AboutChristopher Quereau Expertise Owner of a Creative Services firm in Northern New York. Available for questions relating to the business of design, client relations, billing, design startups, employee management, production, brand and print development.
Experience GrafiQa has a combined experience of over 30 years. Our client list is extensive. We have developed brands for companies across the state of New York. Visit www.grafiqa.com to learn more about what we do.
I love design. I have a BA in Business Management, and I want to get involved with Design. So I am looking for a school / program that I would most benefit from...
A bit about me...
I worked for a real estate business where I was always drawn to the advertising of the projects we sold. I hired a designer, and I directed all the ad campaigns, came up with the ideas, etc. I created logos, names for projects, and even directed the interior design for the sales showrooms we had.
That’s the only experience I have working with anything creative.
I have always admired design. Interior and Graphic, mainly, but also Product and Fashion. I love looking at magazines, magazine ads, etc. I love traveling and staying in "design based" hotels, restaurants, etc. I dream of having my own restaurant, hotel, bar, and creating all the creative part of them... the name, logo, interior, being creative and original in communicating to the customers, and most importantly, creating an extraordinary experience for the people who visit or see anything about the place. I love being innovative.
Then I wanted to leave home, and take a year off to study "design". But I then came to realize, when I called schools asking about courses, they always asked: "what type of design are you interested in?" And I still, to this day, don't know the answer. I wanted to find a course of "general design". I wanted to expose myself to the world of design.
After a long search, I ended up going to Central St. Martins in london, and got into the "Graphic Design Portfolio" Course, for 6 months. It was a lot of drawing, I wasn't too crazy about it. But I did like it.
For months now, I have been browsing the internet and have found several schools that offer interesting courses… (miami ad school, lcc, csm, and other options out there).
A part of me just wants to work and forget studying. But, I don't have the "credentials" to get into a creative business.
I like advertising, but maybe its just because its the only "creative" area I have touched in the past… Maybe if I try interior, or product, I like them more.
What I don't like about advertising is... I don't like to "beg" people to buy something. I don't like to "pursue"... I would rather "seduce".
That’s why I would love to (for example) create the name, logo, colors, entrance of a restaurant, hotel, bar, and seduce people by their sight. Then bring them in, and continue that seduction with smell, sound, touch, etc...
I want to create that space or visual that by its own presence, will attract people.
Is there any program or field of study that comes to mind?
Thanks
Answer From what you are describing - Advertising may not be a fit - Sounds more like interior design, architectural design or Environmental design ie: the spaces and ways people interact with spaces. The problem with the term "design" is that people use it for different reasons across different fields. What you are describing in that last paragraph is definitely interior design but again different schools and firms focus on different aspects of manipulating experiences. The wrong school or working at the wrong company can send you down the wrong career path - so choose wisely.
Unfortunately you dont have the appropriate experience however you can remedy that with either education or working your way in through another career track for instance applyign for the sales department or acct mgt department of a firm you want to work at and slowly working your way into the position you want.
In regards to finding the right school or program, start looking online, not for schools but for professionals you admire and try and figure out how they got where they are, working backwards usually yeilds better results then simply searching interior design school in google.
