Art as a career choice?

[EachandEveryone]

My dn tutors are pushing her to study art further I’ve enclosed a couple of her drawings. She’s really confused as she wants to make money but doesn’t like computers! She’s also study business and law. Has to start applying soon!

Many thanks TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

The advice of our sixth form is: if you want to study architecture you need Maths and a Science and Art/Design.

I may be Wrong, but this is the advice they’re given.

I think a lot of parents are nervous about design degrees, because they are s bit of s leap of faith in their eyes. But the U.K. design industry is huge. Particularly games design. Fashion is also a good degree, fashion promotion and marketing is one of the growth areas. In fact l think the fashion industry is worth more than the automotive, publishing, and some other industry combined.

The U.K. creates the best design graduates in the world. They are often snapped up by foreign companies. There is often a bit of scabing around, but people do find jobs.

One of my ex students designs costumes for Disney

And l had a colleague who did a costume degree. A lot of her peers are working on films. And they didn’t have contacts, or rich parents. The course opened lots of doors as all good courses do

Must check my typos.,.

Thank you so much TheEmoji you’ve given me a lot of food for thought and I will show this to my dd. Many thanks.

Is she just moving into A levels/ level 3?

I was at a careers conference a few weeks ago, and the overwhelming message we heard was that creativity is valued. You can teach people technical skills - they are constantly changing anyways , but you can't teach people creativity.
So, instead of thinking about careers that obviously link directly with art, think in terms of developing broad skills.

There aren't any guarantees, but then, there are loads of people trying for law and not getting there too.

Forward planning is the key. You don't have to be wealthy to gain work experience, she'll just have to think ahead. Choose courses that are practical, and have links with industry. Set up work experience for the breaks ( may have to apply in advance). If there is any volunteer work needed, tell her to put her hand up.

Creative work is now going more " portfolio" than full time job. So, she will have to learn to market herself. Most good courses at HE level should have a module on this, or at the very least will have info sessions via the institution.

The screen skills and ccskills websites have pretty good career pages which might be helpful.

Good luck to your DD

The advice of our sixth form is: if you want to study architecture you need Maths and a Science and Art/Design.

Definitely wrong apart from Bristol and probably the Bartlett school.

No uni dd looked at specified any subject for architecture and she's had offers from Top 10 unis for architecture. You need a good portfolio but it's possible to get one together without an art or design a level. Certainly no science or maths needed.

VivalaBeaver, the schools approach is a belt and braces. It is to ensure they are doubly suitable.

I don’t write the 6th form guide. I’m only saying what l know. I’ve had a lot of students apply for architecture. They’ve all had Maths A level.

UCAS guidance

I just think it's a shame that a lot of kids are told that. Dd was certainly told it by her school and would have believed them and not bothered applying. Thankfully I double checked both on MN and uni websites. But a lot of kids will believe the school and not investigate further and it's totally duff advice.

But it’s UCAS advice.

Saying you need maths and science is very different to saying some May prefer it. I only know of 1 which insists on it.

The head of architecture at the uni dd is going to has a levels in art, history and RE and wasn't the slightest bit bothered about lack of maths or science when I asked them.

UCAS needs to give very general advice that covers all institutions. This means that some of the advice is so watered down that it isn't all that useful.

For architecture, only a very few require both art and math. A handful want math related quals. Most want to see evidence of creativity. It really is best to look at individual institutions, and their specific requirements rather than getting general advice.

PS- don't forget the RIBA website

Haven't read all the posts so apologies if repeating. Both of my DDs are artists. At A level they both took Art, Design Technology and another subject. Both did a year Art and Design Foundation. The older one took a degree in Model Making, Character Creation and Technical Effects at Hertfordshire, the younger one has recently graduated in Design for Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Older daughter has worked steadily in the film industry since graduation (not been easy but she's stuck with it, proved herself and now has an impressive imdb page). The younger has landed work on a major TV series being filmed. It's freelance so no job security but they both get paid really well.

If your DN is serious about getting into the arts as a career, I strongly advise she takes the Art and Design Foundation course. I wonder if the course the teachers mentioned is actually the Gold Arts Award? It's a level 3 award that can be taken while you are at school. My youngest took it. Adds a bit of weight to your CV when applying to colleges.

Sounds fantastic Doglovesme.

Good design degrees open so many doors. Parents are wary as they don’t know enough about it. But they employment rate is very high. People are often keen for dc to study a ‘traditional’ subject like English or Maths. Which is fine, but design offers so many exciting opportunities.

Don’t you have to self fund a foundation course and do you then stay in your home town? Tbh we are from a dull town she is eager to get away to uni,

Is she any good at/ interested in designing?
My DD did a degree in Product design. She bagged a great graduate job when she finished ( starting salary of nearly £30k) All but one of her uni friends have jobs in a variety of different design industries.

There are usually two routes- industrial design which is more the design and the ideas, and product design which involves a bit more engineering. At her design school there were about half the total students on each course. I think the stats were about 96% in graduate level jobs after 6months.

One of her uni friends who is a very talented artist does a little side line of pencil portraits which makes him a little extra money on top of his full time job.

The foundation course is a portfolio building year. I did it at a uca campus and went on to start an art degree and really regretted it. I should have done law but I naively thought law was out of my reach due to coming from a low income household. If she is undecided encourage her to take a gap year and gain experience in either field before committing to a route. Art is very competitive and often low paid if any money earned at all. You need contacts and to stand out from the crowd if you want to get a career out of it. Same goes with law so well worth investing some time making connections before committing to study

Employment rate is very high for design courses. Also, they will always have the ability to freelance during the rough times,

When l was made redundant once, I never had to sign in. I spent 10 months freelancing and was always busy.

These are very useful skills to have

If you do your Foundation immediately after school so start before you turn 19, there are no tuition fees but you would have to pay accommodation if you went outside your area.

My dad is an artist and that has been his only job for over 40 years. He has no qualifications at all but has had an amazing career, with no initial contacts or handouts at all. I am so proud of what he has achieved and wish I had a talent which I could make a living from.

As from today its double art BTEC and psychology and business A levels.

Well. As demonstrated on this thread, firstly you need a thick skin. Especially now. We’re in an age where consumption of images is super fast. Photorealism in pencil is an instagram obsession, which means this kind of art is widely replicated.
So even though her work is a good standard and took a long time, there will be someone elsewhere in the world who would can knock one up for a fiver, much faster. (To confirm this btw, you can check soul destroying websites like, people per hour, fiver, and similar... lots of out of work illustrators with phenomenal talent, working for pennies).
I’d second the advice to train as a tattoo artist.
It can bring big money to someone with copying skills. Tattoo artistry with some intense training in the latest graphics packages . This gives the edge of being able to visualize and experiment to client spec in a way that is impressive and speedy.

Law is definitely out of the picture now

Yeah, illustration (apart from medical illustration) had a very poor employment rate.

I think we’d all love to illustrate children’s books!