On Graduate School · Part 2 · Academic Experience
Introduction
Hello, I am Desmond Du, a Singaporean and a Motion Designer currently working in the US.
Welcome to part 2 to my journey of studying/working abroad in the US and pursuing my MFA in Motion Media Design (MOME) at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), which I began in September 2020 (Fall) and completed in March 2023 (Winter). This article follows a format based on commonly asked questions.
“Why do you choose SCAD or to study abroad?”
Primary motivation: full scholarships
When I decided to pursue my higher education at SCAD, my main motivation was the full scholarships* they awarded me for both my undergraduate and graduate studies. It was a dream come true, especially considering my humble background and the rejections I had received from local universities in Singapore like NTU and Digipen!
I first heard about SCAD when they visited my alma mater, Singapore Polytechnic (SP), to share their academic programs. Additionally, I also knew some SP alumni who went to study at SCAD and develop successful careers in the US, this baffled me in the beginning because it seems as if success was guaranteed if you study at SCAD. Nonetheless, this inspired confidence that SCAD was a credible university for a creative career.
At the time, I didn’t think studying abroad was even an option for me, but when my partner-then expressed interest in applying, I applied on a whim. To my surprise, I was accepted to SCAD, and it was a huge relief after facing rejections from local universities. I later learned that almost everyone gets into SCAD and receive varying amount of scholarship funding based on their portfolio or credentials. So don’t lose faith thinking you can’t afford to go to SCAD, it might seem like that when you see how expensive the tuition and fees areon their website, but just know that you would get some scholarship/financial aid!
Personally, I was able to get full scholarships for both my BFA and MFA! There were some trials and tribulations that I have to overcome, and you can learn more about how I did it by visiting the links at the end of this article!
Reason 1: Learning at the best school
Aside from the incentive of a tuition-free education, I chose SCAD because it had been continually ranked by The Rookies — a platform to help digital artists get discovered without having to compete with professionals for attention — as the best university in the world for studying motion graphics since 2016. Having studied at SCAD for about six years, I believe we are the best university because of our environment in which students are trained to produce high-quality motion graphics by excellent faculty and supported by a kind community that helps one another with succeeding in their careers. Prior to SCAD, I used to think that the best schools or colleges offer some sort of hidden knowledge that make student’s work amazing, but over the years, I come to realize it’s more about being in a creative ecosystem that encourages and nurture creative and critical thinking which brings about great work.
Reason 2: Learning from the best teachers
I had the pleasure of learning from the best teachers in motion graphics/design who wrote the textbooks for motion graphics: Austin Shaw author of Design for Motion and Dr. Michael Betancourt who wrote dozens of books including The History of Motion Graphics and peer-reviewed articles about the field of motion graphics — how awesome is that.
Both teachers have different teaching styles that enhance my learning experience. During Shaw’s time teaching at SCAD, he made students and I feel safe and comfortable making mistakes and taking critiques through his goofy friendliness, which assuaged my perfectionist tendency and also helped me get used to the more open-minded and casual culture in the US.
As for Betancourt, I would regard him as a walking encyclopedia about motion graphics and film studies, because he seems to know anything and everything. His classes, though highly theoretical in nature, are the best I have taken and shaped my artistic practice and critical thinking. One of the most notable things he often emphasized is how design is critically informed by history; creating innovative designs involving a comprehensive understanding of what has been done in the past and building off a specific visual language to create something new.
Every teacher in the MOME department has something unique to offer, there isn’t a “best” professor, but each of them do their best to make sure that you produce quality work and come out as a competent designer.
Reason 3: Learning with the best people
Creativity thrives in solitude, not in isolation.
What drew me back to SCAD for my graduate studies was the tight-knit student community and vibrant student club, MOMELOVE, which is filled with the friendliest and kindest of people. I believe that formal education is not the sole avenue for learning new skills or knowledge, or to get into a certain profession, there are many people who are able to do self-teach themselves via online tutorials or books these days. But the effectiveness of self-directed learning remains a distinct consideration. If one is concerned solely about learning or developing or skill, then I agree that online resources are great. But developing a creative practice has much more to do with just the skills, sometimes it’s about having the identity of the “creative” by being and interacting in a community about creative or even non-creative stuff.
