As I look back on over 25 years in the professional design field, I am thankful that I have worked intimately with such incredibly talented people throughout the design business. Sure, it's nice to be considered talented myself as a designer, illustrator, and artist, but when your professional role involves working with so many different customers and specialists, you become exposed to the widest levels of creative talent throughout this business. Everyone in this field is a creative specialist in their own way, and this is a key to understanding the breadth of the design profession. It is very humbling. When I was considering my future collegiate education as a graduating high school student 30 years ago, and stated to my interviewing professor that I wanted to work as a creative person and felt most comfortable working with others, little did I know that the communal relationships inherent in the design process would be so eclectic and rewarding. I have come into many different business environments and been engaged with a wide range of design projects. I feel that I have gained immensely not just from the commissions and monetary gain I receive from my clients, but through the design process itself have learned much about how individuals think, act, and react to what they need and want. I have worked with such professionals as corporate communications project managers, marketing supervisors, brand managers, image developers, packaging experts, writers, strategic planners, researchers, teamwork developers, game inventors, and all levels of creative art personnel. We all get pleasure out of meeting project objectives, managing internal and external communications, creating presentations, educating consumers and employees, creating messages with unique visual direction, serving our accounts and customers honestly, and building bodies of work that grow and change with market conditions and stylistic trends.

This leads me to reflect on one of my insights on what defines the differences between "art" and art education, and "design" and design education. The readers and users of this article should be very clear on what the differences between art and design are and how these differences will impact your views and fitness for your future career and education options. When we think of art, especially in a simple, superficial, or naïve way, we think of individual creation, mastery of process, and individual art pieces created for the satisfaction of the artist and the joy of the viewer. The measurability of "success" is purely in the mind of the creator/craftsman and in the heart of the viewer/audience. The realities of the Design task certainly involve man's desire to create, of course, just like art, but the interests of the audience or user and the efficiency and measurable success of the product created become paramount.

Design, if we follow this introductory line of thought, involves processes and people who create for the end user rather than for beauty alone. Form follows function, as we say. Certainly the quality of 'beauty' influences why and how we choose to utilize or select one product over another, and visual aesthetics are vastly important in both the 2-D and 3-D design worlds, but 'beauty' is not the end in itself, as is defined in art-making. It is interaction between the user and the product that is of prime concern, and a never-ending process of re-evaluation, market survey, process improvement and invention energizes the design field. "Human factors" and "ergonomics" describe the way the industrial design process looks at how something works and how it can work better. "Readability" and "visual impact" describe the way designers in the print and advertising fields measure the success of their work. These analytic models are not always perfect, but they provide the design process with data in a way that is not intrinsic to the "art" process.

To understand the immensity of this huge design field, let's jump into an exercise seeing what we typically come into contact with that requires "design" during an average day. The furniture we sleep, sit, and eat on begins the day. The tools, appliances and gadgets we use to make our food, get through the working day, and entertain ourselves are all designed. The newspapers, magazines, computer screen displays, billboards, packaging, and television/movie set designs we gaze at are all designed by creative people, and many of the production supervision at all levels in everything that is manufactured requires design expertise as well. The clothing we wear and the cars we drive are giant sources of work for design professionals, and the advertising specialists who sell them. Finally, the vast complex of interactive and interdependent processes that involve the "assembly line" of manufacturing, the "farm" to "table" of the agribusiness world, and the visual planning of our transport networks and urban interfaces have increasing degrees of input from design workers.

Design professionals are the people responsible for supervising, creating, and analyzing the success of all the aspects of modern life that we come into contact with. The manufactured world we live in depends on quality and competitive improvement, and designers work within manufacturing, transportation, telecommunication, and print reproduction disciplines to improve everything we hold in our hands, read, or use around the house or business. Some of the specific designer titles I have worked with were listed above in my introduction, but the mind reels at the breadth of professional possibility both within and outside my own experience as a brief survey of design specialists will show: exhibit designers, industrial designers, advertising designers, retail designers, layout designers, manufacturing designers, automobile designers, packaging designers, software designers, web interface designers, set designers, costume designers, fashion designers, magazine designers, annual report designers, urban planning designers, landscape designers, and product line designers. The size of the field and the volume of the work involved often directs practitioners into highly specific aspects of this world of design, but many of the top names work across many disciplines, and lend their own design look or design style to mass-marketed products.

