Training Newbies

[we3dumys]

I was going to start this as a new topic, but this seemed so apropos....

WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY TEACHING IN DESIGN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS?

Our design intern sent me the files for a complicated pocket folder to check. Everything is fine, except he has no die lines set up!

Me: Where are the die lines?

Intern: What's a die line?

I mean, I know he is an intern, but in your last year of design school, shouldn't you at least know what a die line is?

The reason we all have to spend so much teaching designers how to do things the right way, is they apparently learn a whole lot of nothing in school and just assume prepress will fix everything. It's our jobs to help people, answer questions, show designers what they are doing wrong, but not to teach the basics.

Hopefully this kid pays attention, and somewhere down the road won't become your headache!

[prepress_goddess]

wow - at last it seems i'm not alone in my thinking

careful tho we3dumys . . . . chris_r just might come along and rip you up for your venting like he did me earlier in the post

LOL

[born2print]

You're definateley not alone!

Maybe the problem is that a venting rant, by nature, isn't meant to be answered... so answers seem like an attack.

It's OK to get pissed about this stuff and this page is an outlet.

[we3dumys]

If you don't vent, then it all builds up. Next thing you know, you wake up on a Saturday morning after a bad work week, and you liver is sitting next to you, smoking a cigarette with a cup of coffe; looks at you and says "I hate you."

Seriously though, it seems that there are no places that are teaching 'technical' print design. The few designers I have dealt with who actually seems to have a clue fall into 3 categories:

1. They have been at it for so long, they can't help having learned something.
2. The realize the holes in their professional knowledge, and actually try to plug them.
3. They spent at least 3yrs in prepress before getting a design job.

I just wish the big agencies would start pushing the design schools to teach a real design for print class. Something more than, "Everything must be 300dpi, and CMYK".

[prepress_goddess]

yes, that is the most frustrating thing about my position right now - everyone is a "designer" from the secretary to the president of the company and back down to junior in 5th grade because daddy bought him photoshop elements.

but hey! It's Friday!!!

Beers all, and have a good weekend!

[jimking]

You're right prepress_goddess. The bottom line in printing is to keep the presses busy. If this training business gets in the way of this then the company loses and it wouldn't take long for that to happen, as we all know, before the presses need food. It's a constant race and there aint no time to teach someone the fundalmentals while trying to keep up and be accurate. I have tought 2 clients simple sh!t on my own time for cash but not at work because it is a race. Of course it is different with clients who do have an idea of what's going on who may have technical issues which are important to deal with because it helps the client get their job closer to feeding the mean machine!

[beermonster]

i've not spent much time training clients - mostly our clients arent the desighners - but I do the odd consultancy with larger companies and it is usually beneficial.

on the odd occasion we do some form of training i'm kinda with goddess - and not. yeah - i'm releasing knowledge learnt on the back end of long hours, stress, fast thinking and creative working - but then again - it keeps us in jobs that these desighners are poor. granted, it helps if they have at least some understanding of software and processes, but if it pays the bills my personal thoughts on the merits of it get put aside i'm afraid.

i'll do it - even if i think it sucks and they are getting free ride knowledge - just dont tell em everything :lol:


our new "future" md (md's son) recruited a guy for production recently. he said, in his mumbly way.."he used to be a freelance designer so we have back-up for the studio when they get busy"

my first thought was "used to be...it went well then...." my second thought was "yeah whatever - we'll see.."

so - he came into the studio for some training - turns out he did a graphics course at college in about 1982 and thats about it. so, the new md thinks firstly some bloke off the street can do my job and some design course 20 years ago qualifies anyone for prepress!

osx blew the guy away, quark he hadnt used, illustrator he'd heard of and indesign he thought was a magazine.

marvellous.

i have 2 other stories about "training companies" - but feel i need a coffee and let someone else contribute

:lol:

[mrcmosx]

Originally Posted by beermonster

osx blew the guy away, quark he hadnt used, illustrator he'd heard of and indesign he thought was a magazine.

I had one ask me if indesign was autocad :harhar:

[beermonster]

haa autoincad-design - i like it - couple that with an esko moniker - we get eskoautoincad-design-xpressalatorhandshopbat-pitpreps

it's a winner i tell ya - it'll do plate making, imposition, fix low res to hi res pdf's, let you do type changes where no fonts exist, is compatible with everything...in fact, everyone on PPF has contributed to make THE single most powerful pre-ress package in the world

now then...any takers?

you are of course all out of work as there are no bugs in this super app and it will install itself across multiple platforms, upgrade itself and bring out its own point releases free of charge - the quark element inside forces full upgrades to come out 8 months late but the "anti-bug" feature makes sure it works well.

now then....are there any takers?

its a modest fee......surely...anyone?

[nocampo]

I think we should charge customers who wants to be thought about composing files. and that charge should go directly into our(prepress operators) pockets. hehehe. Cheers!!! :lol: