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Welcome 2020

BA (Hons) Illustration

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Welcome to the University of Northampton We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to your studies at the University of Northampton. The purpose of this document is to help you prepare for coming to study with us and give you an opportunity to meet members of your programme team as well as other students who’ve chosen the same course. We want to make sure that you are inspired, anchored, prepared, and enabled to succeed.

Through engaging with our welcome and induction activities you will get to know your super-supportive tutors, have a chance to make new friends and be able to access what you need to know and do to start studying successfully. Ultimately, we want you to feel confident about how you will learn.

This Welcome Pack covers the following key areas:

• Details of 3 online Welcome and Induction sessions scheduled during the second half of August and the first three weeks in September

• Technical information to make joining these sessions as easy as possible • What happens during Welcome and Induction Week – meeting with your

Personal Tutor and other University-wide events

Welcome and Induction Online Sessions We would like to invite you to join Louise Bird, the Programme Leader, and other students joining you at the University of Northampton this year for three online welcome and induction sessions in the weeks leading up to the start of term. The details of your programme specific sessions are as follows:

If you have any problems accessing these virtual classrooms, please email me:

mailto:louise.bird@northampton.ac.uk

Getting to Know You Session 1

Date Monday 14 September Time 11am [online classroom open from 10.45am] Link https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/a8ee4281dfae4ba6a64971eae19e68e0

Introduction to Learning and Teaching Session 2

Date Tuesday 15 September Time 11am [online classroom open from 10.45am]

Link https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/529f0bacad9a4772abf5c2a464abe8c5

Supporting your success Session 3

Date Wednesday 16 September

Time 11am [online classroom open from 10.45am]

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Link https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/32b055694ed04b36a1b13216ac441298

Preparing you for Learning and Teaching at Northampton Learning and teaching at the University of Northampton is designed to help you take control of your own learning, using small group teaching, team-working and one-to-one tutorials that allow learning to take place in face-to-face environments and using carefully crafted digital experiences. To help you prepare for this personalised approach to learning, our welcome and induction activities are designed to introduce you to our learning technologies so that you are ready to go for the start of term. Through engaging in some preparatory work before our live sessions, you can think about some of the questions you might have and have opportunities to explore the many ways in which you are supported. You can also meet the other students on your programme.

What to do if you can’t attend the live session If you are unable to attend the live session, we will be sharing any resources used on our Programme NILE site (the Northampton Integrated Learning Environment). You will be able to access these once you have enrolled.

Technical Support As part of our welcome and induction, we would like you to engage with us using our online tool, Blackboard Collaborate. It is broadly similar to using Skype or Zoom, which you may have come across before. You will be able to join your Welcome and Induction sessions as a guest, meaning that you do not need to create an account in order to participate.

Using Collaborate • Test whether your browser will work with Collaborate • Review the student guide to using Collaborate • Test Collaborate by visiting our test ‘classroom’ to address any technological

challenges. This classroom will be available 24/7 from now until the end of September. You can join the classroom now and follow the instructions to test your audio and video functions.

If you are still experiencing difficulties, please call our on-site team for further help: +44 (0)1604 893333.

LinkedIn Learning Once you become a student at the University of Northampton, you will also have access to a wealth of online technical support through LinkedIn Learning so you can improve your digital skills any time, any place.

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Getting to Know You The aim of this session is to help you begin to meet new people, make new friends and get to know the staff team who will be with you over the course of your studies.

Pre-Work Your task: If someone were to ask you the following questions, what would your response be:

• What groups and communities do you belong to now and what ones would you like to belong to at University?

• What values define you as an individual? • What do you most want to achieve by coming to University? • What does it mean to be part of a University community? • What 3 things will challenge you most about being at University?

As with the all tasks for these sessions, it is completely up to you what you choose to share during the live sessions.

This pre-work should take you about 20 minutes.

Your Online Session Louise Bird, the Programme Leader, will run these sessions and facilitate group discussions to help you get to know each other as well as familiarise you with our course ethos, the various elements of the course, the facilities and resources. Louise will explain the purpose of the 3 online sessions this week, as well as your face to face, on campus group session next week (week beginning 21 September).

In this online session we will also discuss what you can expect from the course and the university, and also what we expect from you as creative illustrators, along with our student support programmes and the many exciting opportunities we have planned for you. If you have any questions you’d like to ask before these sessions, please email Louise; louise.bird@northampton.ac.uk

If you haven’t yet seen, please watch this short video of Louise and Katie Bell (second year illustration student) introducing the course and the university as part of our recent July virtual Open Day: https://youtu.be/j7-KHij_M6U

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Introduction to the Learning and Teaching on your Programme The purpose of this session is to learn more about how learning and teaching will work on your programme of study and meet your teaching team for this year. This will also be a great time to talk about how we have made our campus ‘Covid Secure’ and if there are any particular arrangements you need to be aware of depending on what you are studying.

