Pratt and Learning ‘Alot’..

It’s the beginning of a new semester here, a new 5 months in the city for me too. It’s a whole new lot of things.

I’d like to think things’ll just get better each semester, and they are. Pratt has definitely put me on course with wanting to create an absolutely wonderful career in design by making that oasis vision more feasible in terms of the skills and know-how. It’s also given me the chance to be around some amazing professionals in New York City and

learn quite a bit just from the -not exaggerating- pearls that come across. Graduate school is a whole new studio culture too, even though I miss the familiarity of a cozy undergrad studio with the rest of my studio mates (aka husbands and wives), grad school snatches you out of the kiddie pool and throws you in the deep end of the solitary designer workspace, where you reconnect with your brand new studio mates on the occasion of presentation on the most part.

Of course, if you’re friends you’d tend to hang out anyway. However, the studio culture of endlessly working around each other is near non existent.

A hefty reading list comes with any grad design program. As I’ve been making my way through the reading lists, ironically the book I’d mostly recommend was under ‘suggested’ reading for my past semester’s Vis Comm class. I’m picking this suggested reading over the other required reading for the class simply because every designer planning to make the switch from student to professional should read this.

Also, the most eye opening statement that is true in designing for today’s market (quote by my current Vis Comm II professor Graham Hanson):

“I always thought the most creative good design would be what it takes. But it’s not like that with markets. It’s all about efficacy. Look at Tropicana for example, they had to switch back to their old packaging since they stopped selling orange juice.”

May I add to that that aside from the somewhat generic use of Arial rounded MT bold.. I liked the new Tropicana package. The problem I believe was gearing away from such a traditional looking orange juice box and moving away from the homey feel. Modernizing isn’t always for the better, and even a traditional look can be good design.

That’s it for today’s design ramble.