erm...if what u want is to be a designer in advertising firm, i would advise not to enter MMU.

As a graduate from MMU FCM (faculty of creative multimedia), i don't see MMU courses help much compare to the one academy. MMU courses focus more on software skills than design sense. u can always learn the software from online free tutorial, but is the design skills that u need to learn from lecturers.

but if what u want to be is account executive or other non-design position in advertising firm, MMU is a good choice. their management courses are good. the best thing about MMU is the fee is cheaper than most private uni/college and u can easily get PTPTN to cover ur study fee + a bit of allowance. by the way, study design is an expensive subject, u need to buy a lot of art tools (brushes, colours, markers...), art material (mounting board, glue, canvas), money to print your artwork/photos (i used to print 10R/A2 size) and u really need a mid-high end digital camera (it is a must for MMU design 2nd year courses =___=)

TS, be honest to you, graphic designer is really really low pay job (especially fresh graduate, 1200-1600 omg). if u really think about earning good money, u need to either have really good skills to apply MNC agencies, or start your own freelance / company to take design job. start building your network, join those exibition, design show to increase ur exposure. if u think of working in small design house, most of them will promise tons of work, low pay, many OT (usually they dont pay ur OT). It is normal for agency to state the job requirement with u need to MULTITASK (maybe 5-7 small project?)+ TIGHT DEADLINE (2 day for a website?)+ WORK UNDER HIGH STRESS ENVIROMENT. yea i know this sounds depressing but this is the truth, very little client will pay much for design.

a slightly better position could be production field where they might pay u better depending on your position (editor, motion graphic artist, 3D, VFX etc). but u might have really weird working hours if involve filming. web designer provide better salary from the start. but it would require you to have both creative skills and minor scripting knowledge like html, css, javascript, flash which will easily boost your salary to 2k+.

if u really passionate for design, other than ur normal assignment, u must keep track with the latest design trend, software / tools. Always look for tutorial and do better and better. you might seems good in uni / college but your skill could be 3 years behind the industry standard. dont be like me...only know how to play online game last time (i would be so much better if i invest 20% of my online game time to study).

never heard of the 3 college u mentioned there, if u want a better & more recognize degree cert, MMU is worth it.

no offence but i hope things will be as good as u said till you finish the study. 1st year is all design foundation (lines, colour, shape, form etc). 2nd year onwards are software + photography. 3ds max, flash, maya and others. be honest, if u depend on the lecturer to lead you to become the guru in softwares, good luck man. i can remember the times where the student even need to teach back the tutor how to use photoshop. not all of them but most of them know nothing and only know how to talk crap. even in beta year 3d class, they just follow the slide n read (for my class's tutor). please, i dont pay u to read slide for me, i need ur skill, ur experience to guide me to do good work, not stand there n read article. especially when u choose ur major...hopefully u wont have the same experience as my year, all of us blur and dont know what the heck they teach. everything is a mess. luckily that time i'm able to have some better discussion with trustful tutor to lead us better (and i learn a lot) else really dont know how i'm gonna pass.

about photography, actually i appreciate the class (btw, photography class during my batch is 1 whole year, not 1 sem). i learn quite a lot from there, especially how to make the work more lively and presentable. as i know...u can buy 2nd hand camera from senior (a lot of them willing to sell) it is a must have thing. agree with you on the finding sources. online tutorial is one of the best thing ever on internet.

TS, about graphic design, be honest...it is kinda a basic for all sort of media design (video, 3d, web desgin, print design, advertising etc). by study graphic design alone is not enough. as i see the market, graphic design student will be accepted to be graphic designer (for prints, ads, banner, magazine editor etc), illustrator (storyboard artist, concept artist, fine art artist etc). there is not much room for you to go if u only aim as graphic designer. multimedia course like mmu offered is focus on media like animation, interactive application, web design, game, motion graphics, 3d where u will be trained to use ur graphic design skills in various media. your skills will be valuable when u can apply the creative idea and visual skill to the media. That gives a very solid reason for company to hire you (and pay you more) since your work will be able to directly contribute to the final deliverables (which is the final artwork, eg a complete workable website).

i'm a web designer for 2.5 years working in a singapore design agency (still a junior designer). u need to really love your job else you wont want to have this job with the salary u get as a degree holder.

as i see it...most student will be very proud of their work (which is what lecturer teached them). but the thing is, when client pay money to u, what is their goal and expectation? functionality and result is what they aim for, art doesnt mean much as long as dont ruin their cooperate image. thats y there are tons of hard sell crappy ads out there.

