When I was in design school, the woman that taught our prepress classes was amazing (she owns Phases Design Studio)! A lot of designers really don't get the technical side of things and their eyes kind of glazed over when she talked. She also held people to strict, high standards and that put a lot of people off. After I got over the initial fear of her because of rumors of how mean and unfair she was, she quickly became one of my favorite teachers ever. She has such a wealth of knowledge about how computers worked, prepress issues, design sense, font problems, etc. I used to love picking her brain.
I remember a piece of advice she gave in class one day and it echoed through my mind yesterday as I was dealing with yet another set of problems caused by designers that do not really understand the tools they use. "If you want to be a really good graphic designer, one of your first jobs out of design school should be in a prepress department." I received a similar piece of advice from Joelle over at Moxie Design Studios awhile back regarding being a web designer. She suggested that if a person really wanted to be a great web designer, they should start out in a web production company. Wise women both.
I guess my whole point here is that if you're going to truly master a craft, start out somewhere where there are lots people who have been doing it a lot longer than you and be open to picking up as many tips and pointers as possible. I know my thirst to understand how and why things work and my ability to ask the right questions is gaining me knowledge that, while making me a better prepress employee, ultimately makes me a better designer. It's kind of sad that we don't really have true apprenticeships anymore.
I remember a piece of advice she gave in class one day and it echoed through my mind yesterday as I was dealing with yet another set of problems caused by designers that do not really understand the tools they use. "If you want to be a really good graphic designer, one of your first jobs out of design school should be in a prepress department." I received a similar piece of advice from Joelle over at Moxie Design Studios awhile back regarding being a web designer. She suggested that if a person really wanted to be a great web designer, they should start out in a web production company. Wise women both.
I guess my whole point here is that if you're going to truly master a craft, start out somewhere where there are lots people who have been doing it a lot longer than you and be open to picking up as many tips and pointers as possible. I know my thirst to understand how and why things work and my ability to ask the right questions is gaining me knowledge that, while making me a better prepress employee, ultimately makes me a better designer. It's kind of sad that we don't really have true apprenticeships anymore.
Name: LaDonna
