This month our students made their annual trip to visit Aardman studios in Bristol, the opportunity to visit the home of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run creators is a part of our course partnership with the Aardman Academy which benefits students through a number of opportunities. The trip is extended to all students studying across our degree programmes on Animation, Set Design, Illustration, Model Making & Visual FX and our Masters degrees.

“My main aims for the trip were to get a feel for the industry I may work in some day” said Illustration student Baz Rowbotham “those needs were met through the varied workshops we attended.

The schedule started with a storyboard talk which was very fun and a good start to the trip and a workshop with a Creative Director and a Lighting Technician. The next day began with an animation workshop and the last session was with a Director. For my favourite workshop we were put into groups and instructed to create a character design based on a prompt.”

He said that through attending the trip “I felt like my eyes had opened to a whole world of possibilities when it came to future careers in the Illustration industry, which gave me a lot to think on.”

Student Tia Fawcett agreed that “speaking to all of these professionals in the industry really opened my eyes to different career paths. I hadn’t even considered the fact that a storyboard artist could be a full time position.”  She also enjoyed hearing more about how Aardman artists got to where they are today “It was very beneficial to hear from the artists how they got to where they are, what they studied at uni and what work experience they did to get to their roles now.

Trips like this are also fantastic opportunities for students to socialise, make connections across courses and see more of the cultural sides of the country Baz said “my group decided to investigate the museum Arnolfini which held the Emma Talbott exhibition. That is a highlight of the trip for me as she is one of my favourite artists.” Baz also said it was great to meet people, look around the local area, visit the cathedral, shop, hang-out and find places to eat which included a “10 out of 10 mac and cheese in my humble unbiased cheese loving opinion.”

Tia said overall she enjoyed Bristol “I think the trip will influence the way I think about future work and has encouraged me to learn more about things like animation and art direction as big piece of advice we were told was that it was good to have an understanding of lots of different areas of industry practice “

When asked if the trip had impacted his studies Baz said “the trip helped me figure out what I wanted to make for a final piece, I took how I felt from the trip and incorporated that.” and that his biggest take away from the experience was “the perspective on Illustration as a career. I have multiple opportunities and all it takes is for me to keep pushing and put myself out there. And as an artist, I want to do just that.”

If you are interested in studying a creative subject at degree level make sure you check out our range of degree programmes today! We also offer postgraduate degree courses for students and practitioners that are looking to take their studies to the next level find out more here.