What I learned in Boating School is …
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Everything I’ve learned in Design School so far. Buckle up.
Far, far away, in a land full of tuition and potential opportunity, lay a place called Bemidji State University’s School of TAD. People from all over the world decided to pursue their hopes and dreams here … am I painting the right picture for you yet?
Confidence
I’ve been in college for five years (uff da, I know). All five of those years have been dedicated primarily to design and visual communication, which cannot be said by a majority of United States design students. Over time, I’ve ridden the rollercoaster many of us are unfortunately all too familiar with:
- Wow, computers are hard! Can I even draw?
- Maybe I’m getting good at this ‘design’ stuff?
- Okay, everyone is a lot better than me.
- Repeat.
It’s the lack of confidence lows contrasting with the feeling of being on top of the world. Neither of which usually lasts too long, but each play an important role in the crucial development of becoming a well-rounded creator. Being surrounded by this mix of talent, work-ethic, and personalities that make up your classroom makes you a better designer.
Black and White
In the beginning of my student career, the exposure to the ‘rules’ was all too apparent. Margins, leading, contrast, unity, balance, grids! You cannot break the rules! When I started at Bemidji State, the sudden exposure to lower level design made me want to scream. I remember asking my peers, ‘do you know what kerning is?’ multiple times. If a design didn’t follow all of the rules, I immediately put it in the ‘wrong’ category.
Over time, exposure, and some half-ass experience, I slowly found myself looking at these ‘wrong’ designs with a little more interest. What was the ideation and concept behind it? Could you break these rules and still have a valid design?
The lesson I learned here was simple, one that I probably should’ve known already: You cannot break those rules, you stupid design student, not until you know the rules.
Now, I am not stating I know all the rules like the back of my hand, but I feel my confidence building in the rule area (dare I say). Just knowing to be aware was the first step.
Worthwhileness
The question of whether getting a degree in design has been challenged by Lynda.com, Youtube, etc. How often do you hear of designer success stories originating from somewhere outside of college? Well I’ll tell you what, there aren’t too many. Does this mean college is absolutely worth every single penny you pump into it? Yeah, no. So the question still stands, was what I’ve taken away valuable? Couldn’t I have just Googled how to become a designer?
College taught me that indeed the answer is no. You can learn as many doors (skills, techniques, abilities) as you want, but in the end, you need to have those doors unlocked. One of the ways to achieve this is the trials and tribulations of traditional college, and without going through it, I would’ve never known that.
So, what the f*ck did I learn?
As a young designer, I have more to learn than I even know yet. In one of my current classes, I have a design management professor who told once told our entire class:
“You don’t know what you don’t know.” — Randy Acker
He didn’t want us to memorize the content. He only wanted us to know what we didn’t know, so when we needed to find it, we could. Have you ever read a word, but not known the meaning; however, you’ve heard it before. It’s easier to understand after that initial exposure. That’s the same concept Randy was applying to our management class, and it’s the same concept college taught me.
Application of confidence was just the icing on the cake to my education experience. Because I know (a lot of) the things I don’t know, I can learn where my confidence in design, and all other things, falters and address it. I can become excited about learning something new rather than fearing it and worrying about my own abilities in doing so.
So all I learned in Boating School was, well … *mic drop*.
