07 January 2021
Studying Visual Design at USP College
How studying Visual Design has taught student Chloe vital business skills and helped her decide her dream career
Designing ethical and sustainable items for a College Festive Fayre taught Chloe vital business skills
I chose the Visual Design Level 3 Diploma as I needed to keep in mind what I wanted to do for a career in the future. I knew I enjoyed art subjects - painting, photography and embroidery were just a few of the things I loved to do in my free time, so I wanted to choose a course at college that allowed me to learn lots of creative skills and gave me a lot of options for a career.
Each project our tutor sets us is unique and engaging as it includes us filling a sketchbook and learning new skills whilst also refining the ones we have already used before. I enjoy creating my final piece of the project after weeks of research, plans and initial designs because seeing my work all come together is an amazing achievement, one that I wouldn’t be able to have completed without my class and tutor.
I now feel much more confident when sketching out my own ideas. Before this course I had no idea how to create an effective-looking poster or even a design sheet to display my work; however with guidance from my tutor and lots of practice using software such as Bazaart, Photoshop and ProCreate, I am able to create gorgeous digital designs for any occasion.
Just before Christmas we were set the task to create ethical and sustainable products to sell at a College Festive Fayre with some of the proceeds being donated to charity. This involved planning, costings, sourcing materials and considering how to display the finished products.
I have learnt new skills such as animation, where I created a small video of a cartoon turtle suffering from the consequences of ocean pollution and plastic waste.
I found animating a very tough but rewarding process and is something that I want to continue learning. The reason I chose to create the animation, and also the theme for my Festive Fayre project, was because I wanted to raise awareness of ocean pollution and the harm it causes to marine life and how we should recycle our plastic.
I created tie-dye t-shirts and put my own turtle design on the front and sold them with the purpose of spreading the message. I researched into many clothing companies who sold merchandise to raise awareness on these global issues and this inspired me to create my own merchandise for a cause. When creating the merchandise and brand design for my project, I did stumble across a few issues but these were easy to overcome with planning and research. I also had to work on time management with my animation too, as it was a very time consuming task to create more than 50 frames in under two weeks. By creating a work planner, I was able to finish this task successfully.
I received lots of support as I had peers who gave me advice on certain aspects of the T-shirts and animation, and a tutor who I could ask questions to if I got a little stuck on the more complicated side of the design process.
When I finish college, I wish to go to university to study animation, something that has always had my greatest interest and a subject I wish to gain experience on so that I can move forward with it and gain a career making my art come to life.