The Daily Orange

Oh the outrage! Surface pattern design?! My god we are really denying these kids a future, whatever will they study now?!

How the hell can you study "surface patterns" for FOUR YEARS? No wonder modern education isn't teaching anything.

Good riddance. Focus on the priorities, not these pointless majors

Kaylen, you plainly demonstrate your ignorance. Every object you come in contact with in your daily life has been designed by someone, and every one of those objects has a surface design. Open up your eyes and educate your mind. It's your kind of attitude that does not serve a community, or a culture, well.

The crux of the issue is how is this going to be taught. These courses are important to several different majors, but overall, if they are not to be taught as their own major, then they should be folded into Textile Design, or perhaps Industrial Design. Color forecasting is extremely important in all areas of design. As an award-winning Designer/Art Director of several decades in print design, I can attest to the importance of the future of color. We know what color cars you will be driving several years from now, what fabric colors will be 'in' and what color walls new homes will have. It's extremely important for manufacturers to know the future of colors in order to gear up their equipment and order the correct pigments/dyes/etc.

This is just one are of surface pattern design. It was not my major, but I have experienced throughout my work life how important it is.

Do not mock what you clearly don't understand. Instead, try to see the bigger picture.

I agree. It's really sad that Arts and Sciences produces such an ignorant student and is about to hand them a diploma.

What kind of major produces such ignorant students who are "experts" in one area and know absolutely nothing about any other. Pattern design should be taught as part of any proper fashion or textile design study - and doesn't take FOUR YEARS of study to accomplish. One year of real-world experience goes far beyond what the classroom can offer, and these students will not be doing just ONE single thing, designing patterns. Oh boy oh boy what would the world be without the latest patterned fashions from ARMANI?

Ignorant indeed. I bow before your supreme knowledge of COLORS and FABRIC PATTERNS. My life would be so empty and colorless without your divine artistic inspiration, cultivated throughout years of dedicated study in a -ahem- university.

And oh by the way - like many folks, my personal taste is for plain colors and natural aesthetics, not your "chic" and "fashionable" cloth-doodles.

You guys are typical liberals - this study clearly belongs under a broader major, and yet you stand up and defend it because the `poor students are shocked and dismayed` that their beloved hippie-department is being closed because it is so clearly a waste of money. Your feigned outrage is laughable. YOU try keeping the university on sound financial footings while still paying for absurd programs like this.

These type of comments are nothing that us SPD-ers haven't heard and defended before, so you need to save your breath because you aren't on the fore front of anything with these arrogant and closed minded assumptions. I pray you will one day learn to refrain from judging what you clearly do not understand, and will learn to chose more appropriate battles.

True. That ignorant comment above makes me embarrassed of my school. It sounds like someone who has nothing better to do but whine about something they don't understand in a college they are not even a part of. You must be really bored. And obviously boring. And uninformed. Seems like you would like ARMANI since they rarely even use pattern. And you clearly have no knowledge of how the design world affects your daily life. And obviously have no idea what the reputation of the SPD program is in the industry. It's cool though cause at least I know I will be making more money than you one day cause you will be buying my products without even knowing that they came from me. Have fun wasting your time posting comments on something you know nothing about.

Kaylen, clearly your superior intellect of your political science major has made you able to judge every other major offered at Syracuse University.

Thank you for not only insulting a program that has been around for more than 70 years, but for also showing the caliber of students coming out of other majors. Your ignorance will truly get you far in life, and I'm glad to see your started here--with a comment on a story that doesn't even pertain to you.

In addition, I suggest that in the future, where ever your "super cool awesome major" takes you, I hope you don't choose to reveal your stupidity on a future employer's website, as you have done so here. If you are still working at the DO, way to insult your peers on their writing. And if you aren't, well, we all know why.

INTERNET ARGUMENT!!! :-)

Yep I am bored because I've wasted 4 years of my life at this place when I could have been off making money in one of a half dozen business ventures I have lined up.

You want to talk about how much money you'll be making? I'm sure you know of the 14 YEAR OLD KID who designs ties and is a multi-millionaire. Did he go to PATTERN SCHOOL? Doubt it.
You talk about "SPD" as though it is some incredibly difficult thing that requires years and years of study. *Children* are more successful than you guys are.

Yes, I'm sure I'll see you on the cover of Fortune magazine some day with your latest FLORAL PRINT design. I look forward to the day when your PATTERNED DESIGNS rock my world.

sad in so many ways.

So much ignorance and arrogance in one comment thread. It just makes me sad.

Kaylen Thorpe- After Spring Break - I on behalf of all SPD students welcome you to spend a day with us ( if you have the opportunity) to see what you criticize. Give us the chance to try and change your opinion on the major that we all love. You may find yourself surprised. We are located in Shaffer 232.
Hopefully we will see your there.
Sincerely- Jessica A

You know, Kaylen... if you're so great, why are you wasting time defending your great self to random people on the internet? Clearly someone as great as you shouldn't even have time to acknowledge the fact that "SPD" exists.

