Preparing for BA Graphic Design at CSM October 2010
Congratulations and a warm welcome to BA Honours Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London. The actual course begins on Tuesday 5th October 2010 following your University enrolment and fresher’s festival.
Please go to Room G12, Lethaby building, which is the CSM main building, Southampton Row, WC1 at 10.00am.
B.A. Graphic Design- first year10/19/2018
The first days
During the first week (induction week) we’ll introduce you to the course and to your fellow students. In the lecture theatre you will meet some of your tutors and UAL staff. On the first day you won't need any special equipment, just a pen and a diary for the academic year 10/11. During this week you will hear from staff about the course and the support you will get from the University of the Arts and will get your computer logins. You will participate in a crit at the end of the week in the photo studio and meet your fellow students and future friends.
Summer project
During the summer, before you arrive at CSM we would like you to do a very short project. During the first week we will use this work as a way of getting to know you.
‘My journey’ briefRecord your journey from your current home to your new home at college in Holborn. You should start with a place name, e.g., Tokyo, Stockholm, Istanbul, Cambridge, Liverpool etc and end up with a London tube name. Use any medium and any format so long as it is portable and you can show it to other students in a group. For example you could choose photographs, animation or drawings to describe your journey. During induction week, in groups you will show your work to each other in a very informal way. Keep it simple, do it quickly, and don’t get stressed about it as it will not be marked.
Your work will be seen by other new students and should create a talking point.
More information about how you can present your work will be given to you on the first day. So prepare something during the holiday or during fresher’s week, but no need to bring it on the first day of term.
Requirements for the My Journey project.
If you work is drawn or printed please stick onto A3 sheets that can be blu-tacked on to the wall.
If your work is photographic also stick your work onto A3 sheets that can be hung up.
If your piece is an animation or video then keep it really short, edit it to between 30 and 90 seconds. Keep the file small and post onto the web if you can or bring on a memory stick. This way you can give us a link so that your work can be viewed easily.
After the first week
The ethos of
first year
Q. What is the most important skill you can acquire as a student artist/designer?
A. The ability to create inventive ideas, because original concepts and creative ideas set you apart from the competition.
This is what we try to engender and this is why we’re not the usual graphic design course, and presumably that’s why you applied to do the course. So don’t expect us to be ‘normal university’ and have lots of long history/context lectures, four week long design briefs, rules about design and typography, or very technical lectures, because we are not, do that kind of course! We don’t teach you how to do graphic design – you learn how to become a ‘graphic designer’. We’re enablers of learning, we’re here to set questions, not to give you the answers – it’s for you to
discover your own design solutions - you will become the author of your own future.
For some of you this is probably your first encounter with UK higher education. The course is 30 weeks in length, divided into three 10-week terms: Autumn, Spring, Summer. You will find yourself on a very large and complex course in the centre of a very large and complex city – don’t expect things to be always straightforward. We have a lot of collective experience and that includes you and your fellow students. Learning is focused around individual effort and solutions, but within the context of a group (usually 20+ students). You will be briefed together, have interim seminars together and presentation critiques together, however, you plan your own work-time between these meeting points, and meet with a variety of tutors. Always remember that we’re here to help you – we’re always available if you have problems.
You’ve probably experienced an art and design course prior to joining us; this would normally be some sort of foundation or other art or design access or diploma course, which has helped you to put together a portfolio of work. Unintentionally, you’ve been ‘programmed’ to think of end results i.e. things to put in your folio – your best work. However, when you join us we won’t necessarily be expecting end results, but ideas, workings out, plans, proposals, working models, mapping of concepts and creative experiments. Initially, during the first term you’ll encounter new ideas or processes and familiar ones will be revisited, but they’ll feel like quick, almost fleeting experiences rather than the more in-depth projects you’re maybe used to. You will be touching base with the whole curriculum (which is vast) in a short time. This is deliberate, we pace the course at high speed, to engage you quickly into a range of possibilities, to meet the staff and learn about the ethos of the course, but most importantly to get you to develop creative ideas more quickly.
