I’ve just passed the half way point on my degree in Graphic Design and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that design shouldn’t be taught within these academic parameters. The main problem is that design is subjective. What resonates with one person might not with another, so who is to say whether work is good or bad – it might not be aimed at them.

That and essay writing doesn’t lead itself well to design and the arts in general. People should be made to improve their writing and do case studies on important designs or events but essay writing doesn’t seem like the logical choice.

Personally I would like to see a private design school set up, similar to one in Scandinavia (the name escapes me). There every month, new designers come in, impart wisdom, leave and repeat. You get multiple points of view, variation every month and make more contacts with people working in the industry. If a similar school was set up outside the parameters of the BA or MA system, it would quickly get a good reputation with consistently good work that isn’t based on academic grading.

I don’t have buyers remorse or anything but the more I think about it, the less this structure makes logical sense. How can you apply a traditional degree structure to a non-traditional subject?

Picture courtesy of IDN’s infographic special.

In the last week uni has stepped up and then some. Instead of having one project that I’d ignore for a few weeks, I’ve been given 4 at once. Normally this would be quite an easy juggling task, after all I’ve done it years ago at college, but since those days I’ve opted to spend my free time blogging and managing websites. Foolish, I know.

That’s all I’ve got, I’d rather be telling you about Mass Effect 2 or something but that’s all I’ve got. Nothing thoughtful or worthwhile to say about the subject. I guess life is just a constant struggle to find free time.

You see? I shouldn’t do the thoughtful bits, they just sound pretentious.

Don’t worry this isn’t going to be of those I can’t be bothered posts, I would never do one of those. It’s just that after the rush that was our Nerv iPhone application – that we presented last Friday to a seemingly great response – it’s nice to get some time off. Normally between projects we get a good week off after the final deadline day rush, it’s quite lethargic.

However because this project’s deadline was at the end of the week we only had this weekend off before moving onto the next one. Actually I don’t mind that so much as it’s made me appreciate this weekend. Not that I’ve done anything interesting except for failing to go surfing, receive Stewart Lee tickets in the post, getting tipsy on way too much wine for a Sunday morning and making some damn good saves at football.

Oh, and Football Manager… but let’s not talk about that.

For the last five weeks we’ve been working on a hypothetical iPhone app that intends to teach the user First Aid through quizzing and mini-games. I don’t want to reveal too much as we’re still yet to finalise a few things and haven’t presented it yet but the whole process has been intriguing. I mean today, we argued / discussed whether a specific feature should be made out of a button or a slider – very odd.

But it’s been fun designing games using the iPhone’s features; when you sit down and think about it, it’s no surprise that the device is a massive success. Other than the picture of an Apple on the back, it’s actually cleverly designed with tons of possible functionality.

Knowing the ins and outs of that functionality helps to no end, it almost justifies me selling my Zune. Saying that, I’m thinking about upgrading because of some Twitter recommended headphones are having a few problems with my iPod Touch headphone jack. Well it’s not just my Sennys, it’s all non-Apple headphones. Thanks Apple.

Its been a busy day from planning prospective articles for Nidzumi to launching a new site-wide design for Nidzumi. Oh, and I also had to impress a lecturer at University today – somehow. All in a day’s work, huh?

I’m not going to tell you about the new site design, well not on this site anyway, let me tell you on Nidzumi’s blog.

Let me know what you think, I’d really appreciate any feedback.