We do a bit of everything on this course. From typography to illustration, from photography to animation, from design for print to letterpress to art direction and advertising. But then they all say that don’t they? We use pencils and paper and computer software, old movable type and etching plates, screenprint and graphics tablets, film and memory sticks. Heard that one before? We try to emphasise exploration, experimentation and creativity. That old chestnut?
But where we differ is that we think that the so-called graphic arts and design are an amorphous and fluid thing – art is kind of slippery like that. We encourage and cajole our students into creative independence, into finding their own personal graphic language, producing creative thinkers and problem-solvers. No boring modular structures, no hoop-jumping for its own sake. We make, we produce stuff. We also think and write and question and turn things over and look at things in a different light. We think that design is not a noun but a verb, it’s the process as much as the end product. A way of thinking. The work might be a book, a magazine, a film, an event, a website, an installation, an intervention, a postcard, a note, a photograph but we’re always interested in the thought process that has led to it and the person or people who made it and what makes them tick. This is important stuff, but we try to have some fun. This is strange, personal and artful, but it’s also purposeful and communicative. All the rest is window-dressing.
Visit us at
www.cagd.leedsmet.ac.uk/2010/