In school, when you are working with like-minded people, I felt that I was in an optimal ‘headspace’ to focus on your craft and do better work. Most SCAD students demonstrated an earnest way of living to become a better version of themselves, and being in that environment made me want to do my best as well. The club host 4 bi-weekly meetings throughout the quarter, in which the club officers would offer opportunities to help students succeed at their studies by sharing about upcoming workshops, doing software demo, giving employment tips, or sharing resources. This is a platform for students to network and gets together outside of the class while eating pizzas. It makes the journey of succeeding in a career less lonely because you have so many people that you can count on.
Reason 4: Working with the best people
One iconic event of our community is the CoMotion event, our annual student-led motion graphics conference, in which students get to work on a large-scale team of about 40 people to produce the event deliverables such as the website, graphic design, and title sequence. From 2021–2023, I had the opportunity to be the Animation Lead and led a team of animators to produce the title sequence and the student showcase title card as shown below.
“What is the experience like of studying at each of the four SCAD campuses?”
Being given the chance to study across Hong Kong, Savannah, Atlanta, and Lacoste is undeniably awe-inspiring, and at times, regrettably overlooked because art schools with a global campus presence are a rarity. I finally understood why people often say traveling changes your perspective after studying at SCAD. I met so many people from all over the world and we would share stories about our lifestyle in our home countries. When I told my Venezulean friend that in Singapore, every morning we would have to sing the national anthem and recite the pledge in school, she exclaimed “that’s propaganda!!”. I was mildly surprised, and it took me a moment realize that was indeed true. These sorts of conversations are often very enlightening as it helps me “unlearn” or reevaluate the values I was unknowningly forced upon in Singapore.
Anyway, every campus I visited served as a reminder of the vastness of the world, the wonderful discoveries yet to unfold, and amazing people I get to meet. This is a humbling experience, because I feel that as we get older, we assumed that we experienced “alot” and there is nothing else that can stimulate you which is very untrue! It’s hard to describe how I felt about my experience, but perhaps the pictures below can show you the things that brought my great joy.
“Did your experience at SCAD meet or fall short of your expectations?”
When you want something, the whole universe conspires in order for you to achieve it — The Alchemist
Studying at SCAD definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of broadening my horizons and things I can do with my life eg. setting up my own business, developing a global network of colleagues and friends, working with top brands and companies (WarnerMedia Studios, NBA, Cartoon Network, etc.), and working in NYC. SCAD MOME department fostered an environment that allowed me to do my best work and pursue whatever I was interested in.
One of the best thing about SCAD was that the environment and people allowed me to develop my passion for teaching. When I first got to SCAD, I was so excited to learn about a peer tutor position. I love helping people and sharing my knowledge, it brings me fulfillment. I was both peer tutor in my BFA and MFA, doing one-on-one tutoring sessions and also running my software workshops. In fact, the latter was my own initiative.
Notably, when I started these software workshops prior to becoming a peer tutor, I encountered no opposition or barriers by student or school staff. No one questioned my authority, qualifications, or year level to undertake this endeavor. Instead, I was met with unwavering enthusiasm and encouragement from everyone! This was quite a surprise for me, because I don’t think this would have went as well if I did it in Singapore; I can’t help feeling about how Singapore has this cynicism and apathy towards creative and community contribution. In hindsight, I felt that this mentality is the biggest barrier to being a creative in Singapore.
Anway, all the teaching and tutoring opportunities and skills I developed over my time at SCAD would eventually give the confidence to start NoSleepCreative, my YouTube channel dedicated to motion design tutorials after graduating from my BFA. And it would lead to being offered to develop my online video Domestika course.
I am always very fond of sharing about this, because people like to think I’m “talented” or something to be able to do the teaching or youtube channel stuff, but personally, I attribute to the people and community who encouraged me to do as I please in the early phases of me trying to share whatever knowledge I had with people.
“What is the biggest difference between the education system/course arrangement/learning environment compared to your country?”
Your worth is determined by your process, not just your final creations. And your process is solely shaped by the boundaries of your imagination.
The only experience I can compare to is my diploma in visual effects and motion graphics in my alma mater, Singapore Polytechnic, in which we spent most of our time learning software and technical skills (eg. AE, Maya), and we were not exposed to art history or media theory. Hence, when I got to SCAD, I was really good at executing designs or animation with Adobe software, but not so much at creative or artistic expressions.
