Thirty thumbnails

It’s not about how quickly you find the solution; it’s about what you learn along the way

Heemong Kim, our instructor for Graphic Design 1 (and 4 & 5) at Rhode Island College had a rule for starting any project: 30 thumbnails. If you showed up for the first class after getting a new assignment without 30 little sketches, he wouldn’t talk to you.

That frustrated a lot of students in the class. But that created its own sort of solution. The school is a small state school that attracts a lot of local commuter students, many of whom end up taking Graphic Design out of a kind of process of elimination as a way to make art and make a living. I’m sure this is true at many schools, but this was my experience. That meant that in a class of 15, there might have been five to seven who were really there because they loved graphic design and wanted to make that their vocation.