June 13, 2010 at 14:22Domestic design education. Meaningless and merciless
Probably, everyone knows that everything in our country is somehow not very well with design. Even worse than with design on our own, with training in design alone. Between the world where design is taught (or they try to parasitize on it in the case of designer unions) and the world where this design is made, there is a huge gap. These two worlds live in parallel and their contact with each other, as a rule, end with large-scale battles of varying degrees of epic.
Somehow last year we made a selection committee site for one university. But, at this university, as it turned out, there are adherents of design. Moreover, at this university there are even corresponding institutes and the darkness of design departments. Seeing that their unquestioned authority up to this point can crack, the local designers rallied to bring the infection represented in our person beyond, so to speak, their own jurisdiction. After the presentation of the intermediate result of our work, someone from the shoe design institute said that he would have put a deuce for this. We nodded in unison, because we also felt that it was indecent to bring a website to a shoe design exam.
Further - more, supposedly to help us, the forces of the guards, order-bearing and labor red banners of the special brigade for removing the brain from the local design institute were sent to us. We immediately realized that we were waiting for a very thick and inept trolling. An attempt to argue with one of the characters who came to the end ended with what was told to us: “This person actually has a Microsoft certificate.” Apparently, this argument was supposed to make us realize the importance of the moment and significantly stretch it out in response to "Aaaa ...". How the availability of a Microsoft certificate pumped the skill Web design was not specified. Be that as it may, we all the same began to look at him with some apprehension, Microsoft did.
By the way, all these guys fiercely hate our entire domestic web industry (knowing only Tyoma Lebedev). According to them, the reason for this hatred lies in the fact that we are all upstarts uneducated. I dare to guess that in fact, this is due to a cardinal difference in approaches, methods, as well as a banal professional level. We did not receive a diploma in web design from the hands of a person who until the mid-90s was engaged in the artistic design of shoes, and then read a book about HTML and, on this basis, imagined himself the founder of Russian web design. Our guests for a long time could not understand why we are making a rubber site. After all, the text will then spread. But what if they watch on a very wide screen? Some of us at this moment tried to argue, someone was shaking with a small demon from laughter. All this went on long enough. No, all this went on for a very, incredibly, unimaginably long time! Looking ahead, I will say that the blow was repulsed. After the final short skirmish, the brigade retired in full force.
All the beauty and absurdity of the moment was emphasized by questions, for obvious reasons, which remain unanswered. “And why, if you have been successfully engaged in web design here for a long time, is your university’s website, let's say, not very good?” Or "Show which sites you make?" Or a checklist: “Can you show an example of a site that you like?”. The answer to the last question was nevertheless received. And what an answer! We were shown some kind of Canadian site, made in the worst traditions of Western site building, but with a distinct flavor of the homeland (it was impossible to get to some links there, because the drop-down menu was open exactly until the cursor was at the heading, an attempt to go down the menu down caused it to collapse). As it turned out, this is the site of some Russian designer (interior designer, though), who left for Canada. And this designer was somehow connected with our visitors. Between each other, in short, as usual.
The next day, one head of another institute, also somehow connected with design, advised me to remove underlining from all links. After a short pause, I was wary, but not particularly surprised at anything, asked:
- Why?
- I've been teaching this web design for 20 years and I'm not going to argue with you - there was an answer to me.
I remind readers that, according to the official version, the first website appeared in 1990, and the events described here took place a year ago, in 2009. Suddenly realizing that Tim Berners-Lee is not at all a pioneer in this field, and now I'm talking with the real creator The World Wide Web, I had no choice but to admit the correctness of my interlocutor.
Unfortunately, we never had a chance to see the works of students of this institute. But, I am sure that humanity will someday understand the full advantage of sites without underlined links. True, I hope that I will not live up to this point.
After some time, adjustments to our sketch arrived in time from the “brigade” that had recently come to us, whose gold fund for some reason decided to help us in this way. The search bar along with the background now occupies a third of the page in width and a height of three hundred pixels. Most of the icons and other elements also have watermarks. In the beginning, we even thought that in such a brutal way they solved the problem of png transparency in IE 6. As it turned out, no, it’s just “more integral”.
I think everyone understands that in this temple of design, the incubator of creators and just a wonderful institution, there can be no representatives of the St. Petersburg Union of Designers. The last straw was the fact that one of the employees working here, sorry, members did not respond to the freshly created site in the most personal way. Yes, dear Khabravchians, the St. Petersburg Union of Designers is the very organization whose logo depicts a poorly veiled erected male pipiska, which best represents the essence of this organization.
As a result, we completed this website. And they completed it as they themselves considered necessary. Moreover, if all the idiocy came from one or two heroes, we might have conceded, but a huge number of “designers” trying to take part in the project ultimately played into our hands. Their advice was so contradictory that it was impossible to follow it with all desire.
Any university, where there is something, even remotely related to design, considers it its duty to implement the specialization of media, communication, interactive and any other non-existent type of design. Applicants are easily led to this and with pleasure carry honestly earned parental loot. As part of learning some fashion design, web design is naturally taught. It also happens that he is taught as part of graphic design. The people who teach all this, for the most part, are graphs who have nothing to do with web design. But, the fashionability (and money consumption) of this discipline, coupled with exorbitant ChSV, do not allow our heroes to doubt their own awareness of this issue.