Like the others... your ignorance and arrogance saddens me.

The comments are more amuzing than the article. I do agree with Kaylen though, undergraduate education should encompass as broad a training as possible without diluting it. Pigeon-holing yourselves into one narrow expertise early on in the career is a poor investment of your money. At least it's true in hard sciences and social sciences. But hey, maybe your field is different.

Lenny,
I want to thank you for not being ignorant in your comment and agree that undergraduate education should be broad. That is why many of us have concentrations and minors in other areas, both studio and academic. Just for clarification, the surface pattern design major teaches specific technical skills and exposes students to approximately 6 different industries. Our professors and alumni encourage entrepreneurial ventures as well as employment in established firms.

Like typical liberals, anyone who criticizes you is "ignorant". Your major is stupid, my grandmother and aunt could do this just fine with some training from THEIR parents, THEY sure didnt need four years of college. So blow it out your ass.

And per your point, I'm done with this thread.

wow, that comment didn't wreak of inner more serious anger issues. not in the slightest. anyways, don't let this fluff take your mind off the issue girls... i have faith in you all!!!

I have to agree with Lenny and to some extent Kaylen.
You are correct in saying that learning other trades and skills is important. But what you are unfortunately missing out on is that our trade IS technical and it takes skills, many skills! A designer who can create a design that can be made into a textile and be mass produced at a low cost can make a company a lot of money.

I have no right to tell someone that what they studied is worthless and useless. Especially if they loved what they do. No one has that right.

I think that maybe we are forgetting something bigger here. When I was in school I loved to paint. I knew that no one would care about my little paintings, that they would never make me money. I knew they would never make me famous or rich or put me on the cover of BusinessWeek. But that didn't stop me from doing them. It didn't stop me from going to do it for hours and hours, even on Friday and Saturday nights. To you and the rest of the world they are worthless, and that is ok. I didn't do them for you, I didn't do them for anyone and I didn't do them to gain anything. I did them for one reason and one reason only. I loved it. I don't know if you can understand that. And that is ok, you don't need to.

I just wanted to do something that I cared about. But like you and the rest of the world I had to think about how I can take something I loved and make it into a living. Because living, costs money.

Surface Pattern Design took me to Italy. Maybe it wasn't all SPD, maybe some luck too, but w/o SPD I would have never gone. I saw some of the world's most famous textiles being made right before my eyes. But that didn't impress me, what impressed me is that I understood how they were being made before someone told me. I could translate what the Italian man who was explaining the manufacturing processes way saying not because I knew Italian, but because I knew the processes.

And after Italy I came back to New York City and was able to get a good job, with a great salary and good benefits during one of the hardest economical times in history. And the BEST part of that job is that two fellow SPD alumns work there with me. I have two people I can count on every single day to help me out not only on the job, but personally as well. Which is invaluable considering I spend most of my life at work. They are also the reason I got the job, because if they weren't doing their jobs well, I would have never gotten hired.

However, I agree 100% that things need to change. But that change needs to go not only throughout VPA, but through all of SU. As far as SPD, Business classes should be integrated. Manufacturing processes need to be understood better as well as materials. Computers really should be stressed more. Because that IS the technical skill in demand.

But phasing it out into interior design and fashion is not going to help. I could see Textile Design. Or Textile Technology. Maybe that's the biggest problem the name. If SPD was called Textile Technology would we be having this argument? Can we not see past a name? A label?

What really saddens me about Syracuse is that we have 9 colleges. And instead of working together to give the students a well-rounded education they are completely divided. Syracuse has the power to graduate double threats. They can graduate design students who understand retail and product development (Management + VPA), magazine journalists who can not only write articles but design the layout as well (Newhouse + VPA), and even busy Poli Sci majors such as you Kaylen who can take an hour out of their day to take an art class and understand what it takes to create a solution to a problem where there is no right answer . The list can go on and on. But instead of making students branch out into all the opportunities around them we remain divided which only feeds their ignorance. I wish I had the opportunity to be less ignorant. To take more classes in other things.


Syracuse does a great injustice to their students by having its bureaucracy prevent them from creating unique minds. Especially those students in VPA where the majority of professors and administration I encountered seemed to be more preoccupied with their own agendas then the needs of the students. Creative minds need to be cultivated with care. And what I saw instead was anything but care.

"Chorus of girls?" That's not correct, politically or stylistically.

I think the decision-making about the schedule of curriculum and the faculty would really affect the money for budget. More people are getting payday loans yet donations to foundations and charitable contributions have increased from some people. (Some no doubt in order to get a tax break, but hey – every little bit counts.) How do you feel about payday loans and money?