William Patti
Equinox Staff
In the past century, especially since the boom of the Internet, graphic design has run to the forefront of artistic media and has become one of, if not the most, sustainable occupation in the arts.
Graphic design as a college major has become exceptionally popular. Although this might seem like an easy way to make money off art, to those looking to make a quick buck off of their artistic skills: Becoming a professional in this field requires dedication, creativity and the patience to modify small and meticulous details that may go unnoticed to the untrained eye. Due to the tedious work required to succeed in graphic design, it has become known as one of the most sleepless college majors.
According to an article in Trillioncreative.com, “The best logo designs require the most work. The moral of this logo design story is this: be prepared to give the creative process ample time. Not too little or too much. At Trillion, expect the logo design process to take 3-4 weeks to be completed, start to finish.”
Based on this statistic, for some projects graphic design majors may be cramming three to four weeks of work into a two to three week period, resulting in very little time to complete it properly, which leads to students staying up late into the night regularly to stay up to date and maintain their work’s quality.
Graphic Design professor Randall Hoyt said his projects take some time to complete, “My classes generally start off with sort of week-long, I wouldn’t call them projects, but exercises, then ramps up to two weeks, and then moving on to three weeks… they get more in-depth. The longest project we have is a semester. The illustration class did a whole book, which was split into smaller sub projects.”
“Project length is extremely variable, but I tell my students that if they think they work hard now, it just gets harder… People think they’re just going to get out of here and work less, and some might, you know, but the ones that advance their career are working into the evening. A lot of studio cultures, if you leave by seven, people give you funny looks because you’re not working hard enough,” Hoyt said.
A senior in the graphic design major who asked to remain unnamed commented, “I came into this major not knowing how much attention to detail it truly required. My senior year in particular has required the most work, as expected, and I would say I typically spend 5 hours a day on projects and usually stay up late modifying the smaller details.” This student also said, “Freshmen year was definitely the year I got the most sleep, as I’ve progressed through this major the work has gotten more and more intricate and requires much more time to complete.”
A Keene State first-year in the graphic design field declined to comment. Based on the information gained through the research cited and the interviews obtained, it is clear that graphic design is not only a sleepless major, but a sleepless career.
William Patti can be contacted at wpatti@kscequinox.com.
