What was it like being a student in Dundee?

The student community in Dundee is thriving so it was a great place to study, specifically art and design as Duncan of Jordanstone has established a great name within its fields. Although Dundee is a relatively small city in the UK, we are encouraged to go out with the city itself for inspiration and work. We are also lucky to have lecturers, tutors and guest speakers regularly to allow us to reach out.

The most useful skill you fee you’ve gained from your course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design?

The most useful useful skill I think I have learnt is confidence to be proud of what I do, and able to demonstrate this in not just my field of design, but out with this. We have learnt so much about various disciplines, from business to geography, whilst including all of the technical packages and ways of working. The most fundamental part is that I have learnt how to work with others and by myself, which will ultimately prepare me for my future career and all aspects of my life.

Where do you see yourself this time next year?

In a years time I hope to be working within an art department for film or TV.I hope to start as an art department assistant and work my way up to hopefully, one day, be a production designer myself.

Tell us about the final project for Free Range please?

I designed a fully immersive spatial experience in the form of exhibition design. The experience is called The Tin Ring Experience, based on the book The Tin Ring, by Zdenka Fantlova, which follows her tragic journey as a victim of WW2. Zdenka has given helpful input throughout my thesis, providing specific audio to accompany a research film I created – looking at common day analogies of what Zdenka went through. We cannot experience what victims of war did, but in todays’ society we too endure extreme hardship and have to overcome this. Through my design I hope to create a fully immersive experience combining architecture, installation, interaction and media design.

How would you rate your course?

Sadly we were not given the oppertunity to do any work placements, however tutors are often able to give you contacts where one day, you may be able to get some experience. I think if we did get this chance it would be greatly beneficial as leaving university in this day and age, it is often hard to break into your field without a substantial amount of experience. Our course was great at encouraging you to learn for yourself and be as free and creative as you would like, although I think it would benefit from having more lectures and specific classes to teach you technical skills and programmes, such as autoCAD and Adobe Suite.

Model making, hand rendering, computer rendering, photoshop, sketching..and the list goes on. What’s your favourite tool when trying to complete a project? 

Photoshop is by far my favourite.. although only when combined with hand drawing and painting. I believe we need a merging of computer aided design and the creativity and ‘life’ only your hand can provide. Mixing media between hand and computer can create atmospheric drawings that show so much feeling but with the technical accuracy that computer programmes can provide. I am a true believer that hand drawing is the key to the idea and computer skills add to create a fully detailed and intriguing piece of work.

Best advice you were given during the course?

Be confident and do what you do!

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