as long as u can present your work well, explained ur "value" to the interviewer, you can get the job

TOA got a lot of rich boy also... dont underestimate them... maybe next to sunway pyramid is an advantage? since it is so near to pub & nightlife... really need to resist temptation

for most private uni / collage the study fee alone will be around 13-15k per year (equipment, exam fee, money spent for assignment are not included). living expenses is depend on the person's lifestyle, very hard to give u a proper figure. about english speaking skills, u can always train ur english during the 3 years study, try to mix around with some friendly english speaking friends and that will help a lot for your practice.

collage's reputation will help a bit, but the real strength of the designer still depend on the portfolio. even without a cert, with suitable portfolio i'm able to apply web designer job in singapore.

regarding salary, i started of as 1700+ as a fresh grad web designer and 2k+ after 2.5 years of working in internet marketing & advertising industry. with a same amount of hardwork... i would suggest to look for other job that can bring u much more money. even u r promoted to team leader / art director position, the no day no night no life working life will continue. personally i want to get rid of this lifestyle when i want to have family.

dont worry, neither my english is good . i graduated from multimedia university (major in digital media). during my uni time, i learnt how to develop flash interactive application, web design and other multimedia related like basic video & sound editing, photography and basic 3D. currently a web designer.

be honest collage wont teach u much on technical skills, i learn most of my design and technical skill during my working life (from colleagues and tutorial). being in collage is for you to learn how implementing creativity and function into the design process. a great lecturer should be able to give u a good insight of the latest industry practice/demand and guide ur learning process.

IMO graphic design is the basic for any visual design regardless of working as web designer, graphic designer, multimedia designer... but without a specialize skill in certain area there is a huge constraint for your career option. web design and multimedia design require more technical understand in their area and come along with better income and career development. internet is a fast growing platform while print design is the foundation of advertising & mass media. i would like to advise u to focus on at least one specialize skill other than graphic design alone, web design gives u better understanding of the promotion mechanism and the skill helps if u want to freelance.

it is normal if u don't understand what happen for the multimedia production. if possible do some research on the production itself. go to google and search for some tutorial like "design a movie poster with photoshop" or "draw a car with adobe illustrator", give a few try and test your interest. most likely u will be doing the similar things for another 10 years but with advance techniques. if you feel it is pretty interested and hope to do better in it, welcome to the design world . else u might need to reconsider about taking up design course, it will be extreme torture if you dont like it where this field require constant update & building up new skill set (internet and technology grow very fast), a lot of effort to design the work and a lot of stress during the production.

since this is off topic, i PMed you my reply.

i heard from my friend TARC's lecturers and facilities are very bad. not sure about IACT. personally i won't go for TARC.

it depends on the agency & the position u apply for. as i mentioned before, i dont see any problem for multimedia designer to join advertising industry, in fact the chances is higher. multimedia designer have more advantages over graphic designer if both designers have same level of art sense & experience. why dont pick the one who have better skill set?

FYI, multimedia designer are required to do graphic design. but instead of graphic only we also handle the technical execution part (example: simple web coding, flash animation, video editing). other than that u might learn about user interface and interactivity also.

if u choose to learn advertising, most likely u will involve in marketing + media knowledge where u learn a bit of marketing and design. if ur idea is to manage the projects and talk to client, ur focus should be "marketing & advertising". but if u r looking in to design creative art works, "design" is the correct path.

btw, if u want to have good income and spend ur time with family, advertising is not a place for u... i believe most of the designers will agree with this idea.

This post has been edited by B-Mecha: Mar 26 2009, 05:41 PM

dont worry about that, not everyone know how to design when they enter the course, that's why u go there to learn! design and drawing is 2 different skills. drawing skills is a must for illustrator but not for others. each position have their own focus so dont worry about being lost or feeling incapable. be open and explore what are the things that u like during ur foundation / 1st year and start to build ur own skill from there.

glad that u have that insight, actually if u r having financial problem, u work first then self learn design at night time. technical skills is not hard to pick up, with collage or not doesnt make much different. the only big obstacle in self learning is how develop the art sense + ur technical skills and sell it to client. i believe a lot of LYN forumers are willing to give some comment / some guidance of how to self learn design related skills.

actually there are more design student end up working in other field than ever thought of (i suspect 50%). i have friends that went to banking, insurance, sales, marketing, pilot (yes he is working in mas), financial adviser, finance admin.... in some ways it might be a better route where hard work will bring much reasonable income than being a designer where usually dont get overtime pay.