Art and Design Foundation Courses

Art and Design is a broad description which covers a wide range of subject areas.
The term art and design is used to describe the fine art disciplines of drawing, painting and sculpture. When used to describe a category of art and design the term describes a variety of areas of study including furniture design, interior design, graphic design, illustration, medical illustration, interactive media design, photography, fashion design, textile design, animation, glass design, ceramics, industrial design and product design.

Many students study a general course in art and design before choosing to specialise in one of these disciplines. These general courses are commonly referred to as art foundation courses.

At the Interactive Design Institute, our Foundation course in Art and Design is accredited by ABC Awards and provides a comprehensive experience for the student who is aiming to progress to art college or university.

Art and design graduates often need time to develop their career in the creative industries, as success often depends on the availability of opportunities, building a portfolio, gaining experience and contacts from placements and voluntary work. Self-employment is also a popular choice and graduates who choose this option require time to develop the client base, knowledge and finance to set up and run a business.

Consequently, the career path of art and design graduate is often complex during the early years and it is not unusual to find graduates working in more than one job simultaneously, for example, undertaking  freelance work alongside salaried work.

However, it is encouraging to note that in 2010, in the six months following graduation, 69% of art and design graduates gained employment, including self-employment.

Typically, a graduate would be employed as a:

• commercial artist
• fine artist
• graphic artist and designer,
• clothing designer
• industrial designer

For graduates with an Art & Design degree, there are opportunities across the creative industries and also in creative roles in the media, marketing, PR, arts administration and education.  These include:

• Advertising art director
• Fashion designer
• Graphic designer
• Illustrator
• Printmaker
• Textile designer

The key to a successful career in Art & Design is flexibility. In studies of art and design graduates, nearly half had been self-employed at some point. Many also spend at least part of their early careers as portfolio workers - carrying out two or more quite different roles in order to earn a living.

Predicting what you will earn in a career is extremely difficult. There are a number of factors that affect artists salaries, such as, level of education, work experience and geographic location and size of the employer’s company

The salaries for Art & Design graduates are as varied as the career opportunities but graduates can expect to earn anything from a starting salary of £12K per annum as an entry level designer upwards.