Are placements beneficial for everyone?

If Uni courses are anything like the ND course I am on atm then the reason why projects take so damn long is because they want you to document everything. Its ridiculous, where in the real world are you expected to write 20 pages explaining your research? o_0
 
mrp2049 said:
I am starting to think in any practical discipline, placement should be a mandatory part of a degree! It would help as it would give you experience, an openning to the industry and real time experience.
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Maybe they should just make it mandatory that the lecturers/tutors have to take a placement then some of the fundamental gaps in the information taught can be filled. :D
 
dont get me wrong, it is beneficial in the long run. Doing development helps you think clearer about your process, which is very important and I don't think as a first/second year you have the ability to juggle the ideas clearly enough to just 'do it' and get the best/very good result.

I just think it would be a better approach to prepare students for the working world, and then they/we/me/you would be less 'rubbish'.
 
Tom Sound said:
Maybe they should just make it mandatory that the lecturers/tutors have to take a placement then some of the fundamental gaps in the information taught can be filled. :D
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most of my tutors had industry experience, some more than others, perhaps it was the approach of my uni? But they wanted us to learn more about how to design, rather than how to survive in the professional world.

I know loads about typography, colour theory, psychoanalysis, semiotics...because of uni, but everything I learnt about colour separation for screen printing (now, thankfully a lot), cmyk prep, web coding...I have done after uni.

It seems that a better realationship between agencies and uni's wouldn't hurt in the slightest! I realise there probably aren't enough agencies in the country to have every student for a long period of time, but it would be easy enough for them to have one every month, and then atleast they could get a look in.

Its a little bit of a blue sky idea, but it would be nice, although it doesn't really effect me any more!
 
My tutors were still working :)

Probably half the reason we only had a couple of lessons a week :p
 
actually a few of mine were still working, the full timers/senior lecturers were older, 50ish and wanting a more normal life. My principle lecturer had a wealth of experience, but he had gone full time as a lecturer because he wanted a more normal life for his kids.
 
I would love to take 4 weeks off work to go and do a months placement at a studio somewhere but i dont think my wife or employer would be too happy with me doing that. Its the experience I need though. I have 7 years of working in the real world but no design experience. I have over 4 years printing experience and 3 years IT experience but freelancing as a designer is hard when you want that studio time to see the processes, see how other designers work and get some good stuff to put in the portfolio. I have been emailing studios for some time about maybe some freelance jobs that I would do for free or just someone I can ring as ask for help, but no-one seems to want to help so I would say 'YES' do a placement if not for the experience but for the contacts as well.
 
Tom Sound said:
One of the worst issues is when they are creating large format artwork for A0/A1 or bigger prints at 300 dpi, as they've been told to for printing(in general). This is much too high and everything takes longer for them to work with at this resolution, just more stress when they're already burning the midnight oil to get stuff finished. Files saved in RGB etc. simple stuff really.
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Tom, what do you mean by this is there a better solution when designing for large format... Is the best way to use low res jpegs until the layout is right, then switch with high res tiffs? That's what I do anyway!
 
allyally2k said:
Tom, what do you mean by this is there a better solution when designing for large format... Is the best way to use low res jpegs until the layout is right, then switch with high res tiffs? That's what I do anyway!
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That's fine if you're working with single images and you can just drop the hi-res version in before you go to print,the main problem they were having is creating massive photoshop layered files working at 300dpi where with inkjet output you can safely go down to 100dpi, even as low as 80 dpi for some images and still get fantastic quality print. An A1 file in CMYK at 300dpi is 265MB, add a few layers to that and you end up with an unnecessary amount of added time trying to work with the file. I usually set my artwork up at 110dpi, and in contrast an A1 would be 38MB.

Another good tip if you've got a huge photoshop file you need to save or send somewhere is to save it as an EPS with jpeg compression. The key is to save it as a maximum quality jpeg. When it's uncompressed the compression artifacts are pretty much invisible. Especially when inkjet printed, you won't see the difference at all. I did some banner artworks last week to be printed in Milan which were 5m x 1m, the artwork at 110dpi in their layered form in photoshop saved at a file size of 888MB flattened size of 442MB, saved as an EPS with Jpeg maximum compression they were 59MB, much quicker to upload :D
 
From my point of view, as an employer, placement experience is extremely important and invaluable.

If I was interviewing someone who had placement experience and someone who hadn't, I know my preference would be for someone with placement experience (obviously this depends on a lot of other factors too).

Unpaid placements are frustrating for students, but it is an investment in your future. We can only receive so much training from university - work experience in the industry is SO important. If it is at all possible, get a placement with a company that is willing to invest time in your developing your skills!
 
Interesting discussion. Not sure if this is a national (UK) or local scheme but I've been looking into a Graduate Internship Scheme that's running at the moment.

It's a scheme to get graduates work experience in various industries, and sounds a good deal for small companies. Basically each internship is for a min of 4 weeks and a max of 6 months, companies don't pay anything to the graduate for up to 30 hours a week. The graduate gets support from careers services and can claim job seekers allowance whilst on the placement.

Not sure this is a great deal for the graduates to be honest but does make it easier for small companies to take on placements with confidence. Is something I'm going to look into when I get my premises sorted, as I could do with an extra pair of hands but my workload is a bit too sporadic to employ someone at the moment.
 
There is a scheme called Go Wales, which is similar to this, 10 week placement and you get PAID!!

There aren't many placements, and there are LOADS of applicants though.
 
Second year graphic design student in France I would love so much to do an internship in the UK. The only obstacle is that I am Russian. Do you think I have any chances to find a crazy design agency to be bothered to help me with the visa?
 
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