Industrial Design or Visual Arts

[Castaguer]

Hi everybody! I have a question of extreme urgency, should I study (If I choose to do so)
Industrial Design or Visual Arts? both would be free as the university is public. So Im much more concerned about which career would be most benneficial for concept art?
So far I've seen out of the study plan of both that

A- Industrial design would help me have more credibility in my works, practice fundamentals,
learn design, etc. but it also has a lot of stuff I don't care that much for, such as budget calculations and legislation of the product.

B- Visual Arts would help me practice a lot in traditional media and I mean A LOT which really excites me, it's also a lot about art history and it has even some specialization classes in digital animation, 2D and 3D art. But Im worried that it may be too much about "art" (the kind of sad stuff you see in expositions nowadays) and less about design and concept art

And comparing people I admire hasn't helped me, I know of quite a few of you who studied visual arts, but then there's Feng Zhu and others who started as industrial designers

So any help and opinion welcome, I have about three days to decide because the inscriptions will close soon.
Thanks for reading :)

Btw I would not stop practicing in my free time, making personal work etc. whatever the final decision is

[Darqjakob]

Sounds like you already know the answer. You clearly want to do visual over industrial. And it sounds like visual will give you a stronger base for most kinds of concept art.

[darktiste]

Budget calculations and legislation those thing can be boring but if you plan to be a freelance artist that might be be a great oportunity to expand what you don't know yet about the art industry
it not all about art you know you got client deadline contract and you need to make money with it etc... so by saying i dont like it i think you express a fear about something(it a challenge to do something out of the confort zone and it rewarding to be able to find away to enjoy something that you do like).So i just want to be clear i don't know what is the best for you.So it think you should first try to look at the video i link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3hJcnWKezk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpnBn9Cv...J&index=31

[Castaguer]

Sounds like you already know the answer. You clearly want to do visual over industrial. And it sounds like visual will give you a stronger base for most kinds of concept art.

jaja yeah I think Im leaning more towards visual arts, I just don't know if that's the best for me, my father says "it would be easier for you to learn and practice art on you own or with online classes to complement design, than learning design outside of school"

Thanks for the help! :D

---

Budget calculations and legislation those thing can be boring but if you plan to be a freelance artist that might be be a great oportunity to expand what you don't know yet about the art industry
it not all about art you know you got client deadline contract and you need to make money with it etc... so by saying i dont like it i think you express a fear about something(it a challenge to do something out of the confort zone and it rewarding to be able to find away to enjoy something that you do like).So i just want to be clear i don't know what is the best for you.So it think you should first try to look at the video i link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3hJcnWKezk

i am gonna add more in a few second

wow, thanks a lot that's a whole new perspective I hadn't considered, and loved the video, I hadn't thought of also that by studying industrial design I can learn about materials' physical properties and applications for future designs, not just the aesthetic/appearance part
thanks you very much!
Today I'll decide which one I prefer after reading and pondering all answers, so far it's close but know Im excited about both of them! xD

[eru]

Hey guys I like to add something but not saying it to you just in general for other people. I was watching that industrial design clip man even I saw something quite helpful and I'm just going to be watching the other clip soon. But about feng Zhu in one of his Episode 64 Questions and answers on youtube, he actually explains all this for other people. It doesn't matter what your doing as long as your drawing and you love what you do. Schools he recommends is any but of course anything to do with art. As long as your drawing and making things look good on your portfolio you'll get there. So Yeah Although I have some other problems which I will be asking too xD

[Ada Chiu]

I studied industrial design and I've worked in the industry for approx. 2 years now so I believe I'm qualified to give you some advice and thoughts from my real life experience.

First off you have to understand that industrial design is about mass manufacturing designs, which means that it is important to learn all about materials (plastics, metals, spray coatings, etc), manufacturing processes and new technology, prototyping, sustainability a.k.a life cycle of your product design, basic drafting, and mechanical design. There are more aspects to industrial design, but those are some of the key things you'll have to focus on. Also, the industrial design industry requires designers to know how to use Solidworks as a standard 3D software because all designs you do would have to have precise dimensions and tolerances. Let's just say that industrial design is all about working on the details of every little thing down to the nuts and bolts to use or type of protective coating for the product.

So! if you like to get hands on with making things, industrial design is the way to go.

When I was in ID(industrial design) school, I was only interested in doing concept design and 2D sketching for presentations. I don't regret learning ID in university because the knowledge of "how things work" has helped me a lot with doing concept designs for entertainment design. If I could go back in time though, I might have just pursued entertainment design instead. When you said Visual Arts, I assume you mean entertainment design (concept art/design, visual development).

The great thing about having an ID background is also being able to switch back and forth between the industrial design industry and entertainment design industry. Not all industrial designers are great at sketching concepts so this is where awesome visual communication abilities come in handy to make a portfolio stand out.

As for going to school for visual arts, I believe self-teaching or taking tutorials online (Gnomon or CGMA) is better than going to a university. I recommend that you read an article by Noah Bradley about schools. Google this and you should be able to find the article "Don't go to art school — I. M. H. O. — Medium"

I'm currently self-teaching myself concept art and there are PLENTY of free tutorials online to study from. The key is to be disciplined and this is why I joined this site to get to meet some art buddies to study with.

If you need more info about the industrial design curriculum, pm me and I could give you more information to help you decide which route you'd like to take.