(NY) Full-Time Graphic Design Course

Attending Shillington was truly the best decision I made! The teachers are amazing and really want to help you succeed. I learned so much and it prepared me to find the right job in graphic design!

Shillington was an amazing experience. All of the teachers were fantastic. They were super cool, nice and helpful at all times. The course was intense. I learned so much. It's truly amazing how much they teach you/prepare you in such a small window of time. Highly Recommended!

Through the Shillington design course I changed careers from being a lawyer to becoming a graphic designer in 3 short months. I was proud of my portfolio and was able to get a job and job interviews quickly. It requires hard work and focus, but the teachers and the school back and support you 110%. It was one of the best and most inspiring experiences of my life. Shillington gave me skills and courage to follow my dream!

Moving to New York and going to Shillington was one of the coolest / best decisions I have made. The course as well as the connections you make will last a lifetime. 

Before going to Shillington I had minimal experience working as a designer, and had a dream to become one. In less than a yer from graduating I now work as a design studio I only ever admired.

The curriculum is so hands on, the teachers are exceptional and every member of the staff cares for you, and connects with you, every step of the way. 

I left Shillington with a broad knowledge of design fundamentals, history, principles and technical skills. The truth is, you can’t learn everything about design in 3 months, but after Shillington, I feel confident in my design skills, my ability to generate creative ideas and most importantly, I know how to ask the right questions and learn what I don’t know yet.

I attended the full-time Shillington course in NYC and it honestly changed my life. I went in with a curiosity for design and the hope that I could find a way to make a career out of it and came out with the exact knowledge and tools I needed to make the change. The teachers are absolutely amazing, honestly, just the entire experience was incredible. I got a design job in under a month from graduating and projects I've made at Shillington have won/been nominated for a few awards. If you're thinking of doing it, just make the jump. You absolutely will not regret it! 

What led me to Shillington was its focus on portfolio development, and formal training with design software (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Sketch). Prior to the program I had little to no experience with each, and was hoping to transition to the field of graphic design.

Coming out of the program I'm fluent in each software, armed with an understanding of design principles and the portfolio I needed. The projects were very similar to the work I wished I could be doing while working at an agency beforehand, and now I'm confident in my abilities to complete those design projects and more. You gain significant practice reps - completing 30+ projects in a 3 month window. If it were easy, it wouldn't be worth it! 

Shillington provides all the resources to make it possible, with hands-on learning, one-on-one teaching, and tons of positive energy throughout. NYC also immerses you in a world of design to learn from.

My overall experience was great. I was able to submerge myself in an environment I sought for so long. I met very engaged, supportive, and passionate people from all over the world. I'm very glad I did it. 

However, DO NOT expect this program to change your life immediately or make you an expert. For beginners, it'll be a crash course in Design where you will be introduced to a bit of everything. The on going flow of work will make it very challenging to find time to practice and let concepts and techniques to really set in. It might feel like a sink or swim situation at times.This program is BEST for people with previous knowledge.

I highly recommend to maintain ties with your current employer and take this course as a short leave of absence for personal or proffesional development. Alllow yourself some sort of security. Since there isn't real job assistance, besides a recruiting program and an email telling you to keep your chin up, you willl need to work harder to find your place in design and a job. 

It's essentially a Portofolio program. I appreciate the push to meet deadlines as in the "real world", but considering time management can be learned, Portfolio week should be giving more care and time. Promoting NO SLEEP in order to finish certain projects for "sign off" is a bad move. 

This review comes a little late but better late than never. I attended Shillington back in 2013 and although it may have been a good fit for some people, it was not a good fit for me. I learned a lot about graphic design but it didn’t seem to take me very far. I feel this program leads you to believe that you can learn graphic design and launch a decent career without any prior experience in the industry which in my opinion is not an accurate assessment. I myself had no experience and the ability to find work after graduation was non-existent. In addition, a majority of my classmates had prior design and Adobe operating knowledge which only made my experience more challenging. If this was the case than the course should have required prerequisites. Perhaps if the instructors had also been somewhat encouraging, I would have been inclined to leave a more positive review.

All that remains from my time with Shillington is a huge binder filled with handouts and a dusty unused portfolio. The course was pretty pricey and I think people should think very carefully before enrolling because I regret taking it. If you love designing or have prior experience in Adobe and want to build on that, then go for it. If you are new to the industry however and are looking for a job or new line of work, I would save my money. You are better off working in retail. 

I can say that I was a little bit scared about the program because I didn’t feel confident about the language (Spanish is my first language) and also I thought that three months are not enough to learn and change my career but, it wasn’t true!! I did it!

The teachers are so professional, patient, helpful and dedicated. They helped us a lot to learn the programs and also gave us advises all the time to improve our work.

Sincerely, this was the best decision ever!! I met wonderful persons and now I can call myself a Graphic Designer!

I feel badly putting this out there for everyone to see, but it's important to make sure that future students have all of the information they need to make the right decision about their education so though conflicted I realize it's important. I have had good instructors and have definitely learned a lot. The small environment is really cool and in most situations I think that could really foster learning. Some instructors are incredibly talented and really do a great job sharing that and guiding those who want to learn. However, I find the overall mood or rather feel of Shillington to be negative and I think that is due to the director currently in place. I'm not sure if she is family to the owners, but I think she lacks experience not only in the field, but also in her type of position. If you go to her with a concern she is defensive and combative as opposed to understanding and helpful. She is gossipy and rather unprofessional. She will ice you out if she doesn't like you and that can be incredibly uncomfortable and overall unacceptable when paying so much money. Most recently I overheard her speaking about another student in a negative way where other people could hear. This was uncredibly disheartening because when I walked away I realized it could be me she was talking about next. I think so much of a positive learning experience is the atmopshere and the relationships you build, so having one kink in an overall great place, especially someone in charge can really bring down the enire operation. I do want to say that Rebecca Montanaro and Adam Dudd are great. Hopefully the director's bosses see this and really re-think the representation of their business. The model is great. It just needs better management.