Question About Concept Art and College

[Phaethon]

So right now I'm embroiled in all this college search business, but I'm not entirely certain what I'm looking for. Basically, I'm not sure if I should be looking for schools with Graphic Design or Illustration if I'd like to do concept art. I've taken two Graphic Design courses, one at my school and one at Pratt in NY over the summer. The one at school was pretty broad, and actually encompassed illustration in addition to things like web design, book/cd/magazine covers, calligraphy, etc. There was a lot of work with traditional media in addition to software. The course at Pratt, however, was much more about layout and typesetting, and we used computers almost exclusively. Is Illustration a better path for concept artists, or does it depend on a school's definition of Graphic Design?

[Irene Gallo]

It sounds like your high school graphic design class was more like a commercial arts survey. If you go to college for graphic design (as I did) you will focus on typography and layout, and working WITH images, but not so much creating them. (Although this is changing as more and more designers are collaging stock photos for their images.) If you want to learn to draw and paint, then you should look into a strong illustration or concept art school.

[Magic Man]

Yeah, if you need to learn how to draw and paint, you need to look for a course that does these things - and typesetting and layout would not be part fo the cirriculum.

Over here, there is a degree at the university under the umbrella of Fine Arts streamlining into illustration. Might help you out if you look for somethign like this - als, it doesnt hurt to email course coordinators to ask for advice, most are pretty helpful ad get back to you in no time at all.