Introduction
From the 5th to the 8th of March I attended a Creative Future`s week that was organised and held at Glyndwr University. There were numerous lectures and presentations to choose from throughout the week. I organised my personal timetable and schedule for the week to make maximum use of all the opportunities that were on offer throughout the week and as a result I attended a total of 14 sessions.
SESSION NUMBER: 1
DATE: 5/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Opening address
SPEAKER: Professor Michael Scott
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· The presentation was about William Shakespeare and the way in which he is now regarded as a Creative Arts entrepreneur
· Michael Scott has published a series of books on Shakespeare
· These books were published in 1987; they are still popular and well regarded.
· The first live purpose built theatre was opened in 1576 by James Burbidge
· The government of the day decided to relocate these theatres.
· Shakespeare began his playwright career in the 1590s (he started off by getting hold of other people`s plays and re-writing them).
· Shakespeare had to adapt his plays, depending on the competition and the mood of the time.
· Shakespeare was a shrewd businessman who used creative industries to finance his other ventures.
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learned about how William Shakespeare began his career as a Playwright and how he had to adapt his plays. I`ve also found out the year the first theatre was built.
CONCLUSION:
I found the presentation quite interesting, as it was taking us back through history and showed us how even at this time people used their creative talents to make a living.
SESSION NUMBER: 2
DATE: 5/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Key Note Speaker
SPEAKER: Angus Montgomery (Editor of Design Week)
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· He is a journalist
· He gave us some advices and showed examples of good design work
· Design Week reports on all the changes within the industry
· Design Education is very expensive and needs to be effective
· It`s important for individuals to have their own “brand” and a good mindset (Find our own influences)
· Having individual portfolios is important (we should create our own portfolios)
· It is important to be able to work as part of a group
· Designers are very supportive of University Design Education
· The creative Industry is always looking for new design talents
· Design should convey fun
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learned how important it is to make individual portfolios, with our own influences. I have also learned how the design industries are searching for new design talents.
CONCLUSION:
I found this presentation quite interesting too. It was interesting to learn how important portfolios can be to present our work, to show our talents and interests to the design industry.
SESSION NUMBER: 3
DATE: 5/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Building an audience/Comics
SPEAKER: John Allison
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· John has built up a company on the internet
· He started making comics in 1998
· When starting to produce comics you do not know your audience
· His style developed over time
· Be careful how an audience is built up, people can be very conservative
· Formats can be changed, but do not change too much
· Be confident in your work
· Ask for feedback
· Don`t be shy to show your work to other people
· He spoke about Kate Beatn, Nedroid, Achewood and Jeff Zurgale
· Conventions are a good place to make contact with other comic producers
· Some comics are complex and do not connect with an audience
· Advertising is worth considering
· Promote your business well
· Study people who have done well
· Be intelligently curious
· Penny Pinch
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I feel that I have learned how you can produce a comic and how you can make your comic popular. Also by looking at all the different styles I have gained some ideas for future animations.
CONCLUSION:
I found this lecture very interesting, by looking at all the different styles you can use for comics. It has therefore given me a lot of ideas and inspirations for my animations, and how I can display my animations.
SESSION NUMBER: 4
DATE: 5/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: A freelance career in animation/Illustration
SPEAKER: Karen Chueng
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· She`s worked as a freelance illustrator and animator
· She started off as a scientist
· Her first and final year animations feature a combination of hand-drawn and computer animation
· During University – work hard, trust yourself, listen, have fun
· After Uni – be brave, work harder, have persevere, Don`t take criticism personally
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I enjoyed viewing some of her animations as I felt they were very creative and interesting, therefore they have given me some ideas of how I can combine computer and hand-drawn animation together. I have also gained ideas of how I can work on my animations after leaving University.
CONCLUSION:
I found this lecture even interesting as I have gained some more ideas for future animations that I could produce during and after University.
SESSION NUMBER: 5
DATE: 6/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Artists generating opportunities for themselves
SPEAKER: Flis Mitchell
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· Artists should not be afraid of making money out of their skills
· Be the author of your own practice
Advantages of and important points relating to working on your own project
· Control
· Exciting
· Work with artists you like
· Simulating
· Work hard
· Be honest
· Have specific desires
· Take your time
· Be responsive
· Plan your content
· Take upkeep seriously
· A big workload
Bases of a project
· Intent-what do you want from it
· Need-will it sell?
· Who will benefit?
· Exploiting your environment-use all opportunities
· Get known
· Social media can be creative and positive
· Chose the right format and keep it up to date
· There are lots of different sources for funding projects
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learnt that all artists should try to make profits from their works and they shouldn’t be too shy to present their works.
CONCLUSION:
From the experience I have gained from this talk, I am thinking of creating a portfolio of all my school and college artworks in order to get it recognised by the public.
SESSION NUMBER: 6
DATE: 6/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Staying local after college
SPEAKER: John Mainwaring
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· It is possible to stay local and to find employment e.g. you can be a local graphic designer
· It is good to have clients from different areas
· Salaries are less in this area
· There are some opportunities locally in the Chester and Wrexham area
· Freelance work can be done via the internet
· It`s important to get legal software and fonts
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learnt that you don`t always need to move to find an employment. There can sometimes be local opportunities.
