Shillington College - Opinions?

They teach you how to be a real world designer, an appreciation of a wide array of design and bring you up to speed on the tips, tricks and observations real designers have learnt in their careers.

Blimey are you on commission? :p

I actually agree with a lot of what you have to say, I am constantly shocked by new designers / recent graduates who have not got a clue about bleed, quiet zone, colour mode, resolution etc. Not necessarily their fault, just doesn't seem to get a lot of emphasis especially on degree courses.

All that aside, I would *never* recommend someone going off and learning Photoshop as a way to 'becoming a graphic designer'. You know as well as I (and many others) do that Photoshop is NOT the best tool to be creating flyers / other layout work. The trouble with people learning Photoshop is it just becomes a glorified digital paintbox, sure you can create some lovely art with it but I think it stops people thinking about the print set-up side of things. I once worked with a junior designer who made absolutely divine digital art with Photoshop but once he was asked to make a brochure he went into melt-down because Indesign was so alien to him. Truthfully if were advising someone who wanted to become a graphic designer or who had a keen interest I would certainly recommend the online tutorials but a mixture of PS, AI and Indesign.

As for Shillington, I haven't got a clue but my gut feel would be that 3months is a very short time to pack everything in. Maybe good for someone who has some previous experience / knows the software a bit. My biggest concern is you simply cannot teach creativity and from what I have read they are almost promising to do that. And if the certificate isn't recognised by employers in the UK - doesn't that make it a bit futile?
 
I agree with whomever is saying that being taught 3 graphic design software in 3 months seems like not doable, but at the same time I also agree with those people who studied there and might have had a good experience, I read a blog of a girl who studied at Shillington few years ago and then became a freelance graphic designer, so that's awesome. If you read the graduates section on their site, there are many students who provide good comments about the college, I don't think all of them lied in there. I would also add that they have a part time option, with evening classes twice a week, for a total duration of 9 months. I did a Photoshop course for almost £1k, 30 hours in total and they just taught me very basically about the tool, so why would it be so expensive for a full time course, even though it lasts 3 months only. Definitely they can cover a very fair amount. Many of you complained and said to choose other courses, well what courses then? There is not other colleges like Shillington in UK, apart from Universities and Unis are more expensive and out of question for people who want a career changes. If you have good alternative suggestions bring them up, but to me, just complaining about a bad experience does not help the demand of learning people have.
 
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