Learning the craft without doing it

The tasks that have gone

Cutting out images, adapting a format, preparing artwork files. These tasks were dull and badly paid, and they made up most of a graphic designer's first year. They taught the material: the constraints of print, the flaws in a template, the strain of a badly chosen typeface.

They have largely gone from the studios we visited. The heads of teaching we met draw opposite conclusions from that.

Two opposite answers

One school chose to increase the share of hand production, bringing back letterpress and screen printing. The stated aim is to rebuild the experience of material constraint. Another made the opposite choice and put the exercise of judgement at the centre: students barely produce any more, they select and defend.

We tried to make them do what the studio will never ask of them again. I still do not know whether that is training or nostalgia.

Two cohorts to follow

Neither answer has yet produced a cohort that has reached the job market. We will follow both groups through to 2028.