bi11ab0ng

i know it sounds a little too cliche to be asking this but i've considered studying abroad for my commercial design major and thought why study abroad when the best graphic design schools are in the US? or am i wrong?

i did some research and found some top "prestigious" design schools like accd, risd, mica, parsons, ... etc etc.. so many that i can't name it all but are there schools in other countries (perhaps in germany? or other european countries.. for my commercial/advertising major?) that are worth considering?

i came across schools like politenico de milano in italy and slade & central saint martins in UK but i don't know much about them...

any more information that i forgot to add about myself or clarifications? let me know. thanks for your input

bears and dogs

I know it is a wrong thing to say at the moment but why do you want to go abroad to get commercial skill?
suppose you want to work at the country you are schooled?
I was looking at the cover of BBC 'office' DVD and it came with pull out jargons reference. not only what certain objects are called over there but ref. to TV programs, pop culture and communication issues.
I'd say you need to be fluent in their kind of English. or Spanish or German or whatever, and should be able to obtain legal paper to live and work there.
Or
do you want come back with shiny best budges and want to make name here in US?
If it sound nasty sorry, but far as I know American firms seems to respect Europeans born there but went US school, won award or two who happened to want to stay in US to work while keeping Euro smell on their appearance or design style, not the other way around,
like Tibor Kalman or Ivan Chermayeff
If you are native of CA, why not go to Art Center?

bears and dogs

local lingo such as,
Alton towers
Arse-cleavage
ASDA
Basque
Biscuit
Blimey
Bollocks
Booyakasha
Bread bin
Bricking
BSE
Buckaroo
Bun-bag
Bunce
Chaucer
Courage
Daft
Div
Dole Office
DSS
Duncan Goodhew
Fanny
Flan
...it goes on and on

SeattleBulldog

Yah, there are great Graphic design schools in the US. Here are some to consider:
Rhode Island School of Design
Virginia Commonwealth University
Yale ( I know kinda a reach)
Carnegie Mellon
School of Art Institue fo Chicago( best art school in the country)

Timkerdes

SAIC is a better school than RISD and Yale? Or are you just talking about fine arts? I havent really heard SAIC mentioned as far as design schools would go. I think OP wants to be a designer not a fine artist, and from ive heard from on of my art professors - who loves that school to death and got his bfa from there - SAIC is definitly slanted more towards fine arts than design.

artsmarts

Agreed. SAIC is certainly not to be ranked over RISD and others if you're talking graphic arts/illustration. Definitely much more directed towards fine arts, excepting maybe their fashion department which is probably the strongest outside of NY and LA schools.

taxguy

Don't forget to add University of Cincinnati to the list. Their school of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning is always in the top 20 world rankings. Moreover, they are the only major design school in the US that I know of that has a mandatory integrated coop program as part of their curriculum.

Timkerdes

Hey, could you tell me more about Cincinnati's arch program? I asked about it in the arch board about a month ago but I never got a response. Specifically about what their focus is more towards. Like, is their program more of technical school or a design or conceptual focused school.

taxguy

Tinkerdes, you should ask in the general college forum for University of Cincinnati. I don't know much about their architecture program other than the fact that all students do mandatory internships with architectural firms. It is a very top program and is hard to get into. Here is what UC says about admission to their architecture program:




The academic credentials of the pool of applicants seeking admission to the School of Architecture and Interior Design vary each year. This program is highly competitive and has a limited number of spaces available.

The freshman class profile for Architecture is based on the middle 50% of the 2009 entering freshman class:
GPA: 3.736 - 4.000
ACT: 28 - 31
SAT: 1230 - 1390
Average Class Rank: Top 12.8%


We share these numbers to give you an idea of the "typical" credentials of students accepted into our programs. Scoring within this range (or outside of it) is not a guarantee of admission or denial.

The transfer students accepted to the program typically have a cumulative college GPA that is well above the 3.25 minimum GPA requirement.

bi11ab0ng

thank you bears and dogs for your insightful comment. it made me consider different aspects and my motives.

bears and dogs

Do tell!!
I should have mentioned that, I am your parents' age and those big-shot designers are like, your grandpa's age.
If you have good idea that's gonna work for the next generations and beyond, don't just give up.
(but learn Italian French German and get legal papers, and find money. even if Euro goes downhill, the big reason kids can't finish schooling is lack of funds. or, lack of motivation often stemmed from lack of funds.)

DasSuiGeneris

NYU and RISD for sure.

DesignSS

Closer to the US, the Santa Fe University of Art and Design is one particularly industry recognized institution that produces top notch designers.

Still, going abroad exposes a student to a new culture, and new ways of doing things, which I'd say is great for anyone wishing to pursue a creative field.
In Italy, the NABA.IT in the fashion capital of Milan is yet another institution that, looking from an industry perspective, produces a high degree of outstanding and notably very competent designers.

Suddu001

How good is Central saint martins in London? and USC? and Drexel?

giraffer001

if we're talking about the undergraduate graphic design program, which do you think is better, CMU's Design or Yale's Art (but concentrate on graphic design) 'cause I know Yale's graduate graphic design is like top ranking..not sure if the undergraduate will be too liberal arty and less practical though..any ideas?