Southampton Solent

On Saturday 30th of November was Southampton Solent University open day, I travelled up with my mum to look at the Fashion, Graphics and accommodation. We attended the open day last year, but after completing ALevels, I decided to do a Foundation course, so couldn't remember much about the Solent courses and thought it best to look again. I really like Southampton, visiting my brother and friends there more recently whilst they study at Warsash, the city has become more familiar and homely to me. The university itself is nice, situated opposite a large park right in the centre of the city close to the Guildhall, shops and restaurants. We managed to see one accommodation of 6 different buildings, I would have like to have seen another, as they are all different, with varying lay outs. For each course I attended talks and tours, notes I made are written below:

University and city:

• Main campus in city centre
• Good high street and West Quay shopping centre
• Good night life
• Not too far from home, or friends and family in Southampton
• Okay accommodation
• Most places within walking distance
• Parks
• Lots of music venues

Graphics:

• Final major project is a book
• 1 day a week technical computer training
• 14 hours contact time
• 27 hours suggested home work - 9-5 everyday
• 4 days a week
• Encouraged everyday make 3 mistakes, to learn
• Buildings open until 9
• Portfolio: creative, evidence of hard work, range of work
• 400 applicants for 50 places
• Encouraged to read about graphic design, to answer, why? what? questions
• Links with Industry
• Course leader: susie.smith@solent.ac.uk
• 3rd year profession context unit for entering competitions
• No holiday projects, but encouraged to keep working/creative thinking
• Really nice open studio
• Good equipment
• 10 minute walk from main campus

Fashion Design:

• Head of fashion - Pascal Mathias
• Focusing on how to communicate
• Yr 1: - Illustration, mood/trend boards, CAD, pattern cutting, garment construction, creative process
• Yr2: - deconstruction project-anatomy, live project for industry-high profile brands, menswear, childrenswear, work experience-Topman TedBaker FatFace, dissertation research
• Yr3: - final major project- either made or 2D, professional portfolio
• Lots of trips to London- every 6 weeks
• Collaborations
• Trips abroad
• Good facilities, workshops and machines
• Framework given for long holidays, not marked projects
• 12-15 hours contact time
• 1:1 tutorials
• Macs available, studios open late
• Library open until 12, 24 hours over exam period
• 50 places, 200 applicants

After each talk I had a little chat with the course leaders, with the opportunity to ask extra questions and find out a bit extra about the courses and university, both teachers were extremely helpful and really approachable. In particular after the fashion talk, Pascal took mum and I on a mini tour to the fashion department, as we hadn't had a chance earlier in the day. We were shown where you could rent out equipment such as professional DSLR and film cameras, on the way to fashion, here we looked at the studio space and students work. Talking to Pascal we discussed various elements of fashion and further education, which I found very insightful, he asked me a few questions such as, "why do you like fashion?" I'd never really considered this before, but since then I have been thinking about it a lot and await answering the question properly if I get an interview. I hope to apply to both courses.