uel.ac.uk
Flexible, creative and pushing the boundaries
School of Arts and Digital Industries
Art and Design
Welcome The School of Arts and Digital Industries at the University of East London (UEL) is a forward thinking school in the thriving artistic, cultural hot bed of East London. The school has a great breadth of academic activity from a wide variety of disciplines which will provide a unique flavour to your experience at UEL. Our academic staff are the currently practicing and researching, so staff create a diverse and innovative learning environment that will not only challenge you, but also expose you to a rich mix of culture and knowledge. The school is supported by excellent technical and administrative support staff and courses are taught in purpose-built facilities to ensure you have a full suite of resources available to you throughout your study. The school is committed to maintaining high standards in all areas. We have excellent engagement with industry, and cultural and community organisations across London and beyond. You will be able to develop your creative skills, collaborate across disciplines, have access to exciting projects and work placements and complete a qualification that will offer you great employment opportunities for the future.
Simon Robertshaw Dean of the School of Arts and Digital Industries
Art and d Art and design covers a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research degrees, which are taught with a student-centred approach in production and studio-based environments by teaching staff who are active researchers and practitioners within their specialist fields. Students have access to free equipment hire and dedicated exhibition spaces and studios, as well as to production areas for design, illustration, painting, digital media and imaging, wet photographic processes, 16mm film and printmaking, fabrication workshops that include casting, firing, woodwork, metalwork and bronze casting, digital printing onto paper and fabric, laser cutting and 3D printing. Courses support individual and collaborative practice, and studies are broadly based to enable students to develop the flexibility needed in today’s creative and cultural economy. We offer excellent opportunities for our students to develop key skills for professional practice, employability and entrepreneurship through experiential learning, live project commissions, competitions, exhibition, display and presentation, enabling our graduates to move into rewarding careers across the creative industries.
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Undergraduate courses
Undergraduate art and design courses at the University of East London are enriched by special guest lecturers, industry collaborations and networks in the creative industries across east London, allowing students to develop their passion and skills and launch their careers.
Art and Design degrees with foundation years
BA (Hons) Fine Art UCAS code: W100 / Points: 96
Extended degrees offer an alternative route into higher education for students who do not have the traditional qualifications to start an undergraduate degree, but who wish to progress onto study at BA level in visually creative areas. These include fashion, fine art, graphic design, animation and illustration, photography and textiles.
Fine art has a very strong personal exhibition culture that provides you with a firm foundation and the chance to showcase your work regularly. The course is studio based and all students are provided with a personal studio space in which to work. The course facilitates your work across a range of approaches, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, time- b ased media, video, performance and installation.
The course offers you broad experience across this range of creative disciplines, and combines the ambitions of a foundation course with the opportunity to progress directly onto Level 1 of a Bachelor’s degree following successful completion of the level-0 year. Courses are taught by practicing artists and designers who are abreast of contemporary developments in their fields. The dedicated Extended Degrees Studio is located in the AVA (Architecture and the Visual Arts) Building, which also houses the BA courses and a full range of workshops that are available to Extended Degree students.
Throughout the course, you receive support and guidance from tutors who are renowned artists and practitioners, as well as from guest lectures by international artists. There is a strong integration between the professional art world and the academic experience, with many students working for noted artists and galleries as interns or assistants. This encourages an independent approach to studio practice resulting in work of outstanding quality and originality, and confident well-connected graduates who succeed as artists and curators when they have completed their studies. With foundation year: UCAS code: W108 / Points: 72
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BA (Hons) Illustration UCAS code: 4J23 / Points: 96 The BA (Hons) Illustration degree provides you with an understanding of the language, methods and skills of illustration and the importance of communicating through visual imagery. You hone your skills of draftsmanship, printmaking, markmaking, object-making and digital imaging as both an expressive and communicative language. The course equips you to respond to a series of challenging and thought-provoking projects by focusing on the development of drawing, composition and narrative construction within the dynamics of image-based communication. These propose illustration solutions that might be editorial, narrative, comic, satirical, fashion, natural world, forensic, etc. The course involves both analogue and digital outcomes incorporating book-arts, printmaking, publishing, objectmaking and animation. Lectures are delivered by tutors who are practising artists and designers, and there is a programme of invited guest speakers and industry specialists. You have the opportunity to undertake internships and work
experience in print workshops or studios and have access to book and journal-making facilities, a printmaking workshop, a wood and 3D workshop and plaster and casting workshops, as well as a fully equipped Mac lab and 3D laser-cutting equipment. With foundation year: UCAS code: 1A55 / Points: 72
BA (Hons) Animation and Illustration UCAS code: WFWP / Points: 112 This course enables students to acquire key graphic art skills, knowledge, techniques and processes for narrative storytelling through animation. Students will learn the importance of communicating through visual imagery and the conceptual and practical skills in drawing, visual
research, story-boarding, character development, traditional, 2D and 3D animation, model making, 16mm filmmaking, stop motion, digital postproduction, compositing and effects. The course features both independent and group work where students learn the skills necessary to work in teams towards the production of larger projects. Lectures, seminars and practical workshops are delivered by award winning professional animators and illustrators, visiting artists, designers and other practitioners. Students on the course develop their professional practice through study trips to studios, partaking in graphic art and comic conventions, and submitting work to competitions and animation festivals. With foundation year: UCAS code: 1V88 / Points: 72
BA (Hons) Graphic Design UCAS code: W216 / Points: 96
BA (Hons) Photography UCAS code: W641 / Points: 96
Graphic designers need to be prepared for new challenges and have the ability to work both individually and collaboratively, make large-scale projects happen and bring big ideas to life. Graphic design is all about conveying messages through visual language using typography, moving image, illustration, animation, advertising, packaging, editorial design, signage, information design, branding, identity, social design and more.
