Main Specialist Areas
Fine
Art
Fashion
Textiles
Three
Dimensional Design
Graphics
Illustration
Animation
Film
and Photography
Each of the above areas is an
umbrella term for a variety of sub-specialisations that can be found within
these disciplines.
Fine
Art
Fine Art course cover painting,
sculpture, printmaking, photography and film.
Most courses are modular and follow a fairly diagnostic first year,
where differing areas are experienced with the intentions of specialising
within the second year. There are still
a few which require you to opt beforehand.
If you intend to follow Fine Art you
need to be very self motivated, have good drawing skills, and be a person that
is interested in ideas. All courses will
expect you to have your own visual language and body of work that is more or
less self motivated. Don’t consider Fine
Art if you thrive upon other people’s starting points. Colleges will expect you to work unaided for
a lot of the time. Good Fine Art courses
are competitive. Some like Goldsmiths
and Central St Martin’s like particular sorts of students. Goldsmiths for instance prefer mature, highly
intellectual, independent and conceptual workers. If you like painting landscapes in a fairly
traditional way don’t consider the above course. Make sure you view the college to check your
suitability.
Fashion
This field covers designing, making,
technical and business aspects. It
essentially trains you to design a collection for industry, however it does
have many spin off career paths such as a buyer and image consultant, and
numerous fashion management positions.
You may become an in house designer where you work with a team of
designers under a particular label such as Gucci or freelance designer who sets
up their own label.
Many courses cover pattern cutting,
fashion drawing, all manner of fabric production and technique. They deal with business management and
preparing you for employment. This can
be a large or small part depending upon the College. Some courses require you to learn a language
and want Maths, Language and English GCSE as part of the entry requirements.
Fashion is competitive. To work within it you need to be a person who
keeps abreast of current design changes both contemporary and historical and
who enjoys designing for the body. You
will need good like drawing skills, the ability to draw quickly and must be
able to work under pressure with a range of differing personalities.
Textiles
This area covers a broad subject
area which breaks down into numerous sub-headings. There are a diverse range of courses such as
those that specialise in print, knitwear and weave, surface. To do textiles you need to love ‘change’
trends and keeping abreast of design and art styles. You need to be good at working with colour
and a range of materials but also need an excellent drawing base and be a
versatile worker. You need to love
surface manipulation.
To do this subject area you need to
be a person who loves experimenting with colour, fabrics, texture and
manipulation of colour. You may be
producing sample designs, liaising with clients, interpreting clients ideas,
assessing production standards, be an in
house-designer or working freelance.
Career pathways may be postgraduate
study, buyer and merchandising, retail sales and markets, fashion journalist,
management. etc there are courses that combine fashion and textiles and those
that let you work diagnostically during the first year and then choose within
the second to specialise.
Three
Dimensional Design
This covers a wide range of design
specialisations:
Furniture Theatre and Costume
Design
Product
Design Ceramics
Jewellery Industrial
Interior Glass
Architecture Automotive
Craft
This area is extremely far ranging
and can only be mentioned in fairly general terms here. In most courses students learn about the
design process as well as studying design history. Many courses have good links with industry
although they vary considerably in what they offer and how courses are
structured. Some courses endorse working
in expressive sculptural ways, others put more emphasis upon function and
commercial usage. Manufacturing
Technology, ergonomics and material use are all areas that courses cover. Look carefully at the costs of some courses
as these may be expensive according to specialisms. metals and jewellery, for instance, incur a
fairly expensive sub.
To work within three dimensional
design you need to have a good aptitude for constructing and perceiving in
three dimensions. You should have the
ability to work with a variety of materials and be able to communicate your
ideas well. Good problem solving skills,
accuracy and attention to detail area all desirable.
Graphic
Design
This is essentially coming up with
ideas, big ideas which lead to ‘concepts’ and ultimately can head a campaign to
advertise a product, event or idea. It
isn’t just about working with text and image and liking layout in fact this is
a minor part of this discipline the important part of this subject area is
‘lateral thinking’ and the number of ideas that it is possible to generate. Courses will cover branding and logos,
animation, photography, typography, concept development.
You need to be a dynamic thinker,
versatile worker and enjoy working to deadlines. You will also need a knowledge of trends, fashion, and
contemporary design. it is useful although not essential to have some skills
within CAD. Courses will train you when
you arrive. Some Graphic courses will encourage links with
industry or give you opportunities to enter competitions then it is a good
sign.
Career pathways may be:
Web
design
Advertising
Marketing
Video
Gaming
Exhibition
design
Magazine
design
Film
and video design
Illustration
Illustration is drawing with a purpose. This means it is a design field that always
works to a brief. Illustration isn’t
just drawing and painting for children’s books.
It may cover this but also considers packaging, advertising, narrative,
sequential, concept art, gaming design, information leaflets and editorial
works. Courses will tend to want good
skills within drawing and painting and people that can explore and develop
their own style. Some courses will cover
CAD and digital imaging. You need to be
a person that loves drawing, can come up
with loads of ideas and interpret others’ text or idea inventively. You also need to be able to solve/ produce
imagery to deadline. Illustration falls into 3 main headings:
Narrative
– books, fiction, non fiction, magazines, lyrics,
Promotional-
any product, event, person to be promoted from trainers - breakfast cereals - live music.
Informational
– anything that passes on information to others about a place, cause,
conditions, tourism to a guide to making cup-cakes.
Drawing skills need to be good; you
need to willing to work to others’ starting points and ideas. Related fields are animation and graphics. You
should expect to be able to work quickly. A few graphic and illustration
courses are combined. Look for more
expressive courses if you want to broaden your approach.
Animation
Animation can be drawn, imaginative
three dimensional models, storyboarding and film. It covers cinematography, traditional and
contemporary methods of working as well as the latest innovations in electronic
animation.
To follow animation you need to have
good drawing skills, an ability to think sequentially and to convert your
thoughts to the camera. It is a very
specialised area which is very competitive.
To go into this field you need to have a strong interest and knowledge
of contemporary animation. Good
storyboarding skills and preferably evidence within your folio that you have an
aptitude to work within this industry.
Photography
and Film
Courses within these areas vary
enormously. Some are directed towards
graphics, advertising or journalism and concentrate upon the commercial side. Photography courses break down into the
following:
Fashion
and Advertising
Commercial
Photography
Journalism
and Editorial
Others are Fine Art based and are much more
expressive. Some courses combine
practical skill with Art and Design history and professional practice.
You need a good eye for composition,
experience of SLR cameras and darkroom processes and for film, and an ability
to think sequentially. An interest in
photographers and film makers is a must and a flair for leadership and
organisational skills is desirable.
Some courses have a mixture of the
two areas, others are completely separate.
Most students choose one or the other as in themselves they are diverse
areas.
Film
courses are often
based on television studies, media and film making. Students are required to have excellent
storyboarding skills, ability to think about time, soundtracks and sequential
imaging. You will learn about digital and
technical working and be trained in the use of editing. You will be expected to work in a team and
lead others within the direction of your vision and ideas. You need to be an excellent communicator.
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