Let's say you had GREAT aptitude and GREAT interest in all 4 fields. Which one would you choose and why? Would the prospects in the different fields be the deciding factor or something else?
Graphic Design - easy schooling, good prospects for work, work isn't too intensive, pay typically increases nicely with level of talent, can range from crap to very high end with salaries that pay accordingly. Flexible and easy to freelance, just need software and a computer, nothing else.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 9
Architecture - insane schooling, decent possibilities for employment, lower possibilities of moving up, you don't get paid more for being more talented. Not flexible, difficult to start a business.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 2
Landscape Architecture - can't help ya, but I'd assume similar to archtiecture
ID - can't really help ya there too
Business (MBA, etc.) - difficulty will depend on where/what, excellent possibilities, excellent salary, immediately upon graduation. EVERYONE, in EVERY business, needs someone with these skills. Possibilities are up to you, work in corp America or start your own business. Can be boring, but to be honest, I am liking the business side of things MUCH, MUCH more than I thought I would - just very fulfilling to make things happen, and get paid well to do it.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 9 (I deducted a little for some boring stuff if you want)
Graphic/Business Degree Combo - tons of possibilities. Marketing can be fun and very creative (direct photo shoots/videos, design cool shit, etc.).
Effort to Reward Ratio: 10+
Architecture/Business Degree Combo, emphasis on Real Estate Development - tons of possibilities, from working for a developer to starting your own business.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 10+ (mostly because you can make a ton, if things go well, otherwise it is a lot of work)
Me - I have my 2 degrees in architecture, which gave me a great understanding of design. I learned 99% of the graphic and web design (and motion and 3D) on my own, but don't think that because you can design in one medium, you can in another. Took me a few years before I got the graphics.
I do wish I had more business knowledge, but 'learning on the job' has been ok. Moving into RE Dev, I certainly wish I had more book knowledge.
Advice - if you LOVE, and I mean love-can't-eat/drink/sleep without it, then I'd go for the Arch/MBA combo. Take graphic design classes when you can, get a subscription to Computer Arts (NOT Communication Arts), read and learn (I can give you TONs of great websites, forums, etc.).
You can come out with a dual degree with skills in graphics. No one cares what your degree is in graphics, just what your talent is (unlike architecture, talent is the deciding factor usually).
Hope that helps. Oh, and if you do get all those, give me a shout, I'll hire ya!
the architectural education is probably the better one to have (im bias of course) but it seems that you can do the others fairly easily with an Arch education.
LA differs from architecture by the breadth and range of practice. Architecture goes from small to large with variations of client types, style, and markets. Landscape covers the same range plus the variables of horticulture/ecology through urban design with many more niches. There seem to be a lot more design/build LA firms then architecture practices too (all you need is a shovel).
I'd place the effort to reward about 5 for being a 'scaper.
Also, if you go to a Arch school that its college houses multiple disciplines, such as VA Tech that houses all those that you're interested in minus GD, you could do it all.
yeah, I've been biting my tongue about that since this thread came up... I just can't resist anymore.
As someone who switched from Architecture to Graphic Design, I would say that you leave yourself the opportunity to learn to do it all with architecture, but not that you can automatically do it all with an architecture degree. Those who assume that they can do it all, do it all badly. Those who decide to learn the specific skillsets that apply to each area will find that they have the capacity to do so and their architectural education will certainly enhance such. BUT, the same way that graphic designers are not architects because they do not study space, architects are not graphic designers because they do not study type and image, and are not industrial designers because they do not study minute human interactions or manufacturing processes. Being educated in any design field gives you a leg up on the totally uneducated when exploring other design fields, but it does not make you good at them.
That is the main caveat to my entire post, of course: I am assuming that you want to be good at what you do. If I am wrong, then the others on this thread are right---getting an architecture education will fully enable you to be a crappy to mediocre graphic or industrial designer. It's your choice whether you make yourself better than that.
But rationalist, didn't you read? The original poster has a GREAT aptitude for all fields of design! hahahahaha
I did a 4-year industrial design degree and have done some ID work in the past, and now I'm doing an M.Arch, and I can say with absolute certainty that having an architecture degree will in no way prepare you to design decent products. The opposite is also true. My brother is a graphic designer and I couldn't do what he does, and he certainly can't do what I can.
I'm not saying that one needs four years or more of a formal education to be good, but experience helps (and you wouldn't be asking this question if you had any experience at more than one field....)
