First Day of Teaching

I've never taught before. Or, more accurately, I teach every day as do most graphic designers, informing people about our work, and why it works, the value of graphic design, the design process, even technical aspects. But I've never taught a group, sitting in a classroom at an actual design college. All staring at me, expectantly.

To my surprise (and relief) my first class was fantastic. If you, like me, would define fantastic as: chaotic, nerve-wracking, fascinating (as I got to know my students), hilarious, slightly disjointed (I veered wildly off-topic quite a bit), and eye-opening. I declare it a success! My students are energetic, unfocused, extremely talented and goal-oriented, and each is so unbelievably unique from one another.

The school itself is still getting off the ground, but is a lovely facility, staffed with a young, vibrant, dedicated group of professionals, who are insanely committed to the students. The amount of support and one-on-one attention is really surprising.

Overall, I think this is going to be a very important experience in my career. I'm just taking it one class at a time for now, not planning to quit my "real" (day) job anytime soon. We'll see if I can keep Typography I interesting from 6pm to 11pm twice a week. I am pretty sure it will be the cool projects that will pull us through.

More on my teaching journey to come...