Shaun Levy, President/Art Director
Of course so many people are influences in our lives, but there are always a select few that really impact it–True mentors. For me it was a professor at George Brown College, Charles Fisch, RGD. None of the students really liked him, and ironically enough, neither did I until years later.
It was only after looking back on my schooling that I realized what valuable skills and lessons he had taught me. The importance of preparation, planning and research involved in creating effective design.
Some of these steps seemed like a waste of time when I could be saving the world one awesome design at a time. But it was exactly these processes that enabled me to maximize my efforts, and come up with well developed design concepts.
For most design students it is all about how good your final design piece is, but he wanted to see the process–the thumbnail sketches, the roughs, and that the files were properly constructed in the proper programs. He would always say that it didn’t matter how “pretty” the design was if it couldn’t go to prepress and be printed. So now after being in the industry for about 15 years and working in many different roles from a Junior Designer to now owning my own company, I can say thank you Charles Fisch for all the tedious work that paid off!
Three of My Favourite Resources for Design Inspiration:
- Communications Arts—all things communication, arts, design, photogrpahy. You name it, it’s there.
- Colour Lovers-monitors and influences colour trends in design. Really cool site.
- Creattica–news, design, branding, and more.
Thank you for your post. I now have a better understandng as to why certain processes are brought up in our advertising classes on a constant basis, and how important they are in achieving our goals.
You may not fully understand their value or why you must do them again… and again… but you will look back and see that you have developed a good foundation and work habits. Once you get to the workplace, these skills are JUST as important as quality work. Thanks for the comment!
Thankyou Shaun,
It is very rewarding to be appreciated–even in retrospect.
Students often don’t understand what will be required of them to succeed in any industry. They often think they know better than their teachers what and how to learn. AND they often have an inflated value of their work. Everyone wants an A. But the one who truly deserve an A put into their work 10 times more effort and time and have original ideas. It is easier to blame the teacher for one’s own mediocrity or lack of effort. Teachers have strengths and weaknesses and vulnerabilities as any other human beings. Especially for idealistic teachers, it is frustrating and disheartening to get opposition for caring and trying to do the best for their students.
Therefore Shaun, gratitude such as yours is inspiring. I feel truly honoured by your article.