The design profession is a fast growing field. 500,000 jobs were classified by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) as "designers" or related titles in the year 2000. This was an increase of over 200% from the Graphic Artists Guild survey reports of the mid-1980s. In our information age turbo-charged by computer interface and service industry growth this should not be too surprising. Approximately 40 percent of design jobs were held by what is known as "graphic designers", or professionals who work in the businesses involving print reproduction, communications, exhibit design and other 2-D disciplines. BLS further states 20 percent of such jobs are held by floral and event designers and another 15 percent include merchandise display and retail decorators. Finally, the remaining 10 percent of "design" jobs are in the commercial, industrial, and interior design specialties.

Incomes in the design world vary considerably according to BLS statistics. Variables contributing to salaries and business incomes include experience in the field, supervisory and management experience, volume of the designer's client work flow, geographic cost of living factors, and what I call "liability" or "risk" accountability. Design of products with maximum risk or potential downsides if they do not work demand the highest compensation (transportation and product designers come up in this descriptive group) while decorative design will yield less compensation because of the low risk factors. The high degree of specialization and knowledge in the former group also yields higher compensation, while in the latter group the client is paying for "taste" and "decoration"-certainly less liability is involved in this group.

Thus, according to the labor statistics, industrial designers rank first with an average income of $48,800. Successful design owners/principals can certainly earn more than this, but annual incomes vary widely as business conditions rise and fall. Fashion designers average $48,500 in compensation. Interior designers at $36,500 and graphic designers at $34,600 place in the middle ranks of this table. Retail window decorators and merchandise display design professionals earn an average of $20,900 while floral designers average $18,400 annually.

The designers' work products and delivery methods, office environments, client relationships, and future rewards and expectations will vary immensely depending on discipline, specialty, where they locate, and how successfully they market themselves as independent designers if they choose that route. Work products can involve presentation sketches, brainstorming summaries, computer printouts and project status updates, models, and even final designs that are printed, produced, and test-marketed. Working office environments will continue to demand efficiency of process, with clear thought and superior internal and client communication often the major factor in getting a project successfully completed on deadline. Computer technology will continue to enhance quality and presentation capabilities, and more comprehensive and cheaper digital output offers new ways to integrate quality into product and print. Clients may want the design presentations to be in their company environments, necessitating well-planned and portable ways to present data and visuals. The working environment of the designer may be where the client wishes to come and be provided the latest information and status reports. Designers make decisions all the time about whether to keep some tasks "in-house", using their own salaried talent, or "farm-out" specific subtasks to independent contractors such as writers, concept artists, service bureaus, or presentation and layout designers.

The ability to sketch and communicate ideas verbally helps both the internal function and the presentation function of any successful design relationship, so we see that computers are not the answer to everything in this most human of service industries! While many designers work in small or solo situations that often include a home studio, it is more common for offices to be constructed around working teams of designers with different roles within the project matrix. Some design professionals (principals, owners, and the most experienced practitioners within the firms) often specialize in sales (generating new clients) and account management (serving the existing clientele). These designers may have their business day totally involved with travel, meetings, phone calls, and project supervision, and leave the process and presentation end totally up to younger designers and those who get their job satisfaction from the pure process of design, information analysis, and search for aesthetic quality. In any event, the resulting 2-D or 3-D products are tested and utilized in the marketplace, and serve their clients' audiences and users rather then the creators. Successful design yields further contracts, and failures tend to make clients look elsewhere for their creative development! It is also common for many parallel projects to be winding through a design firm at the same time, so it is important for every designer to be organized themselves, in addition to the entire business to be run efficiently.

Remember, the design profession revolves around the idea of process and not in the finality of the finished product. As technology, the marketplace, and society change constantly, design both drives that change and reacts to that change quite overtly. A young creative person reading this site may seek answers to what qualities might give them an edge as they consider design as a career.

If you prefer working within a group and communicating with other people in your creative endeavors, design is probably more suited to your personality. If you enjoy bringing your talent to uplift and edify others who are not creative you are also more suited to this field. If you think in terms of "series" rather then "one-of-a-kind" when you create, you are mentally ready to handle the information stages and process technologies that need to be mastered in the design profession. If you can "hand off" to others the responsibilities involving finalizing your own ideas, this shows you can subdivide the creative task into a search for efficiency and time management, which is key to profitability in all segments of the design business.

One can see that strong academic performance and desire to excel in writing, business, marketing, and history are important additions to the artistic desire of the young student investigating the design career track. Experience and a general comfort level with computer use will enhance any level of commitment to this effort. Once a young person is in the higher education setting, he or she may consider specializing in such skills and elective course work as emerging technology, technical and creative writing, business management, advertising and marketing, art history, rhetoric and communication, and certain engineering and mechanical disciplines in addition to the studio course work in design.

