There’s a bit of a debate going down on twitter today that seems to have started with this post by @thefoxisblack. I just thought I’d weigh real quick.

I went to school at Iowa State University in the smallish town of Ames. It’s a rather large university, so I got a liberal arts education while studying Graphic Design. The long and short of it is I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The tricky part, as Bobby and Ellen Shapiro point out is that little word necessary hanging out in the question. To me, it’s obvious that school isn’t exactly necessary, simply because there is an amazing array of successful, talented, and incredibly smart designers who didn’t go to school.

But in my life, school was extremely necessary. It is where I jumped into design, having had very little experience with it before hand, and it is the four years that taught me the most about myself, what I want to be, and what I aspire to. It allowed me to network without worrying about networking. It allowed me to be more competitive than I am by nature, and forced me to work harder than I would have on my own. In all, my answer is that school isn’t inherently necessary, but it was incredibly beneficial for me and something I would highly recommend for aspiring designers.

I think Frank Chimero said it best:

@joncontino @thefoxisblack School taught me how to think, and I'm so grateful for that. Of course, some schools suck & some people rule.

— Frank Chimero (@fchimero) February 25, 2013