In SCAD, professors often emphasize that developing your creative process is much more important than the work itself. Process, in this context, is simply defined as how you arrive at designing the work.
Here is my MFA Candidacy Review presentation in which I showcased 5 projects and my process: https://youtu.be/0FtaBHaJFY4
“Did you ever feel like being at SCAD was bad for your health?”
Short answer: No, the word ‘bad’ is highly subjective.
Long answer: We can always find reasons to rationalize something as good or bad, and I believe the better question is: how did SCAD influence my lifestyle?
Whether you have a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ college experience (with regards to health) college is dependent on:
Your self-awareness of your capacity to manage life and work, which I often attribute as a quality of maturity, derived from life experience and age.
I enrolled in SCAD for my BFA in Fall 2016 when I was 23, and I never really had an art education before; I only did a diploma in visual effects and motion graphics that mostly focused on technical proficiency and production skills. I experienced many hardships when I first began because of several factors:
- The novel experience of studying abroad.
- Cultural differences of people being so outspoken and expressive.
- Inadequacy in foundation art skills (eg. drawing & painting).
- Balancing working on my assignments and chores (eg. cooking & groceries).
- My tendency to overthink things and doubt my abilities.
- My perfectionist attitude to life and work.
- Homesickness and questioning my decision of studying abroad
All of these contributed to a detrimental experience when I was studying, because the truth was that I was inexperienced in the artistic field and I lacked the maturity to accept that and did not believe in myself, and the environment at SCAD made me realize that. This is not necessarily a bad thing because life is tough — in order to succeed, we need to develop grit and determination to endure all the challenges that will come our way.
Nearing my BFA graduation, a new set of factors emerged and produced tremendous stress for me which led to fatigue and also neglecting other aspects of my life. These factors include:
- The irrational urgency to get a job before graduation contributed by observing most of my peers who received employment offers and also the ingrained expectations from the school or society to have that accomplishment.
- The self-doubt in my competencies and portfolio to getting a job.
- The disappointment of potentially returning to your home country because of not getting a job and being unable to stay in the US for better opportunities.
- The frustration that why things are not working out for me, etc. The point I am trying to make here, and hopefully, you realized a pattern by now, is that:
All my problems are artificial and created by myself.
I created a reality that I was not going to “make it” and I became obsessed with work because of that. It was only after graduation (and getting a job), I was able to gain some distance and a clearer headspace to examine my life journey, and the conclusion I came to was that: I was so stupid for being so obsessed about my career and my skills that I neglected myself, my friends and my partner. I often regret that, and coming back to graduate school, I had fears that this might happen, but this time I made a conscious decision to safeguard my health and my life. So after a series of suffering and at the age of 27, my priority in my life had finally shifted from one that was career and work-centric, to putting myself first. I wished I was able to do this earlier, but it’s easier said than done. Everything happens for a reason, this is my journey for my individuation and it was one paved with many hardships, both real and mental, and I am grateful for every step of it in retrospect.
As for you my readers who are considering going to SCAD (again) and being afraid that your life or health will be compromised because of the hardships, just remember you always have the ability to make a choice to be responsible for your life and overcome those challenges.
“Do you feel SCAD is a place that overemphasizes commercial work and does not encourage students to pursue their own personal projects?”
No. I always dislike the term “personal project” because of its vagueness and people like to differentiate them as two separate things. There seems to be a discourse in our creative field in which ‘personal projects’ are regarded as sacred and ‘commercial works’ are detrimental to your artistic soul: we need to work on commercial projects so as to generate more time and funds to work on our ‘personal projects’.
Isn’t commercial work you do for a school or a client regarded as a ‘personal project’? And if you are doing personal projects, wouldn’t you do that in your own free time outside of school or a job? And also, why can’t you do both at the same time; a personal project in a commercial context or commercial work using your personal expression?
Personally, I believe sometimes we get caught up our romanticized expectations of our role as artists and designers and the work we do: we get precious about the work we put into the world and how it needs to be pretty or make a difference with it.
We are in the field of persuading people to do, believe, and think something through our craft of making imagery and narrative. We are not necessarily saving the world with our art, but we like to think we can make a difference with it.
Perhaps a better reframing of the question might be:
How much freedom do I have expressing my creativity in projects done at SCAD?