There are many programs for prospective design school candidates. Large public and private colleges and universities offer a broad university-level curriculum, and can have highly respected focused design programs within their schools. Smaller colleges and universities are less likely to have this type of breadth of course offering and specialization, but particular fine programs exist in this collegiate demographic. Specialized institutes and schools offer much more specialized experiences that can produce employable design professionals in the marketplace. Such shorter design and computer-centered programs may sacrifice courses in overall design processes, design principles and problem-solving that should be a part of a well-rounded design course curriculum. Students who come from these vocationally-minded schools often need some time with work experience and learning from older mentors within the field to learn such material. The desire of the student to specialize in a particular industry will quickly shorten their list of choices, as it follows that specialization in an industry drives specialization in higher education. I suggest that students serious about professional design careers investigate and interview professionals in the field they desire to enter to find out where those designers went to college. This is not a fail-safe system, but at least it will direct the serious young design prospect to key institutions.

Students may earn a Certificate or Associates Degree at a smaller specialized institute or they may earn a BA, BFA, Masters or Doctorate in any of the following degrees: Arts, Applied Arts, Fine Arts, Science, or Applied Science at larger institutions. Technically oriented career paths such as design will require the mastering of computer skills. Course offerings should include computer-aided design and drafting (CADD technology) and training in graphics software, art history, elective art courses to improve presentation skills, design project courses in specific disciplines (graphic, industrial, and other specific areas), design history, general history, writing, and important courses emphasizing design principles and problem solving. The humanities can reflect the interest of the particular student in areas they may wish to work within (such as large institutions, government, corporate and business markets). Some highly specialized course offerings at the top schools can be automotive design, typography, print processes, all levels of fashion design, advertising design and Presentation Media.

Graduating students entering the job market should construct a portfolio, which is a highly edited personal package that visually states their strengths in their desired work area. The portfolio is always edited toward the convenience of the client/employer and not for the desire of the creative young person to show everything they have ever designed. Portfolios should show finished work and process work, and the interview is a place where the young designer can make an impression regarding their ability to work with others, follow directions, and keep an eye on the clock. Often young designers can expect a period of apprenticeship where they work on presentation of others' ideas; frequently these are routine tasks under supervision of the design project managers. As designers become more experienced in their respective fields, they will decide to stay within a particular business and enjoy an increased amount of responsibility and challenge, or they will decide to strike out on their own as an independent.

If you desire an education that encourages interaction with a variety of people and subjects in addition to design, and a range of degrees from the Bachelor's level to the Doctorate (Ph.D.) level, the university program is probably desired. As stated earlier, some very good departments are within the auspices of large universities, but often do not promote themselves as aggressively as schools specializing in design alone. You have to dig around to find out about such programs. Coursework at large schools emphasize the liberal arts outside of one's major field, typically in areas such as English, History, Humanities, and Science. The four-year program gives you the most freedom to focus later in your educational experience. You may get overwhelmed with design and switch majors! But it has been my experience that I once taught a successful illustration student after he spent 3 years in engineering school, so adaptability and many options are the benefits in this environment. The large resources of the endowments and state monies at these institutions have caused a great deal of program improvements in these large, often state supported schools, and tuitions are competitive especially for in-state students. The cost of new technology is often more easily assumed by these institutions as well.

These schools offer intensive, studio-centered design instruction and theory with segments of liberal arts courses, granting degrees at the Bachelor's, Master's, or very occasionally the Doctorate level. All degrees offered are design-related and design career specific, and the required coursework outside of the studio design classes is more industry-centered. These schools feature a career-oriented design focus with a few additional non-design course electives (writing, history, business, marketing, advertising) to broaden the young designers' perspectives. It is hard to change your major to something outside of design if this gets too overwhelming. You'll have to transfer out of such an institution if your needs are not being met. One advantage of these schools is that they are used to crafting curricula that mix a blend of full-time and part-time adjunct faculty providing a great range of practical and theoretical experiences for the student.

