Submitted by Sarah Young (agentsarah6@gmail.com)
It's that time of the year. University students are completing their courses and presenting their work to prospective employers. This is the case with the exhibition PLAY, the Graduation Exhibition of the students of the University of Western Sydney's Bachelor of Design (Visual Communicaitons) course. The exhibition features a range of work for students of varying specialisations, from illustration and animation to photography and interactive design. The following information is straight from the website for the event.
"The University of Western Sydney,
School of Communication Arts presents ‘PLAY’, the 2007 Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) Graduation Exhibition
OPENING
Tuesday 27th November 6-9pm
CONTINUING
Wednesday 28th November 9am-2pm
VENUE
Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf,
Pyrmont Piers 19-21, Upper Deck
26-32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont Point
‘PLAY’ is the celebration of the unique and diverse talents of the 2007 graduating class whose creative strengths encompass graphic design, photography, illustration, animation, film and interactive media. These emerging creatives view design as a playground for innovative and passionate ideas. This exhibition is a celebration of their achievements, perseverance and vision."
The exhibition is a chance to see new ideas and works from emerging designers, some of which are interested in the game development and design industry, and to check out some prospective new employees. The exhibition begins on Tuesday the 27th and concludes on Wednesday the 28th of November.
1. Anonymous Tue, 20 Nov
does anyone even hire a student who studied game design into a design role straight from uni?
haven't ever heard of that happened. they usually end up in QA then make their move to Design etc.
I think the person would have to be absolutely extraordinary, there are not many design jobs so it's hard enough to get one even if you have some sort of industry experience. We do hire graduate artists and programmers, usually from the specialist courses that focus in one area - I don't think we've ever hired anyone from the multimedia type degrees, who tend to have breadth of skills but not enough depth in any particular area. It's scary when you get a resume from someone and can't figure out whether they want to do art or code. With most of the industry based in Melbourne and Brisbane, it's going to be pretty tough for the grads from this course.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous for both of these posts to have even gone up! What makes anyone think these students don't have industry experience and what gives anyone the right to make assumptions based on an advertisement for an exhibition.
Sometimes, yes it does take extraordinary people to catch you and what makes you think there are no extraordinary students? I think the industry really needs to pull its finger out and start judging people on their work rather then on the year they graduated or the avenues they take to receive exposure because I'm sure we've all been there and all struggled to be seen!
Maybe its worth investing in your designers at a stage where they still hold a unique style and integrity rather then having spent years in the industry being manipulated by money and creating designs that "just sell" rather then design work that has any meaning. I resent all the above comments and as a professional am quite disappointed that this is the attitude of our industry.
Students, I will be at the exhibition and I will be scoping to hire! Put on the show of your lives!
I can see the logic in the first two comments but this just highlights the fact that these people do not understand the structure of the course that these students are coming from. Within the course students are encouraged to branch out of the basic design units and into more specialised unit which the student wishes to focus on and specialise in.
I'm one of the students from this course. There are a wide range of skills and disciplines that these students belong to, some of which are relevant to game design and development. They're not aimless robots, the result of conditioning, but rather they are design thinkers with their own ideas and styles. Many of them don't wish to start at the top but rather start in junior roles and work hard to move their way up the ladder, something that they have learnt during the 4 years of this course.
I myself have completed the honours year of this course, writing a thesis on participatory design in digital games. To say that I don't specialise is ridiculous.
Here here to the above poster. It's people like you, who have open minds and time and patience, that hire poor little graduates like us. If only there were more of you out there, willing to give us all a go. We look forward to seeing you and the people from AGDA at the show.
Best of luck to you, all i was saying ( i'm number 2 ) was that i hadn't heard of people getting a game design job straight from uni.
oops. i'm number 1 actually.
That's ok. I think we're all looking to get in on the ground level, somewhere in some related industry. We just don't want to feel like 4 years has just been wasted on a university course.