Warrant by Ekaterina fridlyanskaya

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Giving you licence to the unknown truths of life as a CSM student, as a graduate in the working world and as a professional graphic designer.

CONTENTS: former students share attraction

why they chose csm for their future

IPAD APP: the warrant ipad application can be found in the app store, just look for our logo.

experience

how was their time spent at the college

there are many interactive features for you to enjoy combining the use of the camera

reflection

the key to success while at csm

map

and the magazine itself.

your guide to the new granary building

graduating

advice on your final year & dissertations

for more to explore

refining

www.facebook.com/warrantcsm

how they have refined their practice

www.twitter.com/warrantcsm

promotion

professional work & putting yourself out there

contact details

attitudes

Granary Building 1 Granary Square Kings Cross London, N1C 4AA

facing the reputation of the college in the industry

look out for these symbols:

for when to use the interactive equipment

a big thank you to all the alumni involved in the production of this publication.

020 7514 7444 info@csm.arts.ac.uk

ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ACTION ATTRACTION ON ATTRACTION A ATTRACTION ATTR ATTRACTION ATTRACT ATTRACTION ATTRACTION ATTRACTION Studying at Cental Saint Martins is never handed to anyone on a plate, you make a choice to be there just as much as it chooses you. Attraction is subjective, we asked established designers why they decided on CSM.

I FELL IN LOVE Marcus Villalba

Villalba-Lawson

It was actually my Dad that kind of made me go to the college. I sort of originally applied to do several courses in Dublin beforehand, and actually got accepted onto some industrial design course and decided for whatever reason to not go and then submitted into CSM. First, heard about it through my Dad and then did a little bit of research, went to the open day and liked the university, or, at least, I liked the building that it was in.

CSM WAS NoT ON MY LIST AT ALL

Cecile Barstad

I started another degree, previously, in Spain. And then I got interested in graphic design but wasn’t sure, and was in a similar situation, with a friend, looking at random schools like a school in Dublin and another school in Stockholm. I didn’t have any idea of what CSM was or what it represented, but I found this portfolio course that was quite short and intensive and seemed to suit what I wanted and I came for the short course which was six months and I fell in love with graphic design and with the school, as cheesy as it sounds. Then I came back for the BA.

Chris Lawson

Gilles & Cecile

CSM wasn’t on my list at all, I’m from Norway and I went to an education fair in Oslo, where there were lots of schools and things you could do and you could go around and check it out. The University of the Arts was there (then London Institute) and I knew I wanted to go into graphic design, so there was a sign saying graphic design this way and there was The Institute on the corner. I didn’t really know anything, we had the Internet at home but I didn’t really use it because it was so slow. I met Alain Baines, he was interviewing people, so I asked “Can I show you my portfolio?”.

He said “Yes you can, but I don’t let everyone in, just so you know”. So I said ok I would come back in an hour, and I showed him my portfolio and told him about the ideas and everything. He said that my English wasn’t very good but I could speak French and I’m good at learning, I was 20 and I wasn’t that good at English from school. From that he signed me up from Saint Martins. This was in June, so I came home and said to my Mum that I was going to move to London in August, do you want to come with me and settle me in.

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EXPER iENCE , new s, n o i cat tudent t on o l s w ec a ne se new s refl f o t zz ur . en e bu d of co s stud at CSM h t h Wit ding an raphic ir time e G buil er BA and th m for ourse c the

Seb lester typography

a sense that you could do anything, the world is your oyster

Seb Lester Class of 1997

Julia Woollams Class of 2001

Alex Spiro Class of 2007

What I did get out of CSM was a sense that you could do anything, that the world is your oyster. I remember, there were students when I was studying here, going off - third year students here doing photo-shoots with Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell - which was amazing, I mean, they were students. There were people really high-flying and they hadn’t even left college, so there was that atmosphere that instilled a certain amount of confidence in you, that you could go out and do whatever you wanted if you set your mind to it.

Someone told us in our first year, and they probably told you as well, that all your connections are going to be down the pub and they’re your peers and it’s really true. You’re not going to be spoon-fed when you get outside, and you’re not really [spoonfed] here at CSM either, I don’t think. You’ve got the facilities and everything here, if you are going to find it.

I spent the first half of the four years, mainly focusing on graphics. At the beginning of my second year of the BA I decided to switch over to illustration. I was answering a lot of my design briefs with illustrated solutions and had always straddled the two disciplines, I thought I’d give it a shot. I had already completed a degree before I came to CSM, so I was a bit older, 21. For my first degree I read modern history at Oxford, as you can imagine, I was coming from a very different background to many of my design classmates.

I learnt a lot at CSM, but I have to admit that much of what I learnt was self-taught. I think that’s what’s quite good about Saint Martins, it forces you to teach yourself things that you’re scared of, things that you aren’t comfortable doing, because there’s only so much help you can get from the technicians when you aren’t a third year! But I think that it was an encouraging and very creative atmosphere. It helped having a lot of talented students around to inspire and collaborate with, it pushed you to keep inventing and innovating to compete.

