How to Be a Design Student Offers Tools for Lifelong Learning

With 18 years of experience teaching and a lifetime of learning and creating, Mitch Goldstein has a lot of advice for design students. In his new book, How to Be a Design Student (And How to Teach Them), the designer and educator has compiled many of these lessons into an accessible volume that will be helpful for designers no matter where they are in their schooling. 

The book is filled with nuggets of wisdom that address questions such as “Why go to design school?”, “How do you learn how to design?”, “What’s the difference between art and design?” (Hint: It doesn’t matter!), “Should you pursue an MFA?”, and “What does a professional designer do anyway?”

Teachers and Students Are in It Together

While the book was primarily written for current and future students, there are parts specifically directed at instructors. “Teachers and students are deeply intertwined—they are not on two opposing sides,” Goldstein writes in the introduction. “We are all in it together, working collaboratively to learn how to make and think as creative practitioners.” Most of all, the book is an important reminder that we are all students of life. “It’s called ‘creative practice’ because you never stop learning how to do it.” 

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• Jaxson Stone