From the makeshift desk of a college student...

It's been a while since I picked up a book and actually read for more than five minutes but this book was too good to pass up for a future (hopefully) college grad like me.

The book, titled Becoming a Digital Designer, delves into the various careers related to designers. Web, animation, game, graphic, broadcast... all these fields pertaining to design are covered in the book. Despite the name of the book, however, it will not i give you a clear defining path to becoming a designer. On the contrary, it gives you advice taken from the countless of designers the authors, Steven Heller and David Womack, have interviewed. He also interviews recent college grads who landed their first jobs in the industry and though a lot of questions repeat itself, the answers are always vastly different.

It keeps you from thinking certain fields in an idealized forms by bringing real people giving answers from their experiences. I haven't finished reading all of the book but so far it has been great, and every time I pick up the book, I'm more engrossed in it than ever.

I'm actually kind of glad the book made its way to me when it did. I think the scariest feeling for an undergrad is the feeling that time is running out and you have nothing to show for it. Some of my friends have related colleges as terribly expensive daycares where students can go and have fun and not think about the world of tomorrow and despite my university being somewhat non-traditional, I can't help to think that there is some truth in that statement. I'm finally realizing if not a bit too late that I was supposed to do something besides going to class learning theory and making good grades. No one is there to tell you that.

But if you're as clueless as me as to what to do with your life (except that maybe you really enjoy design), I would recommend this book. Maybe this book will finally nudge you in the right direction as it has hopefully done for me.