Issue date: 3/11/08 Section: ARTS & LIFE

Media Credit: Jonny Carroll Junior communication design major Cassie Kehl spent hours waiting for a large format printer Monday night at the art building. Photo Credit: Jonny Carroll

Only in the design world does a person refer to his or her X-Acto knife as a traveling companion or pull an all-nighter to complete a "simple exercise" and actually enjoy it.

"If you're not an art major, I think it's crazy to take these classes," said Sally Packard, who teaches Design II.

"Crazy" is a word often associated with the design courses at NT - known on campus for the toll they take on their students - but students and professors alike say the intensity of the programs is necessary and is what makes the College of Visual Arts and Design award-winning, nationally recognized and competitive.



Starting Out



NT design programs include communication design, fashion design and interior design and require all students to complete the basic Design I and II studio classes, notorious for their time-consuming nature.

So notorious, in fact, that academic advisers for the College of Visual Arts and Design are required to inform parents of the task at hand for their designing sons and daughters.

"We encourage art students who are taking two studios to limit semesters to 12 hours," academic counselor Susanne Coffey said. "You're earning three hours, but you're required to be in class five hours a week, and then there's also time to work on projects outside of class. A 12-hour semester on paper is really 16 hours."

The time commitment and required portfolio review to advance into upper-level design courses was enough to scare Granbury sophomore Sarah Volger away from her major of choice.

"I went into freshman orientation as an interior design major," Vogler said. "When I realized that I needed to go through all the art and get through two full years and possibly not even go on with my major, I decided it wasn't worth the financial risk of paying two years' worth of tuition and then have to start all over from scratch."

However, the renegades who do take the first step into the design world face Design I.

"I've heard from a lot of people that it's a 'weed-out' class," said El Paso sophomore Ignacio Torres, a Design I student this semester. "They really try to scare you at the beginning with all the work - telling you that everyone gets C's and low B's."

Continued...

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