PreSessional English art & Design
Name: Boris Mak Country: Hong Kong Language: Chinese, English Previous Education: BA Graphic Design Current Course: PSEAD Future Course: UCA GDAD Pathway: Graphic Design Favourite designer: Takashi Murakami
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Past: I studied Graphic Design in Hong Kong. I’ve always had a passion for everything that is creative. I enjoy photography and illustration. I like to constantly develop new skills and improve my creativity and design aesthetics. Because of this desire, I decided to explore the world in order to find inspiration outside of Hong Kong. UK and UCA are just the beginning.
Now: During the five weeks on PSEAD, I learnt a lot of things, and improved my critical thinking and research skills. Especially, the motivation on doing my work because in the past I always left it to the last minute. After I came to UCA, I changed myself not to do my work at the last minute. Therefore, from now on it will never happen again in my life. My favourite project was the art activism project, because I successfully collaborated with other students. During this project, I definitely improved my communication skills and team work. I think collaboration is very important, as in the future my career will depend on it. The most important is that I met brilliant teachers who taught me how to better express my creative ideas in English.
Future: In the Future, I would like to be a professional Graphic Designer in the field of “graphic communication” or “Design, Innovation and Brand management”. These two subjects really interest me. I think in the future course GDAD, I would like to enhance my research skills and critical thinking more. I am also planning to start up my own graphic design studio with my friends from Hong Kong, but this is just a side project.
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Name: Siyi Wang My England name: Amy Languages: Mandarin, English Country: China Past course: High school in Tieling Now course: PSEAD Future course: UCA IFADM Pathway: Graphic Design Favourite designer: Dick Beuna
Past: In the past I studied art, because I wanted to go to an art university. My favourite art has always been inspired by Dick Beauna. Why did I choose graphic design? I like graphic design and visual communication as it is used to communicate and express ideas I think graphic design can be fascinating. Why did I choose UK? I’m here as my family loves London, they encouaraged me to study here. I like British architecture as it is very old. I also like the air here. Why did I choose UCA? I’m here as my friends are also studying at UCA and they think this is a very good art university in the UK.
Now: Now I am completing the Pre-sessional English for Art and Design course. I made some lovely friends at UCA. I like this university because of the artistic feeling in every corner of it. In studying this course, I learned a lot of knowledge, learned how to write papers and how to do prepare a presentation, and finally how to project manage a magazine. During the five weeks since I got here, I’ve visited different art museums to learn different styles of art. The most important thing is that I met two brilliant teachers who taught me how to better express my creative ideas in English.
Future: I will study International Foudnation in Art, Design and Media. I believe there will be many interesting things and I will expand my professional knowledge on art, design and media. I love Farnham as it really feels like an art university. It has a fantastic art atmosphere which I think will suit my artistic development. I’ll want to focus on graphic design when I’m there.
Name: Erika Cheng Country: China Languages: English, Chinese, Korean Past Course: BA Interior Design Current Course: PSEAD Future Course: UCA GDAD & MA Jewellery Pathway: Jewellery Design Favourite designer: yohji yamamoto
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Past My name is Erika, I come from Hangzhou, an international city in the south of China, which combines tradition with modernity. When I was younger, I was into music and makeup and anything interesting. I studied interior design at university, which I found a little bit boring and inflexible. This pathway did not offer too many opportunities in China. Because of this, I decided to expand my artistic interests and chose to study a different side of design, mainly jewellery.
Now Jewellery design is what I am interested in, and I chose UCA because it is a highly specialized art college. I feel ver y fortunate that I joined the PSEAD course before studying my future course. There are only a few students, but it allows us to have a better quality of the language learning experience. I have really enjoyed this course, it is quite different from language courses in China. In PSEAD we had to complete four projects. I was mostly impressed by the ‘art and activism’ project as our concept was to raise people’s awareness to reduce over packaging and waste, and recycle any useful materials. My group used transparency paper to create an artwork, it was an interesting experience as we write an academic project proposal and pitched the idea to an audience. It is a perfect memory, because of the success of collaboration with other students. The feedback we received was excellent!
Future I will join GDAD course after I graduate from PSEAD. The jump from interior design to jewellery design is a huge challenge, but I believe a year of GDAD will enable me to learn new things and grow more. The interesting thing is that this course will not only be limited to study jewellery design, which means I can try any design, I can use any materials, which I’m really looking forward to!
Name: Mengmeng Zhang Country: China Languages Spoken: Chinese, English Past Education: BA Fine Art, Shangqiu Normal University Future Course: UCA Graduate Diploma in Art and Design Pathway: Fashion Design Favourite designer: CoCo Chanel
Past I come from Shangqiu, Henan province, the middle of China. I learned Fine Art at Shangqiu Normal University. When I was in high school, once I was in a cafĂŠ, in which there was a Vogue magazine which showed the design story of Coco Chanel. It was so attractive to me that I fell in love with fashion and wanted to study it and explore it since.
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Now During the PSEAD course, we visited different museums and galleries. It was fabulous! But for me, it was more important to learn to research in order to develop knowledge and enhance my horizons. The tutors always encouraged us patiently and professionally. PSEAD course really helped me improve English a lot.
Future The future is full of challenges and I am interested in different cultures, histories and methods of people’s thinking. I would like to explore wider varieties of art and design, but not only in the field of fashion. Anyway, I am looking forward to the next journey in the GDAD course.