Which colleges would be right for me?(conceptual/art director)

#1

Hello all! My name is Samantha, thank you for looking at my thread, i hope you can help.

I am currently a high school senior and I am spending countless hours picking schools, looking them over and then trashing them because they ‘dont have what i need!’ Now, I dont know what I need from what I do and the best way to go about this is asking those experienced…At least I hope :slight_smile:

So, what I am asking for here is colleges, preferably near PA/Philly area. (around 5-6 hrs from Pa) I mostly draw mosters,evil villians,and the odd and creepy, but I also like doing landscape, architecture and the more normal sketches without the creepy. I was thinking of going into the conceptual or art director field…But I am clueless as where to apply other than Drexel University. I want to go into (video) game art, working to create game characters for the conceputal side of things and my fear with the art director is speeches in front of an audience. I do fine one on one and I am very social, but the feeling of dozens of people relying on me to keep their drifting attention is unnerving. So, if thats what an art director position entails, please let me know. Oh, and any other advice would be greatly
appreciated.
I hope you can help me out!
Re-cap: Any good colleges near PA for game art. What art schools would you recommend and which should be avoided?
Thanks! :smiley:

Thank you!

#2

School of Visual Arts in New York comes to mind.

#3

I am very skeptical on the feasibility of going to university to be an art director and any college that claims so is quite frankly talking nonsense, its a job you get hired based on extensive industry experience. The nature of the role demands it.

If you want to do concept art I suggest you do a course that has a lot of drawing and painting foundations, there are not a lot of those at all to be honest. The most well known one is Entertainment Design at Art Center, concept design is competitive to get a job in but its based way more on skill and portfolio than experience, its not the easiest entry into the games industry imo. Another school is Feng Zhu school of design in Singapore, I believe the art department have a pretty decent unaccredited school. I would attempt to find a course that covers the same stuff as the entertainment design degree at art center, that’s what you need to learn and practice.

I did a 3D degree and picked up drawing alongside the studies then just went with it after graduating. I did a few workshops to learn specific stuff like environments, watched gnomon DVDs and signed up to life drawing. As long as its broadly relevant and your focused on your goals you should be OK!

#4

My thought is first of all good luck in your choice, but don’t stop yourself from choosing a potential career you would really like if it’s about public speaking. There are VERY few people who enjoy public speaking (me being one of the few) but that shouldn’t stop you from being an art director.

Do a google search, keep up on forums like these to see what is offered, but most importantly look at all the potential schools and see what the alumni have created. If there’s a common set of art maybe they have a style the encourage there. If it’s relative to what you like consider it, if it’s not relative to what you like, don’t consider it as much.

That’s my 2 bits. Hope it helps :slight_smile:

#5

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.