What I wish I knew before I started Design School.
Carleton University Industrial Design graduates reflect on what they have learned and what new designers should know before starting their degrees.
Being a recent graduate, September has been a bittersweet month so far. There is the relief of not paying another year of tuition, excitement of working in new and challenging areas, and the opportunity to finally explore the design world. But being a new graduate also has led to a lot of reflection on what I have learned in the last 5 years while completing my university degree. Design school, like many other programs, see’s itself as the most difficult of all degrees. It is challenging and rewarding- knocking you down with each all-nighter and building you up with each strong design critique. In many ways, it forms you as a person.
Thinking back, there is a lot that I wish I knew before starting my design degree: assume painting models will take twice as long as you think it will, don’t be scared to take time to get work experience, don’t be discouraged by your amazing classmates. But no two students experience university the same way, and they all walk away learning different things. In that spirit, this is a collection of hard-earned wisdom from students of the class of 2017 on “what they wish they knew before starting design school”, and what they want to share with incoming students (or students heading back this fall).
Be open to the Design Process
Do not cherish your ideas and designs. Be proud of the work you do, but don’t be afraid to share your ideas with others, be open to constructive input. Often times your idea/design becomes better when you share with others and collaborate. — Virosh Rangalla
Be courageous and show your work to your studio professors. Its easy to work away on your own and not discuss your project with your instructors, being worried they will state their dislike or ask you to change something important. Besides they don’t understand YOUR project! However, they often are more interested in helping you overcome your problems then disrupting your work. So don’t be scared to talk to them, the better they know your project the better they will understand it and help you with it. And finally, you are NOT obligated to do everything they say, but at least you’ve explored all avenues, and you will feel you’ve done your best at using the knowledge available to you, which is just like how it works in the real world! — Brendan Langley
Your best work is when you fall in love with a project, not when you follow your professors every suggestion. You will learn more when you take risks throughout the design process and try difficult problems that excite you, rather than playing it safe. Even if it doesn’t work out perfectly, you’ll have lots to talk about why you explored a concept when you talk to other designers when interviewing for positions, and you will develop a more mature ability to critique your own work. — Caroline Smeenk
As you go through the program you’ll experience, learn, and understand everything from pulling straight lines, making perfect circles, understanding how things are made and manufactured, and even how products are sold to market. Be open to all stages of a design process because in the real world.. you realistically do everything. — Muriel Revisa
Document your work… just do it!
If only I had found a way to document my work/projects early on. Too often, I was spending more time than necessary assembling boards after the final design and renderings were finished. Working in a live document and updating it regularly would have saved me heaps of sleep! — Evan Halasz
I wish I knew the importance of recording every single phase during the design process. Those phases and details will show people your thoughts and workflow. This can be added to enrich your portfolio. At the same time, do not be too obsessive about a single phase or detail. Designers always lack time, we have to learn to let it go. — Zheming Zhou
Use your time wisely, and take your time in school
Utilize your time as effective as you can. For example, it could be working on a personal project to hone your skills, taking classes during the summer to free up more time for studio when the school year begins, or taking a year off to pursue multiple internships. Don’t feel rushed to finish in 4 years, its often times better to take time off school, and use it to work on your portfolio/get some work experience. — Virosh Rangalla
When it comes to us designers, nothing is ever “perfect” and we will never stop tweaking our designs. Often times, we become consumed by the project at hand. By the time you are almost satisfied with your work, you realize that you have no time to write that essay that’s due in 3 hours. Before starting ID, I wish that someone would have taught me the importance of learning how to manage my time when tackling multiple projects from different classes. — Jaden Zhai
You only get small taste of what the design world has to offer during your time in university. School teaches you the fundamentals in traditional product and user experience design but you can only understand what stream of design you want to pursue once you’ve had real world experience. Try to get as much experience as you can through different internships and freelance work so you have a good idea what you want to do after graduation. Get working! — Patrick Kidney
Be open to what is going on in the design world
