I just wanted to find out about Emily Carr institute in Vancouver and how well-known it is with indus. designers and around North America.. also if it would be a good idea to attend a 4 year art school before heading into Art Center, because ultimately, Art Center is where I would really like to go, but my family and I are here at U.S on a visa and I will not be able to receive grants or loans or scholarships or FAFSA because I will be considered an international student...
so I am planning on going to a Canadian school which is a lot cheaper and since I have a citizenship there.
Please let me know those 2 things.
1. How well known is Emily Carr institute around the design world 2. If it is a good idea to attend a 4 year art school before heading into Art Center
It's a good idea to go to a college and get the usual GED out of the way. Therefore you don't waste your time and money 15k+ a term for those classes. I've looked at the Emily Carr Institute on their website and I think it's not something you want to do if you want to go into Automotive Design. They are probably good for Product Design but they are not experts in the Automotive field. i would suggest that after you get your requirements out of the way and when you are ready, go to ACCD or CCS for the rest. Also try ACAN (Art Center at Night) to get your skills up to par and get used to the work schedule before commiting to the full program. It's not for everyone even though you have the passion for cars. Good luck!
I go to Emily Carr Institute and I'm a 3rd Year Communications Design student. Though, I'm heavily passionate about automotive design so I do transportation design on the side and learn it on my own for the mean time.
As you can see, Emily Carr doesn't have a transportation design course but their product design courses can be eventually tied into the transportation design genre. In their Industrial Design program, they teach alot about materials, manufacturing process, and using creativity to develop out of the norm solution for problems in the real world. They also have an exceptional instructors for industrial design drawing and 3D modeling.
This is based from my observation as I've only taken a few ID courses and it's not my major. So you might get an entirely different response from someone who is actually in the ID program. But I've heard of other students who have graduated from Emily Carr and went to Art Center right after. Overall, ECI has a good teaching methodology and has well-prepared me to take go to the next level. I plan to apply to CCS or Art Center this year.
ECI now have their grad show online, check it out at: grad2007.eciad.ca
