I recently decided to change one of my university preferences to Design, right, so I called up the university last Thursday and the lady on the other end of the line told me she’d get back to me. Well, she didn’t get back to me so I called again today only to have some guy tell me that my application was due last Friday (!) but since some other students have got an extension I can apply if I can hand it in by 4pm tomorrow (!!).
Anyway, he emails me a package with all the stuff I need to do, including this mystifying bit:
As a Designer we are always asked to come up with new and originally creative responses restricted only by the requirements of the brief, budget and resources. Your Letter of Application to study with us should take upon a similar process in its structure, construction and visual appeal, limited only by a few constraints.
[…]
The application has a maximum length of 1000 words. The body of copy should be formatted in 10 point Arial with one and a half line spacing. Print it on A4 paper, stapled in the top left hand corner. This should then be posted in a DL standard sized envelope.
This sounds pretty damn restrictive to me. Plus the idea of being (gasp) CREATIVE on a formal application letter strikes me as kind of odd. Should I dismiss the first paragraph as rhetorical dreck?
Oh man. I’m really nervous here. The department of art in the SAME UNIVERSITY sent me an interview letter that basically said “Yeah, just rock up with your folio at Xpm and we’ll do whatever” while the design people have got veeery specific requirements for applications, portfolios, attire… ugh. This is probably a good sign. But… man. 1000 words? That’s two pages. I NEVER write 2 pages for anything. My TEE English essays weren’t two pages. And I’m veeery bad at writing about my strengths. Oh, and I need to include my qualifications. I don’t HAVE any qualifications. I’m going to school to GET qualifications.
This is what I get for never writing job application letters. I’m still not sure how I’m going to make it new and originally creative, restricted only by the requirements of the brief, budget and resources, because so far it’s about as boring as they come.
(No, seriously, when they ask you to make it creative - what the heck do they mean?)
They mean “Yours is not our only application. In fact, we look at hordes of them. And they all look the same. And they all say the same thing. My brain is bleeding from reading every single applicant say the same thing about their background, qualifications, career goals, and creativity. Please, please, please do something … say something … that will make reading your essay at least a little bit interesting.”
I’ll commiserate, I just had to do a 1000 word application essay also. I hate writing about myself. (“What qualities can you bring to the Univeristy?” Uhhh, I can cook. See? Look, chicken stock!)
Hope you’ve got it all covered now. Good luck! Here’s to an acceptance letter in the mail!
Maaan, finally finished. Did I mention that writing takes me forever? It’s a little over 400 words too. Okay, so that’s a LOT less than 1000 but that’s a maximum. Hopefully it won’t matter too much, since I covered everything they asked me to.
[my contact details]
[their address]
To whom it may concern
I am a 16-year-old student fresh from high school looking to enter into the world of the starving artist. I hope to study Design at [university], more specifically Illustration, as this is a field that interests me greatly and it is a dream of mine to have a future career in this field. I wish to study at [university] because I like what I have heard about the design courses here, the course descriptions seem to match up with what I want to do and the stringent application process also strikes me as encouraging.
I like to think of myself as having the required qualities for this course. I hope I have the right qualities. I am pretty sure I have the right qualities. Here are what I consider to be my strengths:
I like drawing.
I think this is important. While it would make much more sense for me to become, say, a pharmacologist or a bureaucrat, I have a genuine interest in art and design and no such interest in the former professions. On my desk and scattered around my house are many drawings I have created myself, but no exciting new drugs or legal documents. Thus, I can guarantee that your instruction will not be wasted on me.
I am adaptable and open to experimentation.
Over the last two years I have tried many different drawing styles and media, including watercolour, pencils, acrylic, pen and ink, chalk pastels and digital CG, and achieved proficiency in them as a result.
My learning is never complete.
I am horrible with markers. I practise drawing with them in the hopes that one day I will not be horrible.
I understand the design process.
As part of my TEE Art course this year I created three studio pieces in different media building on preliminary sketches, studies and artist influences, and documenting our progress in our visual diary. I use a modified version of this process when working on major projects of my own.
I graduated from [high school] in 2005 with a B average. I have no previous employment history though I have applied for many unskilled jobs and been rejected, possibly due to my lack of previous employment history. I have taken freelance artistic commissions over the Internet but this is currently on hold due to issues with PayPal.
I have listed here thing things which I hope will make me desirable to the course, and look forward to an interview.
With regards
csharpmajor
I don’t like the opening or the closing. Which are, wouldn’t you know, my main weaknesses in essay writing. I also don’t like the rest of the letter, and I think the “open to experimentation” makes it sound like a personal ad. Oh, and I think everything I wrote makes me sound like a complete and total tosser, and trying to strike a balance between “creative” and “THIS ORGANISATION DOES NOT TOLERATE FAILURE”, especially doing so for 8 hours, makes my brain short-circuit a little.
Oh and if a passing mod would change the title to something that indicates that I’m actually looking for help that would be appreciated but not top-priority.
I want to add something about working towards my own goals. Because I do. But I have no idea how to put it in there.
Overall, after reading it I don’t have the feeling that art is your passion. Are you an artist or a dabbler? I’d imagine that they get sick of reading essay after essay from students who would simply die if they couldn’t pursue design at university X, allowing a little more of your genuine interest to show through would be good.
