Choosing Your Subject - Art And Design

General Information

For a successful career in any area of art and design, you will need to have:

• Talent
• Commitment
• Organisation
• Capacity for sustained effort

Do you need drawing skills? Yes, the coming of the computer has not made such skills redundant, and all art and design courses (except History of Art) will expect students to develop their drawing skills.

There are over 70 different named courses in the art and design area, but they fall into the following broad categories:

• Fashion/Clothing/Textiles
• Film, Photography, Video and Digital Media
• Fine Art
• History of Art and Design
• Three-dimensional design/Crafts/Theatre/Product design
• Visual Communication/Graphic Design
• Product Design Engineering

Many student will take a Foundation course at a local college prior to entering a Higher Education course. Such a course enhances your prospects of entry to a degree course. The aim of the course is to introduce students to the major areas of art and design and help them to focus on which area they wish to specialise in, and build up a portfolio.

In Scotland, courses are 4 years in length, with the first year being broadly equivalent to a Foundation course.

Portfolio

A good portfolio of artwork is an essential part of the selection process for a degree or foundation course. It is essential that the work shown reflects your own motivation, interests, talent and imagination, and that it is presented in a professional way. Make sure you obtain advice on the content and presentation of your portfolio.

For a foundation course, try to include as wide a variety of work as possible, using different media.

For a degree or specialist course you will also need to produce evidence of your commitment to your chosen field.

Interview

If you are to be interviewed, find out:

• Whether it will be a personal or a group interview;
• How big the interview panel is likely to be;
• Whether you will have to produce a test piece of work;
• Whether you will have to send your portfolio in advance or take it with you.

Route A and Route B

If you're applying to university, each degree course will either be a route A course or a route B course and will be advertised as such in all the literature. You can make a maximum of 5 choices; these can be all route A, all route B or a mixture of the two, but with a maximum of three for route B.

Route A courses are dealt with in exactly the same way as all other degree courses. They are known as simultaneous applications.

Route B courses are sequential applications, and choices are made between 1 January and the middle of March. For route B courses, you list your choices in order of preference, and you are then interviewed for each one in turn. If your first choice accepts you, you do not have to attend the other interviews. If not, you go to the second interview and so on. The three interviews take place in April, May and June.

On your UCAS form you only fill in your Route A choices, and tick the box which asks if you will be making any Route B choices. If so, you will be sent further documentation at a later date.