Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Making a Career in Art and Design

Ever since, many more training grounds have continued to emerge across the academic landscape in the form of art departments and faculties and schools in many higher institutions of learning thus, making the pursuit of art career more feasible and exciting, a lot of career mileage has since been accomplished in the artistic/creative, employment and industrial sectors of the nation. 

Some of these institutions include all the Universities, Polytechnics and several Colleges of Education that offer fine and, or applied art as a course of study such as in the few following: Ahmadu Bello University – Zaria, University of Nigeria –Nsukka, University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University – Ife, Yaba College of Technology, Auchi Polytechnic, the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) - Enugu, Kaduna (federal) Polytechnic, Akwa Ibom State University, Uyo, University of Port Harcourt, University of Maiduguri, University of Lagos, etc.


Painting by Morgan Nwanguma

For any aspiring art student or artist today however, it is worth mentioning here that the career prospects are limitless and the opportunities numerous. Thus art is a terrain that borders on the entire creative departments of all human endeavours. Applied art or Industrial Design is an area that embraces every aspect of Commercial Art, whiles the Fine Arts such as Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Print-making, are strictly specialised studio practices. Media art is a utilisation of the various working tools applicable to creative/visual media practice such as photography, film, video, theatre, sound, and slide, etc. 

Upon graduation from art school, anyone who specialises in any of these areas, will definitely be able to do well practicing as a full time artist either in a private studio or employed to work for someone or a company. The trained artist is a versatile human being, and thus can work in the department of culture as a cultural officer; he can also work in a Gallery as a Curator, or take up a teaching appointment while still practicing his art privately. There is also nothing stopping the artist from becoming a freelancer and working for different organizations at the same time.

Also, as a specialist in any of the fine arts, or applied arts such as Graphics, Textile design, Ceramics, Fashion design, Glass technology, the artist is able to adapt himself to fit into any creative units in the industry. These days however, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has even broadened the scope of Industrial Design to also include Web design and all that the computer and the Internet technology is enabling the artists and designers to perform, and to earn a very lucrative living.


THE ADVERTISING AND MEDIA WORLD

A lot of high profile opportunities and job prospects exist in the Advertising world. The creative departments in media and advertising are where artists are employed to give expression to their creative energies - working as Visualisers, Graphic designers, Illustrators, etc. Today a wave of electronic images and their manipulation for creative purposes is presenting a new form of visual energy and possibility. Computer graphics, image scanning and alteration, image transmission, graphic animation, visual databases, and computer interactive packages are making industrial performance more efficient and quick. Artworks and ideas are easily developed for presentation via dot matrix thermal, inkjet, laser, as well as electronic plotting, video, and laserdisc and augmented through photographic modification and other classic studio media.



As part of what the professional studio facilities offer include fibre arts and surface design, photography, graphics, which make up the whole essence of visual Information or Communication. Also, any artist in this industry can aspire to the position of artistic or creative director, brand managers, graphic heads in prints and electronic media organisations, etc. It is also possible for one to set up himself as an entrepreneur running his own Design or Advertising Agency.


Graphic design

In the Print media, we have the newspapers and magazines where artists and designers also work - doing page designs and lay-outs, advert, and cartoons. And at this point, we should not forget to mention art (journalism) writing, and art publishing which entails print reproduction of original art pieces such as in serigraphy, and giclee. Also in the Electronic media and stage, such as the Television, Film and Theatre, artists, designers and decorators, including computer artists, have their hands filled as they engage their talents and skills to release quality productions. The effect of electronic/computer art is so enormous and far-reaching.

We are to consider in this sense, the effect of these artistic skills when we think of the fact that industrial design is so encompassing in outlook. Industrial design plays a lot of role in what happens in the automobile industry and even in architecture, because with the use of computer aided design (CAD), designers are able to come out with more efficient and reliable products, and more speedily too, all owing to precision drawing. Also, animation and three dimensional (3D) designs are made more realisable through the employment of computer graphics, and this has gone a long way to enhancing the tremendous height and standard achievable today in manufacturing, publishing, construction, and most importantly media, and advertisement or marketing communications.

As an entrepreneur therefore, the trained artist or designer with his skills and knowledge is equipped enough to set up his own practice and become very successful in his chosen career or field of endeavour.


By Morgan Nwanguma

1 comment:

  1. Today's art and design courses has became more popular among all kinds of students because of its good availability of jobs. Art and design is a vast field where you can get job in many areas like advertising design, fashion design, computer aided design, game arts, graphics design, interior design, web design and more but high level of creativity required in this field.

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