Norwich University College Of The Arts

I would have loved to have uploaded this post sooner but I've been swamped by interview prep and coursework deadlines!! But now its friday I can finally post about my third interview, and once again I had to get up for an early start...

I was looking forward to seeing the area as I wasn't able to get down to an open day to check out the unviversity before hand. From what I knew Norwich was pretty close to Great Yarmouth, which gave me hope for an interesting mix of a seaside/city landscape. The main university building itself was a mix of old and modern architecture with bare brick walls against a white panelled roof and the door we came through was a large automatic door made of frosted glass.

I spent a lot of time people watching as I waited for my interview. I liked seeing the difference from one applicant to another each grasping their little (or in my case large) portfolio.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to take any pictures because I couldn't think of anything but the interview. I was so nervous! I shouldn't have been this nervous now that I was onto my 3rd interview but I guess that nerves are always a good sign...
i think.

I'd arrived there pretty early so I'd been waiting for about an hour before I was called through to set up my portfolio. I was interviewed by the course leader for graphic communications who told me the course was closely linked to graphic design. Then the interview began - instantly ending my nerves :) I was told that I'd only get asked three questions but it didn't feel like three questions at all. It felt like I was having a converation with one of my art teachers and I immediatly got talking about my life drawing, ideas and concepts behind my work. I think I did really well in my interview as I got to say all I wanted to and he even reccommended an artist for me to look at to aid my current work - it was definately something one of my teachers would do. Despite the nerves building up to the interview the interview itself was really relaxed. And it must have gone really well because I got an email two days later saying that they'd like to offer me a place on their course. Although they had made me an offer not for graphic design but for graphic communications. At first I was a little confused but the email explained that after careful consideration of my work they felt that I would be better suited for this course, which made me happy that my work had got them thinking :) :) :)

So now that I have two offers I've started thinking about where I want to study as I can see the pro's of both courses. But I've got time to think yet... and one more interview to go!

I'll keep you posted x

 


 

( I did manage to capture one picture on my way home though, which pretty much summed up the day. )

De Montfort

Less than a week after my interview I recieved a chunky letter in the post, containing non other than an offer from De Montfort!!!

I'm soooo happy right about now :) :)

De Montfort & Birthdays

I had my second interview yesterday at De Montfort, and for some reason I was even more nervous than I was for my first one!

In fact I was more prepared than last time - portfolio-wise. I had it ordered, labelled and even had time to tidy up my current sketchbook the day before. However I kinda had the slight problem of retreiving it from a locked mac room the following evening, - not realising ALL the art teachers had decided to go home early that night -_-

But luckly I befriended a cleaner who helped me on my quest to retreive my portfolio!

Note to self: Never leave my portfolio in the mac room.

Appart from that little hiccup everything else went smoothly and the interview itself wasn't half as scary as I'd thought it would be. The interviewer was really nice and seemed really interested in my work. In this interview they hadn't had a breif look at my work before hand so I had the chance to present my work and talk through some of the projects I'd worked on. Surprisingly he really loved my life drawings, I knew it'd be a different thing to add to a graphic design portfolio, but I didn't realise how much of a bonus it seemed to be. He told me it showed good evidence of visual communication, which I hadn't realise until then.

Later on it was my friend Andromeda's 18th, and we all went our for a meal at Ciao Bella's. We'd met during the London Art Trip last summer and it was a great chance to meet up with her and other people I'd met on the trip, eat a lot food! and have a good time.

It was a great end to a rather stressful day but on the whole I'd say my interview went rather well :)

Roll on interview 3!

Her Morning Elegance/ Oren Lavie

I've started work on my surveillance video now and I'm loving it. I've shown the raw footage to some of my friends who love some of the strange things people do in our department :) I've been experimenting with different effects like changing the speed and making the footage look like it was made up of quick snapshots. It kinda reminded me of stop motion which can be done with photos and film. Then I remembered a short film I'd seen a while ago.

"Her Morning Elegance/ Oren Lavie"

 The reasons I fell in love with stop motion.

Monday

I heard on the radio that today was meant to be the most depressing day of the year?

Really?

Minus a beautiful general studies exam* this morning I've had a pretty good Monday :) Because of the exam I ended up only having the last two lessons today which happened to be double art :D :D Where I continued with my experimental work to support my final piece for this unit.