Although initially you won’t be building a portfolio you’ll learn a lot quickly, although it may not feel like it at the time. We’ll enable you to make informed choices about your future, based on knowledge gained from experimentation with creativity and in pushing the boundaries of graphic design. You’ll have to learn to trust us. Always remember that BA Graphics CSM is a three-year experience. You’ll learn to be increasingly self-reliant, independent and professional in organising your life and learning. In the second and third terms you’ll be offered a choice of projects. You’ll be free to choose from a wide range of briefs in Graphic Ideas, Graphic Archaeology, Illustration, Image Making, Drawing, Advertising, Moving Image, Interactive Design, Photography plus compulsory subjects like Typography and Context. There’s a degree of freedom and independence about this period, however, with freedom of choice comes personal responsibility on your part. You will have to be resourceful, self-disciplined and manage your time with increasing professionalism. You will eventually choose to study a main subject, Advertising or Graphic Design or Illustration and Moving Image at the end of the first year and also engage in subgroups of supporting studies, which involve digital and analogue, new and traditional media.
Personal workspace
We do not offer you an individual workspace on this course, but you have access to our workshops and learning resources, seminar rooms, lecture spaces and intranet system. Resources for BA Graphic Design will focus on high-level workshop resources, especially new technology, and our traditional technological base. Studios as such are limited in size and you will be expected to be resourceful in developing work in and out of the Course environment.
Look at this stuff
Look at art and design generally and graphic design specifically. See UK based advertising – press and TV, look at illustration in the press, in exhibitions in the environment. Look at photography in galleries, bookshops and libraries. If you’re not already Mac savvy, try and familiarise yourself a little with Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, InDesign, Flash, as these bits of software are the basics for ‘graphic designers’.
Get these
(if possible)
• Although we don’t insist that you have your own Apple Mac, if possible get one. The best idea is to purchase a Mac laptop before or during the first year.
• Digital storage devices are also essential, e.g. memory sticks / portable hard drive.
• Usual writing, drawing and art making equipment/tools.
• Carry a diary during your first week, as you will be given a lot of information.
• Notebooks, sketchbooks are required and can be purchased at the college shop.
• London maps (e.g. London A to Z)
Our online learning environment ‘Blackboard’
You’ll be given your University intranet webmail/Blackboard log-on during the induction weeks and you’ll be introduced to ‘Blackboard’, our virtual learning environment to keep you in touch with other students, groups, briefings, notices, tutors, lectures and the course generally.
Please note that online we will only communicate via Blackboard and University webmail. It’s crucial that you learn to use the webmail and Blackboard facilities to stay in touch with your learning – all announcements, notices and course information are now delivered via our VLE, we no longer use traditional notice boards for conveying information in First Year. Always remember the University webmail/Blackboard URL/address, your log-on and password!
Although email accounts like hotmail.com can be useful, we will give you a University of the Arts webmail account which you can access from any college computer via our intranet or from anywhere in the world via the internet.
Please note: we will only email to your University webmail address! (Though you can redirect email via webmail to another account like hotmail).
DAY ONE
What to bring
Bring a passport size photo of yourself on the first day, Tuesday 5th October 2010 for your student record form (you’ll probably need more for various UAL/CSM enrolment forms/ID.)
Bring your diary! Very important.
Remember
Don’t forget to draw stuff – drawing is high in value and low on cost – you will be expected to keep a drawing/ideas notebook throughout the course. Start to document your work – get into the habit of recording your learning – you will be asked to present your portfolio at the end of each year. We expect to see your work presented and documented, including ideas/sketchbooks, resource files, photos of 3D work, and any work in progress.
This course is about graphic concepts, art and design, creative ideas and communication via image, text, moving image and sound. Feed your brain with visual and written stimuli. Be alert to style/fashion/trend, but don’t be a slave to them. Develop your own mind, your individuality and your imagination. “Imagination is more important than knowledge” – Albert Einstein.
Learn to be resourceful, enterprising, inventive, creative, independent, confident and professional.
Enjoy London, enjoy art school and be inspired. Have a great summer; we are really looking forward to meeting you in October.
Alan and Cath
Alan Baines
Course Director
BA Graphic Design
Cath CaldwellStage 1 Leader
BA Graphic Design
B.A. Graphic Design- first year10/19/2018
P.S. We will meet you on Tuesday October 5th 2010.
Please go to G12, Lethaby building (in CSM main building, Southampton Row, WC1) at 10.00am.
P.P.S Finally, we have made a podcast for you with some tips from the second year students.
Here is the link but you will need iTunes to view it. If iTunes is not available to you then please don’t worry we will show to you when you arrive. It’s just for fun.
or
If the link doesn’t work go to ITunes> Podcasts>search for Central Saint Martins.
Find the podcast called Dear First Years.
Also you have probably looked at the University’s website. They are adding new material all the time including some lecture footage.
See a little bit about Graphics at
You will need to dig in to the menu.
B.A. Graphic Design- first year10/19/2018