Illustrator Practice

In the initial stages of learning to use Illustrator we have looked at the work of Julian Opie. His simplistic portraiture acts as quite a nice template to try and replicate. Using his style we have tried to create our own designs of ourselves. Unlike Photoshop, I have used Illustrator very infrequently, and though there are many similarities between the two pieces of software it has still taken some time to get used to. The initial stages of my own Opie design can be seen below, and is one that I will continue to work on in the coming weeks.

UCAS

On Wednesday 12th I attended the UCAS fair at the Excel. It offered a chance to speak to tutors and students of courses I intend to apply to, while also learning about courses I wasn’t yet aware of. At this stage I have always been keen on applying to UAL, specifically to do graphic design at Central St. Martins. I spoke to both a current student and a tutor on the course. It offered a good insight in to both what the course offers as well as what will be expected of me as a student applying to the course. I do have an open day at St. Martins coming up very soon also, which will hopefully answer any further questions I have. A course like this will be very hard to get in to so it’s important from my own perspective to have a strong understanding of what they look for in their students. Also, I currently intend to apply to both Camberwell and Chelsea, to do graphic design and graphic communication respectively, and will attend open days at both soon. Similarly, Bournemouth Arts is somewhere I plan to apply to, having recently gone to an open day at the university. Though I didn’t necessarily learn anything new the graphic design course certainly appeals to me, and speaking to a current student enforced that. Much the same as Bournemouth, Brighton is somewhere I wish to apply to. Again my opinion on the course hasn’t changed greatly but it does seem like somewhere I would like to attend. I have an open day there in the coming month in which I hope to learn more. Overall, all five of the universities I was planning on applying to came across very strongly, therefore hasn’t particularly prompted any desire to change my mind. One university however I did feel took my eye was Swansea. Though I knew very little about the university I discussed the graphic design course with one of the tutors in which they explained the layout of the course and where it would eventually lead to. It came across as something that may suit me, therefore I plan to look in to the course further, with the possibility of attending an open day.