‘The BA (Hons) Photography degree invites you to engage in a wide variety of practical and conceptual approaches to photographic practice for commercial, editorial and contemporary photographic arts, while learning from renowned professionals in the field, gaining the skills required for a career in the expanding photographic and creative industries.
You will be assigned creative projects that challenge ideas and methodologies for design in relation to sustainability, ethics, globalisation, digitisation and new media. The course will prepare you for professional life by supporting you to develop the creative, critical and practical skills required for a successful career as a graphic designer. With foundation year: UCAS code: W219 / Points: 72
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This course delivers opportunities for the acquisition of core skills in lens based work while discovering the history of photography and researching contemporary photographic practice within the context of a continuously changing global landscape. The course explores a wide range of creative processes and practices from working with medium and large format cameras, experimenting with wet photography, specialist film processing and post production, to the development and integration of digital imaging, and the expansion of photographic media into moving image.
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The course is affiliated by the Association of Photographers and has strong links with industry, ensuring an exciting line up of guest lecturers, opportunities to travel on field trips, collaborate, exhibit, publish work and enter competitions. Our graduates have been successful in careers as international assistants, photographers, setting up independent entrepreneurial companies, working within teaching as well as pursuing further academic studies.’ With foundation year: UCAS code: W642 / Points: 72
Postgraduate courses
Enhance your career with industry-led Master’s courses at the University of East London. Our Master’s courses are enriched by international networks and industry collaborations that will enhance your knowledge and skills in art and design.
MA Fine Art
Professional Doctorate in Fine Art
On this degree you are encouraged to develop ambitious, innovative, and personal work within the supportive atmosphere that the dedicated studio provides. Within this supportive situation students respond positively to the rigorous and intellectually challenging debate initiated through seminars, artists’ talks and gallery visits.
This practice-based course is the UK’s longest-running Professional Doctorate in fine art and is equivalent to a PhD but is tailored to reflect fine art practice.
The interdisciplinary nature of contemporary practice is reflected in the way that elements of professional practice are thoroughly integrated into studio practice. Studio development is underpinned by Critical Concepts, a series of seminars, presentations and lectures that introduces the central concepts and ideas of the theoretical debate taking place around contemporary fine art practice. As a student you will take responsibility for organising and curating group shows, both independently and formally as part of the curriculum. Venues have included the disused Aldwych tube station, RK Burt Gallery, Parfitt Gallery, AVA Gallery, New Realms Gallery, Seven Seven Gallery and the Star Gallery, Brighton.
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The Doctoral course consists of creative practice, professional practice, critical seminars and theoretical research, and it is designed to follow, as far as possible, the organic, foraging, unpredictable nature of art practice. This distinguishes it from the more academic fine art PhDs. For our students, the proposal is not a project outline to be carried out, but a starting point from which their work can, and does, move in unforeseen directions. After writing your proposal, you will work with allocated supervisors, and a core staff team provide continuity and integration. A strong group dynamic and exhibition culture are central to the course. Work in progress is aired through regular seminars that all year groups attend. Interim shows take place each year, with critics, curators and artists from outside the University invited in to critique the work.
You are encouraged to seek out and curate your own external exhibitions. Annual written reviews serve as an ongoing record of Doctoral work and thinking, and these form the basis of the final report that accompanies the viva voce assessment and the final production, which is a major showcase of work.
Our aim is to provide a flexible postgraduate course learning environment appropriate and relevant to each student’s own professional context, future ambitions.
Resources and facilities Art and design resources include:
As an art and design student at UEL you will have access to a huge range of resources.
