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creativity Blog Posts- Page 23 of 26 - The Open College of the Arts

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Client led projects thumb

Client led projects

Undertaking live graphic design projects are a great way of testing your creativity in a real world situation. It can give your design confidence a boost, being asked to produce something in the first place, being listened to as a designer, seeing your work being used and circulated, and being paid for your efforts.

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A Letter from Venice – Part One: Orientation thumb

A Letter from Venice – Part One: Orientation

Truman Capote described Venice as ‘like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go’. That counts double when you’re trying to absorb a lot of art as well as admire the place. This is the third time I’ve visited the Biennale and the first time I’ve done so outside of Press Week. Frankly it was a relief to spend time looking at the work and not searching for free food and/or Prosecco.

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Choosing materials for textiles thumb

Choosing materials for textiles

It is important to choose materials that are fit for purpose. Sometimes the materials we choose can be the beginning of a project and be the main line that guides our work.

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Get it shared thumb

Get it shared

As a developing artist, whether you’re a writer, composer, photographer, fine artist, textiles designer, graphic designer or illustrator, the act of sharing your work with others – in its various states of readiness – is a critical part of your development.

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Confessions of an art student: Part 5 thumb

Confessions of an art student: Part 5

May I encourage you by saying that the answer to who you are artistically – your voice – is inside you right now. The studies we undergo, are a long term process of refinement; and self-reflection is the furnace though which the artistic self is forged. Truth is forged!

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Questing your plot thumb

Questing your plot

All good quests need a map, and so do you. Not just any map, either – a treasure map, which will hide the plot secrets, lay the clues, and guide your reader through the dangers and dramas of their journey to a wealth of satisfaction at the end.

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Developing your voice. Part 1 thumb

Developing your voice. Part 1

The idea of developing ‘your voice’ is not just an idea limited to X Factor. Or, for that matter, Britain’s Got Talent. It is a term publishers and agents often use when critiquing new writers. How strong is their ‘voice’? But what is meant by this term, and how can we develop our voice, as a writer, to make it stronger?

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A very French affair thumb

A very French affair

This year the festival kicked off with the all-important Cannes scandal that is meant to shock, enrage and stimulate debate. It was the inclusion of a Netflix movie that – shock, horror, was not going to have a cinema release in France.

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United nations of the art world thumb

United nations of the art world

I was about to start a three-year academic commitment. In applying to be part of the Open College of the Arts 2014 cohort for Europe’s first distance part time Masters in Fine Art, I had signed up to deadlines and being a student again: a proper one (not the kind who says they are a ‘student of life’ and winks in an alarming way). I’d have an NUS card, discounts in Top Shop and more two-for-one pizzas than I could ever consume . What else would I learn? What had I to gain?

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Comfort Zones thumb

Comfort Zones

What is a comfort zone and who defines them? Well, we all do; they are defined by our lack of experience or familiarity with a subject. They can be as little as trying a new technique, to exploring an alternative research pathway, and it is the discomfort and uneasiness we feel undertaking a new task that reaffirms our zones.

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