Background Check
Background Check
Background Check
6 Oct 2003 — 3 Comments
An enlightening conversation with my wife yesterday after church has led me to confront some inner-thoughts of envy that I perhaps did not realize I was struggling with.
Before going too far, I need to stress that this is not some haunting issue that keeps me awake at night, rather a subtle thought that does nothing more than possess the power to steal creative thought when I least expect it. We'll say that discussing it here can be part of the "healing process" and perhaps an encouragement to other designers out there who may be in the same boat. That said, let's embark on our journey with a little secret that most of my clients probably do not know.
I have no degree.
For that matter, I have no high-school diploma. I never graced the halls of design school, and I've never had any formal art training.
For my part, I read a great deal. I subscribe to all the right publications. I'm a card-carrying member of AIGA. But I've never been to school. At least not in the way most people go to school.
I attended Big Spring Elementary in Richardson, Texas through 5th grade before a seasonal move to the remote mountain ski village of Red River, NM prompted my parents to teach me at home. I certainly wasn't going to complain. Attending public school, I routinely finished my work ahead of time, and now I could simply convert all that "free-time" into time on the slopes.
After returning to the Dallas area, the decision was made to continue schooling me at home through middle school and to see where it went from there. While the whole subject of alternative education truly deserves it's own explanation and breakdown, this is not the time. I'll save that for another entry, but will go so far as to say that for me, it was a good thing.
I began voluteering a day a week at the media department at our church when I was twelve. It was a larger church (5,000 members), so the media department was fairly well developed. I knew Photoshop (then versions 2 and 3) frontwards and backwards by age 15. By age 16, I was working 30 hours a week creating newsletters, presentations (Aldus Persuasion, anyone?), and brochures.
After my time there, I worked off and on over the next several years for another non-profit designing and illustrating hundreds of pages of public-school curriculum (ironic, isn't it?). From there, it was a web company, and not too long after that, my first company (Pure Imagination Studios) was born.
"On-the-job" training has been wonderful to me. Since I was 16, I have had wonderful opportunities to design at a more-or-less professional level, and I feel my skillset has developed well through the years. But I still have no degree for what I do.
At this point in life, I truly have no desire to go back to school, and certainly don't have the time for it. Our work schedule at Firewheel is loaded, and we are blessed with wonderful clients.
But I do wonder, what did I miss? What connections would I have made? Who would I have met? What would I have learned? And I see the student work in the design annuals and ponder if that could've been me. Admittedly, I am envious at times.
Sadly, envy does nothing more than steal time from myself and steal joy from someone else concerning their individual journey. We've all traveled our own unique roads and arrived at different places at different times. This is what makes the design culture special.
Do you believe in fate?
For my part I do. And I am extremely grateful for the road that has been mine. My lack of formal education lends itself to a unique set of circumstances for my life, and there is an adventure in that for me to find. Hopefully, by keeping this at the front of my mind, I can avoid the traps of comparing my circumstances to those of another. This is not complacency, but a desire to grow where I have been planted.
james says
coming from somebody who spent 12 years in public school, and then another 4 at Pratt Institute, and completed a degree in graphic design this past spring, i can categorically say this: you didn't miss much.
and as for those annuals? student work mostly isn't very good. student experimentation vs. real-world understanding generally means bad design. that, of course, is why the teachers teach and the students hopefully learn, and also why so many profs seemed reluctant to show students their work: they'll make us look bad (which we are), and we would inevitably copy them in seeking a good grade. we also incorporate good design into our bad stuff to make it better, and thus we are "inspired").
however, engineering students don't design bridges, full-fledged engineers do. the students understand this. but design students think they're amazing and think they can build bridges as good as anybody (be it openly or subconconsciously). and they (i should say we) almost always fail, but still they want recognition in the annuals. i just wanted to get the F*** out of Dodge (aka NYC).
Josh Mormann says
I too got into the world of graphic design, and web design through non-traditional methods. I started as a graphics assistant to my father (a technical writer) almost 10 years ago, and it has taken off from there, by my learning and putting into practice everything I can along the way.
I've seen work from many graduates from excellent schools that don't even come close to what I've seen on your two sites. Just your implementation of Moveable Type knocks my socks off. Simple, elegant, new.
I believe in Fate as long as it doesn't rob self mastery.
Roger says
I'm a successful designer who never graduated from University (dropout) and who never took an art class while there. I don't think we missed much, unless wearing a lot of black is your thing.
Look at it this way: a lot of people spend a great deal of money and a lot of their life in school. A lot of them aren't as successful as you are, I'm willing to bet, and you (if you're like me) have the satisfaction of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.
I don't regret my path in the least