jueves, 26 de febrero de 2009

A Virgin is Born in Buenos Aires. New Graphic Design School Has Tough Standards For Admittance

Posted by Patricio Cavalli on Advertising Age.com 12.17.08


It happened Monday, December 8th, while the country was enjoying -or suffering- the 35 C degrees of the holiday devoted by the Roman Catholic Community to the Holy virgin Mary. In the suburban neighbourhood of Acassuso, the design school named Virgin was born.

Its founders -Axel Joswig, Esteban Ibarra y Adrián Candelmi- say thay are introducing a "new modality of non-formal education, specialized in graphic design and visual communication".To do this, they created a system not often seen in the Argentine private education system: a careful evaluation and selection of the applicants to virgin: "the profile we look for is that of that creative, curious, anxious young person, with great vocation for the visual communication that turns into the graphical designer most needed by the labor market. Virgin takes an entrance test," they say.

They also have a message for the graphic design work system: "We want the companies and the design studios not to look for designers. We want them to look for Virgins. The whole educational program aims to put Virgin as synonymous of quality in graphic design. Those who like that understand and look for it will certainly belong to this new modality of learning to design," they add, surrounded with cannons, screens, a row of iMac S 17, one library with more than 180 books and a video library with 177 titles.

They also have come up with a slogan: " Did you already study Graphical Design? Now come and learn how to design. The 3,000 better hours of graphic design of your life".

They have come a long way from giving classes in packed rooms in many Buenos Aires universities. Now it remains to be seen if the proposal is grasped by the student community -always eager for the new-, and if the economic equation pays off. In a year, we'll be back and see how Virgin did.

Here's a link to the map, if you are planning a visit:


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