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Studios Exhibition space Free equipment hire 16mm filmmaking resources Printmaking workshops Multimedia production centre for digital production Design Mac labs Animation labs Photographic darkrooms Digital darkrooms Photographic studios Moving image studio, supporting animation, photography, moving image and live art projects with a range of constant lighting and movable green-screen Woodwork shop Casting and metal workshop Lasercutting and 3D printing
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Events and showcases Our students regularly showcase work at emerging-artist galleries throughout east London, taking advantage of the local vibrant creative industries culture. You also have the opportunity to apply for a Going Global bursary to cover travel opportunities to enable you to undertake international residencies, or to attend conferences and exhibitions. Exhibitions, presentations and showcases are considered integral features of the UEL art and design learning experience. Throughout all courses we prioritise the display of student work and engagement with live presentation opportunities in London, the UK and internationally.
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The end of each academic year culminates in the annual ADI Summer Showcase, in which students exhibit their year’s work and showcase their achievements. The event is attended by industry, partners and potential employers and is a celebration of student talent. Outstanding graduating student work from the Summer Showcases is regularly exhibited in external venues, providing graduating students with the opportunity to showcase their work on an international level to both the public and industry.
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Professional experience Throughout our courses we promote culture for entrepreneurship and the development of professional networks for our students through the connections and communities provided by our staff and alumni.
On our art and design courses we focus on the development of our students’ individual career plans by providing professional experience throughout the courses. This comes in the form of external exhibitions, residencies, competitions and live briefs from industry.
All of our academics and technicians work as professional artists, designers, photographers, illustrators and animators, and many are internationally acclaimed. Students are encouraged to enter national and international competitions. Student and graduate prizes and nominations in art and design have recently included The Times’ Big Picture photographic award, the Whitechapel Thomas Struth photographic prize, the Guardian Joan Wakelin Bursary at the Royal Photography Society, PX3 Prix de la Photographic Paris, LPA Futures, the Creative Review/ Corbis Photography Competition, Magenta Foundation Flash Forward, AOP Assistant of the Year, the Hix Art award, the Float Art award, the Woon award, the Florence Trust Residency and the Jerwood Drawing prize. Our affiliations offer students membership benefits, as well as providing opportunities to development placements, commissions and internships.
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Our strong industry connections support internationally recognised guest speakers from across the art and design industries and include among others: –– Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, –– Renowned Portraiture and Landscape photographer Nadav Kander –– Designer Bernard Caniffe –– Photographer Tim Flach, best known for his highly conceptual images of animals –– Artist Tom Hunter –– Turner Prize winner Richard Wilson –– Graphic designer Alex Cowper –– Photographer Jillian Edelstein –– Deutsche Börse Photography Prize winner Adam Broomberg –– Portrait photographer Bettina Von Zwehl –– Graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook –– Tate St Ives Director Martin Clark –– Magnum photographer Mark Power –– Designer Tom Klinkowstein –– WorldPress Photo Award winner Simon Roberts –– Director Candlestar & CoFounder, Photo London Michael Benson –– Artist Darren Coffield
Profile Dragos Ionescu’s BA Photography
The high-achieving photography student has been selected as a finalist in the prestigious Association of Photographers (AOP) Student Awards competition. His portrait of his grandfather was one of just 55 images chosen from over 1,200 entries. The AOP Student Awards is considered one of the UK’s leading student photography competitions. “The Student Awards showcase a diverse and inspirational selection of work by the UK’s most promising students and acts as a platform in which they can demonstrate their photographic creativity and skill,” the AOP website says. Dragos’s entry is a haunting image of his grandfather staring to the side of the camera, clad in a black
coat and top hat. The photo is part of a staged series Dragos shot during a visit his grandfather made to London from his home in Romania. Dragos said he is close to his grandfather, who was his primary male role model when he was growing up in Romania. Images in the series have also appeared in Digital Camera magazine. A photo Dragos posted on the website Reddit went viral with almost one million views.
“Honestly, UEL has been extremely helpful in helping me achieve what I’ve achieved so far,
You can watch Dragos’ video interview on our Youtube channel University of East London.
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Portfolio advice Fine Art
Portfolio assessments are required to be accepted onto our undergraduate courses. We like to see students who are enthusiastic about the subject and independent thinkers who regularly visit exhibitions, galleries and museums, as well as other cultural activities (theatre, music, etc.). This should be evidenced in your portfolio in sketchbooks and research work.
Your portfolio should contain between ten and fifteen works in any medium, eg. drawing, painting, video, sculpture, installation, etc – that demonstrate your interest in developing as an artist. Large or site-specific works should be represented photographically. You should include some preparatory work, eg drawings or sketchbooks,as well as completed pieces. In addition to questions about your portfolio you will be asked about artists who interest you and exhibitions you have visited.
outcomes. We would also like to see your sketchbooks / journals to see how you develop your ideas. At the interview you should be prepared to discuss your work, ideas and ambitions, and be able to discuss graphic designers who influence you.