Community Colleges typically offer two-year degrees in the form of associate's degrees or certification. They offer a shorter program then colleges, universities, and 4-year design schools, often with a vocational focus in specific areas that serve the design business, such as the commercial, computer, and graphic arts. These credits and degrees can either serve the student for life depending on their drive and desire or serve as transfer credits to a four-year school. These schools are designed to meet the needs of those just beginning their post-high school education without a clear idea of where they may wish to work, those who want to supplement a prior degree, and those who have already entered the work force and are looking for a part-time education around a full-time job. A major trend among all institutions of higher education is the part-time or adult education programs; but community colleges most often fill this need.

A vocational/technical education is planned to teach you exactly what you need to know to get a job in a small segment of the design field, including programs in the applied arts, printing industries, and computer training. These colleges and academies offer associate's degrees, certificates, or diplomas. Coursework stresses practicality and hands-on experience at the expense of general educational goals, especially in the areas of design principles and design theory. Employment networks are organized around these schools that help these graduates into employment situations upon completion of their course of study. These institutions are the most job-targeted approach to an education and you'll need to learn on the job to expand your overall education. An individual with excellent drive, personal ability, and desire to self-teach can use these particular educational experiences productively, save money, and complete satisfying career pathways in design.

You can prosper from brief, intensive training in a desired subject or skill set by attending design workshops often publicized in trade publications or by mail that are offered in your preferred discipline. Design Schools, colleges with design programs, and other local trade associations like IDSA, GAG, and the AIGA (who often use universities and colleges as hosts) feature special programs bringing adults together to educate and congregate in design workshop settings that renew and update horizons in particular design trade segments. Design workshops can focus training into a day or a series of days instead of taking the semester-length approach. Design students are often welcome at reduced cost. You may need to travel if there's nothing like this offered in your area, but this sort of design training can be well worth your while, especially with technology changing so quickly in today's marketplace. You can also sign up for special design courses on a part-time and/or evening basis without enrolling in a design degree program at many of the institutions mentioned above.

Most often, BA's and BFA's in design or related technical fields are the reward for your 4-year program at colleges, universities, and design-focused institutions. These bachelors' degrees at accredited institutions demonstrate the young designer's ability to complete a demanding curriculum, work with others, and learn differing degrees of technical and studio expertise. Programs with a conscience and desire that their graduates succeed prepare the designer to be ready and engaged, portfolio in hand, to start a search for satisfaction in the design marketplace or post-graduate education in a highly specialized study like computer and web interface design. The design work you produce and the professional consistency of the design graduates of your school's program will often get you started. Teaching and management demands most often influence the desire for an MA, MBA, or MFAs. Business degrees do matter increasingly in communications, marketing, and product line management within the design world.

College costs vs. expected financial rewards in the design field are hard to gauge, but are a bit more certain then general study in the arts fields. Monetary risk is again, a personal choice that should be considered among every other factor when deciding on a design school and design career specialty. Financial aid is a reality for almost everyone going to college today, but one should be very careful about high loan amounts after college graduation without a specific employment track. A high debt load after college seriously impedes your financial and business options, credit rating, and future enthusiasm for the field.

Financial aid comes in the form of scholarships, grants, work-study employment (on-campus student jobs), and/or internships. Additionally, national, state and personally guaranteed loans can figure into the equation, and when you leave school you have varying time periods to start paying the loan back. If there is a clear path from your degree to an adequate loan-paying income, college costs become less of a distraction to your plan. If you're concerned about tuition, fees, and not taking on more debt than you can handle, speak frankly with the financial aid counselors at the schools you are considering. If they can help you, you're probably considering the right schools.

The number of students at a school has a big effect on the campus environment, but this is only one factor in your decision. A school with tens of thousands of students may have a greater variety of extracurricular activities available to accommodate a broader range of interests. A school with a smaller student body is less socially distracting. On the other hand, small schools may have social circles that are more close knit, or a particular club or residence at a larger school may provide this sort of connection.

In terms of your studies, the faculty-to-student ratio is an important factor in school size. Considering the amount of information conveyed at the top design schools, time spent with faculty is essential. Often but not always the faculty/student ratios are better at smaller schools. Typically though, in a university the ratio tends to improve as your studies become more specialized. While you are completing your general liberal arts coursework (history, sciences, etc.), which are required of all students in the university setting, you may have the experience of being in classes where one professor is lecturing to hundreds of students. But your design focus is shared by a much smaller percentage of the student body, so there may be only 15 students in your design studio class. In my experience the Western Civ class was huge while the independent projects in my specialties could be set up with just a couple students. These variables will all shift from school to school, but having a general idea of the school size that appeals to you will help you narrow your search a bit, at which point you can inquire further from the schools that make it onto your "short list."

