Written By: @7070-mailbox and @aimhigh-studyhard
Designed By: @herttz
Like many other colleges and university, art school is a buffet of multi majors with many sound-alike fields that can be confusing, not to mention how it can differ from campus to campus. What is graphic design? How does the illustration curriculum look compared to animation or sequential art? Are interior design and architecture the same thing? So today, some of us from the Studioblr Collective would like to help to shed some light on the matter of majors.
Advertising and Marketing.
Work can happen on any scale: simple postcards to large billboards. Definitely always make sure you are using the proper document size and format. Graphic design is meant to be experienced in an instant. You need to be able to communicate the message clearly and effectively. Always a good idea to sketch out thumbnails first before spending a lot of time creating something on the computer, to only find the design is not effective. Example classes would be Typography, Foundations of Design, Computer Applications, Multimedia Concepts, Photography, Electronic Art, Branding Design, Motion Graphics, etc. You will probably also be taking Drawing Foundation classes the first few semester.
Using a variation of traditional and digital mediums in a concise amount of time to illustrate an idea or concept for commercial use. In the curriculum, you will get to explore an array of tools and techniques without focusing on anything in particular.
Despite sharing a lot of elements in common with painting, illustration is more commercial and broad as it expands a lot more into many different mediums, techniques, surfaces. One project you might finishing a children’s book illustration to finding yourself in another project designing fabric patterns. Illustration also divides into many specific branches of work and degree that require technical knowledge such as botanical, medical or animal illustration.
The process of making an animated short or film, Animation is a very diverse major you can choose to be a part of the process as well as the whole thing. 2D animators focus on traditional art skill while 3D animators skills set lean more toward programming and acting.
Usually divided into two different categories that are 2D and 3D, Animation is heavily reliant on collaboration. Depends on the kind of animation being produced you can take part in many different parts of the process. 2D animators are required to take a very different path and learn different techniques from 3D animators.
Can be crackdown to many different focus/jobs: script, pencil, ink, color, letter (although lettering is now becoming a rare focus thanks to photoshop), editing. Would easily be squeezed in between Animation and Illustration. A lot of time people go to either or when the school doesn’t offer this major but it distinguish itself not just by the product but also the focus.
This major has a lot of inking, background study and anatomy classes along with scripting. Some students also dabble in storyboarding, illustration or animation classes as a boost. Like animation, collaboration with peers from other majors is very encouraged. Communication is key. Can be either traditional or digital but basic Photoshop, Mangastudio skills are a must.
Character designer for game and animation
Creating art in a more tactile method, applying digital and traditional printing methods
Leans a lot toward tactile learning, printmaking is the study of different printing methods from old time to the current age of different materials such as lithography & bookbinding. It requires a lot of patience and studio time working with different exposures and chemicals as well as a more analytical perspective in art.
This list only covers some of the examples but it should provide some ideas as to how many majors might sound similar, but offer different concentration as well as a varied career path.
