Graphic Design teacher help

[mnbeef]

Hello,
My Name is Mike McLain. I am a high school art teacher (10yrs) who just this year was hired at the Wright Technical Center to teach a graphic design tech ed high school class. The former graphic design program was a highly reputable program with the surrounding community. Using 2 off-set presses, a Heidelberg press and screen printing operations. The program has been on a 5 year hiatus and I am just now offering it to the surrounding high school students as a way to take a Tech Ed class and earn college credit at the same time. A few of my problems that I am currently having to deal with: 11 year old emac computers, adobe cs2, very limited budget ($5000) considering the upgrades we need. I'm working on writing grants that will help with funding but these are not a given. My wants: New PC computers (PC due to lower cost), CS6, Digital printer (production quality), possible printer for vinyl decal/sign production.

If you have any suggestions about hardware, software, other needs/wants, ways to acquire graphic design equipment for schools at a discount it would be very appreciated.

Thanks for the help, opinions and suggested are very welcome.

Mike McLain

 

[JBusch260]

As a suggestion, see if you can contact Adobe's sales reps for educational discounts, heck maybe even a donation trial program. That should leave a bit of room for your budget.

 

[rjssigns]

Get Mac computers. I'm sure I will infuriate many here, but it is what is is. Not that long ago I finished college and the school was slowly switching to all Mac. Why? They were lucky to get 2 years out of PC's on a three year cycle while 5 year old Macs were still going on the same cycle. So they keep them in service. Print, web and graphic design classrooms get new when necessary.

I sat in on meetings, got to know the dean, the IT folks absolutely everyone involved with the switch. I did this because I was curious and learned a ton.

As far as the Mac being old and "only" having CS2 don't worry. You should see the work my wife turns out using CS2. You biggest battle will keeping the kids interested. Besides by the time you get done teaching the core competencies there is little time left to plumb the depths of Illy and Photoshop. This was another concern of mine and I brought it to the board. The software, even the old iterations are so powerful there needs to be at least 4 levels of training after the intro classes.

Truth is if you look at the top logo designs in the world there is little need for much of anything software wise.

If you do go PC you could look into GIMP. Quite powerful and FREE!

 

[Chriswagner92]

start a fundraiser?

I loved my graphic arts class and I would consider the set up that we had outdated looking back at it. We had a bunch of ok pcs photoshop and illustrator cs3 and quark... 6.something. we had one offset press, one paper folder, one stapler and 2 digital presses, which we didn't use to their full potential. we also had this cool paper cutter that was like from the stone age and threatened to crush/remove fingers of anyone who walked by. the class was mostly a screenprint shop, I just liked running the presses more so I did that.

I guess I got off on a tangent there but what I am trying to say was that in order for kids, especially kids now to learn how I feel was the right way, was to take all the fancy stuff away and make them make due with old machines that break, computers that crash, printers that get you dirty and high off of the solvents. Yes you will have to get them some form of updated adobe, and probably new(ish) computers, but you can find out when your local college is updating their tech labs, as they sell off the old machines for basically nothing.

again, tangent, my bad. basically, because I learned how they did things before all this new technology and stuff, I appreciate how much easier the tools we use now are. I'm not sure if i helped or not but yeah, gofundme.com or something...

Good luck and happy friday

 

[synergy_jim]

Get Mac computers. I'm sure I will infuriate many here, but it is what is is. Not that long ago I finished college and the school was slowly switching to all Mac. Why? They were lucky to get 2 years out of PC's on a three year cycle while 5 year old Macs were still going on the same cycle. So they keep them in service. Print, web and graphic design classrooms get new when necessary.

I sat in on meetings, got to know the dean, the IT folks absolutely everyone involved with the switch. I did this because I was curious and learned a ton.

As far as the Mac being old and "only" having CS2 don't worry. You should see the work my wife turns out using CS2. You biggest battle will keeping the kids interested. Besides by the time you get done teaching the core competencies there is little time left to plumb the depths of Illy and Photoshop. This was another concern of mine and I brought it to the board. The software, even the old iterations are so powerful there needs to be at least 4 levels of training after the intro classes.

Truth is if you look at the top logo designs in the world there is little need for much of anything software wise.

If you do go PC you could look into GIMP. Quite powerful and FREE!

+1 On everything RJ said here. You might also try adobe creative cloud for educational use. Its dirt cheap and gives you the best of the best for a couple bucks a month. Calling Adobe would be my first step.

 

[player]

I would try to get some relatively new i5 or i7 computers and some Adobe educational licenses. Newer PCs will let your students run design software efficiently. Maybe a local vendor will have a used trade in printer cutter for loan or on the cheap...