Those are very valid points everyone. Thanks. The Jack of all Trades dilemma, picking one. I guess ultimately the decision rests on the individual and all the analyzing and gathering information from other's experience only goes so far, since no two peeps are the same. I'll have to bite the bullet and just leap. accept the fact I'll never fully know.
Although I was mostly interested in what criteria you would use to help pick just one field, it's been informative non the less. as much as information is worth.
So in the spirit of gathering more useless information..
rationalist>> What made you go into graphic design instead of sticking with architecture?
barry lehrman>>>What made you go into landscape architecture instead of any other design field?
Dustin>>>What made you want to be an architect instead of being an industrial designer?
good points dustin. i have master's in architecture. worked in the profession for about 10 years. i had a brief run at an industrial design/digital media firm and have owned my own graphics firm for the last 8 years. i can honestly tell you, as dustin and rationalist already have, they are completely different. different design problems, different media and seriously different scales. just because you can do architecture does NOT mean you can do everything else. haven't we all seen the plethora of architecture websites designed by architects with bad graphics, typography and programming?
I never pursued a career in ID because when I graduated ID school, I couldn't handle the idea of detailing toothbrush handles for the next several years. I also wanted to get the fuck out of Toronto.
In addition to that, I was working a job that paid better, where I worked less hours and had a lot of fun. The unfortunate thing is that by the time I was about 7 years in, I felt that I had learned all there was to learn. I was burned out and needed a change. I got the design bug all over again, and decided that I wanted to learn how to design buildings.
On a side note, there's probably about 10 architecture jobs for every industrial design job. Out of my graduating class in ID, less than 20% had a job within the first year. That doesn't help when you've invested so much time and money (and yourself), so keep that in mind.
I gave up architecture because I was searching for more creative freedom. The schooling for architecture is all about creativity, form, concept... the reality just doesn't match it. I know that people say this all the time, and I even interned a LOT during undergrad so I knew what the office was like. But somehow I always managed to put off the flaws to me being the intern and glorified the positions above me in my head, and it just never lived up to it. I am a verrrry detail-oriented sort of person, and the smaller scale of graphic design really satisfied that part of my nature, whereas architecture tends to put detail oriented people into cad monkey and project management positions, which bored me to death. Honestly, while our ideal of a great architect is someone who balances left brain and right brain aspects, because of the team oriented organization of contemporary practice, most people tend to get shoved into either a creative or a technical role, and it is hard to find that satisfying if you truly are someone who enjoys both aspects.
I know that sounds like a huge anti-architecture rant, but it's truly not meant to push you away from architecture. I really enjoyed many aspects of architecture, but the ones mentioned above were what drove me to re-evaluate my career. Looking back, signs were there that I wasn't paying attention to: I loved putting together the drawings for presentations so much more than the models, I would sit in the design section of the bookstore for hours enjoying the books themselves as much as the buildings... it was there, hiding, I just wasn't paying attention to it.
sorry my post wasn't meant to arrogantly imply that architects can do it all. rationalist is right. but day to day arch skills include a lot of the other disciplines, although they all overlap to some extent. but putting a great portfolio essentially means halfway decent graphic skills. doesn't discount hiring a web designer or graphics person for logos and letterheads. designing a light fixture or chair overlaps with industrial design. a lot of architects design landscapes, and have a landscape person that they use as a consultant rather than a designer (i'm not promoting this - i love landscape architecture). and there's the licensing thing, which throws a curve ball in some of the other disciplines. industrial design-->interior design-->architecture-->landscape architecture-->urban design-->urban planning. i went with architecture only because it seemed to be more of a jack of all trades kinda thing, and that's how i roll.
iin my opinion, architects need to learn more about other fields more than other people in other fields need to know about architecture... but even that doesn stand all the time,, id go with rationalist's explanation
looks like a lot of architecture students go into graphic design as their profession after graduating. So far, trace, e, and rationalist. hmmm.....interesting.
im an architect student and was interested in graphic design/industrial design. im a first year and am not so enamored with it, was thinking about switching, should i go a 2nd year or switch out? im better at graphic design and was very interested in industrial design but it seems like small scale non glamourous stuff but thats kinda the same with architecture. its wierd how arch school is soo abstract and free yet none of it is grounded in reality.
