Rejected

After going for the SIMGE Orientation Briefing about a week back, I started to have second thoughts about going for the degree program. The days before the Orientation briefing were already filled with second thoughts.

"I want to become a graphic designer"

That was the excuse I came up with when I went to apply for the course, that was the answer I gave my parents when I told them I wanted to apply for the course, that was my reply when my friends ask me why I chose that course and everyone believed it, even me.





But that's not the truth. I told everyone that so they would believe I had everything planned out properly, that it wasn't a half fuck decision I was making. Truth is I didn't really want to become a graphic designer, I just wanted to get out of the Interior Design Industry, so I told myself I wanted to become a graphic designer and convinced myself that it was what I truly wanted.





When I applied for culinary school, I told my parents I wanted to be baker, I told my friends baking was my passion and I knew for sure baking was what I wanted to do at that time. I know that feeling of really wanting something and that feeling, the conviction I had when I told my family and friends that I wanted to be a baker  just wasn't there when I told them I wanted to become a graphic designer.





I wasn't applying for SIMGE because I was truly interested in it, I was doing it because it was the easier University to get accepted into and it was only a year of studies before I could get my degree and start working as a Graphic Designer.

I had " the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality, I assumed being a graphic designer would be more interesting, but that was all assumptions, I didn't know what being a graphic designer would be like, heck it might even be as dull as interior design,and if that's the case and the grass isn't greener on the other side, I would have wasted $20,000 and another year of my life.





My biggest issue is probably the credibility of the course, it's a Design Communication course, but they don't seem to be having any lessons on the different software Graphic Designers will have to use in the work force and are somehow more concerned about the proper ways to to "cite sources" when we are writing an article. I never went for the Open House so I don't really know what they will be teaching exactly, but the impression of the course I got from the orientation briefing was a confusing mishmash of not really graphic designing and not really mass communication.

I mean the school can't even find like a proper successful student to feature on their website? The one that was featured last year, when I read through her story, it didn't really leave any lasting impression, the only thing I remembered about her was that she looked like Daphne Khoo from Singapore Idol and she wore fedora on her head,  which of course made me question my decision to join the course, and the one this year although probably slightly better off, still did not manage to convince me that the degree could help students secure a successful job at a design firm. I'm not saying a person should rely on just their paper qualification for success, but come on, when I look at an alumni for inspiration, I want to see a huge success story, someone working for a huge design company or running their own successful company, or at the very least was part of a hugely successful project that would at least let me know that the school is able to churn out hugely successful individuals and give me hope that one day, I could achieve similar or even better greatness. But all I get are individuals who are only mildly successful or working in a completely different industry, the latter I honestly think affects a majority of the alumni.




I recently saw their grad show Facebook page as well and all I am going to say is they could have  at least asked someone to proof read some of the student's "Words of Wisdoms", they don't call it that but how awesome would it be if they had, before publishing some of the statuses, not saying all of them are badly written, there are some that are not bad, but the one that stood out for me was the one where the girl compared designing to baking, it was such a bad analogy (apart from the grammatical errors). As someone who studied design for 3 years and baked professionally before and still do once in a while for fun, I felt that she could've came up with a better analogy.

Even she's confused about what she just wrote.

She compared the design process to baking, which when I first read, got me a little interested, and then everything else after just kinda went downhill. Apparently, to her, designing without any design process would be like flour, but why like flour? Because it's white and powdery? She should have said "would be like baking with just flour" but hey, that's what happens when no one tries to proof read and do any editing. And that if you only have flour, you can't bake anything, but without flour, baking will also be a failure, which is not really true because Awfully Chocolate does sell this item called Flourless Chocolate Cake but I'm just nitpicking here because I do understand the point she's trying to put across, it's just that as a baker, I know a bit more about baking than regular folks and all the little errors in the details are popping out at me.





She really should have compared designing to cooking and not baking, baking is a science and it requires you to follow a recipe closely, which is not what design is about because that would be called plagiarism, whereas with cooking, it's very much trial and error, which is what the design process is like, coming up with ideas and adding new ones to the existing ones. Cooking (professionally) also requires patience, time, effort and creativity, Patience because, actually fuck patience, cooks will probably be screaming from one end of the kitchen to the other asking if their steak is done or if the pasta is al dente, time because they will be stuck in the kitchen for the whole day, literally stamp in before the break of dawn and only leave after the sun has set or not leave at all, effort because they are working literally the whole day and creativity to conjure up reasons to convince themselves that despite being overworked and underpaid, they still enjoy what they are doing.... some would refer to the "excuses"  as Passion because that feeds you and provides a roof over your head in life.

So all signs pointed to a really underwhelming learning experience, that's why I decided to reject the offer. No point investing time, effort and money in a degree that I have to try so hard to convince  myself is worth getting. If I have to try that hard to convince myself that it's worth it, despite being slapped in the face with proof that it isn't, it's better to walk away than walk in blinded with ignorance and hope for the best.


p/s. I apologize in advance if that girl, by some act of miracle, actually chance upon this blog and reads this post. No one really reads this blog if that's any consolation.