‘What they didn’t teach you in design school’

    After looking at the essential reading list, I decided to look into this book: ‘What they didn’t teach you in design school’. There are a lot of things we’re taught; techniques, process, materials. But what to do with that work afterwards is often neglected. Pages 103 & 104 stood out to me the most: ‘Experience: more important than grades’. I am heavily influenced and motivated at the thought of what grade is possible for me to get or what grade I have recently received. It has always been very important to me since, although we are told it isn’t the most important thing, obviously has some importance to it or a grading system wouldn’t exist. However, once out of an educational facility it no longer really matters. These pages highlight the importance of quality over quantity. The quality of our work is much more important the amount produced. Learning the balance of a grading system that is important now but in a few years no longer will be, is quite a difficult idea to grasp and work around.  

                The second part of this book that caught my attention was page 31: ‘The importance of being proactive’. One line in particular was the focus for me; “To get results, you have to put the effort in; you only get back what you put in”. That sentence is quite important to me because it’s essentially what I work by. It links well to another point on page 104: “I may not be the best, but I will outlast everyone”. These two ideas together, to me, are fundamental in an educational facility. With wanting to be a teacher, essentially, I am trying to ‘practice what [I] preach’ and this book is a great example of how is best to work through your life.

(Cleaver, 2014)

Cleaver, P. (2014) What they didn’t teach you in design school: [what you actually need to know to make A success in the Industry]. Cincinnati, OH, United States: Writer’S Digest.