This post doesn't necessarily deal with a thing or concept so much as the attitude of the people around me, and may be akin to my old days as moderator of a Star Wars related message board in which I was most well known for Jediman's Bitching Board (as I had the very original nickname of JediMan84), which after a quick search I sadly could not find, even though I suppose that really is for the best.
As anyone who reads here on a semi-regular basis knows I am still in school, and am set to graduate in about 5 month. I'm excited, but have been a bit put back by my lack of work that I would consider portfolio worthy. Because of this I look forward to every project we get at the moment, hoping to do what I can to turn even the mundane into a great piece (not that I always succeed, but so be it).
Sometimes we get projects which at this late stage of our program are rather mundane (another stationery set? You've got to be kiddin' me!), yet people plug away at them without caring very much. Then we get something interesting, and you'd think everyone would be overjoyed (I know I was). Rather than be happy they have something which holds tremendous potential to be a portfolio piece, they instead complain we don't have enough time, that it is too complicated (because they are close minded... no offence of course), and that the requirements should be changed.
Let me put aside that I think it's a great project though. We are graduating in 5 months and they are saying 18 hours (working time over three days) isn't enough time to design something? And that's a SOFT deadline. What the hell are these people going to do when they get into the industry? Tell their boss they don't like the project they were assigned? Tell their client that time is a bit tight and they'd really appreciate if they changed the scope of the project?
Now I know that I shouldn't be complaining because these are people I'm going to be fighting for a job, and the more adverse to actually doing work they are, the easier my life should be when it comes to first finding, and then keeping a job, but it's just something that drives me up the wall. I am a big believer in the 'sit down, shut the fuck up, and get the work done' mentality. Sure, something might be hard, but all the more reason to do your best at it and make something god damn incredible.
I am one of the people in the class who is often finished first, as are three or four other people. We get our work done, and more often than not people really like the work we do, but they pass it off as "Oh, you're good and know what you're doing." Why am I good? What the hell separates me everyone else? Well, I actually follow the creative world outside of the classroom, following designers blogs, tweets and subscribing to or occasionally purchase design related magazines. What is stopping these other people from doing the same? Laziness? A lot of them go on about creativity, they are passionate about it, but don't invest time into it! Don't sit back and complain that you have no ideas when you refuse to brainstorm or pick up a pencil. Fuck off that you can go straight to work on a computer, when all you do is bitch that you don't have enough time. Why not think of a new approach then? Maybe you don't have time to trace a fucking raspberry in 6 spot colours in illustrator*, so don't god damn do it! But 90% of the people in this room get an idea and go to it without even thinking of a second (perhaps better) idea, never mind actually researching, brainstorming etc.
*We are currently working on a product which comes in multiple flavours, and we must design the packing for any three of our choice, and it has to be done as a 6 spot colour job. Who cares why, that's our constraints. So what do people do? Livetrace a raspberry, realize it looks like shit, then rather than realize their idea isn't very feasible, they decide to make a realistic tracing of a raspberry using 6 spot colours and say they don't have time to do three flavours.
The people around me cannot think for themselves either, they ask about everything. 'Why are the registration marks on your example* of the dieline not aligned?' was probably one of my favourites to come up recently. People don't take the time to think (I mean who gives a shit about the example on the board, obviously yours should line up). When a problem arises or the teacher doesn't give full information. They must ask, and then when the teacher shows them how to do it, it invariably becomes 'it didn't do that when I did it'. They can't accept that they fucked up, but rather it is the software or the hardware or the teacher for not teaching something fully. When I can't figure something out, my last resort is asking the teacher. I want to figure it out on my own, because then I'm likely to remember it, or at least know I can work around a given problem. Whenever I asks someone, I tend to forget how they did it for me rather quickly.
*the example was a sketch on a white board
I suppose all this frustration comes down to the point that I'm at least a little worried about who I'll be surrounded with when I will be working. I am of course dreaming of a fantastic job right out of school in which I will be surrounded by the the greatest and most creative minds in the field, and this of course is just that, a dream. But god help me that I'm thrown into nightmare of a team of people who can't problem solve, who don't know how to brainstorm and who are as stubborn as a bloody mule.
