In the eyes of most people, Lego is a kind of toy with healing function, but she has set up her favorite major in Le High School. Whether it is modeling or programming, she has made her clear her professional direction - industrial design, Studying in American Industrial Design She is not only one of the world's top ten Pratt Pratt College of Art, SAIC Chicago College of Art, and also won awards from SVA New York School of Visual Arts, CCA California College of Art, SAIC She is our interviewee M, who won the FLL award in Lego's biggest competition. American exchange students fell in love with California, moved the admissions officer with practical, and finally got offers from many famous schools, successfully entering dream school!
M is a student in the application season of 2019. After the offer was issued, we received M from SAIC Chicago Academy of Arts , SVA New York School of Visual Arts, CCA California College of Arts, Pratt Pratt College of Arts, of which three offers are with scholarships, which can be converted into about 1.3 million yuan. Student M was contacted by the natural light through the educational administration teacher in Shanghai. At the time of the interview, the application of student M was not over. Usually, time was tight, and I could feel that it was a very busy state. But I still made time to share my industrial design portfolio training summary and application experience with you.
Now let's take a look at the interview of student M. In addition, since student M has follow-up applications from other colleges, it is not convenient to share the projects in the portfolio, only some photos of exercises in ordinary classes. Interested students can continue to pay attention to us, and we will publish the relevant content of the portfolio in the tutor sharing section later.
Natural light: Student M has a special learning experience. Could you briefly introduce yourself to everyone first?
My situation is really quite special. To be precise, it should be very special. I took three years of courses in natural light, including two years of basic courses and one year of work collection preparation. At first, I signed up for long-distance classes with my teachers in Beijing campus during the summer vacation of high school. Later, Natural Light opened a branch campus in Shanghai and began to teach local courses.
Originally, I expected to apply in 2018, but I went to the United States as an exchange student for one year when I was a sophomore in senior high school, and changed to take distance courses during the exchange abroad. At this stage, the course contents are all hand drawing lessons, basic lessons and so on. After a year of exchange in the United States, I returned to Shanghai and learned all the professional knowledge of industrial design after my return, which is also part of the formal preparation of the portfolio project at this time.
Student M's exercises in class are from the student himself. Please do not embezzle without permission
Sometimes, due to the geographical restrictions, we will arrange online classes or face-to-face classes for each student's different situation. Some students may also wonder whether online classes have great limitations, but in fact, online classes can also convey a lot through the screen, such as using various images, pages, and multimedia materials for complex presentations and explanations, Direct screen sharing and remote operation. For students who are relatively slow to learn, it is also easier to talk freely with teachers through network communication without pressure.
Natural light: Why did you choose industrial design? Is it a major in line with your intention?
The reason why I chose the major of industrial design is that I came into contact with Lego when I was young, and I have always liked Lego. I also participated in many Lego competitions and won some awards, such as FLL. At that time, I really thought it was very interesting, whether it was programming or modeling. Therefore, it can be said that the major of industrial design is very in line with their own intentions.
The full name of FLL competition is FIRST LEGO LEAGUE, an international competition cooperated by FIRST and LEGO, and also the largest competition about LEGO. Every year FLL will announce the annual challenge project to the global teams. Participants use LEGO MINDSTORMS products and LEGO building blocks to design, build and program robots to solve problems in the real world.
Lego, a "toy" that can teach and play, can be roughly divided into two categories. One is a conventional series of building models. As long as the brain hole is large enough, you can use Lego basic particles to build anything with imagination and creativity. The other is the science and technology series, which includes mathematics, physics, machinery, computer and other multi-disciplinary knowledge. This kind of discipline integration is very good at exercising logical thinking ability. It is in Lego that student M found his interest and determined his professional direction.
Student M's exercises in class are from the student himself. Please do not embezzle without permission
Natural light: Can you tell us about your collection of works? Because if I can get the scholarship, my portfolio must be very excellent. Are there any difficulties encountered in the collection process?