Illustration Your portfolio should contain between three and five projects that you have undertaken in the areas of drawing, print, graphic art or illustration. It should be between ten and fifteen sheets in length and should not exceed A1 in size.
Graphic Design Your portfolio should contain between three and five projects that you have undertaken in the area of graphic design. It should be between ten and fifteen sheets in length and should not exceed A1 in size. The project should show the brief, initial ideas, research, development and the final work. It should also show evidence of independent thought and good presentation skills, as well as a selection of different work rather than lots of the same type of projects and
The portfolio should show evidence of observational drawing, the development of an idea through to a completed illustration, and techniques and processes that you have worked with. We are particularly interested in seeing your sketchbooks / journals to see how you develop your ideas. At the interview you should be prepared to discuss your work, ideas and ambitions. You should also be able to discuss graphic artists, illustrators or animators who influence you.
Photography Your portfolio should contain between fifteen and twenty printed images that demonstrate your interest in photography, using digital and/or traditional analog techniques. Our recommended minimum size for photography portfolios is A4, but we will also consider A3/A2 portfolios, Portfolio boxes or books. We are interested in all types of photographic practice, including commercial work, art photography, portraits, fashion, sport, documentary, etc. Your portfolio can also include evidence of any art and design projects that you have undertaken. This can include drawings, print-making or work in any other media that you are interested in. We would also like to see your sketchbooks / journals to see how you develop your ideas. At interview you should be prepared to discuss your work, ideas and ambitons. You should also be able to discuss the photographers who influence you.
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Foundation degree in Art and Design Your portfolio should demonstrate your interest in developing creatively within the broad areas of Art, Design, or Architecture. You should include works in any medium that you enjoy working with, eg drawing, painting, photography, garments, fabrics, video, sculpture, models, computer printouts or images. Please provide photographic record of any work too large or awkward to include physically. You should also provide sketchbooks or notebooks that show preparatory work and evidence of the artists/designers/ architect that interest you e.g. drawings or postcards from gallery or museum visits, magazine images, or written notes and observations.
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10 reasons you’ll be glad you came to UEL
19,000 current students from 120 different nationalities. The best years of your life, at university you’ll meet people of all ages and from all backgrounds, making friends that will last a lifetime.
3,850 free Samsung tablets given to new undergraduate students in 2014. Letting you learn more flexibly, you will receive a free tablet pre-loaded with your core e-textbooks.
£2m worth of scholarships and bursaries awarded each year. You will benefit from our generous financial support for students.
26 sports clubs and over 60 societies. You’ll have fun with plenty of time to pursue your passions outside of formal learning whether they are for a subject, a hobby or cause.
5 dedicated funding schemes to help you develop personally and professionally. Through our Going Global, Global Scholars, London Scholars, Civic Engagement Fund and Civic Engagement Scholarship, you’ll have opportunities to broaden your horizons by travelling abroad as part of your course or by bidding for funding to undertake community or studyrelated projects at home or overseas.
17% of our research rated world leading, the highest possible ranking, and a further 45% internationally excellent. You will be inspired by academic staff who are passionate about their subjects and learning more through ground-breaking research they will share with you.
10 top skills employers want. You’ll develop the leadership and professional skills to give you the edge in the job market - verbal communication, teamwork, commercial awareness, research and analysis, initiative/self motivation, drive, written communication, planning and organisation, flexibility and time management
84% of our students feel their course has developed them personally. You’ll have your mind stretched, your eyes opened and we’ll help you redefine your limits.
87% of our graduates in work or further study after six months. You’ll gain an academic qualification that will help you find the rewarding career you’ve dreamed about – both in terms of fulfilment and earning power.
70,000 alumni. You’ll gain lifelong membership of a global community of alumni across the globe.
How to apply Undergraduate applications All applications for full-time undergraduate courses starting in September are made via the Universities and Colleges Admissions System (UCAS). UCAS offers a secure, web-based application system which allows you to track your application. To register for UCAS, please go to ucas.com and follow the step-by-step guide. You will need the University of East London institution code which is E28. For a full breakdown of course entry requirements by qualification visit ucas.com
Postgraduate applications Visit uel.ac.uk and search for the course you wish to apply for. Use the How to Apply section to apply directly using UEL’s secure online form.
Applicant Enquiries Tel: +44 (0)20 8223 3333 / Email: study@uel.ac.uk
facebook.com/universityofeastlondon @uel_news youtube.com/videouel uel.ac.uk/adi © University of East London For 2017 applicants This publication has been prepared some months before the academic year to which it relates, and whilst every care has been taken to ensure accuracy at the time of going to press, its ongoing accuracy cannot be guaranteed. In particular, we are constantly developing and improving the courses, modules and options described in the publication, and we reserve the right to modify or discontinue them. No part of this publication is to be construed as an offer or the basis of any agreement between UEL and an individual.