SWANSEA is often associated with the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas but the creative influence of the small Welsh city is now far greater and wider. Shortlisted for the coveted status of City of Culture for 2021, the city is fast becoming a haven by the sea for those who wish to concentrate on making their creative visions possible and one centre of attention among the creative community here is the Swansea College of Art.
By looking at what the college offers it's clear where the Swansea packs the biggest punch in comparisons with the Welsh capital Cardiff, which has double the population.
You can find out more about the city here.
It's impossible not to start with the most prominent visual arts gallery in the whole country, the Glynn Vivian Gallery. Since opening in 1911, the gallery has housed major national and international exhibitions and developed into the centre of excellence for visual arts in Wales.
For some, though, art is best created in places which aren't so established - and Swansea has grown in this direction, too. The Mission Gallery is one such place, located on the Swansea Marina and open to the community and which promises to provide "exhibitions that take risks and push the boundaries of visual art."
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Another example is the Elysium Gallery which is an artist-led, not for profit, social enterprise. The gallery actually spreads across Swansea City Centre, spanning 83 artists' studios across different sites.
Fine art students based in Swansea are able to connect easily with all of the galleries in the city and Swansea College of Art has been providing a top-class education for aspiring artists since 1853.
Clara Lieu, who works as a professor at Rhode Island School of Design and writes a blog with advice for art students on Huffington Post, emphasises the importance of communication with teaching staff for art students: "Always talk with your professors when you have any concerns about anything."
Swansea College of Art provides the support Lieu suggests is needed for effective communication between students and their mentors, which is so crucial for fine artists. Alexander Duncan, a sculptor who studied at Swansea before moving on to postgraduate level at the Royal College of Art and who has exhibited in London, Spain, Italy and Mauritius said that staff were particularly at drawing out students' strengths: "The teaching staff truly care for their students and manage to find each student’s individual strengths to progress their skill set."
All Swansea Fine Art students have their own studio space and easy access to metal, wood, resin and ceramic workshops as well as laser and water-jet cutting and digital studios/darkrooms. Students are therefore able to master a range of different materials while they complete their studies.
Find out about the Fine Art course here.
Over 100,000 people are employed in the UK advertising and marketing industry, which incorporates some of the most creative and visionary graphic design and illustration professionals in the country. The UK industry is the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. The Swansea College of Art faculty themselves say they prepare their students to be: "visionary and forward-thinking professionals," who can compete in this huge commercial market.
Students are introduced to liaising with real businesses, to looking at real problems and dealing with 'live' briefs in relation to brand design and creative art direction. They also learn to pitch concepts and ideas, plan marketing strategies and create new campaigns.
Laura Marquiss, a graduate from the course who worked for an agency before moving into live events and communications says the culture of the course means that graduates will be well-prepared for work in industry: "If you work hard you will truly reap the benefits. I found when I was looking for my first job, there was a lot of competition but utilising the skills I had acquired made getting that first foot through the door easier."
Phill Rees, a former student who is now a Design Director at world-renowned FITCH in New York, says the teaching environment he experienced as a student at Swansea was instrumental in his career: "I would never have had the level of mentorship and creative development in other universities."
To find out more about the visual communication courses available at Swansea College of Art for ambitious prospective students, have a look here.
The career opportunities open to automotive design graduates are seemingly endless. Every manufacturer of cars and other forms of transport competes in a global market and the resulting demand for new creative vision has only accelerated, with sustainability becoming a central consideration of any automotive designer.
Swansea Automotive Design graduates have gone on to work with some of the biggest names in the automotive industry, including Aston Martin, Triumph, Honda and Renault. The students at Swansea have also recently finished a live exercise with clay modellers and designers from Jaguar.
It's this environment which former graduate Peter Wilkins says helped him on the path to success as a designer at McLaren: "The state-of-the-art facilities really allowed me to explore and develop my skills to the highest of industry
standards."
You can find out more about the courses in Product, Automotive and Transport Design here.
This editorial was sponsored by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, to find out more about their courses take a look at their profile.