I can only speak for the courses I took Motion Media (MOME) and Visual effects (VSFX) program, and my answer is AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. You are an adult who is in charge of your education. If there is something you want to pursue, develop or research about, then do it but communicate to your professor the details and outcome of your endeavors. For one of my visual effects classes, I told my professor that I did not want to do what she has specified for 2 assignments and I want to focus on something else (because I didn’t want to a rigging assignment lol).
I prepared small presentation slides highlighting what I will to work on, the references, and the outcome of the project. She did not even object to it and approve my direction almost immediately. Hence, as students, we always have some agency in defining the work we want to do as SCAD, it’s just whether you have the autonomy and sensibility to actually initiate that conversation with your professor about it. As for MOME, I have never faced resistance in whatever I wanted to do in terms of artistic expression or subject matter, and that’s why I love the MOME department.
Note: This answer might seem snarky but it’s not meant to be a personal attack; I’m just more frustrated about the looseness of the term ‘personal project’ and people’s distinction between that and commercial work. I think work is work, just do it well, and direct it with a purpose regardless of whether it is ‘personal’ or ‘commercial’.
“Will I get a job if I study ‘X‘ major?”
NO. Having a degree does not guarantee employment after graduation. The purpose of attending school is not solely to secure a job, but rather to acquire an education that equips you for both a career and life beyond graduation.
Not too long ago I participated as alumni speaker for an SCAD info-session for prospective students, and this was a popular question in Zoom meeting chat. Unfortunately, life is never that simple.
Securing employment is heavily influenced by your network and the connections; fundamentally, your employability hinges on your reputation. Or to put it simply: who you know and who knows you. A peer who advocates for you for a position at their company holds greater value that your proficiency in After Effects, 3D software, programming, or any other skills. This reputation-building begins right from the moment you enter a new setting, whether it’s a school or workplace, and doesn’t wait until after graduation.
Most of my opportunities have arisen through individuals who advocated for me or recommended to their teams. In my experience, I have never gotten a job through job application alone. There is always a human element at play to help me get an opportunity.
Perhaps a better way to reframe this question would be:
How does higher education in the US influence my job prospects and qualities of professional development?
- US job opportunities: You are more likely to be hired by a US company since you possess a US degree. Additionally, having a F1 student visa helps with the hiring process.
- Better and more job opportunities. I met and known people who love projection mapping, experimental video art, abstract animation who produced VJ events, video installations, concert visualizations, music video, and I can see that it is pretty easy to get into the field in the US. I could never imagine this being a successful and respected profession in Singapore, mostly because it’s rare!
- Broader network of connections. You are more likely to meet people from the top companies or studios or people who knows these people, or people who will recommend you to these studios. SCAD frequently invites industry professionals and companies to do portfolio review or do a presentations. In my time at SCAD, I have made connections with people from The Mill, Framestore, Microsoft, Epic Games, Buck, Hornet, Google, etc.
Conclusion
I believe SCAD is an incredible school to study at especially for Motion Media Design/Motion Graphics. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I felt that both my career and life have drastically changed for the better ever since the day I was awarded the full scholarship. Every now and then, I looked back on how if I got into Singapore university instead, I would not be where I am today with friends from all over the world, traveling to different countries for studies and work.
To be blunt, staying in Singapore would not allow me to reach my full potential as a designer.
I’m saying this not because the Singapore universities or artists are mediocre. Being the “best” often relies less on one’s skills, training, or watching the right tutorials, but more on the opportunities afforded by their country or the prevailing societal ideology, which may not fully acknowledge the significance of artists and designers. To achieve professional success and personal comfort, it becomes imperative to thrive within an environment that nurtures your creative growth.
Personal Reflection
I am soooo annoyed at myself for taking so long to write and publish this article. I had started this around April 2023, and it is May 25 2024 as I write this. I had many big life events in the past year that impeded this process. There were many parts I wish I could explained more, but I also want to keep it succinct so people can get an overview of my SCAD experience. At this point, done is better than perfect!!!
Connect with me
Thank you for reading this article. If you are interested to see what I am working on or connecting with me, you can use the links below
- Website: http://duitbetter.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedesmonddu/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/nosleepcreative
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desmonddu
Check out my other writings on SCAD and Graduate School
- Journey to a full-ride
- Journey to an art school full-ride again
- On Graduate School · Part 1 · Back to School
- On Graduate School · Part 2 · Academic Experience
