I've taught a wide range of students in a quite a wide range of design schools. In the midst of working with design students, I have found myself wondering whether they differ from one school to the next. Do students at school A have distinct characteristics that set them apart from design students at school B, or school C, or school D?
Why would I even entertain the idea that students from one school might be different from those at another? Here's why: I am constantly told that this is the case by my students, and occasionally by non-students. "The students here are this way...", and "School A students are that way..." goes the usual rant.
So. I set about to take a look at this described "phenomenon" and determine for myself if it was indeed the case. Or not. What I found was this. Design students are both the same, and different - from one design school to the next.
In any design class, in any design school, students appear to be the same. There always seems to be lazy students and ambitious students, spoiled students and humble students, students that can't draw the left side of a barn and students that can render that barn so well you can touch it and feel it.
And at the same time, students in any design class, can be very different. They can be shaped by their design school. By its policies, its support (or lack), the design program itself, by its instructors, and by its administrators.
More importantly, I found that students that are ambitious, that are humble, that even if they can't draw the left side of a barn - want to learn how to render the entire barn (this is a metaphor) tend to overcome any obstacle. And tend to succeed.
Its good news. And its something I mention, whenever I hear the usual rant.
