I had always liked fine art, and I thought that I would specialise in it. I came on this course, the foundation diploma in art and design, to enable me to still have a choice in other areas of art and design; in areas which I had yet not experienced firsthand.
I think that this decision of mine has been a good one. It has greatly helped me in making my choice. My first eight weeks of rotations involved a wide range of experiences, some good, some not so good. 3D / spatial was interesting. It included building models with different materials. However I could not see myself making a career out of it. Fashion and textiles was more playful. We experimented with different patterns. Yet, all this while I kept waiting for the fine art and visual communication rotations. Maybe fine art because it was in my comfort zone. I was familiar with it and I knew that I enjoyed painting and drawing. As for visual communications, I had done a summer course learning the basics of graphic designing, and I quite liked it. I was excited about being free in fine art, but it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I did indeed enjoy making my work, but something was missing.
I realised that what I had been treating as ‘fine art’ all this while was in fact a very different view of the subject. I was mesmerized by the age of Rembrandt. I wanted to be able to paint like the great artists of the Renaissance. I, personally, enjoy painting realistic works. Fine Art now deals more with ‘out of the box’ sculptures or works of art as opposed to the quality of the painting itself.
I was disappointed. However, I grew to love visual communication in the two weeks I had to experiment with the various facets of the subject. I love everything about it – it incorporates all the aspects of art I enjoy – drawing, painting and designing. I also love the challenge of working against a deadline. Visual communication offers an artistic and creative avenue for the communication of ideas. The idea here is concrete. It has been offered to the artist by the client, and the artist has the task of converting this idea into something beautiful and creative!
As a part of the course, I read up on the works and lives of graphic designers and illustrators. I was particularly inspired by Alan Fletcher, Saul Bass, and Miles Donovan. Their works were visually stimulating, very colourful, and buzzing with life. The other designers which I liked included Nina Katchadourian and Dominic Wilcox. Their ideas were extremely clever. They sent out their messages in very different, yet simple ways, putting out their ideas to the public very creatively.
It has been a trying two months for me. But finally I have decided to pursue a career as a graphic designer. I am confident this is the best choice for me, and I cannot wait to get going!
