2023 uni applications for those pursuing art and creative routes

[Duchessofmuchness]

The other thread discussing Uni applications for RG and academic routes isn't so relevant for DS. He's considering Art Foundation year or direct entry to uni for fashion design.

Anyone care to join a thread on similar creative paths. (Not just fashion!)

He's looking at art foundation at Kingston, Central St Martin's, UCA,

For Fashion BA looking at Central St Martins, London College of Fashion, Manchester Met, Nottingham Trent, Liverpool John Moores, Leeds Beckett.

Most seem to accept without art foundation but he would need one to Central St Martin's so if he wants to try for that will need foundation.

Lots of open days coming up and hopefully school will give him some more advice next week. No start on his PS yet!!

Hi, glad I found this thread as I'm a bit confused to say the least! DD is doing the UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma Art & Design. She got a distinction for the first year. She has taken the 'Textiles Pathway' for the second year and all going well so far.

She is interested in Textile degree programmes that are not specifically Fashion textiles from the off. So she has narrowed it down to the Textile Design BA courses at - Chelsea College (UAL), CSM (UAL), Southampton (art campus actually in Winchester) and Bath Spa. Needs one more and maybe thinking of Bournemouth? Are there any other obvious ones within a couple of hours from London?

Also, she is doing a digital portfolio but no idea what this is meant to look like? She says 30 pages showing development of ideas? Any help would be very appreciated!

Do the portfolios need to be submitted by Jan 25th?

Finally, on the Chelsea College website it talks about interviewing a 'small number of applicants.' Does this mean they only interview borderline candidates, or just that it's super-competitive so hardly anyone gets to the interview stage?

Sorry for so many questions!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge I can certainly see the logic there - to maximise time for the portfolio. Dd was actually on the early side applying - but we had no idea that some of the portfolio deadlines would come so fast and it was a scramble to get it together. This is what they are trying to avoid.

@milamo I expect that after she applies, the different colleges will send a deadline for the portfolio. Each place seems to have it's own requirements - we've had such a range - from 3 pieces to 20+! Some of the deadlines come very fast after application - some later. There may be info on that on their website - if not - she can email and ask about the usual process.

@Acinonyx2 How Long did you have with the portfolio deadlines after you submitted the form? DD has things that could go in a portfolio but would take some time to put together.

Sorry crossed messages.

@Pourmeanotherwine The first one was due - I think it was in 2 weeks (might even have been less - can't recall) - then one a few days after that. So it was all go for a couple of weeks to get those done. For example, DMU wanted comic pages which she did not have at all and had to make from scratch. At least it made her get on with it though and now she has stuff to submit or refine/extend for the others. Other 3 - one is in Jan, other 2 no deadline set yet. I think they're pretty flexible though - pps have had the deadlines extended - especially if it clashes with mocks (dd's aren't until Feb). The portfolios overlap but are different in both scope and quantity - which is why she's thinking of withdrawing one application to lighten the load.

This time last year, DD's deadlines were all about two or three weeks. She had the portfolios for her top two choices ready to go and sent them pretty much immediately. The other three needed different stuff and/or essays and she was ready to work on those, but a favourable decision from first choice came before she sat down to do that, so she actually never ended up completing the others. Which was all the luck of the draw about who replied to the applications first...!

Thankyou. Her PS is done and UCAS all ready to go. I suppose she just needs get a 30 page digital portfolio together and then, if some unis ask for less than that, she can select the best parts?

@milamo I recall, for her UAL applications at least, there's comprehensive tutorial on using the pebblepad system for uploading the portfolio. The pages are formatted in another program then uploaded and they have a descriptive text box for each page, plus pages can be named and grouped. I do not know how much text you can write, my daughter is planning on having a text box in her actual page like she's seen on YouTube (check out 'successful portfolios' on YouTube, a good resource). My understanding is up to 30 pages, but there can be more than one image on the page. UAL is big on 'seeing you on the page' and process and development. Good luck (I wish I had done textiles rather than graphic design).

I asked this in a separate thread but didn't get a response. For those who have done foundation, is the actual portfolio deadline separate to application deadline, or is it one and the same? For example, if the application deadline is Feb1, do you get the written application in by then, and they then request a portfolio in X days, or do you apply say mid January and then you have til Feb 1 to get the portfolio in?

@milamo my dd attended a webinar on portfolio advice from UAL LCC and that was really helpful. We also attended a talk at Nottingham on portfolio advice too. It’s true that they all like slightly different things - for instance UAL said they like lots of annotations whereas ManMet said they like 100 words max per piece.

So probably best to look at the website and see if they have specific portfolio advice.

My dd did one main portfolio of about 17 pages (close to the max I think for UAL and and about the number asked for by Manchester) and this was amended slightly for each application. A couple of pages were a full page image with a short annotation but most were multiple images on one page with stuff out of her sketchbooks and it had a timeline going from the start of A level through a main project and some personal extension projects and a page of work she did on work experience through to her current work which isn’t yet resolved but just showing what she’s currently working on.

I’d have thought your dd will have the problem of choosing what to put in as she’s going to have so much work she could show. Am sure her teachers will be able to advise her well though. Good luck with it all.

Oh and my dd had 10 to 14 days for most of her portfolio submission deadlines. Her college wasn’t supposed to send it off so early. She submitted her form on the Monday and the requests came about five days after that with about two weeks to submit. She had been planning to do it over Christmas but it was a bit of a mad dash to get it all done. It’s a relief to have it out of the way though and a couple of offers through now with an unconditional from Nottingham Trent and a very low ucas points offer from Leeds. She really liked Nottingham so she’s skipping about with that one. 😊

@mondaytosunday I believe it’s just the application deadline and the request for portfolio comes afterwards but probably worth contacting their admissions team to check.