Pre-Work Your task: Take some time to familiarise yourself with How We Teach. This page provides an overview of how we personalise your learning to ensure that you get the best experience possible. We will use this page as the basis for our discussions in the live session, where we will explore what this looks like for your programme of study, and in line with the latest guidance around Covid-19.

Please also click on the link above to find out more about how we use digital technologies not only to support your studies, but also to prepare you for living and working in the modern world.

You may want to have a go at The Induction Investigation … an online, puzzle-based challenge to introduce you to the work of Library and Learning Services and how they support all students. This challenge can be undertaken individually but is more fun if completed in a team.

This pre-work should take you about 20 minutes.

Your Online Session Louise will introduce your timetable and how this will work under the current social distancing guidance and how we will use a blend of face to face and online teaching in term 1.

Louise will talk about how your modules are taught, how our design studios work, how the modules complement each other and how they are designed to develop you into rounded, multi-skilled, confident and creative-thinking illustrators.

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Additionally, we will briefly talk about how you are assessed and when, along with how Higher Education (i.e. University) teaching and learning is different to BTEC or A level.

We will also discuss how the Creative Industries have changed and what skills a professional illustrator needs to succeed. Have a look at our graduate website to see what our existing 3rd years have produced for their final online show: https://influx.myportfolio.com/home

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Supporting Your Success The purpose of this session is to introduce you to the different teams and services around the University who can support you in your studies and help you identify which of these you need to engage with.

Pre-Work Your task: Visit the University Supporting You webpages to find out more about all our teams. The core teams you should find out about include:

• Library and Learning Services, including our Academic Librarian and Learning Development Teams

• Academic and Pastoral Support from your Personal Tutor and our Student Support and Advice Team

• The Student Information Desk who can signpost you to our specialist support services

The University of Northampton Students’ Union – for clubs and societies, sports and other social activities, as well as support, information and guidance

Make a note of those teams that you think will be particularly helpful. Discussing these with your Personal Tutor during your 1:1 meeting with them will help you make a good start to your academic year, although if you want to contact them earlier, their details are available online.

This pre-work should take you about half an hour.

Your Online Session During the online session, Louise will talk about what it means to come to University and be part of the wider University Community. You will have an opportunity to ask those questions that you haven’t yet found an answer to. In preparation, you might like to think about what coming to University means for you in particular – your hopes and dreams and also to think about what you might find challenging. Don’t worry – you only have to share what you are comfortable to talk about.

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Starting university is often a worrying time;

• ‘Is this the right course for me? • ‘Will I get a job?’ • ‘Am I good enough?’ • ‘I struggle to work in groups’ • ‘I don’t feel confident’ • ‘I’m disorganised and need help with time management’ • ‘Will I make friends?’

All these questions are valid and are asked by every new year group that starts university, here and all over the UK, so please make note of any questions you’d like to ask.

Before the start of term: Have a look at our course page on the university website and the course Instagram. If time, I suggest you read a few of the recommendations in the ‘Reading List’, take a look at the blog sites in particular. There is a list further down this page.

Visual Diary and Holiday Sketchbook Drawing and looking are essential skills for an illustrator and will kick start your visual library for future projects. The project intends to nurture a cultural habit that you adopt and should be ongoing whilst on your course and continue through the rest of your career as an illustrator. The project will begin to develop the ability to express yourself and discover what you are passionate about - visually and critically thinking and actively involved with the world around you.

A sketchbook is a fantastic place for artists to generate ideas, note on the go, draw from life and experiment without feeling too precious about the final outcome. They are a personal space for you to make with freedom!

‘My dedication to my sketchbooks made them precious, and this feeling has never left me.’ -Grayson Perry

Task With this in mind we would like you to start looking and gathering visual information, fill out one or more pages - with one of the following - daily, until your sketchbook is full. You will be sharing your sketchbooks and talking through what you have collected with your tutor and class group at some point in welcome week and week 1.... sketchbooks can be taken anywhere, although we must all follow the government guidelines:

• Draw on location in the park or out on a walk, things such as the buildings around you and everyday objects that occupy the space around you.

• Draw people – this can be your family or the people you live with. Look at the way people stand, sit, communicate, gesture…draw a page of different people from life.

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• Draw from TV/Film - Pause to study compositions of scenes or create your own storyboard of the film as you watch (look up scenes from the film Dunkirk by artist Nick White for inspiration). Please see the film list below for recommendations.

• Listen to an episode of a podcast and visually respond whilst you listen - pick out words, colours, visualise characters, scenes and descriptions. If you’re not a seasoned podcaster, a list of podcast recommendations are listed below. These can either be downloaded via you iPhone/Smartphone’s podcast app or streamed from the individual podcast’s website.