CONCLUSION:
As I`m planning to be a film animator I don`t think I will stay local after leaving college, as there are no film or animation studios in the Wrexham and Chester area.
SESSION NUMBER: 7
DATE: 6/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Animation: Getting into games industry
SPEAKER: Chris Woodworth (ex-student)
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
Getting a job
· Approach companies positively
· Be prepared to travel
· Stay open minded
· Promote yourself
· Keep applying
· Network
Once Employed
· Prove yourself to be valuable
· Everything is yes!
· Be enthusiastic to learn
· Stay professional
· Keep developing
· Stay loyal
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learned about how to secure a job in animation and game industries and how to get prepared for the job.
CONCLUSION:
An interesting presentation with lots of good advice.
SESSION NUMBER: 8
DATE: 6/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Illustration and key graphics: Work realities and copyright
SPEAKER: Dave Newell
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
There wasn`t much to learn in this lecture, but I enjoyed watching all the different graphics work.
SESSION NUMBER: 9
DATE: 7/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Work experience-through “Go Wales”
SPEAKER: Lucy Jones
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· It is a scheme based in Glyndwr
· It`s a project which helps to give students and graduates the opportunity to participate in Work experience and to make the best start to their careers in Wales
Who can take part?
· Second and final year students in Wales
· Graduates with an address in Wales
· Students with 120 credits can apply
· It can be done during the summer
Benefits
· Quality work experience
· Enhanced CV
· Develop your skills
· Professional development award
· £250 per week salary
· Improve your chances of employment
· Around half of all graduates who take part in a placement have gained further employment as a result
Work Placements
· 6-10 weeks in length
· Full and part time opportunities
· Placements during the summer
· Sam Ford and Shereen Massingham are placement offices at Glyndwr
· There is the opportunity to gain a work based qualification
· There are numerous benefits of participating in the scheme
Work Tasters
· Similar to work placements but shorter
· Lucy Jones is the officer responsible for the PTO in Glyndwr
· Go Wales Jobs is your one stop shop for graduates
· Graduate training and development find this available to graduates up to £1500
· Short, flexible work experience opportunities for second, final year students and graduates
· It helps clarify career choice
· Improve your CV
· Impress future employers
· Find out more about an industry/sector that interests you
· Bespake, arranged to suite you and your commitments
Contacts
· Telephone: 01978 293240
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
There are lots and lots of opportunities for work experience at different times.
CONCLUSION:
This could be a good way to progress after University.
SESSION NUMBER: 10
DATE: 7/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Putting a portfolio together
SPEAKER: Jason Minsky
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
What needs to be included and how to impress
· A portfolio must tell a good story about yourself, showing your ideas and inspiration development
· It must be organised in a relevant way
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have learned how to present a portfolio, and I have gained ideas by looking at some of Jason`s portfolios
CONCLUSION:
A good and interesting presentation.
SESSION NUMBER: 11
DATE: 7/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Working as a Freelance Animator
SPEAKER: Ian Whittle
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· Some arts centres will do animation in residence opportunities
· There have been good animation projects invading children e.g. looked after children
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
By watching Ian Whittles animations, I have gained some ideas for my future animations.
CONCLUSION:
A good and interesting presentation relating to my area of personal interest.
SESSION NUMBER: 12
DATE: 8/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: Working as a freelance printmaker artist
SPEAKER: Ann Bridges
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· Ann is a self employed Printmaker
· It is important to have organised sketchbooks
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have enjoyed the lecture with Ann Bridges, as I remember studying her once at high school (I even had a session with her once at high school). By looking at her print make artwork I have gained some ideas of how to use this method for animation e.g. backgrounds.
CONCLUSION:
A good and interesting presentation by a very enthusiastic Artist.
SESSION NUMBER: 13
DATE: 8/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: The chip shop story (A story that`s never been told)
SPEAKER: Andy Cheetham
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· Andy runs a company called Cheethambell
· The company is 20 years old and is an advertising agency
· Creativity is collaborative
· Andy made a reputation for his work by paying for the advert to run i.e. His mothers Fish and Chip shop
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
From this session, I learned that by creating a reputation anything is possible.
CONCLUSION:
A very interesting and different presentation with some very good points to consider in the future.
SESSION NUMBER: 14
DATE: 8/3/12
TITLE OF SESSION: A career in children`s illustration
SPEAKER: Helen Papworth
KEY POINTS PRESENTED:
· Children`s illustrations change with time
· Sketching is important for any aspect of creative development
· Ideas for illustrations can and should come from different sources
PERSONAL LEARNING EXPEREIENCE:
I have enjoyed looking at Helen`s book illustrations. I thought they were quite creative and they`ve given me some inspiration ideas for some of my future animations.
CONCLUSION:
A very interesting presentation from a very talented artist
Overall evaluation of the week
I feel that I have really enjoyed the Creative Future`s week. I found many of the lectures useful and gave useful information that reflected my interests in animation. I feel that I have gained numerous ideas and influences for my future animation projects and have learned a lot of new animation methods. Also following the information and advice provided by some of the lectures, I am considering producing a general portfolio that reflects all my artwork from high school, College and University in order to show my talents and skills to try to get myself into the animation industry.
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