By Wayne Lockwood
Imagine your dream project, something you’ve always wanted to do, something that sums up everything you’ve worked towards throughout the entirety of your university career, something that brings together all your influences and interests.This is what faced the outgoing level 2 students last summer when they were presented with the summer project that would bridge their transition into level 3.
A golden opportunity?
Certainly.
Something to help keep those skills sharp over summer? Absolutely.
Intimidating? Well, maybe just a little…
A little background to the project first. In the second semester of level 3 there is a module called Negotiated Illustration. In this module the students put forward a proposal for their own brief that runs the entirety of the semester. They hand this in and the tutors then negotiate back and forth with the student until the brief is deemed to have enough academic and creative rigour to go forward with. In the past this has produced some of the most imaginative and engaging projects on the course from an animation for a music vid
eo and promotional packages for bands to ranges of designer stationary brands and campaigns to highlight local environmental concerns.
It’s a big thing to come up with just off the top of your head so the summer project was introduced to begin the process of students thinking about the Negotiated project.
So what should students look for when they begin to think about their Negotiated project through the summer? Well, it’s probably best to begin with tying it into the research they’re gathering for their Contextual Studies dissertation. It saves on a lot of investigation into a subject if you’re investigating it already. Hopefully by now the students have thought about what kind of illustrator they want to be, what area of illustration interests them, even which illustrators inspire them to pursue the same path, which will hopefully begin to allow them to find their place in the industry, locating their audience.Finally, and I hope this is a consideration in all our students’ proposals, how will their illustration make the world better? Everything we do as illustrators goes out into the
world; how can we make it effect change, improve our environment, our outlook, our mental health, our view of others, our self-esteem, our relationships, our understanding? Even those students who choose fantasy or sci-fi concepts, or maybe even especially those students, can use those forms as a mirror to channel the concerns and preoccupations of todays society.
It’s quite the big ask.
But I have faith in our students to rise to that challenge, and looking at their Summer Projects I don’t see any reason to doubt this.
– Wayne