 

[HIGHSPEEDGRAPHIX]

Lots of used plotters with software out there, shop them around. I think that is a great idea for a design program to have. here, ebay and signtrader.com are good places to look. You can find a great deal on a 24 or 30" cutter out there.

 

[Locals Find!]

adobe cs2 will work just fine to design with. The bells and whistles that come with the newer versions aren't that important.

As for computers older off-lease machines with dual core processors and 8 gigs of ram running windows 7 64 bit professional can be had at tigerdirect for under $300 with 1.5 tb hard drives. You can pick up 24" dell monitors for $149 also at tiger direct.

Don't make the mistake that you need the newest equipment to do the job. Just like my 20 year old truck it starts everyday hauls any load I want and gets me safely their and back. I don't have the fancy heads up display or heated leather seats or even a cd player. All those are extras that have nothing to do with the ability to get a job done.

The same goes for most computers and software. Just because they can build it bigger and faster doesn't mean it really does the job at the end of the day that much faster.

 

[HDvinyl]

Just because they can build it bigger and faster doesn't mean it really does the job at the end of the day that much faster.

 

[TammieH]

$5000 budget? Wow, that is harsh, you will eat that up with 2 new Apple computers, as I am sure you know. Maybe you can get some outside help from local businesses? Alumni?

Software isn't an issue, there are only a few upgrade/shortcuts that newer Adobe products have added, and since they are students, perhaps they need to learn to do some of those tasks themselves anyway. The students should be able to purchase their own "student licensed" software anyway for their own comps.

 

[graphicwarning]

Get Mac computers

In addition to Adobe... I believe Apple offers education discounts as well do they not? Might be worth checking into!

+1 on the Mac platform!

 

[royster13]

After you train all these folks, will the be able to get jobs?....

 

[rjssigns]

After you train all these folks, will the be able to get jobs?....

Make your point. Seems you have something to say tell, us all.

 

[Joe Diaz]

At that level there is a lot you can teach about graphic design without even touching a computer. A bunch of schools assume teaching graphic design is all about training people how to use software, but the basics and the theory of design is at best touched on, and at worst ignored all together. Things like contrast, space, color theory, etc. I'm not saying computers are useless in a graphic design class, they aren't, it's a tool that needs to be taught, but it is just a tool, IMHO, tools tend to be useless if people don't understand the basics. I feel like our industry would be much better off if people spent more time learning the fundamentals of design first, and since these kids are young, it's really the best time for them to start learning those valuable skills.

 

[vid]

I admire your fortitude for the challenge!

The local area high school here uses the mac mini for it's graphic design program. It's set up as a dual boot using either the Mac OS or Windows. Apple offers educational pricing... not much, but it's a couple bucks. (It's a fairly well funded high school with active participation from the parents.)

Still, it sounds like you will need to sell quite a few cookies at your bake sale to outfit the classroom.

Good Luck with the grant!

 

[chester215]

I have never tried it but maybe you can raise some funds through Kickstarter.

 

[royster13]

Make your point. Seems you have something to say tell, us all.

With the number of folks (local, domestic & foreign) that approach me daily it seems there is an over supply which means no jobs to be found or low pay....Just asking for the teacher's opinion on this....

 

[Rick]

At that level there is a lot you can teach about graphic design without even touching a computer. A bunch of schools assume teaching graphic design is all about training people how to use software, but the basics and the theory of design is at best touched on, and at worst ignored all together. Things like contrast, space, color theory, etc. I'm not saying computers are useless in a graphic design class, they aren't, it's a tool that needs to be taught, but it is just a tool, IMHO, tools tend to be useless if people don't understand the basics. I feel like our industry would be much better off if people spent more time learning the fundamentals of design first, and since these kids are young, it's really the best time for them to start learning those valuable skills.

I agree 100%

They need to be inspired...
They need to learn the fundamental process of graphic design...
They need to learn the principles...

Learning software is like learning pencil... those "skills" are required that
come with learning the process and principles.

EMAC with CS2 is probably horribly slow. How many computers do you need?
I'm all Apple here, but I imagine you would get more bang for your buck switching
to PC

 

[Chriswagner92]

heck my first semester in college in graphic design we didn't touch computers. hand skills and the basics are more important than software skills. You could tech these kids all day every day all you know about illustrator, for example, and there will still be different/better/faster/easier ways to do the same tasks you taught them. I learned more just playing around with the software than I did in school, as I'm a lot of you guys did.

 

[TammieH]

With the number of folks (local, domestic & foreign) that approach me daily it seems there is an over supply which means no jobs to be found or low pay....Just asking for the teacher's opinion on this....

That is why "Graphic Artists" hardly ever have made a decent living wage...

Any career where there is an over abundance of prospective employees, the pay will be low.

That's why people who empty and clean honeybuckets usually make the big $$$