Don’t underestimate the importance of exploring other mediums or areas of design. It’s easy to get caught up in a specific style and feel stuck, but the beauty of design is how versatile it is. Always look for new ways to be inspired — blogs, podcasts, pinterest, dribbble, etc. You can’t force yourself to be inspired or have an ‘ah-ha!’ moment, and it can be frustrating to feel uninspired. Keep your eyes, and your mind open — you never know what will inspire your next project. — Amanda Spilchen
Follow design trends and consume design media. Read blogs, listen to podcasts and watch documentaries. It becomes immediately apparent when people don’t know what is going on in the world of contemporary design and will help you immensely in school and when you enter the workforce. It doesn’t matter what areas of design you are interested in, styles you find appealing or designers you are inspired by; consuming and design media is always beneficial. Besides, this shouldn’t feel like a chore, you went into Industrial Design for a reason! — Evan McDougall
One of my major struggles in first year was to consider how to make a product stand out by allowing it serve it’s purpose while bringing meaning and beauty to it. If I could go back to when I started school, I wish that I had looked up professional industrial designer’s, graduates, or even current student’s portfolio’s to broaden my view of design and understanding of how to make product’s aesthetically appealing, or how to portray my work so that is easily understood. — Vincere Ip
Take the time to explore who you are as a designer
Something I wish I knew before entering design school was the many opportunities this program opens up to an industrial design graduate. As many people say, you’ll never follow the same path.. it’s 100% true in design school. As a practicing designer, you should always have an open mind to what your future may hold, and use school as a time to understand your strengths and weaknesses, and your likes and dislikes. — Muriel Revisa
Be selfish at times. School is one of the best opportunities to make projects that you want before the work world forces you into your client’s projects. Take advantage of the time to inject as much of your personal style into your work. — Mia Muscroft
Going into design school I had zero knowledge of Industrial Design nor would I actually listen to advice. If I had to say one thing to someone that most likely won’t listen: it’s experience design for what it does, not what school makes it into. Applying that to projects will take you beyond guidelines and into a little trouble, however it will take you further in the future. — Alex Levstein
You don’t need to be the type of designer that your professors thinks you need to be: it’s okay if the direction you started out in or that your school encourages isn’t the path that you start to move towards. Exploring and opening up to UX and research has allowed me to love design more than if I had tried to fit into the mold of a traditional industrial designer role. — Caroline Smeenk
Learn how to sell yourself as a designer
Use the power of social media to promote your work. Something I didn’t realize until my later years of university, but it is very very useful to promote your work through social media sites such as Behance, Pinterest, and/or Instagram. It can lead to future opportunities from something as small as being featured in a design publication, to something as big as getting a job opportunity. Our industry is very much reputation base and making a name for yourself is important! — Virosh Rangalla
[Later in school,] Think about your portfolio as a sales pitch, it’s not a scrapbook- it’s a sales deck. Put the work in that you want to be doing not the work you don’t. If it’s furniture put in furniture, if it’s shoes put in shoes. A company is going to be looking for applicable skills, if you don’t want to be doing or don’t see yourself doing a thing, don’t include that thing. — Paul Williamson
Take time for yourself
Always take time for your preferred de-stressing activity, even when it seems like there isn’t any time for it. For me and many others that is especially true for physical activity. There are so many great options for convenient and inexpensive physical activities at University right at your fingertips. If you make time to fit something in then your productivity will increase such that even though you have less total time to work on projects, it will feel like more! Everyone knows about the benefits of stepping away from work and exercising the body and mind in a different way, but it’s all too easy to say ‘I don’t have time’. I know from experience that finding that time will improve your work and general happiness noticeably! — Brendan Langley
It’s okay for bad things to happen or to make mistakes- as long as you learn from them; you only have to arrive to a review late once to know where you went wrong and what you can do going forward to not have that sinking feeling ever again. Taking the time for your mental health, not beating yourself up when you make a mistake, and accepting and learning from failure will make you a more resilient designer and person. — Caroline Smeenk
Hopefully, some of this will help now, and some of this will help later in school too. If you are graduated or on your path in school, take the time to reflect, and please comment what you wish you had known when you started school. From the Class of 2017, to all new students, we wish you the best of luck this year and we hope you enjoy this crazy, and amazing journey in design school!
