Now that you hopefully understand what environmental design is all about, you might be interested in pursuing it as your next career path. “How do I get started?” you ask. Well we’ve done some digging and come up with a number of ways to help you get started (or continue) in your career as an environmental graphic designer.

Academic Programs

Since environmental design is a relatively new profession, there aren’t many college programs or courses that cover the subject. Due to its relative complexity (and overlapping disciplines), it can be hard to nail down an appropriate program to cover all the problems an environmental designer would encounter during their career. Aside from the occasional environmental design-specific course, there are a few colleges and universities that offer fairly extensive EGD programs.

1. Undergrad Education

Very few colleges and universities offer full-blown undergrad programs in environmental design. Many are starting to offer it as a focus or minor option, but there are a few with fairly extensive programs.

• Art Center College of Design — besides being one of the most prestigious art schools in the country, Art Center has a great environmental design program led by some of the pioneers in the field.
• Kent State — while not a full blown program, Kent State offers a pre-major summer program for those interested in environmental design.
• Drexel University — Drexel has recently introduced a new environmental graphic design track to their graphic design program. Students starting this fall will be able to follow a recommended plan of study for environmental design.

2. Graduate Education

Graduate studies in environmental design are equally hard to find, but more are emerging. Many graduate graphic design programs allow for students to focus on a particular discipline such as environmental design, but if you’re looking for a program that focuses specifically on environmental design, take a look at Iowa State University. Their Masters program touches on many aspects of environmental design, from wayfinding to exhibit design, etc.

For a more complete list of colleges and universities that offer environmental design courses and programs, visit SEGD’s Academic Education page.

Gain Inspiration or Experience

If you’ve already got a degree or a college program isn’t otherwise an option, there are many ways to gain experience in the field or at least collect some inspiration for your own environmental design projects. On-the-job training and workplace experience is currently the best way for environmental designers to fill gaps in their knowledge base.

1. Find a mentor

A great way to start out if you are interested in learning more about the field, finding a mentor is something I highly encourage everyone to do. Find someone you admire and invite them to coffee once or twice a month (on your tab of course). Most are more than willing to share anything and everything about their experience, and don’t hesitate to have them critique your work.

2. Read…a lot

Pick up everything you can find that mentions environmental design or has a gallery of projects. Books like David Gibson’s The Wayfinding Handbook or Chris Calori’s Signage and Wayfinding Design are excellent places to start, and cover things like information design, process, materials and example projects.

3. Personal Projects

It’s the eternal catch-22 for designers — you need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience. Thankfully your portfolio carries more weight than previous work experience. One way to beef up your portfolio and demonstrate your motivation to learn is to do personal projects. One thing I did when starting out was searching for RFPs and designing my own project around the parameters of the RFP. Do that a few times and you’ve got a handful of environmental design pieces to include in your portfolio.

4. Pro Bono Work

It’s no secret that non-profit organizations are always looking for volunteers, so why not approach one and offer to donate your time and talents. Pick one who’s cause you support and offer to design and art direct a monument sign or some interior wayfinding. Since you’re doing it pro bono you can always negotiate for total creative freedom.

5. Get Out

Environmental design focuses on the built environment, so what better way to see what’s happening than to go explore it! Head downtown, to the zoo or the nearest museum and look carefully at the design of things while walking around. Take a sketchbook and doodle as you look for inspiration.

6. Surf The Web

More and more environmental designers and firms are embracing the web, so take a few minutes to browse through their portfolio websites, do a Google image search for signage, or browse creative networks like Behance to see what other designers are coming up with.

7. Be A Sponge

This goes hand in hand with most of the other ideas here, but make it a point to absorb everything you absolutely can. Be a continual learner, read every scrap about environmental design, collect articles, information or images and file them into an Inspiration File to save for later. Ask lots of questions, approach anyone who has experience, and don’t be shy!