@Acinonyx2 thats great news on your dds offers. My daughter had an unconditional through today from Nottingham Trent which she’s so happy about although she’s still really undecided between Nottingham, Manchester and Falmouth although the course at UAL looks amazing too. Hoping the offer holder days help her make up her mind if she gets offers from the others too.

@mondaytosunday our exp applying for Fpundaions was that everywhere was different... helpfully...
So at DMU app and portfolio due together. For Man Met app deadline earlier tha portfolio deadline.
In both cases there was no portfolio 'request'... everyone who applies submitted a portfolio
Not like ucas.
It's really a case of looking at each course individually. It's a pain as although degrees have varying portfolio requirements at least the app form is just the ucas form
The app and PS requirements for each foundation vary widely as well.

Sorry I realise now you may be talking about one particular uni so ignore me!!!

@Lottsbiffandsmudge thanks, I realise it's different for each. Kingston seems to say both written application, all supporting documents and portfolio by the deadline, but UAL says you submit the written application then they will request the portfolio, and I was just wondering if in that case, portfolio deadline is after the specified application deadline, iyswim.
Congrats to those kids who have had offers!

I went to the UAL open day and forgot to ask 🤦🏻‍♀️.

@MrsMontyD If it’s any help to know… When we were visiting NTU looking at their photography degree, we also looked all round the art building including illustration and was really very very impressed (I was an art editor on the Guardian and used to commission a lot of illustration).

I got chatting to a member of staff and we were talking about people we both know so their links with industry are good too. Thought I’d post it here instead of PM in case that’s useful information for others too.

I moved from print to digital some years ago and don’t have so much budget for commissioning illustration now so am not as in touch as I used to be and courses change quite a lot over time. It used to be that wherever Laurence Zeegan was teaching at the time, it would really show in their illustration departments. He taught at various places over the years including Brighton, Kingston, UAL and Ravensbourne but I think he’s freelance now.

Generally though for illustrators if they get in touch with me, I will always look at their work so place of study isn’t so important although the Guardian always had good links with a lot of art colleges but the art department there is very much diminished compared to what it used to be - I was obviously commissioning for editorial and looked for the quality of the illustration together with the ability to communicate an idea/subject clearly with a strong personal style - if an illustrator has a mix of styles, they often create a number of portfolios under different names because when commissioning, we tend to need to know what we’re getting although the best thing about commissioning is when I have an idea and it can be very specific but the illustrator just transforms that idea beyond what I imagined. With my favourite regular illustrators, I used to liken it to opening up a present each time. Commissioning illustration is one of the things I miss most in my current role.

Not sure also if it’s helpful to know but even some successful illustrators often have another part time job on the side to make ends meet. One of my regular illustrators (he did a regular column for me every week) also skippers a fishing boat in the summer and has another part time winter job. He once sent me a rough while in a&e (I didn’t know when I asked him to do the job) and once while on a family holiday to France and drove to the next town to send it to me from an internet cafe because there was no reception. Again I didn’t know or wouldn’t have commissioned him that week but maybe that’s why he didn’t tell me about the holiday as I think for many each job is so precious, they move heaven and earth to meet the deadline which is often fast. My best illustrators could turn a job round easily within a few hours. Obviously some illustrators have a style or technique which is time consuming and that time is factored in but If I commission once and that deadline isn’t met then I never commission them again.

Sorry that was quite long but thought for those studying, applying for, or considering illustration that it might be helpful…

Thank you so much for that, @PerkyBlinder (and congrats on your DD's offer)! My own DD was slightly surprised by how short the deadlines are for her university work but it makes sense that illustrators need to work really quickly. (She did have a tiny bit of experience with that, working for a local website on relatively short deadlines but with no real pressure.) Most of things they do in class for observational work have strict time limits, too. It's so very different from A-level, and (to be honest) much more her thing.

Interesting about having different portfolios/names for different styles, too.

Luckily she has reasonably realistic expectations (I think) about the career. Ideally she'd live in a remote part of the Highlands with a part-time job which could reduce in hours as her freelance career takes off. (I did say ideally!) She's also already started writing and illustrating her own stories, but is aware that getting published depends on so many factors (perhaps starting with getting noticed in competitions/degree shows? both of which are heavily pushed by her department).

Just because I like it, here's the cover (lettering not yet added) for her projected fantasy novella (screengrab from Insta, hence the little icons, sorry)

This made me laugh (and my daughter's fear). Credit to The Overheard.

😂😂😂😂

That was my fear too (not being able to pay the bills etc) and one reason I really wanted to study in London to be as competitive as possible. I graduated on the Friday and started work experience at a big publishers on the Monday and landed a full time junior designer job within about 10 weeks.

Another person from my course started as a runner at a production company on the same street in Soho in London the same day so we got the train and walked in together. He’s now a member of The Academy with lots of awards for special effects. If you have ability, are happy to work hard and get on well with people then there’s generally always work available.

Hope all goes well for your daughter 😊

@PhotoDad there’s a few illustrators working in bookshops and coffee shops in Scotland and rural parts of the States who run really successful YouTube channels too. I just bought a calendar for my daughter from an illustrator in The States and we both love her content on Instagram and YouTube.

Thank you for sharing your daughter’s work too- you can definitely see progression from some of the earlier work you posted. There’s always the option to self publish too and self promote through social media - sites like Blurb have great printing services and useful tools. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas.

@PerkyBlinder Thank you, and the same to you and yours!