Steve Jones

I have heard stories of how challenging, arrogant, obnoxious, and evil Steve Jones is and when I finally got to take his class my expectations of Steve Jones were not met. My first critique with him was rough. I came into the class with an A- in DAI 325 and my design confidence was fairly high. During my critique he broke my confindence down...way down. I was really mad at first but as I started from scratch I began to realize that I needed that kick in the ass. I needed to be pushed. Steve pushed me. All of those horror stories about him are hard to believe or maybe some of you never had anyone breaking it down for you old school style and you couldn't handle the heat. He was only as hard as he needed to be. His critiques shrink in comparison to what art/design students get and more importantly what professionals give out. It seems that all the work he gave was an attempt to keep us at the same pace as the students we are running up against at CCA, RISD, Academy of Art, etc. Face it, SF State is limited when it comes to the Graphic Design Program, and we need all the help we can get.

Don't get me wrong, Steve is very arrogant but if you take his advice into consideration and learn to defend your work you will get by. Everyone has a design aesthetic and he had his own, if you felt like what he was criticizing was uncalled for then you needed to defend it, just don't stare at the ground or cry while he chops you to pieces!

The last two reviewers said that he is ancient in his design techniques but one must understand the past to create a better present and future, that is a given. What if you couldn't use a computer? Then what? If you don't understand that graphic design goes much further than the computer then you probably need to reconsider your future in this field. Designers must be diverse and open minded in everything they do. The computer is a tool, an important tool, but one must have the talent and the understanding of graphic design not just Adobe Illustrator 9 and up. And he used computer programs as well and all of the projects that I did were completed using a computer and he accepted that. So what are you all talking about?

And to the first anonymous reviewer, who gave him an F, you are probably really mad now but sooner or later you will be in the middle of a critique, sweating like hell, and then you will know what your encounter with Steve was for. Good or bad experiences, we learn from them all. To the second anonymous reviewer, who gave him an F, the non-constructive criticism that Steve gave to you must have applied to your English instructor as well because I don't think 'critism' is a word in the dictionary. Look it up player.

I would have also put my grade if grades were out.

Steve is a fantastic teacher! I agree that he is very tough on himself and on his students. People either love him or hate him. But I guarantee everybody can learn a lot from him. However, in order to "survive" in his class, one must always be/and perform like a professional. A must take if you really want to become a real graphic designer. One thumbdown is this is a 6 hr/week class.