College Suggestion

[JohnHawkins]

I was thinking of going into interactive graphic design with mac software as my main focus. I see a certain polished look to most mac software graphics. Well known software examples: http://www.panic.com/ http://www.pixelmator.com/
I was wondering if anyone knew any programs that center around learning intuitive interactive graphic design and if any focus on mobile software (iphone/ipad). If you have any tips where to ask these questions else where as well, like an open mac software forum, that is helpful.

 

[7on]

I'd probably look into a 4-yr degree in Visual Communication or Illustration. When you're done with college those designs you linked to will be passé and there will be a new fad hitting the streets. Learning what's behind good typography and color will go a long way in your career. And take some art/design history courses, they'll help you understand trends and see what the next BIG thing is instead of designing what everyone else is doing.

I'd lean moreso towards Viscom since there you'd be getting regular software knowledge as well.

 

[2contagious]

Graphic Design BA at Central Saint Martins, London UK
http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/

That's the course I am doing. It's VERY independent though, very idea based.

 

[THX1139]

Don't learn design to design for a specific style. If you go to a decent school that teaches the foundation of "how" to be a designer (or visual communicator and problem solver), then you can do anything with it and become a trend setter instead of a follower. Once you get a good foundation in graphic design, you can then specialize in other areas that will help you target industries. Some of these might include game development, print, motion graphics, web design, etc. If you are interested in primarily designing for software interface, then you might be wise to take classes in software/application/web development so you have a grounding in that. However, on large teams or in big studios, the design of the "how it looks" comes from the design department and the "what it does" comes from the development teams. A good school will teach all the fundamentals that will allow you to design in any of the industries. But to get really good, you'd eventually have to specialize.

The thing to realize before moving forward is that there are a lot of people who do great design. But, there are few people who get to design NEW and creative things. There are a lot of designers who work at Apple, but there is only one Jonathan Ive working there. Being an innovator pays big bucks but there is very little room at the top. Anyway... that's probably too much information. I need to get back to work.