Didn't say I was exclusively a 'scaper. I'm a manager of sustainable design for a planning and architecture firm. Most of my time is spent marketing these days. On recent projects I've worn lots of different hats from being an architectural designer, estimating energy savings, writing specs, to writing presentations and project managing. Other chunks of my office time are spent as a planner and urban designer.
My main interest (see my school blog) is in sustainable urbanism and infrastructure. This falls between the disciplines and is well served by my architecture and landscape education. Happen to know a little about green roofs too.
Its critical in this economy to be adaptive and resilient enough to shift into different professional modes as required.
passerby1ce - you'd probably be surprised how many have switched. I could name many, many more (some very successful). The hours are less, the money better, creativity is typically better, projects turn over quickly, which is very nice.
pen1susa - don't judge anything on one year. I sucked at architecture until the end of the second year (and I had 1.5 years at other univ). Graphic design took about the same amount of time (last year of grad school, so 6 years into a creative education, then a few years after - it is harder to be 'good' than you might think. very, very easy to be mediocre), although it was significantly less intensive.
everyone I know in ID really love their jobs - however, most of the people I know have some kind of advanced engineering degree instead of a degree in ID. for me, the fun jobs in that field are getting to build prototypes and playing with them. I'd hate spending all day drafting, even if I got to play with catia or solidworks - it would get old really fast.
Passerby, if you are interested in architecture, graphic design, and industrial design, you might be interested in the environmental graphics field. It is a combination of all these design fields, I am going on 4 years in it and love it. Our office employs designers from all 3 of these backgrounds and the collaboration and different design perspectives makes for great design. The field is broad and I have worked on branding environments, large architectural graphics, signage & wayfinding systems, creating a "sense of place" monuments, entry gateways, that type of stuff. I have an undergrad in architecture and am going to pursue a masters in graphic design soon. Check out www.segd.org for some samples of Enviro graphic work, it is a small but growing field.
Good luck!!
Mar 9, 09 9:00 pm ·
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Graphic Design, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, or Industrial Design? Which one would you choose?
Let's say you had GREAT aptitude and GREAT interest in all 4 fields. Which one would you choose and why? Would the prospects in the different fields be the deciding factor or something else?
And you're asking this on an architecture forum?
But I am always here, so I can tell him ;-)
Graphic Design - easy schooling, good prospects for work, work isn't too intensive, pay typically increases nicely with level of talent, can range from crap to very high end with salaries that pay accordingly. Flexible and easy to freelance, just need software and a computer, nothing else.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 9
Architecture - insane schooling, decent possibilities for employment, lower possibilities of moving up, you don't get paid more for being more talented. Not flexible, difficult to start a business.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 2
Landscape Architecture - can't help ya, but I'd assume similar to archtiecture
ID - can't really help ya there too
Business (MBA, etc.) - difficulty will depend on where/what, excellent possibilities, excellent salary, immediately upon graduation. EVERYONE, in EVERY business, needs someone with these skills. Possibilities are up to you, work in corp America or start your own business. Can be boring, but to be honest, I am liking the business side of things MUCH, MUCH more than I thought I would - just very fulfilling to make things happen, and get paid well to do it.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 9 (I deducted a little for some boring stuff if you want)
Graphic/Business Degree Combo - tons of possibilities. Marketing can be fun and very creative (direct photo shoots/videos, design cool shit, etc.).
Effort to Reward Ratio: 10+
Architecture/Business Degree Combo, emphasis on Real Estate Development - tons of possibilities, from working for a developer to starting your own business.
Effort to Reward Ratio: 10+ (mostly because you can make a ton, if things go well, otherwise it is a lot of work)
Me - I have my 2 degrees in architecture, which gave me a great understanding of design. I learned 99% of the graphic and web design (and motion and 3D) on my own, but don't think that because you can design in one medium, you can in another. Took me a few years before I got the graphics.
I do wish I had more business knowledge, but 'learning on the job' has been ok. Moving into RE Dev, I certainly wish I had more book knowledge.
Advice - if you LOVE, and I mean love-can't-eat/drink/sleep without it, then I'd go for the Arch/MBA combo. Take graphic design classes when you can, get a subscription to Computer Arts (NOT Communication Arts), read and learn (I can give you TONs of great websites, forums, etc.).
You can come out with a dual degree with skills in graphics. No one cares what your degree is in graphics, just what your talent is (unlike architecture, talent is the deciding factor usually).
Hope that helps. Oh, and if you do get all those, give me a shout, I'll hire ya!
the architectural education is probably the better one to have (im bias of course) but it seems that you can do the others fairly easily with an Arch education.
