[ceenda]

Just for some background info, I graduated with a degree in Computer Science (nerrrrrd) and have been working for the last year in an academic research department. I'm 22. It's kinda dawned on me that programming and usability eval... *yawn*... usability evaluation of communications interface research is not my thing.

I can, in theory, still do another undergraduate degree, but I'm not sure in which subject. I'll also be paying financially out of my own pocket for it this time.

I'd like to do Industrial Design, as, IMHO, it teaches you to draw and design better than doing an illustration or graphic design degree. As far as I know, most illustrators actually did Industrial Design (Sijun regulars like Craig Mullins, Feng Zhu, even artists like Roger Dean etc.) ... and not Illustration or Fine Art.

Though in reality, I think I'd like to go into teaching art at either secondary (High School) or lecture at a college and not, in fact, freelance work.

Also, there are NO Industrial Design courses in the UK except for the Royal Academy ( http://www.rca.ac.uk ) or Coventry ( http://www.csad.coventry.ac.uk/inddesign/ugcourses-ind.htm ). That kinda sucks... as I like Scotland... :[

I guess my questions to the ID guys is:

1) Do you think artists doing an art degree (e.g. Illustration, Fine Art) can learn the principles of Industrial Design merely from books, or is it something that must be taught?

2) When working for a company that does conceptual design for films or TV, is it essential to have a degree in either Product Design or Industrial Design, or is a portfolio good enough?

Thanks for your time.

[FSME]

Oh geez, this sounds like me EXACTLY! That's scary. Ehm, except for the school part, no that's not me...

Anyways: I can't answer your questions but I DO know there are a couple more schools in the UK that teach ID (I know because I've been looking for a second undergratuate course as well) for example the University of Teesside ( www.tees.ac.uk ). They'll send you a free undergratuate prospectus. You should also check for Game Design or something like that on the other universities - most of them have ID as well (that's what I noted, myself looking for Game Design as it is).

Thing for me is that the UK is quite expensive but *freakin* Germany doesn't offer any Game design stuff at all.

EDIT: that's what I found on UCAS: http://search.ucas.co.uk/cgi-bin/hsrun.hse/search/cs2002/StateId/SEHO3Sgt7zWk_cTosa7uRiW1Vbh7w-3_Kr/HAHTpage/cs2002.Hsindex10.run?r=N&i=N&a=7

[ July 30, 2002: Message edited by: FSME ]

[Atherium]

There is alot of areas that you can grasp through books related to ID, but....ID's main chunk that seperates the men from the mice is in the design "process". Drawing skills, techniques and styles can easily be self taught. That is not why you go to school.

I am currently at www.eciad.bc.ca and getting my film degree but I was heavily weighting my life on going for ID...over time goals change.

I took a few ID related courses in my first year and every proff pretty much preached process process process, this is something that has to be tackled in a classroom atmosphere because of the diversity of having fellow classmates and their ideas either throw you off or encourage you and the knowledge your proff will have can't really be found in a textbook. Not one that I have seen yet.