In conclusion, I want to say that in addition to the flourishing lack of professionalism in the field of design education, something good happens in such places. There are people who do something, who want something. Every day these people wage an unequal battle with indifference and stupidity. Working with such people was really interesting.
To be continued…
When nothing portended trouble ...
Somehow last year we made a selection committee site for one university. But, at this university, as it turned out, there are adherents of design. Moreover, at this university there are even corresponding institutes and the darkness of design departments. Seeing that their unquestioned authority up to this point can crack, the local designers rallied to bring the infection represented in our person beyond, so to speak, their own jurisdiction. After the presentation of the intermediate result of our work, someone from the shoe design institute said that he would have put a deuce for this. We nodded in unison, because we also felt that it was indecent to bring a website to a shoe design exam.
First suspicions
Further - more, supposedly to help us, the forces of the guards, order-bearing and labor red banners of the special brigade for removing the brain from the local design institute were sent to us. We immediately realized that we were waiting for a very thick and inept trolling. An attempt to argue with one of the characters who came to the end ended with what was told to us: “This person actually has a Microsoft certificate.” Apparently, this argument was supposed to make us realize the importance of the moment and significantly stretch it out in response to "Aaaa ...". How the availability of a Microsoft certificate pumped the skill Web design was not specified. Be that as it may, we all the same began to look at him with some apprehension, Microsoft did.
By the way, all these guys fiercely hate our entire domestic web industry (knowing only Tyoma Lebedev). According to them, the reason for this hatred lies in the fact that we are all upstarts uneducated. I dare to guess that in fact, this is due to a cardinal difference in approaches, methods, as well as a banal professional level. We did not receive a diploma in web design from the hands of a person who until the mid-90s was engaged in the artistic design of shoes, and then read a book about HTML and, on this basis, imagined himself the founder of Russian web design. Our guests for a long time could not understand why we are making a rubber site. After all, the text will then spread. But what if they watch on a very wide screen? Some of us at this moment tried to argue, someone was shaking with a small demon from laughter. All this went on long enough. No, all this went on for a very, incredibly, unimaginably long time! Looking ahead, I will say that the blow was repulsed. After the final short skirmish, the brigade retired in full force.
All the beauty and absurdity of the moment was emphasized by questions, for obvious reasons, which remain unanswered. “And why, if you have been successfully engaged in web design here for a long time, is your university’s website, let's say, not very good?” Or "Show which sites you make?" Or a checklist: “Can you show an example of a site that you like?”. The answer to the last question was nevertheless received. And what an answer! We were shown some kind of Canadian site, made in the worst traditions of Western site building, but with a distinct flavor of the homeland (it was impossible to get to some links there, because the drop-down menu was open exactly until the cursor was at the heading, an attempt to go down the menu down caused it to collapse). As it turned out, this is the site of some Russian designer (interior designer, though), who left for Canada. And this designer was somehow connected with our visitors. Between each other, in short, as usual.
Exit to the astral
The next day, one head of another institute, also somehow connected with design, advised me to remove underlining from all links. After a short pause, I was wary, but not particularly surprised at anything, asked:
- Why?
- I've been teaching this web design for 20 years and I'm not going to argue with you - there was an answer to me.
I remind readers that, according to the official version, the first website appeared in 1990, and the events described here took place a year ago, in 2009. Suddenly realizing that Tim Berners-Lee is not at all a pioneer in this field, and now I'm talking with the real creator The World Wide Web, I had no choice but to admit the correctness of my interlocutor.
Unfortunately, we never had a chance to see the works of students of this institute. But, I am sure that humanity will someday understand the full advantage of sites without underlined links. True, I hope that I will not live up to this point.
When everything already spit
After some time, adjustments to our sketch arrived in time from the “brigade” that had recently come to us, whose gold fund for some reason decided to help us in this way. The search bar along with the background now occupies a third of the page in width and a height of three hundred pixels. Most of the icons and other elements also have watermarks. In the beginning, we even thought that in such a brutal way they solved the problem of png transparency in IE 6. As it turned out, no, it’s just “more integral”.
I think everyone understands that in this temple of design, the incubator of creators and just a wonderful institution, there can be no representatives of the St. Petersburg Union of Designers. The last straw was the fact that one of the employees working here, sorry, members did not respond to the freshly created site in the most personal way. Yes, dear Khabravchians, the St. Petersburg Union of Designers is the very organization whose logo depicts a poorly veiled erected male pipiska, which best represents the essence of this organization.Instead of an epilogue
As a result, we completed this website. And they completed it as they themselves considered necessary. Moreover, if all the idiocy came from one or two heroes, we might have conceded, but a huge number of “designers” trying to take part in the project ultimately played into our hands. Their advice was so contradictory that it was impossible to follow it with all desire.
Any university, where there is something, even remotely related to design, considers it its duty to implement the specialization of media, communication, interactive and any other non-existent type of design. Applicants are easily led to this and with pleasure carry honestly earned parental loot. As part of learning some fashion design, web design is naturally taught. It also happens that he is taught as part of graphic design. The people who teach all this, for the most part, are graphs who have nothing to do with web design. But, the fashionability (and money consumption) of this discipline, coupled with exorbitant ChSV, do not allow our heroes to doubt their own awareness of this issue.
In conclusion, I want to say that in addition to the flourishing lack of professionalism in the field of design education, something good happens in such places. There are people who do something, who want something. Every day these people wage an unequal battle with indifference and stupidity. Working with such people was really interesting.
To be continued…