LA differs from architecture by the breadth and range of practice. Architecture goes from small to large with variations of client types, style, and markets. Landscape covers the same range plus the variables of horticulture/ecology through urban design with many more niches. There seem to be a lot more design/build LA firms then architecture practices too (all you need is a shovel).
I'd place the effort to reward about 5 for being a 'scaper.
you can do it all with architecture
I agree with le bossman.
Also, if you go to a Arch school that its college houses multiple disciplines, such as VA Tech that houses all those that you're interested in minus GD, you could do it all.
"you can do it all with architecture"
The graphic designers will tell you otherwise, however I still believe it's true!
yeah, I've been biting my tongue about that since this thread came up... I just can't resist anymore.
As someone who switched from Architecture to Graphic Design, I would say that you leave yourself the opportunity to learn to do it all with architecture, but not that you can automatically do it all with an architecture degree. Those who assume that they can do it all, do it all badly. Those who decide to learn the specific skillsets that apply to each area will find that they have the capacity to do so and their architectural education will certainly enhance such. BUT, the same way that graphic designers are not architects because they do not study space, architects are not graphic designers because they do not study type and image, and are not industrial designers because they do not study minute human interactions or manufacturing processes. Being educated in any design field gives you a leg up on the totally uneducated when exploring other design fields, but it does not make you good at them.
That is the main caveat to my entire post, of course: I am assuming that you want to be good at what you do. If I am wrong, then the others on this thread are right---getting an architecture education will fully enable you to be a crappy to mediocre graphic or industrial designer. It's your choice whether you make yourself better than that.
nice post r.
But rationalist, didn't you read? The original poster has a GREAT aptitude for all fields of design! hahahahaha
I did a 4-year industrial design degree and have done some ID work in the past, and now I'm doing an M.Arch, and I can say with absolute certainty that having an architecture degree will in no way prepare you to design decent products. The opposite is also true. My brother is a graphic designer and I couldn't do what he does, and he certainly can't do what I can.
I'm not saying that one needs four years or more of a formal education to be good, but experience helps (and you wouldn't be asking this question if you had any experience at more than one field....)
Those are very valid points everyone. Thanks. The Jack of all Trades dilemma, picking one. I guess ultimately the decision rests on the individual and all the analyzing and gathering information from other's experience only goes so far, since no two peeps are the same. I'll have to bite the bullet and just leap. accept the fact I'll never fully know.
Although I was mostly interested in what criteria you would use to help pick just one field, it's been informative non the less. as much as information is worth.
So in the spirit of gathering more useless information..
rationalist>> What made you go into graphic design instead of sticking with architecture?
barry lehrman>>>What made you go into landscape architecture instead of any other design field?
Dustin>>>What made you want to be an architect instead of being an industrial designer?
good points dustin. i have master's in architecture. worked in the profession for about 10 years. i had a brief run at an industrial design/digital media firm and have owned my own graphics firm for the last 8 years. i can honestly tell you, as dustin and rationalist already have, they are completely different. different design problems, different media and seriously different scales. just because you can do architecture does NOT mean you can do everything else. haven't we all seen the plethora of architecture websites designed by architects with bad graphics, typography and programming?
Hmmmm....
I never pursued a career in ID because when I graduated ID school, I couldn't handle the idea of detailing toothbrush handles for the next several years. I also wanted to get the fuck out of Toronto.
In addition to that, I was working a job that paid better, where I worked less hours and had a lot of fun. The unfortunate thing is that by the time I was about 7 years in, I felt that I had learned all there was to learn. I was burned out and needed a change. I got the design bug all over again, and decided that I wanted to learn how to design buildings.
On a side note, there's probably about 10 architecture jobs for every industrial design job. Out of my graduating class in ID, less than 20% had a job within the first year. That doesn't help when you've invested so much time and money (and yourself), so keep that in mind.
I gave up architecture because I was searching for more creative freedom. The schooling for architecture is all about creativity, form, concept... the reality just doesn't match it. I know that people say this all the time, and I even interned a LOT during undergrad so I knew what the office was like. But somehow I always managed to put off the flaws to me being the intern and glorified the positions above me in my head, and it just never lived up to it. I am a verrrry detail-oriented sort of person, and the smaller scale of graphic design really satisfied that part of my nature, whereas architecture tends to put detail oriented people into cad monkey and project management positions, which bored me to death. Honestly, while our ideal of a great architect is someone who balances left brain and right brain aspects, because of the team oriented organization of contemporary practice, most people tend to get shoved into either a creative or a technical role, and it is hard to find that satisfying if you truly are someone who enjoys both aspects.
