Today the written notification from the arts center arrived -earlier than expected which tells me that i´ve finished the diploma to 100% now!!!
for those who would like to know more, this was my practical diplomawork:
The twilight angelheart
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I found this interesting article when i do researches for my written examination:
so what are you Ego or the devil?
by David Barringer
Myths of the Self-Taught Designer: The First Conversation between Ego and the Devil
Has the American All-Star Marching Band of Grandly Sweeping Rhetoric left the building? Yes? Good. Let’s narrow the spotlight, dismantle the podium, and quiet the crowd. Let’s see who sits at the table. Ah, yes. It’s Ego and the Devil.
Ego: Hi. I’m a professional designer. I have a degree and several years experience in the field as well as in academia.
Devil: I’m the Devil.
Ego: The Devil? Sure. You mean you’re a self-taught designer with no degree and no teaching experience. You have a slipshod portfolio and a part-time job. To compensate for a lack of expertise, you have, Rand help us, enthusiasm. You are an amateur. You do not have the soul of a designer.
Devil: Well, actually, I have a couple—
Ego: Please. You lack seriousness.
Devil: I possess the artistic impulse, which depends, first, on a capacity to destroy and, second, on a desire to create. To create is to exercise power over oneself and over one’s environment. I wish to leave evidence that I existed, that I affected the world in some way. Even a doodle says, “I was,” and, “I made this.” You can choose to be a doctor, but you can’t choose to want to be a doctor. I could be a doctor and help people, but I would be miserable. I want to make things. I want the power to destroy and to create. I’m the Devil.
Ego: I had to go through design school to get my degree. You’re trying to strike a pose without doing the work. You’re a fake. You don’t have the chops. You’re an imposter. You haven’t earned the name.
Devil: Many design students skate by, too, without doing much work. That’s true of any student. Grades are the answer to this, but once you have a degree, you’ve got a degree. Success then depends on luck, networking, will power, and skill. Amateurs may indeed have the chops. What, after all, is the difference between independent work in a school setting and independent work in a home studio? You may be motivated by mentors (professors or online pundits), but in the end we all have to motivate ourselves.
Ego: Maybe there should be a different name, then. You can’t be a real designer unless you have a design degree. Maybe those with degrees should make degrees more significant.
Devil: You already do this to an extent by employment requirements. Academic posts require a degree. Larger firms require degrees, experience, a certain skill set for a certain job.
EGO: Then where did these self-taught amateurs come from? How do they survive?
DEVIL: Blame the desktop computer for enabling the amateur designer. Blame the small business for relying on the amateur designer. Blame the market, basically, for creating the technology and the incentives that give rise to the amateur designer.
Ego: Exactly. Amateur designers take work that professionals should be doing, and we’d be doing it better.
Devil: Amateur designers often do work that professional designers don’t want to do because the work pays peanuts. And, let me tell you, one thing amateur designers struggle to do at this level is to educate these smaller clients about what design is and why they need it. This is thankless and unrewarding work. Hours, days, weeks later, the amateur designer may be left without even a measly business card to design. Quite frankly, you don’t want this heartache. A more interesting question is how many degreed designers you need at a particular design firm. Can you get away with hiring non-degreed designers for certain kinds of work? Web designers must perennially update their skills by attending the latest software seminars. It’s possible firms don’t need that many degreed designers.
Ego: I shouldn’t have to compete against those who don’t have to pay off student loans.
Devil: Parents can subsidize design students as easily as design amateurs. Design students who graduate debt-free are as entitled to their degrees as anyone else.
Ego: But amateurs haven’t committed to the craft like we have. They’re just dipping their toes. They’re not serious. They can walk away at any time. They haven’t suffered!
Devil: You can walk away, too. Times are tough. Everyone’s fighting for jobs, especially in the world of graphic design, in which expensive print and collateral projects are first on the block for cost-cutting. A personal note: I went to law school, and I’m still paying off the loans. I have a degree and a state-bar membership, neither of which I use, which is like buying a very expensive holster for a gun you never intend to acquire, let alone fire. No one sympathizes with the devil. I understand that. Still, my desire does not depend on a degree. I wanted to learn design, and I have begun the long process of self-education (or maybe I should call it “self-motivated education” ) and will continue to learn what I can. My legal education, on the other hand, stopped after I passed the bar exam. The degree is a proxy indicator of commitment, but not the thing itself. Desire, devotion, performance, production: look to the worker and to the work, not to the credentials on the door, for evidence of seriousness.
[To be continued ...]