Julia woollams @at johnson & banks

REFLECTION noitcelfer

Alex Spiro NOBROW

in hindsight knowing what they know now, about the industry and importance of self motivation, what can these prestigious alumni tell us about the secret to saint martins success?

My advice to students now is: do your research. If you see something that is great, you know, in a magazine or on a blog, find out who did it, make a note of that and remember them. Research those people. You need to find people who really inspire you out there, and those are the ones you need to hit up when you leave and say ‘I want to talk to you, do you have any advice? Can I have an internship?’ Don’t waste your time with people who you don’t have a connection to. So, it was difficult for us; there was no Creative Review blog, you had to buy the magazine, it was really expensive. It was hard to do this research. So we asked tutors like Cath and Phil and all those people, to tell us some design companies – we were really that clueless! Kath Tunball

Johnson & Banks

I think, it’s tricky; there are students who really don’t get it for a year or two, maybe more in some cases. I don’t think people should be obsessed with jobs necessarily. I think you really should be conscious that you won’t have the same amount of time as you’ve got at college to do things, to explore things. And, in a sense, you should be more concerned really with doing the best work you can while you’re here, even if that sounds a little anti-commercial or really personal, because most decent employers, art directors, whatever are coming round the shows, will see that work, will respond to it, because of its strength, because of its personal vision and so on.

They will be far more interested in employing you as an interesting person, because of that work, than if you just do employable kind of work. I think that’s far more important: discovering who you are; what things you’re interested in; and developing your approaches; because you won’t have that chance again. Be selfish with your education, ask questions of us, ask questions of the technicians, use all the facilities possible and really, in a sense, don’t think about employment after, just think about making the most of your education here. Otherwise, you won’t really fully benefit, I don’t think.

Don’t expect too much as a result from having been here, [CSM]. You’re still going to have to work your arse off. You’re still going to have to do some unpleasant work placements and internships and work for some unpleasant people. Nothing is handed to you on a silver platter once you leave; it’s all down to you and your work ethic. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic but you have to have realistic expectations when you leave; you aren’t going to immediately be an art director in a design studio, and often you’ll have to work your way up the ladder, gradually. But at the same time be ambitious and aim high, just don’t expect rapid success, it happens to the few and even then it can be short lived. But enjoy your work and do it well and anything is achievable!

Phil Baines Typographer

Phil Baines Typography

ADVICE ON LEAVING

I think just believe in yourself actually Seb Lester

before graduation comes dissertation, and a students time in third year can be frantic with pressures running high. the transition from student to professional will be smooth with the advice from these former students.

I can’t stress enough the importance of doing internships whilst you’re at college. Design studios vary greatly in size, from 3 or 4 people, to hundreds of employees, if you’re talking about something like Pentagram. Whatever size, these studios can always do with extra help, but can’t always afford it. That’s where interns come in.* Internships are a great way to learn and get stuck in. Who knows, you may even end up with a job! (*Don’t do internships without pay for more than a few weeks! They’re a good ‘in’ but they can be exploitative, be careful) So I would say do internships while you’re still at college. Because when you leave you’re going to need a job and you might not have the luxury to try out all the internships you’re interested in.

I’d tell myself to chill out a bit in the third year. Don’t panic – I panicked a lot. I was very, very stressed. That’s not to say relax, I had no concept of whether I was doing well or not at that point, it was really strange. Now I look back at it, I think, you know, I could have calmed down a bit. Also to have some confidence when you leave: it’s hard – it’s really hard – when you’re not sure yourself, and you haven’t shown your work to that many people. If you have confidence when you’re talking to people, and you really engage with them, it will go a long way. So, being nervous in an interview or not really explaining a project because you haven’t thought through how to explain it to an outsider, that can really be a bad thing in a one-to-one situation. So, try to feel confident, even when you’re not 100% – that’s the advice I’d give to myself, even though I was a nervous wreck. Kath Tudball (Johnson Banks )

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I didn’t really know that I was more interested in type than anything else on Foundation, and although, I suppose, I had quite an attraction to it in my first year, it hadn’t really sunk home properly at that point. Discovering letterpress was important, but that ties in with a whole range of other things in the second year. I started using letterpress just to do some of my own projects alongside project work: a set of postcards, one each month.

I stayed pretty broad but a lot of other people don’t: you might want to do animation or specialise in designing Apps, it’s up to you. I think you need to decide at some point if you want to do something specialist or you want to be more general. I never thought ‘I’m going to be a generalist’ but I always needed a brief really. I remember coming to third year and trying to do something self-initiated or even like, having quite a vague brief, I think there was an RSA brief on optimism and I was at the most pessimistic time of my life! I gave up on the optimism brief! It just didn’t have any boundaries and seemed a bit pointless whereas, in the real world, the briefs are applied to something and for something and are to help someone promote something. But I mean, some people like the more abstract side and will go down the art route. You can do anything, you just need to decide what. It’s just the nature of what you like doing and what you’re comfortable doing.

