Loves Adores Live Project Initial Design Presentation

BTEC Level 3 Art and Design 2nd year students were selected to produce logo designs for a new brand Loves Adores. Here the clients Lacey and Grace Lloyd selected their most preferred designs for the students to develop into final logo designs.

"FEED" Night. Award winning animator Drew Roper visits OUTLINE.

Programme manager Ian Andrews and Foundation course leader Graham Lawlor warmly welcomed former Foundation student Drew Roper for our third "FEED" night of 2013/14. Following successfully working on well known projects like The Fantastic Mr Fox, Franklenweenie and Shaun the sheep at the  famous Aardman Studios, Drew decided to go it alone and founded his own animation company in 2009 based in Birmingham called Yamination.

Drew gave a passionate and informative talk about his animation work and the various challenges that  people face when setting up a creative industries company. He has worked with top companies including Coca-Cola and Cravendale  and is also engaged in creating his first full length animated feature film.

As well as clips from his animated features Drew spoke in detail about obtaining funding for his various projects and gave practical business planning advice, highlighting the crucial part played  by networking and promoting yourself.

As ever with our guest speakers any students who brought work with them and wanted practical advice Drew was only too pleased to stay after the talk and discuss possible careers with individuals and small groups.

OUTLINE would like to extend a huge thank you to Drew for his time, his passion and his offer for students to visit him at his studio.

The West Midlands Lieutenancy "Live" brief.

OUTLINE welcomed back Martin Tunstall from the Lord lieutenant's office to review work produced by visual communication specialists in response to his earlier project brief. Earlier posts show that the original project was a constructed textile/ interior design brief for the offices of the West Midlands lieutenancy but they were so impressed with the dedication of the Foundation students that it was decided to invite visual communication specialists on the Extended Diploma course to respond with print and CAD techniques.

In keeping with  the OUTLINE philosophy of "real" experiences the students had to pitch their ideas to Martin and explain the inspiration behind their print and CAD pieces.

The work involved  digital printing, silk - screen printing and laser cut elements.

As with  the constructed textile pieces, now installed in the West Midlands offices, the print/CAD pieces will be framed and also go on display, giving the students the experience of a real "live" brief, presented to a real client and seen in a prestigious environment.

Subsidiary Diploma's "Animal Forms" project on display in the OUTLINE gallery.

The enormously successful yellow week project for first year subsidiary diploma students was displayed in the OUTLINE gallery for the private view of the level 1 2 and 3 exhibition.

The work was all produced in a three day intensive, experimental workshop and the exhibition clearly shows the different stages of print based work, line drawings, wire sculptures and large environmental drawings.

The sheer scale, complexity and variety of the work underlines the OUTLINE ethos of ambitious experimental approaches. This work was produced in three days by first year students!

A huge well done to all the students who took part in the exhibition it looks fabulous and you should be justifiably proud of your efforts.

OUTLINE welcomes the creative team from "Synergy."

For the second FEED night presentation of the year Programme manager Ian Andrews welcomed Dave Glenn and the creative team from the graphic and visual communication agency  Synergy. Dave is a former student from the Sutton Coldfield campus of Birmingham Metropolitan College and he gave a passionate and informative presentation about graphic design and visual communication and how he set up his creative industry company.

The presentation by Dave and his team gave the students a valuable insight into the creative industries and the importance of research, identifying your target audience and the team dynamics required for a successful company.  Following the presentation Dave and his team kindly agreed to review portfolios and give valuable careers advice on the various aspects of visual communication and the varied career paths available to them.

Dave and his team have agreed to work with OUTLINE in providing regular work experience for our visual communication students and one lucky student may be employed by the agency as a junior graphic designer!

Dave will be returning in the near future to set "live" briefs where the students get to work on actual projects that the Synergy organisation are involved with getting real experience of actual deadlines and the actual standards required in the industry.

OUTLINE would like to extend a huge thank you to Dave and his team not only for the presentation but for the opportunities that they are offering to students in the form of work experience and actual employment! Thank you so much to Synergy!

"Bones Structures." An experimental drawing workshop at OUTLINE.

30 students, 4 Educational facilities from 3 different countries in just 2 hours!

Programme  manager Ian Andrews led the workshop based on the theme of skeletons and bone structures  designed to support the  life drawing sessions that the local students have been studying with us.The students from Sutton Girls and Bishop Vesey were joined by students from the Czech Republic and Finland who are attending the college as part of the Leonardo exchange programme.

Birmingham Metropolitan college's OUTLINE department has a thriving overseas exchange programme where over 30 students each year have the chance to study abroad in a range of countries.

The environmental drawing workshop has been tremendously successful over the last few years and is an ideal collaborative exercise. Students learn not only individual skills in depicting the world around them but have to learn to liaise and cooperate with other students who are drawing nearby making sure their drawings work as individual statements but also as part of a total whole.

This workshop was a privilege and a pleasure to teach, my congratulations to the students involved who many cases had not met prior to the workshop and yet managed to produce a coherent statement connecting three different countries with one visual language!!