DESIGN FOR CHANGE::Graduation Speech::May 2007
I guess it’s inevitable. Someone stands up at graduation and talks about change. How we’ve changed. How life has changed. How we are going to change the world. I thought, “I’m going to do something different. I’m not going to talk about change.”
But that would be a change, wouldn’t it?
All of the changes in the program have led us to playfully refer to ourselves as the guinea pigs.
Well it’s been four years and the program has changed. We’ve changed. We’ve created ad campaigns to bring about change, and the other week my roommate even wanted to pay for her cap & gown with change. That’s college for you.
For the past three years, I always assumed I would graduate and pursue a job in graphic design. After all, I’m getting a degree in Visual Communications, so it makes sense, right? I wouldn’t want to go through four years of school only to not get a job in design.
Then this year, the changes in the program caused me to realize something. I realized that no matter what I end up doing, I can apply everything I’ve learned in my design classes to anything I do from this point on. Career-wise. Life-wise. Anything.
And I don’t just mean that we’ll forever be the people that everyone goes to every time they need to design a website, a resume or a brochure. Although that’s probably true, too.
I mean that we have learned how to design an idea. A whole idea. We know how to approach a problem from a different angle. We know how to be complete.
We’ve learned that good design is more than eye candy. Yes, it’s nice to be clever. But the real test is not cleverness, it is impact. Did it help someone? Did it make someone think? Did it help elucidate a problem? Is someone better off because of it?
We have learned that if we do our work right, we can truly use what we have learned to make an impact on the community around us.
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