the movers, the shakers, the innovators?

Informed opinion, rumor, speculation, hearsay, gossip, and, yes, even facts are appreciated.

posted by lekvar to education (7 comments total)

I would avoid Academy of Art with every fiber of your being. This opinion, formed after taking one workshop there, was echoed by a half dozen graduates and former students and faculty whom I know and work with.

I think CCA (ex-CCAC) is still the best design program in Northern California. The cross-disciplinary nature of their design and art programs is a HUGE boon to anyone working in real-world design. All of the CCA/CCAC graduates I know are very happy with their time there and every one agrees that their educated has served them well (and they also, incidentally, are all doing really good work and making a good living).
posted by luriete at 4:06 PM on April 23, 2007

As a professional designer in the Bay Area for over 12 years, as a sometime instructor, and as a CCAC graduate, California College of the Arts (CCA, formerly CCAC) has the best graphic design program. The school is deeply intwined with the local AIGA chapter. Their curriculum produces eventual creative directors, not just mere designers. All the teachers are active professionals and very involved in the design community.

Two negative things that I will say: CCA's interactive curriculum isn't enough; they need to expand on it more. And they're less of a technical school and more of a conceptual school. If you want to learn programs like Photoshop or Illustrator, this is not the school for you. If you want to learn how to problem-solve and create concept-based design (not just print, but environmental and interactive), then CCA is the school for you.

I've seen books from Academy of Art students and--as a generality--there is no soul or thought to the work. It's all slick and polished, but there's no thinking.

Also be aware that design and marketing are two different disciplines. You will not learn marketing at a design school.
posted by lunarboy at 4:31 PM on April 23, 2007

I have also heard very nice things about CCA, but lunarboy has more of a detailed sense of "nice things" than I do. I'm just relaying design snobbery to you second hand. My boss taught there.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:46 PM on April 23, 2007

CCA(C) and SFAI are the only two art schools in the Bay Area worth considering. SFAI can be highly conceptual, and I think their rep is more of a fine arts school, whereas CCAC has been focusing its efforts on design with its San Francisco campus.

There's also San Jose State, which isn't an art school, but they have a good design program, and I'm sure given its location, has good ties with industry. It'll be much, much cheaper, too.

YayHooray also had a short thread on CCA recently.
posted by hobbes at 5:35 PM on April 23, 2007

I'm going to fifth the CCA call. When I worked in high-end design-y publishing in SF, their's was the only expo our art directors and creative directors would go to; needless to say, many of our designers were CCA grads.
posted by juliplease at 7:40 PM on April 23, 2007

I was going to say CCAC too, even before I saw the chorus.

I also hear there are some pretty interesting colleges springing up in Emeryville / Oakland, with majors like "moving graphic design" if I remember right, aimed at the animation and film studios in Emeryville.
posted by salvia at 9:54 AM on April 24, 2007

A millionth-ing the Academy of Art as a giant red flag waving NO! Don't go there!

Incidently, I dropped my class and withdrew from the semester yesterday. I took the advertising creative I course already having a pretty extensive design background, but wanted to have some more practice at the marketing/concepting side of things.

I could write a million reasons why that class, and the college itself, is a big bad joke, but what would be the point of reliving a pain in my ass? Take my word for it and don't find out for yourself. Please.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:35 PM on April 24, 2007