• Record thoughts, capture images and collect from places and events you visited last summer – gigs, festivals, holidays, fairs, city trips, exhibitions, family and friend gatherings, parties, sporting or cultural events etc.

Films to watch • Le Jetee - Chris Marker Eraserhead - David Lynch • Mon Oncle - Jaques Tati • Spirited Away - Studio Ghibli • Silent Running - Douglas Trumball • Jim and Andy - Chris Smith • Get Out - Jordan Peele • Mary and Max - Adam Elliot

Podcasts • This American Life • Radiolab • Snap Judgement • New Yorker Fiction • 99% Invisible • Death, Sex and Money • Memory Palace • Ear Hustle • Adam Buxton • Mortified • In Our Time (BBC Sounds)

Reading Lists All of your core reading will be available from the University's Library. This means that all your course reading materials are available for free when you start with us. You will not have to buy any core textbooks and with access to countless books, e-books and journals there is enough to keep you busy for your entire degree!

You are not required to read or purchase all of these books/magazines by the time you arrive in September, but you are advised to read a few. Varoom is a bi-annual magazine

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about illustration, culture and society available through the AOI (Association of Illustration) website http://theaoi.com/varoom-mag/.

As a course, we are members of the AOI and subscribe to Varoom which will be available to you both in your studio and the library.

Begin to read blogs such as Its Nice That, follow favourite illustrators, designers and artist on Twitter, Instagram etc … keep yourself current and aware of contemporary trends and issues!

Books • On Drawing by John Berger • On Illustration by Andrzej Klimowski • The Power and Influence of Illustration by Alan Male • Understanding Illustration by Derek Brazell and Jo Davies • The A-Z of Visual Ideas: How to solve any creative brief by John Ingledew • Illustration Meeting the Brief by Alan Male • Illustration a Theoretical and Contextual Perspective by Alan Male

Journals and Magazines • Varoom and VaroomLab http://theaoi.com/varoom-mag/ • Creative Review https://www.creativereview.co.uk • Computer Arts https://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts-magazine • Raw Vision https://rawvision.com • Eye: The International Review of Graphic Design and Illustration

http://www.eyemagazine.com • Journal of Illustration by Intellect books

Blogs and Websites: • Association of Illustration (AOI) http://theaoi.com/varoom-mag/ • Its Nice That https://www.itsnicethat.com • Computer Arts - Creative Bloq https://www.creativebloq.com • Illustration Age

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What Happens Next? Immediately before the start of term, we will ensure that all students are allocated to a Personal Tutor group (see below). If you are a Joint Honours student, you will be in a tutor group with other students who share one of your subject areas. You will meet your tutor on campus during the week of the 21 September, along with the other members of your group. You can find out when your Personal Tutor Welcome session is on your online Timetable and listed below.

• Year 1 – Louise Bird (personal tutor and programme leader), Tom Spooner and Zoe Taylor (year 1, 2 and 3 tutors) on Monday 21 September at 11am in room 102 in Creative Hub.

• Year 2 direct entry - Louise Bird (personal tutor and programme leader), Tom Spooner and Zoe Taylor (year 1, 2 and 3 tutors) on Monday 21 September at 11am in room 102 in Creative Hub.

Please note - These may be subject to change. Louise will update you if this is the case during the online sessions.

At the University of Northampton, our Personal Tutors meet regularly and frequently with their tutees, both in group and in 1-to-1 sessions. They will help you to reflect on how your studies are going and explore actions you can take to maximise your chances of success.

You will also be invited to a short (10 minute) 1-to-1 session with your Personal Tutor. This would be a good opportunity for you to discuss any questions you may have about personalised support if you haven’t already contacted those teams directly. Please know that you can also get in touch with your Personal Tutor directly should you need to. Your PT will tell you more about how to do this.

Information about other Welcome and Induction events across the University during the week of 21st September will be shared with you in due course. We are planning these in line with the latest government guidance around Covid-19 and so full details won’t be available until nearer the time. These are all designed to help you make a solid start to University, whether you are living on our beautiful Waterside Campus, staying locally or commuting in when necessary, or studying remotely.

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Who are the Personal Tutors for your Programme? Just before the start of our Welcome and Induction week, the University will send you an email with the name of your Personal Tutor. You will need to use this information to know which face-to-face session you will need to attend with your Personal Tutor, based on the groups below:

Personal Tutor Group Personal Tutor Name Year 1 – BA Illustration Louise Bird – meet in room 102 of the

Creative Hub at 11am on Monday 21st September

Year 2 – BA Illustration Louise Bird – meet in room 102 of the Creative Hub at 11am on Monday 21st September