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Julia Woollams

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Typographer

That was at a time when also, I was on our Cultural Studies programme, as it was then; it wasn’t as integrated into the course, it was across the whole college. I didn’t do any of the design options; I went to the fine art stuff and the literature stuff, which I find more interesting. So it was that discovering that I liked writing or saying things with discovering this way of setting type that I could control. You have to remember there was no Mac then, so actually there was no real, direct way of creating letters, unless you actually drew them or set them with metal type. So, it was that fusion of thing really.

LY R E OP

Phil Baines

g n i do

Cecile Barstad

Gilles & Cecile

I haven’t yet. We’re doing illustrations for advertising and for print or spaces, we’re doing wall paintings, we’re working only with ideas and concepts before projects are made so having workshops and things, it’s very open. We try to have directions so a few years ago we decided to do more illustration for advertising.

PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE University can be a daunting prospect, but nothing meas@ ures up to the fears of students upon graduating. It can be like peering over the edge into the vast abyss...: will I ever get a job? But worst of all, will I have to move back in with my parents?

Fret not, hope is on the horizon.

I knew I wanted to do my own thing so I didn’t apply for a job. Since I started my own studio I think the most important thing is to make a plan. Never doubt yourself. Never tell anyone else if you’re asking for a job that you’re nervous and think you’re not going to make it, this you have to keep to yourself. Be nervous at home and strong when you’re outside. Everybody is nervous right, I mean actors and illustrators, we all are nervous that things are going to fail but I don’t think that needs to be let outside. Make an annual plan, like how much do I want to earn this year, divide it in days then you have a day rate and then how many jobs you need to make that. What is it you want to do? 10 illustrations for a book, maybe one film, 2 personal projects, then you have some numbers. As soon as you put things in to numbers it’s easy. Ok, I have done one personal project, I have another one to do this year, good. Then you can measure in percent how well you did, and why did you fail or not. Make sure to take holidays as well. When friends and family have anniversaries or whatever, just don’t work that weekend and that’s it. Sounds super easy, but of course it isn’t. That’s the last sentence, of course it’s not easy, but it’s easier if you plan and have some goals to work towards. It’s not easy to be a practitioner but it can help you out.

Cecilie Barstad From Gilles and Cecilie

I knew I wanted to do my own thing Cecilie Barstad

ATTITUDES

ATTITUDES csm has a reputation, whether you know it to be good, bad or ugly, it cannot be ignored. these students have experienced first hand what it means to have be associated with the college, in the working environment.

heres what they had to say...

People didn’t expect CSM students to have ideas, as such; they expected them to be quite style-driven. But I found, there’s loads of ideas here and you can work in any way you choose, so that surprised me. It’s good to prove people wrong. A lot of people high up in the industry didn’t go here, and they have an attitude based on when they were students, what they thought of CSM then, and when they’ve been meeting students and hiring people, but you’ll find that happens everywhere. So someone that graduated from Kingston will hire Kingston students because they have an affiliation, they have a relationship with those staff and the students, and so, it’s a naturally occurring thing. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, because there’s a network here if you want to stay involved with other students. There definitely is a reputation. Some people, of course, will love that idea that there’s a sort of edginess with CSM students – that they’re difficult and they don’t toe the line or do what they’re told, but that could be a good or a bad thing and might give the impression that they’re hard to employ because they’re not going to do what they’re supposed to do. Kath Tudball (Johnson Banks)

When we went to Johnson Banks, we were the first CSM students to ever contact them. I suppose our boss had a bit of a negative attitude towards CSM, he just thought - well, he had a very early 1990’s view he thought we’d just do sort of layered type and you wouldn’t be able to understand it, but from our point of view, you know, it’s a big course. You’re going to get a varied set of students out of it, from the brilliant to the slightly crap and the spectrum in-between, and doing lots of different things from advertising, illustration, general graphics, animation, you expect to get the lot really. I suppose you need to be a bit pro-active about being seen as you can get lost. In our year, there were maybe 130 people in our year (and there’s a lot more in yours) and I probably only really knew about 40 of them, because, I don’t know, some people just never come in, so we just made use of every tutor: we used to book appointments with everyone, pester them, and help with the degree shows and do all that is beneficial. Julia Woollams (Johnson Banks)

That’s an interesting one. We’ve all got a reputation, that’s the thing and it’s not necessarily a good one. I don’t know how it is for you guys here, but I was very proud when I got into CSM. It was a bit of a thing, right? It’s a big name and it has a reputation for a reason. Some of the staff would encourage that a bit… because it is a good place, sort of sell it a bit. I still am, as a graduate, very proud of having been here and I want to be connected and help students still. It’s quite surprising going out there, because our boss, Michael, said he didn’t have much experience with CSM students approaching him for jobs. He had a very fixed idea of what a CSM student was like. I’ve found this, not just with him, but with many, many people in the industry, there’s a definite idea that CSM students are arrogant, they’re pretentious, they can be a bit too arty, not really focused on real-world stuff. There are some people like that! But, it’s not everybody. People didn’t expect CSM students to have ideas, as such; they expected them to be quite style-driven. And I don’t know whether that was because at the time, there was a certain type of ‘style’ coming out of CSM in the ‘90’s, as a sort of early-digital thing, there was a reputation for that kind of work.

tnarr aw