an open letter to visual communications students at harford community college*

*and any other design students who happen to stumble across this blog.

Yesterday's post from me was about connections, and about how valuable those connections (although virtual) are to me personally. But connections work both ways, and this week I find myself listed as a reference for this week's assignment for Visual Communications students at Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland.

So, welcome my young friends - you're very welcome here. But I do notice (from my statistics) that you're not hanging around for long. That either means that you think you have nothing to learn from someone like me, or you're out getting yourselves wasted and saving up your assigned work until the last possible moment. My first piece of advice to you is: that's not a wise strategy if you want to transition your studies into a design career.

But the best piece of advice that I can give you is to learn to love typography. It's not easy, I know - especially when you're young and hot with hormones. I thought it was the most boring thing I'd ever encountered when I was your age (except, perhaps, double-entry bookkeeping). It may have been my tutor, though - he certainly didn't have the presence (or the beard) of your Professor Kenneth Jones. Or maybe I just started out with the wrong font - Univers. The most unforgiving typeface of them all. But I stuck with it and plodded on (well, I am a Taurean) and gradually I came to like it, and eventually - after ten years or so - to love it.

And the reason you should learn to love typography - and all things type - is that, should you follow a design career, the only thing that will remain constant over the years ahead will be type. Everything else will change - and change several times over. And you will need to accommodate and make those same changes yourself. But if you love type, you'll always find a way to make that happen.

So, good luck with your studies. And don't be shy - drop me a comment and let me know what you think.

(Oh, and one last piece of advice to the student at bottom left: lose the hat.)

Comments

[minxlj]

Excellent letter, and you can be sure that the good students WILL listen to it it says.

8 years after graduating, I know now that the few of us who studied insanely hard, listened intensively to advice from 'elders' (LOL) and didn't spend our time getting wasted (i.e. didn't have much time for a social life), are the only ones now actually employed in design.

Some students dropped out after a couple of years; some didn't even get a design job, and some dropped off (were kicked off) the course before we graduated. It says a lot about how hard we had to work, and also how much we love our careers. Fickle youngsters just won't make it, it's the 'nature of the beast' in this industry; but also the ones who think they know it all will be the quickest to find out they don't...

[Richard]

A bit harsh on the hatist David, I like it.

[davidthedesigner]

OK Richard, if you like the hat so much I dare you to wear an exact replica on your trip to London on 14th December (or December 14, if you're reading this in Harford). Let us all know how you get on.

Seriously though, sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

[Ben]

Err, I don't get it?

[Youssef Sarhan]

Thats a nice quick to the point blog post.

thanks