(Online) schools's out!

Package design final project ready for submission

My spring semester is finally over and I'm trying to turn my nights back into a time to sleep in my bed rather than being slumped over my laptop. It's been a really interesting experiment to do school 100% online and to be doing 4th year design classes at that.

My school, like most of the big American design schools, operates on the philosophy that successful designers need to be able to operate under extreme duress for long periods of time. The full time work load is usually 70+ hours a week of homework with often tyrannical instructors at the helm hoping to emulate the initiation they themselves went through in the industry back in the 70s. Very few students make it out the other end and that's the whole point of the process.

Taking my course load down to 3 classes and being online has really changed this experience. The online teachers are more organized and conscientious because everything they do and say is recorded.  The online students are older and more likely to question authority. I wish I'd made the switch a while ago. Even though it's less social, it's a healthier learning environment for me and I'm happy to keep doing this for another year.