Climate, closeness to home, opportunity off-campus, and rural settings vs. urban settings are common variables for any student, not just those ready to move to an education in design. Since the profession of design is so intimately involved with print markets, mass communication, business, and technical requirements and services, institutions stressing design are most often in urban areas. For extra-curricular and cultural prospects, large universities to small academies in urban locations can have self-sustaining opportunities for young students and professionals who need to be tuned in to the national design field, and trade groups are most likely to have representation in cities of size. The design arts can have major cultural exposition in a university town with decent museums and galleries and these can be in the rural areas of the country. Your particular goals and specialties for the future are key in deciding on the location of your future school.

Certain design schools and programs will place great value on college admissions tests such as the ACT and SAT, while other schools lean more toward the content of a prospective student's portfolio, or consider the portfolio almost exclusively. Certainly basic excellent overall academic and extracurricular performance in high school is a plus, especially in admission to highly competitive design programs. Design schools should be able to give you an idea of minimum requirements when asked or more importantly, have such information on the web or in catalogues.

This is a key variable, especially in the area of emerging technologies. Touring both individual studio spaces and communal computer labs is a must for the discerning design student. Good student spaces show care for the student's progress once they are enrolled. One cannot create in a tiny space. In the design field, specific equipment and facilities are a must. A good program should have computer labs with a decent number of printers, A/V rooms, a specific design library, well-lit crit spaces, and a good and well-ventilated model-making studio with a variety of materials. Try and ask about equipment that is required for what you want to study! Sometimes a design program with a reputation has invested more heavily in faculty rather then technology, or has sacrificed basic principles for the latest (often easily outdated) equipment. The right balance is not only an issue for the schools, but for the decisions of the incoming students. No program is perfect, but try and come to a feeling of the balance between theory and presentation in the design program curriculum you are looking at.

Design programs and design departments always have detailed resumes and vitae of their full and part-time faculty. This should be easily available on request of students interested in their program. Course descriptions and curriculum tracks should also be easily available and understandable. Researching both the instructors' reputations in their field and the overall impression of the school within the particular design trade or design industry group is well worth the trouble. One should speak to a professional in the design field with no bias for another level of advice. Some design schools' programs and reputations are so strong that employers interview students every graduation season. These reputations often mean higher tuition, reflecting a purposeful investment in faculty and facilities alike, but most likely it's the right investment for the career-driven design student.

An accrediting institution is a governing organization made up of the participating programs that periodically examines the instructional program at a design school to determine its merit within specific disciplines. If the visiting accrediting committee sees that set standards are met, the accrediting institution approves the school's right to grant degrees in the various design subject area. A school's design program will be accredited by one accrediting board, and another academic program by another board. If you're considering a particular design school, find out who accredits the programs that interest you and research this accrediting institution and any public reporting it may have on your school. Design school accrediting bodies are nationally respected and are known for approving good programs, while some regional boards will approve the less competitive programs. Accreditation organizations include:

• College Arts Association (CAA)
• National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD)
• New England Association of Schools & Colleges, Inc. (NEASC)
• Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA)
• North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA)
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
• Western Association of Colleges and Schools (WASC)
• European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA)

Unlike the art education world, where you can choose to make your art a vocation (specialize and concentrate on making a career track from your art) or make your art a self-fulfilling hobby (work at something else while you do your art on the side), design education is more focused and career conscious. The width and breadth of the design field does offer many different vocational roles and responsibilities of varying competitiveness and compensations, as we have seen in this introduction to the design field. However, the young creative person investigating career options should range their research across many disciplines, including these:

• Art
• Interior Design
• Fashion Design
• Graphic Design
• Photography
• Advertising
• Illustration
• TV Production
• Special Effects (CGI) Technology
• Public Relations
• Media Buying
• Production and Traffic Management
• Architecture

The main purpose of this feature has been to excite the mind of the young person exploring career possibilities in the design field in general. It is important for them and their mentors and counselors to understand that there is plenty of work in the marketplace out there for people with imagination and creativity IF they do like to work hard on projects, in teams, and for others. I cannot express enough the breadth of need out in the visual and practical world that we live within for future practitioners that care about the things we look at and use. This desire to improve the aesthetics of our environment and improve the conditions of man requires the pursuit of excellence in our next generation of designers, especially as brand new ways we relate to others are oncoming in the digital age. I hope I have been able to translate my enthusiasm for the work and the people in the design business to the readers, and encourage the quest in the world of higher education for those seeking the profession of design in their futures.