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UAL Help

Hi,

I have been accepted to BA Advertising and BA design for art direction. I cannot decide which to choose for the following reasons:

- I would like to do many jobs in my life (work in fashion, cinema, printing, tattoo...et ), Advertising seems to offer only a small range of jobs that are obviously in advertising.
On the other hand art direction seems nearly «*too wide*», I can’t seem to find actual jobs you can do with this BA, because you can do literally everything and anything.

Would any of you have advice ? Or are any of you on these courses ?

Reply 1

University of the Arts London Student Reps

Official Rep

Hello @Estabar,

I hope you’re well and congratulations on your offers!

I’m a third-year student on the Design for Art Direction course, and hopefully, I will be able to help you make this important decision.

You’re right that Design for Art Direction course is quite broad - it gathers people with different skills and interests. This was why I decided to choose this course as, similarly to you, I want to work within different areas of art and design.

During the course, we were learning skills from graphic design, printmaking, designing and printing magazines, filmmaking, 3D, game design, and so much more, which might seem overwhelming, but it was really up to you which way you wanted to go. We work on open briefs, and most of the time, we can choose the technique we want to use for that project, so if you don’t like a particular area, you don’t have to pursue that option. Apart from the classes and studio time, you have access to many design workshops that are open for LCC Design School students and sometimes for everyone at LCC, so it’s a great chance to network and collaborate with others. During my course, all three years gather together from time to time for a lecture or workshop, so that’s also a good way to get inspired and fill your schedule.

During the course, you also have an option to add a year of working in the industry. You can read more about it here. This option is not available on the Advertising course, so it’s something to take into consideration. If you like the idea to prolong your studies, you also have a choice to apply for the Creative Computing Diploma, which is what I opted for. It’s an additional year of learning how to code and learn more about new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. You can read about it here.

The advertising course is a part of LCC’s Media School and focuses on a commercial approach towards design and advertising. It’s more theoretical, but it has a lot of practical projects as well. There’s definitely a lot of pros about those two courses and a lot of similarities. From what I know, during both Design for Art Direction and Advertising, you will have a chance to work on a brief for D&AD New Blood awards and work on more commercial and conceptual projects alone and through collaborations.

To give you a perspective, some of the careers that you could possibly pursue after the Design for Art Direction course include:
Designer
Producer
Creative
Art Director
Motion Graphic Designer
Arts and Culture Adviser
Visual Merchandising Manager
Communications Writer
Social Media Planner
Head of Design
Editorial Designer
Production Co-ordinator

I hope that helps and let me know if you have any question!

All the best,
Agata - UAL Student Rep