Motion Trgger

6 challenges facing motion design education

Favorite excerpt:

“2. Lack of diversity points to a larger problem.

Without a reliable industry census, it’s hard to know just how bad the diversity problem is — but it’s definitely not good. I’m left to rely on anecdotal evidence gathered from my direct experience with schools and recent graduates.

The gender gap seems to be slowly narrowing, with more female students finding their ways into motion programs. When it comes to “students of color” (not a fan of that phrase), progress has been painfully slow. If you look at the demographic data for schools (SVA, Ringling and SCAD), you’ll see encouraging distributions across the student bodies as a whole. But at the departmental level, motion design — like visual effects — suffers from a preponderance of white and Asian students, with very few other ethnicities represented. (Again, based on anecdotal evidence.)

As cultural institutions, schools not only have an obligation to promote diversity, they’re ideally positioned to do so. Schools (should) operate outside of the normative momentum of industry, which means they can (should) do whatever they can to reshape it for the greater good.“