Why study BA (Hons) Illustration transcript

00:00

Upbeat music plays in background. A montage of images are shown of students illustration work from Solent University. This includes a mystical creature that looks like a cross between a tiger and a dinosaur, alien creatures, Ancient Egyptian art and a spaceman.

0:13:19

What sets Solent apart from other institutions is the teaching staff that are all practicing whether they're part-time lecturers or associate lecturers, everyone's still working in the industry, so they could bring a strong industry practice to the students and enabling them to produce their work to high professional industry standards.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Illustration, Brian Reed is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera.

0:35:21

If we ever need to talk to them for support they're always there and they help us think of different ways around some of the work that we may be used to doing. So different mediums, if we use pens, may encourage us trying to use laser cutting, some print screens. They help us think outside the box.

Student of BA (Hons) Illustration, Rachel Povy is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera.

0:51:05

So here at Solent we have we great facilities for the students and then within the art block we have a letterpress on-site that's connected, next door, to main studios for graphic design, illustration and fine art. Within there there's multiple size screen printing beds, letterpress, lino printing, so a range of print techniques can be achieved by the students there, within the kind of same building there's kind of photography, print, repro printing area, so you can do large format printing, scan, get high-res scans of their work, so good facility for them to use there. As well as 3d workshops where they can be using metal work, woodwork, laser printer, we have a kiln on site, so we've had a number of students that have taken their work into a direction of pottery, so we can facilitate all that as well for them.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Illustration, Brian Reed is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including people dancing at a party, clouds in a sky, an abstract image, a car, an ethereal forest, and a glen in a forest with a fox,

1:44:12

They're amazing, the print screen room, there's so much you can do size wise, there's no limitations to that, you can do some book binding. The desk spaces are huge as well, they're always free so you come in on your days off and there's always some place to work.

Student of BA (Hons) Illustration, Rachel Povy is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera.

2:00:08

We encourage students from the second year onwards to sign up to Solent Creatives, so this gives them an opportunity to pitch for for real jobs and the great thing about Solent Creatives is it gives them the opportunity to freelance and get that kind of experience of getting an invoice together, chasing money if needed be and working to spec but also within the safety net of the university, so they're not on their own, it's a good way of getting them to learn those skills of freelancing.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Illustration, Brian Reed is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including a magical character, a sunset over water and an abstract cartoon.

2:33:18

It's helping us, learning about the industry and it's also helped me get confidence in what I'm doing, also helping me grow as an artist to do illustrations and it's just encouraging to be here.

Student of BA (Hons) Illustration, Rachel Povy is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera.

2:47:03

So we get a lot of jobs from outside companies that come to us directly there's a couple on the go at the moment, so that's really interesting for the students. Live competitions again from open, from companies within Southampton, so there's always something going on that will give the student the opportunity to get some live briefs within their portfolio.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Illustration, Brian Reed is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including an abstract cartoon, a goose and a dog.

3:11:22

So we're always getting emails from the course leader about job opportunities and it's always free whether we take it or not, so there's always those emails coming through as well. And in Southampton there's always opportunities out and about and we want to have an opportunity to go work with some young people in college, so there's always something.

Student of BA (Hons) Illustration, Rachel Povy is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including a building with lights on it, a montage of footballers, a cartoon character under a mushroom,

3:30:20

On the modules we like to include live briefs so there's one live briefing that level five and there's one live briefing level six. We've had lots of success with those over the years with people being shortlisted and winners especially within the Penguin student design award, which is their annual book cover, so we highly encourage students to continue with competitions once they kind of graduate and submit for open calls because that's a good way to get your work under people's noses and keep you active and seen within the industry. We don't tie you down into a set idea of what illustration should be, we're here to encourage you to find the path that you want to go and we have a range of tutors that have been working in different fields so there's a skill set to kind of match you and to bring out the best. Also that's supported with guest speakers, programme of guest speakers whether that's physical, online but yeah we try to get as much professional input into the course as possible to give you an insight to the kind of working industry.

Course Leader of BA (Hons) Illustration, Brian Reed is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including the book cover that won a Penguin award of a blue print on white paper of a person on a bicycle, an abstract image of line art of buildings.

4:40:20

I decided to do Illustration because of the work I've been in before, I was a call centre agent for televisions and I just thought this is not the job I want for the next 20 years paying off mortgage, I want to be an illustrator I want to be a comic book artist and when I saw Solent, I was like yeah, this is where I need to be and this is where I'm going.

Student of BA (Hons) Illustration, Rachel Povy is sat in the illustration studio talking to camera. Throughout are cutaways of students illustration work including a cartoon of a piece of toast with a face and tarot cards.

4:58:15

A montage of students illustration work shows including magazine fashion cover, an image of two devils, line art of people walking, a cartoon of a man wearing sunglasses, an women in traditional African dress, an abstract image, a tree, a Buddha,

5:18:17

Upbeat music plays, then fades out. Cuts to graphic that says, 'Get ready for university', www.solent.ac.uk, fades down, and fades up Solent University logo. [Video ends]