756 Days

It has been 756 days since graduating, yet, I’ve been struggling with my identity as a designer well before then. For twelve months I was enrolled in Digital Design, an intense diploma program at the Vancouver Film School. When most people hear “film school”, they automatically assume that my program of study was film — even when I preemptively tell them that I studied digital design. When they proceed to ask me what digital design entails, I answer: “similar to graphic design but with more emphasis on interactive and motion graphics”.

From day one our instructors began teaching us how to use Photoshop, Premiere Pro, HTML and CSS while we took classes such as history & appreciation, storyboarding and user experience. A quick two months later we moved onto Illustrator, Flash, ActionScript and After Effects with typography, project management and contemporary design courses. We spent four months consumed by the world of motion design as we dove deeper with Cinema 4D and other advanced techniques. In a matter of six months we had been taught how to do nearly all the disciplines one could fit under the umbrella of digital design. Yet it felt to me as though there were some important steps we’d missed while leaping so fast from program to program.

It was only after six months that we began taking electives such as print design, creative direction and online magazine. In our print design course, we were introduced to grids, hierarchy, scale and other fundamental design principles. In our creative direction course, we were pushed to fill 100 sketchbook pages with creative exercises that encouraged us to think beyond our technical skills. In our online magazine class we learned to use design as a way of storytelling and think of concepts outside of the box. This was when I began seeing design in a whole new light; we had spent so much time learning how to create that we didn’t have a chance to ask why.

The first day at VFS, when asked why we had chosen digital design, 90% of my classmates attributed their decision to an interest in motion graphics (myself included). I think most, like myself, were drawn to the alluring flashing lights of motion design, which I now see as having similarities to Hollywood in the film industry. What I’ve now come to realize is that even attempting to even learn one of the disciplines of design without prior design education is unattainable for most. Attempting to do so is almost like being taught to run while only just beginning to crawl: execution before concept, interactive before print design and essentially digital before analog. One might expect digital to come first in a program called digital design, but I always expected design to transcend digital.

The relationship that our mind has with paper has always been stronger than with that with machine. You only have to look as far as Saul Bass and Paul Rand to understand the importance of drawing to design. While the computer has opened up so many wonderful possibilities, at the end of the day it is only a tool. Perhaps rather then focusing so much on technology, we need to step back and spend time learning how to think. I was so fortunate to have a few teachers who were able to plant seeds during my time at VFS. However, since, I have had to do an enormous amount of growing outside of the classroom. This is not to say that I have not sought guidance throughout my period of growth; the designer whose teachings I come back to the most are those of Milton Glaser, who never ceases to challenge my mind.

It was only after graduating that I began thinking differently rather then just looking at things differently. For me, it was typography that has allowed me to visualize and express these new ideas, and my sketchbook that has allowed me to organize and archive them. I have begun exploring words rather than pictures, theories rather than styles, and books rather than websites. Visual communication should be as much about sociology, anthropology and psychology, than it is about typography, photography and videography. While some have used the term “design thinking” to describe this process, I believe that thinking should always be implied when we talk about design. A good designer needs to be rational, insightful, empathetic and creative while understanding the relationship between form and content.

It has not come easily, but I now feel as though I can confidently call myself a designer. I still have numerous skills to refine, habits to acquire, ideas to analyze and disciplines to explore; which is what makes design so exciting. I have learned that what is important is not only the process taken to become a designer, but also the continued process of being a designer. Borrowing from the words of Milton Glaser, “none of us really have the ability to understand our path until it is over”.

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