 This third unit we're currently doing is self-directed so you can pretty much choose anything you want to explore. I've chosen to explore surveillence as I got the idea from an exhibition I went to during the London art trip last summer. The trip was amazing and I hope me and the art gang are planning to head down there again this summer - just us - art - and good old London town ;)

Anyway - this exhibition was based on surveillance, voyeurism and the camera, and seeing the range of ways the camera had been used inspired me to take this aspect into my next unit of work, and here we are! After college it so happened to be an open day which mean I could say back after college to start my final piece ;) I planned to take short surveillance films from all over the studio in order to created my own CCTV, it was great that there was going to be a range of people flowing in and out of the departement, which gave me the opportunity to get plenty of footage! I loved it ;) My friends who we're staying back to work on their own final pieces kept seeing me bob in and out the studio slyly placing the camera under tables or in corners to get a really voyeuristic point of view.


I must have looked so shifty!


Picture me, walking around and art studio with a large coat over one arm looking around suspiciously... I saw my art teacher talking to potential students in one studio and she smiled when i came in (knowing what I was up to) and later told me that she had to look away to hide the laughter, she said it looked like i had a gun or something dodgey under that coat the way I'd been carrying it!! I must say after a while i really got into the whole idea of surveying, setting up my camera in various places - it was fun...
 Although this has now earned me the reputation as the 'stalker' of the art department haha.


I'm going to take a closer look at my footage tomorrow - I can't wait!

* please note: the general studies exam was far from beautiful...

This weekend...

...has been a much needed break!

My friends talked me into going out to a party this weekend and I'm so glad they did :) It was great to get away from revision and interview prep and just have good old time. I saw some people I hadn't seen in months, met a rather cool spanish boy, drank various cola-something’s and danced an awful lot.

*  *  *

The next day I decided to go for a day out with my mum in Leeds; we don't often do things like this so it was nice. I'd never laughed so much in one day! On our train there a man stood up in the middle of the train and stared rummaging in his bag - next thing I know he's getting into a Scooby-doo outfit. It was so out of the blue I didn't think to take a photo :') ... if only!

But I did think to take a photo of some bizarre men’s shoes!

A rather expensive coat...

And lots and lots of jewellery

  

After one we stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant, deciding to try something different and my mum got a carbonara (not liking spicy food) while I got Spaghetti Capellini – yum!

The waiters in store must have loved their jobs because we saw them singing as they went from table to table or dancing slyly behind the bar.  They we’re really welcoming and the service was great! As we were leaving they thanked us for the tips and said ‘Goodbye sisters’...sisters!? My mum was over the moon with this compliment and I was beside myself, but couldn’t help but laugh. I text my older sisters to let them know what had happened and they just laughed too - having ‘been there’ themselves.

*  *  *

After we'd finished up shopping we we're heading back to the train station when I heard a busker doing a cover of kings of leons 'use somebody'. I talked my mum into going to watch for a while but she didn't take much persuading - this guy was amazing. Eveyone else must have thought so too because his red cap was filled to the brim with coins... His voice was so deep that we listened to two songs before the rain drove us away.

 I feel de-stressed now and ready to focus on getting ready for my next interview and starting work on my final piece next week, I'll keep you updated.

- I can make you fly x

Note to self: Take more photos!

Teesside

I'm currently applying to uni and I had my first Interview today :)

I really want to go into graphic design.

I feel that graphic design is a subject that embodies everything I’ve studied at college, not only in art in design but in my other subjects such as English literature and French. These subjects rely on you being a good communicator to explain your point of view and opinion or simply discuss and debate. With these skills I’ve learned I feel that I have gained very valuable and transferable skills in communication which I regularly bring across into my own creative work.

I even made a book!

 

In my book I talked alot about different aspects of graphic design by taking a simple statement as a starting point and expanding on it finding designers, examples of work to support each one.

        

I also came across a lot of good designers and illustrators that really interested me. 

MR.Lapin is the alias of Debora Lauwers, a designer in Belgium who runs a design studio called 'Postcard Of A Painting' with her boyfriend. I can see the strong influences in her work from artist like Jean-Michel Basquiat, and I like the use of French in her work. The fragmented sentences over-lapping the ‘lapin’ sketches create the impression that you’re looking into the scattered thoughts of ‘MR.Lapin’.



Mr.Lapin





Jean-Michel Basquiat - Tenor 1985



         

The similarities are endless :) . . . and to hold all my work I had a hefty A1 portfolio!!

The interview was really good. They tried to make it as informal and comfortable as possible, which really helped reduce my nerves. I was worried that they'd see my portfolio and think 'Why do you want to do graphic design?' because I'm not what you'd call your average applicant. But I wanted to make my portfolio as honest as possible - so I put in a range of everything!

Photography

Past/ current sketchbooks

Life Drawings (I <3 life drawing)

My independent mini book researching the subject

And some mount boards of past work!

But once I got talking about my work I felt more confident about it and I gave it my best effort.

"Your work is different...

                                     In a good way"

This was the best feedback I could have asked for, now all that’s left to do is keep my fingers crossed xxx