Join the league of insomniacs: A guide to surviving design school

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already enrolled into design school. You should have heeded the advice of the people who told you it would be tough, but you didn’t think it’d be true, right? After all, there doesn’t seem to be much else cooler than simply going to school to draw. No books, no exams. But you’re in for a surprise, for here is a secret no one tells you: you do not breeze through design school—you survive it. This is how to survive design school in eight easy steps.

First, replace your gadgets with Apple devices. Before being a designer, you are first a Mac operator. Having a Mac computer is key—this is your metaphorical matriculation card into design school. Designers tote their MacBooks around the way Paris Hilton does her pet Chihuahua. Mac computers boast of greater processing speed, better file management and integration, and superior colour display. Thanks to its minimalist design aesthetic, it simplifies many aspects, cuts out the distractions, and allows you to focus on what is truly important: your work. Besides, good design is more than just the creations you slave over. It is a lifestyle; thus, it should exist throughout the aspects of your life, including the tools you use. Armed with the tech, it’s now time to talk about your social life.

Your second step is to throw away your calendar. You will not need it, because your project deadlines are the only dates you will remember. These dates, and the time you have remaining until then, will haunt you from the moment you wake to the moment you sleep. Having a calendar will only give yourself more grief staring at how much time you have left. The rise and fall of the sun will no longer mean a thing, the days bleeding into each other to feel like one extremely long day with intermittent naps. You’ll start the week in a post-weekend daze, and end the week feeling like it’s only Tuesday. This tunnel vision will benefit your work, but not necessarily everything else in your life; be prepared to forgo late night partying, though the same need not be said for drugs and alcohol—after all, you do need some coping mechanisms. Once you’ve achieved exclusion from the rest of the world, you can pursue inspiration.

Thirdly, be a collector. Be the person who takes free postcards and brochures that catch your eye. Consume all sorts of strange food or drink solely for their packaging. Save inspirational works off the Internet. Stuff your wardrobe with ingeniously designed tees. Cut things out from magazines. Print out photographs that make sense to no one else but other designers, and stick them on the walls. Fill every aspect of your life with this clutter. Yes, you will have to breathe design, eat design, and sleep design. The more you take in, the more you have to draw from, and the more discerning you will be about your work. Don’t worry about the mess—it will add to your “designer cred.” But inspiration is only one part of influencing your work; you will need to develop an identifiable style for yourself.

Next, carry a sketchbook with you to doodle in all the time. Do this so that you can fit the stereotype of what designers do all day: draw. That aside, inspiration rarely generates action, but action will generate inspiration. Constant sketching can either help you note the surroundings and create observations, or pull you deeper underneath the surface of the sea. Frequent ideation will let you exhaust the pedestrian ideas so that you can generate better ones. Plus, this means you’ll be ready any time inspiration strikes. Of course, it adds to the image of a “cool designer.” While it’s important to have your own style, it’s also important to distinguish tasteful from tasteless.

That brings us to the coming step: cultivate a love for Helvetica that will rival your dislike for Comic Sans (which will be as much as one can possibly love or dislike a typeface). The reason for this is simple: Helvetica to a designer is what the little black dress is to every woman. It’s a classic that fits in every situation. It may be overused, but it works. Just like a Mac computer, it simplifies certain aspects so that you can focus on others. On the other hand, Comic Sans should just be shunned. If you’ve seen it, you can understand why. With the creative aspects down to pat, consider your working habits next.

After that, burn midnight oil regularly, for inspiration usually strikes then. It’s quiet, peaceful, and free from interruption. Plus, you’ll get to see the sun rise while everyone else misses it! Studies have actually shown that creativity thrives in night owls rather than the early birds. Most importantly, your resulting eye bags are badges of honour. However, it will be best if you stop acquainting with your bed—the worst thing to happen pulling an all-nighter is the classic “five-minute lie down.” Learn to ignore the siren call of your bed, because this reprieve does not exist. You will jolt awake with panic to see the sky alit. Now, it goes without saying that you’ll need help staying awake with your sleep bank in the red.

Following which, drink copious amounts of coffee (or other caffeinated beverages). Other popular choices of course include the classic Red Bull, or Coca Cola, but I find that these give you an energy boost as opposed to merely keeping you awake, which is much more unbearable. Nonetheless, these will aid you in forgetting to sleep. Being tired but awake will desensitize you to everything else but your work, and the bitter taste of coffee probably acts as a warning against failure. To give you an idea of how much coffee is normal for a designer: I once drank so much coffee it caused my hands to tremble, to the point that I’d thought someone was shaking the table from the other end. Trembling might not necessarily be a bad thing, though; coffee stains add a nice touch to your papers and sketchbooks. Now you’re done getting yourself in order, but that’s not all it takes.

Finally, step eight: make a ton of friends in other fields of design. For the following years of your life, these will be the people you will spend a majority of your time with—more than your family, your friends, even your other half. They’ll not only make the uphill climb bearable, but they will also give you wake up calls in the middle of the night, and lend you a hand if you need to produce collateral you’re not familiar with so that your work will be multi-dimensional. It is crucial for this group of friends to include your printers. Printing is a hassle at best and a hair-pulling nightmare at worst. Being friends with your printers lifts a huge load off your back, because they will help bring to life your occasional ridiculous ideas and always ensure that your work is printed immaculately. This is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

The beauty of design school is that you don’t just learn how to be a designer! The next few years are really boot camp for life, in disguise. You will become resilient, learn to prioritise, understand the need for attention to detail, and be driven to do things rather than merely thinking about them. You will probably still procrastinate, but you’ll just have a better workaround.

It’s easy for anyone to be a designer—just own a Mac computer, lose all sense of time, hoard weird things, do little else but drawing, love Helvetica and hate Comic Sans, lose sleep in front of the computer screen, snort caffeine, and be nice to other designers and your printers. Just have all that done, and you’ll make it through design school. Good luck; you’ll need it.