The Foundation Art and Design course at the Nottingham Trent International College is probably one of the most effective design related courses in my opinion. The course has really helped me on a personal level to expand my ideas and thoughts about art and design. The course started out with a more fine art related introduction; however towards the end of the first term it pushed us to critically evaluate design aspects in relation to real life briefs.

The biggest and most effective part of the course was during our second term at NTIC. A general based brief called ‘Fireworks’ was given out to all the students. At first we were all skeptical and apprehensive about the project; however we were professionally guided to emerge as creative designers and artists by the end. The Firework project allowed each student to interpret the theme in their own way, allowing us to expand our horizons in relation to our chosen area of study, which in my case was Design for Film and Television. Production and set designing was a very broad and unclear design field for me at first, but as our term progressed the intense research and commitment helped me understand exactly what is required of me.

For my final piece I chose to build a film set that was based on a sci-fi movie called ‘Nebula.’ The set I designed is to be inside a studio, with the interior and exterior of a spaceship built from my designs. I had to get a lot of feedback from professionals to guide me through the development of the project from time to time. I also drew a storyboard that consisted of 7 shots/frames for the finale sequence of Nebula. I was then encouraged to use professional materials like Styrofoam to build the model of my spaceship, which took about 2 weeks to construct and refine. By the end of the 12 week project I was successfully able to produce a model that visualized my thoughts and ideas about the set, including all the camera angles, the interior and exterior of the spaceship and post production technicalities of the 7 frames put together.

I have really enjoyed my time during my foundation course and consider it to be a critical turning point as an art and design student which will help me pursue my chosen career path in the dynamic design field in the future.

Uzair Armeen Merchant,

India

BA Hons Design for Film and Television