As part of Careers Week, the Art, Design and Technology department hosted a successful Guest Night for pupils studying these subjects during which three speakers gave insightful and informative talks.
The first speaker was Old Oakhamian Lucas Clay (10) who is a Branding Designer for Brand 42, a design consultancy specialising in Brand strategy, social media, web design, app development, print and product design. Lucas studied Industrial Design at Northumbria University and spoke about his placement in China at an electrical company. He also talked about his work at Brand 42 as well as creating his own brand.
Fay Zmija Nicolson, an artist living in London, gave an honest insight into the life of an artist, including how she is able to make money, what exactly an artist is and what should an artist do. She explained where she draws on inspiration for her pieces of work: The Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts. These topics challenged students to think about what defines an artist and explore outside the stereotype of an artist.
The department also welcomed Old Oakhamian Dan Moore (98) who is a lead modeller for Framestore, which specialises in hard-surface and organic modelling, digital sculpture and texturing. Framestore brings extraordinary ideas to life in any space or screen through craft, imagination and technology. Dan’s riveting presentation included showing some of the characters he had been responsible for recently such as Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, the animals from Mowgli, Paddington Bear and the animal daemons and polar bears from BBC’s His Dark Materials to name a few. Dan also explained how in animation they animate through layers to give the animations realistic qualities using skeletons, muscle, fat and skin/fur on top. Animators also use technology to capture actors’ facial features to project into the animated character’s facial features to give a more authentic look to the characters.
Following the lectures, pupils, guests and staff enjoyed a three-course meal in the Barraclough, offering the chance for the pupils to speak informally to the guests to learn more about their careers.
Undergraduate Design and Engineering Fellow Miss Lauren Day said, “It was an incredibly successful evening and we have received such positive feedback about the event from both the pupils and the speakers!”
