Attending an art school, I always wonder where the balance between learning technical skills and learning how to develop a creative mind lies. Our school is known to be 'conceptual' rather than 'technical'. A lot of students I know tend to see the term 'conceptual' as bullshit, they prefer learning skills like how to use Adobe Creative Suite in Vis Com, Final Cut Pro in film or different types of camera in photography. But if the class is all about skills, why not just buy a thick guide book from Borders?
I think that skills and creativity are equally important. Skills are the basic requirements for one to look for jobs. From articles and interviews I looked at, many successful designers started out doing plain technical things. Things like doing layouts designed by senior designers, simpler tasks like creating brochures. But once you move up, the creative mind becomes more and more important since you are the one who makes decisions such as brand development and corporate identity. This is particularly true in theadvertising industry, you must have a solid concept to start off and then communicate that to the wider audience.
I suppose this is one reason why I am majoring in Visual Communication Design. I find a nice balance in skills and creativity in this particular department at SAIC, which I don't find in other Fine Arts departments. I once heard a professor saying that you can graduate with a BFA in painting from SAIC without knowing how to paint. That I find funny but sad and true.
Image by Victor Maury for SAIC T-shirt contest
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