I know that sounds like a huge anti-architecture rant, but it's truly not meant to push you away from architecture. I really enjoyed many aspects of architecture, but the ones mentioned above were what drove me to re-evaluate my career. Looking back, signs were there that I wasn't paying attention to: I loved putting together the drawings for presentations so much more than the models, I would sit in the design section of the bookstore for hours enjoying the books themselves as much as the buildings... it was there, hiding, I just wasn't paying attention to it.
sorry my post wasn't meant to arrogantly imply that architects can do it all. rationalist is right. but day to day arch skills include a lot of the other disciplines, although they all overlap to some extent. but putting a great portfolio essentially means halfway decent graphic skills. doesn't discount hiring a web designer or graphics person for logos and letterheads. designing a light fixture or chair overlaps with industrial design. a lot of architects design landscapes, and have a landscape person that they use as a consultant rather than a designer (i'm not promoting this - i love landscape architecture). and there's the licensing thing, which throws a curve ball in some of the other disciplines. industrial design-->interior design-->architecture-->landscape architecture-->urban design-->urban planning. i went with architecture only because it seemed to be more of a jack of all trades kinda thing, and that's how i roll.
i'm leaning more towards I.D./product design/furniture design...
architecture has tooo many downs than ups.... and once your in the field, it's alot harder to be creative.
iin my opinion, architects need to learn more about other fields more than other people in other fields need to know about architecture... but even that doesn stand all the time,, id go with rationalist's explanation
if you want to talk to someone who went the industrial design route, and is now pursuing architecture, feel free to send me a PM. best of luck.
honestly i don't think it's that hard to be creative. you just need to find the right job. a bad firm is really bad, but a good firm is really good.
looks like a lot of architecture students go into graphic design as their profession after graduating. So far, trace, e, and rationalist. hmmm.....interesting.
im an architect student and was interested in graphic design/industrial design. im a first year and am not so enamored with it, was thinking about switching, should i go a 2nd year or switch out? im better at graphic design and was very interested in industrial design but it seems like small scale non glamourous stuff but thats kinda the same with architecture. its wierd how arch school is soo abstract and free yet none of it is grounded in reality.
PB1CE-
Didn't say I was exclusively a 'scaper. I'm a manager of sustainable design for a planning and architecture firm. Most of my time is spent marketing these days. On recent projects I've worn lots of different hats from being an architectural designer, estimating energy savings, writing specs, to writing presentations and project managing. Other chunks of my office time are spent as a planner and urban designer.
My main interest (see my school blog) is in sustainable urbanism and infrastructure. This falls between the disciplines and is well served by my architecture and landscape education. Happen to know a little about green roofs too.
Its critical in this economy to be adaptive and resilient enough to shift into different professional modes as required.
Barry,
MLA/MArch (soon to be RLA)
passerby1ce - you'd probably be surprised how many have switched. I could name many, many more (some very successful). The hours are less, the money better, creativity is typically better, projects turn over quickly, which is very nice.
pen1susa - don't judge anything on one year. I sucked at architecture until the end of the second year (and I had 1.5 years at other univ). Graphic design took about the same amount of time (last year of grad school, so 6 years into a creative education, then a few years after - it is harder to be 'good' than you might think. very, very easy to be mediocre), although it was significantly less intensive.
everyone I know in ID really love their jobs - however, most of the people I know have some kind of advanced engineering degree instead of a degree in ID. for me, the fun jobs in that field are getting to build prototypes and playing with them. I'd hate spending all day drafting, even if I got to play with catia or solidworks - it would get old really fast.
Passerby, if you are interested in architecture, graphic design, and industrial design, you might be interested in the environmental graphics field. It is a combination of all these design fields, I am going on 4 years in it and love it. Our office employs designers from all 3 of these backgrounds and the collaboration and different design perspectives makes for great design. The field is broad and I have worked on branding environments, large architectural graphics, signage & wayfinding systems, creating a "sense of place" monuments, entry gateways, that type of stuff. I have an undergrad in architecture and am going to pursue a masters in graphic design soon. Check out www.segd.org for some samples of Enviro graphic work, it is a small but growing field.
Good luck!!
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