8. Take Pictures

With built in camera phones and smaller high-quality digital cameras, it’s easy to snap away. Any time you see something in a store, on the street or in any public place that excites and inspires you, take a picture and save it for later. Print them out and start a bulletin board of great environmental design examples, or compile them into an inspirational photoblog.

9. Get A Job

The best way to gain experience in the field is still on the job. Most employers realize this and are prepared for quite a bit of workplace training to groom young designers. Find an internship or entry level position and be prepared to work hard, but the experience you’ll gain will be priceless.

Continuing Education

For designers out of school or currently working in the field, continuing education opportunities are a great way to expand your skill set while earning a few continuing education credits. Many professional organizations — SEGD, AIGA, AIA — offer continuing education programs as well as additional opportunities such as workshops or webinars.

1. SEGD

One of the primary functions of the Society for Environmental Graphic Design is to develop educational courses with universities, as well as provide a number of educational opportunities directly from the organization. Head over to their Learning section to find some great resources such as workshops, webinars, teleconferences, and past courses available on CD. Many of their programs offer continuing education credits.

2. AIGA

As with SEGD, AIGA, the professional association for design, promotes education of designers as well as communicating and demonstrating the value of design to the larger community. Although more focused on graphic design in general, the online resources available from AIGA are equally valuable. They offer a variety of conferences, webinars, journals such as Voice and resource centers such as the Center for Practice Management and the Center for Sustainable Design.

3. AIA

The American Institute of Architects provides an extensive Continuing Education System to its members. The offer a broad range of classes, convention programs, workshops, lectures and online courses for architects and other members to continue their education. Most licensed architects are required to complete a certain number of units a year, while designers won’t need to worry about it as much due to the lack of certification.

What You’ll Need to Learn

Environmental design is a massively cross-disciplinary profession, combining aspects of many different design and architecture fields. It can be hard to find the resources (or the time) to learn about everything you’d possibly need to know in your career. However there are a few key elements of both design and architecture that would be good to touch on to give you a basic understanding of environmental graphic design.

1. Typography

A good understanding of typography is necessary, especially in choosing fonts for legibility. As you’ll generally be dealing with lots of information, this is a key aspect to learn.

2. Information Design

Along with typography, information design is also a crucial skill to learn. You’ll need to learn how to organize and simplify complex information, as well as designing it to be practical and functional to the viewer.

3. Materials & Fabrication

Most of the time you won’t be fabricating signage or exhibits yourself, but it’s important to know what’s what. Which materials will work best for your environment, and how will your project be built to fit the overall theme but still be functional? Many firms have in-house fabrication teams, so it’d be a good idea to know how to speak with those teams intelligently.

4. Scale, Distances and Thinking In Three Dimensions

As environmental designers we deal in space and the built environment, therefore it’s important to know how to think and design in three dimensions. Understand relative sizes, such as how big or how tall signs have to be. Also keep in mind distances, and how big your sign or typography needs to be to be seen clearly at a given distance. When you’re designing, have an understanding of scale as well — does one inch equal one foot? How big or how small will something be when it’s fabricated?

5. Colors and Contrast

Color theory is important to learn as well. Certain colors have certain meanings or evoke certain moods, and some colors go better together than others, so know how they work. Good color contrast is important to legibility in a successful environmental design project.

6. Architecture

Granted, architecture is a whole other field to get into, but you’ll need to be somewhat familiar with it since you’ll most likely be working closely with architects and developers.

7. ADA and Accessibility

A whole topic in and of itself, compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act is an issue that will almost always come up. Know what it means and what current ADA standards, and be prepared to design for accessibility.

8. Design Thinking Skills

Environmental designers also need to be well versed in basic design thinking skills, things such as conceptual thinking and communication, research strategies, and processes such as writing a design brief. Typically most graphic design programs will cover these, and practice and improvement will come from real-world experience.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully a place to get you started down the career path of environmental graphic design.

What other tips or ideas do you have for someone getting started in the field?