Career change to graphic or web design???

nayroul

Hi all,

To summarise my current situation I have a degree in New Media and English from UL and I have been working in hospitality since graduating a year and a half ago(grateful to have a job but longing to get my life and sanity back-all weekends and hyper brides to be is quite trying to say the least!!!) My strongest skills has always been my artistic and creative abilities and I am keen to forge a career using these skills. I have always been interested in graphic design and I proved very strong when completing design projects in college. I am seriously considering going back to college as an undergraduate to study graphic design as there does not appear to be any good part time courses in graphic design out there. I have been looking at the design communications course in CIT while also considering the BA in Multimedia. I am looking for a creative course but I am also conscious that I will need to be competent in web design also and i am worried that there is not enough emphasis on web design in the design communications course.

I would be very grateful for any help or feedback as heading back to college is going to be an expensive venture and I really want to make the right decision.

Thanks a million

Deliverance

There is a growing thread on multimedia here which is worth a read. Plus there is some growing interest on the design communications course as well.

My initial instincts and opinion from experience as a multimedia graduate and from sometimes working with the design communications students are that the multimedia course is more screen based whereas the design communications course is very print based.

Both courses have a fundemental similarity in the design area. But are fundementally different via one being more screen / web based and the other being more print based.

There is an exhibition of both courses coming up soon I'll put up the dates and times once I get them.

nayroul

Thanks for the feedback, I am a little concerned that the demand for print based design is decreasing with more and more advertising becoming web based what re your opinions on the future of print design? Are you working in web design after graduating from the multimedia course?

Deliverance

Hard question to answer definitavely. From my own experience ie a Multimedia course graduate. I immediately got a 3month contract to work for a startup company of a much larger company (this ended up lasting 8months).

Once the companies different managers got to know me and my skills, I ended up doing an incredible amount of work. Each manager wanted some work done and they ended up competing with each other for my time.

I was really thrown in at the deep end but most importantly I feel that I was surprised at how much I was able to do skills wise ie:

1. I redesigned the main companies website. ('The money', main company owner had to be kept happy).
2. Worked with a sales manager on an innovative new presentation tool / content management system.
3. Acted as a mediator and troubleshooter between the start up company and their website provider which was heavily animated with Flash.
4. Was given artistic license to go out on any given day with a driver to photograph the main companies different sites to promote the main business.
5. Learned print design fast, I had to because I had to put together the start up companies advertising campaign together technically. (This involved meetings with printing companies).
6. Having learned how to produce for print ie 8ft*4ft posters, not to mention the giant balloons! Didn't have a clue but had to learn fast. The Multimedia learning was a massive advantage on this.
7. Put together a approx 50 page magazine complete with photos text etc (had to do a lot of research to put this together) every detail had to be accurate due to potential competitors in the same area.
8. On top of all that I had to do lots of small print productions for the managers in general, dockets and flyers etc. They got their moneys worth for sure.

I would say that the work that I did for this company was 75:25 . 75% was web /screen based and the other 25% was print design.

In the meantime I did freelance work for a New York Deli start up as well which was all print based, designing menus signs etc. This freelance job was all print based. The experience from the previous job helpled a lot on this job.

I would say both courses are interchangeable really as they both require a lot of tech and design experience. I would say that the difference between the two in my opinion would be that 'Multimedia' is generalised in that it teaches programming and design together whereas the Design communications would be more design and print based.

I can pretty much turn my hand to print or web based stuff quite easily. Not all at the same time obviously but If I got an offer for a job today in any of these areas I could just spent 48hrs brushing up on the area that the employer would require.