Art, Craft & Design A Level

Course Overview

Enrich your creativity as an artist or designer through a series of integrated, theoretical, and practical workshops taught by teachers, who have a range of industrial backgrounds, in our specialist art and design studios. Over two years you will create and present a practical portfolio of specialist work reflecting personal expression of ideas and feelings through the skilful manipulation of visual and written language.

We have three pathways for you to choose from:

• Fine Art: On this pathway you will work with drawing, painting, and printmaking techniques. This includes photographic silkscreen printing, traditional dry point etching, photography, mixed media, digital painting, and ceramics. You will learn about artist movements and how to critically analyse the work of other artists. Focus areas: Painting, Printmaking and Digital Painting.

• Fashion and Textiles: This is a creative and experimental pathway that follows an art and design-based approach.  Our studio practice offers workshops that introduce a range of techniques covering material manipulation with fabric and fibres, garment construction, fashion drawing, three-dimensional structures, textile silk screen printing, digital pattern design, and digital presentation skills. Our studio practice offers a place to experiment with a range of ideas for designing, making and researching areas such as fashion design, textile, or interior structures.  You will be encouraged to incorporate printed textile processes into your design work and direct the styling of your photo shoots with your final work.
   
• Graphic Illustration: On this pathway you will be offered a flexible approach to graphic design and illustration. You will be encouraged to incorporate printmaking and painting processes into graphic design and illustration developmental work. Through practical workshops on printmaking and digital techniques, you will gain experience working with Photoshop Illustrator and InDesign. We undertake both practical and theoretical research work, and ideas are explored through both graphic design and illustration assignments. Focus areas: Character Designs, Short Stories, typography and layout, Promotional Posters and Packaging.

An exciting, enjoyable and inspiring course, the advice I was given by my teachers gave me confidence and helped me become much more independent. There’s a real sense of individual creativeness emphasised throughout the course.