I laughed here.
What new medium did you find suited your talents most? How did you improve your prior skills?
Also made me laugh.
Delve deeper into your modified process. How has this improved your art? How has it changed from your previous process?
Describe your internet commissions. You don’t have to discuss in this letter the fact that PayPal is messing you up. You can tell that truth later if you are asked.
Dump the I have listed line. Something like…Thank you for considering my application, I look forward to meeting you at an interview.
Note: This is constructive criticism from one who has been accepted at several colleges and gotten numerous jobs. No actual criticism of the person or artist csharpmajor is intended. Good luck coming your way.
But art isn’t my passion. I’m not particularly passionate about anything but I do like art about as much as I can like anything. Yes, people tell me I need to live a little. I don’t think I fit most people’s image of the typical artist and I’m kind of worried about appearing eager on paper and then coming across as a total dead fish during the interview.
Photoshop. Because. Practice.
[QUOTE=IrreverentTone]
4. Delve deeper into your modified process. How has this improved your art? How has it changed from your previous process?
[/quote[
I don’t decorate several A3 pages with information about my artist influences who I found after I already finished my majors and I don’t make up steps in my design process to pad my folio.
I draw… they pay me. The problem here is that I don’t WANT to go into detail about the commissions because they’re low-quality furry dreck drawn for laughable amounts of money that I don’t want associated with my name and the only reason I did them was so I could say I did take commissions in job applications but if anyone asks to see examples of these “commissions” I will be forced to show them, and they will be crap. So I didn’t really care when PayPal decided to die on me.
Okay.
Thanks. I was actually trying to sound perkier than normal in that letter. Do you think I should turn it up a little more and just try to smile a lot during my interview or something?
I’ll revise a little more tomorrow before I take it up to the university. Right now I have had enough of organising my thoughts into clear, concise points and am feeling a little like the angry toddler who WANTS NAP NOW. It’s a unique ability of my brain, to be able to immediately grind to a halt under any sort of essay condition.
Hey, you’re talking to someone with lots of interests that doesn’t have any particular passions either. So, I do understand. All that matters right now is finding a way to get you the life that you want. But you will have to find a way to let that liking show through somewhere.
See if you can find a way to elaborate on the because part of your answer :). What about Photoshop is appealing and a good fit with your style?
You don’t need to lie here, but it does need some fleshing out. They don’t have to know that you don’t blindly follow every textbook instruction, but they will want to know that you got something out of your prior training.
If I asked then probably someone else will also. So, you may have to remove the information from your letter in order not to have to show your work. Possibly say that people have expressed interest in owning your work, and you are exploring selling it online.
I think that your perky level is fine in the letter. A little more elaboration is all that you really need, and you really are a decent writer judging by your Dope posts. The tone seems good, a little irreverent, but hey, they didn’t ask for common and tedious. More luck and good wishes heading your way!
Huh. Design, you say? Could you work some document design into this letter? Keep in mind that I’m a technical writer, so document design is among the things I think about.
They’re restrictive on the font and size of the “body” of copy, the line spacing, the length, and the placement of staples, but they don’t say anything else about how your document should actual looks. Can you have headings? By-lines? Can you play with fonts in these type of objects? How about using a column or grid layout for the document? Can you use justification creatively to create a strong line and lead the reader’s eye? What can you do with white space? With lines? With other graphics or logos?
The way I’m reading the application, it seems they’re at least as interested in what you can show them as well as what you can say - some emphasis is put on the visual. In this case, make your document visually interesting - use white space and strong lines to lead the eye where you want it to go, add displaced graphics or rules to punch it up and contrast against the text’s unity.
They also didn’t say that it had to be laid out in portrait. Print it out in landscape. If nothing else, they’ll notice it, and you are working within their stated constraints.
BTW, what uni? I studied at Murdoch for a semester in 1999, and loved it. Not sure if it’s strong on design, but I really enjoyed my experience. Perth’s outstanding.
Oh, for examples of the sorts of document design I’m talking about, Microsoft Word has some nice designs in its templates for business letters, resumes, and such. Robin Williams (not the actor/comedian, just the same name) has written a number of books on document design that are short, humorous, and interactive - they’re really excellent and written to be accessible for the non-designer as well. You’re short on time, so you probably can’t get a hold of one, but perhaps she’s got a website? Some of the web design principles you may know also apply to document design, too.
Not all furry art is porn, there’s also furries wearing clothes standing around trying to look cool while playing with a yo-yo and blowing bubble gum, furries hanging around the lockers at school, furries pretending to be Willy Wonka and furries crying tears of blood against a radial gradient background with lime green Linkin Park lyrics superimposed over the image.
So yeah, it is kind of derogatory, but not because I have anything against furries for being furries. More because their taste is ass.
I’ve played with the design a little but of course you can’t see what I did :\ I can’t really do anything fancy because of my printer but I think it looks okay. Didn’t really think of those other things you mentioned though. I think the font requirement might just to keep things legible. I put some drawings in the background just as a sort of watermark. I’m going to major in illustration so hopefully they’ll forgive me for being bad at document design :wally