One Trick Pony

Greetings all. As I'm sure most of you know by now I am a new student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I attended Butte College for 2 years before moving on to further my design career. There was a time when I held the idea of a design career as impossible, and something that really wouldn't amount to much as far as making a living. I was wrong.

During my first year out at Butte my eyes were opened to new possibilities in a field that is constantly growing. But how can you possibly keep up with an industry that has built up so much momentum? Really the answer is simple. Be as diverse as possible. Think about it, how much are you worth as a designer or as an employee if all you know how to do is graphic design and nothing else? As a designer you shouldn't stop at labeling yourself as any one thing, be more flexible. Skill diversity is one thing that is constantly preached here at AAU.

I was recently told of a student that got a job at Yahoo! some years ago. With the country's recent economic crisis the internet giant started making lay offs in the thousands, this particular designer was called in to bring his position amongst a team of 20 or so designers into question. His job was spared the first round of lay offs because he knew more than just graphic design, part of his curriculum upon graduating included motion graphics. During the second round they pitted him against several others who were motion graphic designers, he was spared once again because he was also well versed in 3d modeling and video editing. And so it all continued through 4 more rounds of lay offs, and to my knowledge he still remains at Yahoo! today. Being a multidisciplinary designer can lead you into more opportunities, makes you a more valuable individual, and can even raise your pay grade a few figures. But not all of us are in it for the money ;)

So, keep that in mind when you are choosing your classes. Maybe try everything out as long as your schedule permits, or take an online course and get certified; for those of you who haven't checked out some of the learning sites out there such as lynda.com, take advantage of them in your spare time, some of the Butte MSP courses have a membership there and you can surf it during your lab time.

Here is another blog that goes over this subject in a little more detail:

http://www.creativebehavior.com/index.php?PID=170

Thanks, and stay tuned.