In fact, I changed the teacher of the portfolio, which is still rare. The first tutor was very lively. I was introverted and didn't adapt well. After negotiating with the academic affairs teacher, I changed to Mr. Zhang. After changing teachers, I found that in fact, Mr. Zhang's style and philosophy are quite different from those of the previous teacher. Although both teachers are very conscientious and responsible, Mr. Zhang's teaching method is really more suitable for me. He gave me a lot of different opinions on changes in different ideas from the previous teacher, and always took me to complete the rest of the project.
Natural light: What are the differences between the two teachers? Which teacher do you prefer? What's good about the teacher changed later?
In terms of specific differences, I think the main reason is that the style is different. The first teacher is more lively and good at some innovative and fun things. Teacher Zhang's design philosophy is practical and practical. She hopes I can do something that can be really applied to real life, so teacher Zhang asked me to put more things in the portfolio project, They are more practical.
In my own words, I prefer to do more practical and applied projects, and the final collection of works presents some very industrial and practical projects. If I want to say which teacher I prefer, I think both of them are very good, and each has its own advantages.
In fact, I usually have interviews to see natural light, and then I feel that I am different from other students in the interviews. For example, sometimes they will say something like communicating with classmates to let them grow. Our teachers also said that they hope students can communicate with each other, including their ideas and works. But for my character, I am reluctant to communicate with teachers more.
I also met a lot of very thoughtful teachers, especially the BB teacher in the hand painting class. He is a teacher I like very much, including other teachers who have led me. I think they are very good, but there is less communication with classmates.
If the teacher is not suitable, can we change this question? Maybe many students have been curious, especially Art and Design This field is also highly subjective in itself, and art also contains various rules, logic, and values. Sometimes the ideas of students and teachers need to be adapted. Sometimes, teachers' personalities and teaching methods may not be good or bad. It's like meeting an inappropriate teacher. The natural light will match the more suitable teacher according to each student's own situation.
In our interview, we can feel that she is probably a slow child through chatting with classmate M, and she has her own ideas, things she loves, practical and efficient, and careful thinking. For example, some students in the natural light are outgoing and lively, and will actively communicate with other students in the class, or even go to other professional students to chat. Students M are more inclined to communicate with close teachers, and are more suitable for teachers like Mr. Zhang.
Natural light: Like industrial design, is there any combination of other disciplines and skills in the collection? For undergraduates, many colleges and universities attach great importance to interdisciplinary, and natural light has always emphasized interdisciplinary.
My collection of works is more industrial as a whole, but there is still an interdisciplinary project that combines installation art. The content of this installation work is mainly my self portrait. But it is not an ordinary kind of hand drawn self portrait. I made a blanket with a lot of wool balls. The blanket finally presents a very abstract self portrait, not a realistic one. This work is the only interdisciplinary and less industrial project.
In the undergraduate application, in fact, we are all high school students without too much academic background. Students without too much time and foundation can focus on showing their own personal style, thinking ability and innovation ability in their works, and try their best to make the works collection project interesting.
In the case of student M, there is enough time, so we can try to improve our basic ability while enlightening our thinking, and then go deep into some meaningful projects or things we want to express to strengthen the depth of our work collection. When our basic ability is strong, the degree of realization and completion of good ideas will be higher. For example, from the perspective of designers and artists to find and solve social problems, the professionalism of student M's work collection is a magic weapon that distinguishes him from other applicants.
Student M's exercises in class are from the student himself. Please do not embezzle without permission
Natural light: What things are helpful to you during the exchange in the United States, such as school selection, natural light and foreign teaching methods.
Yes, I went to California during my exchange in the United States, and I thought it was great there! It was the atmosphere. I thought at that time, I must go to college in California, so I wanted to go to college in CCA after the application result came out.
Compared with the real overseas teaching mode, I think the natural light teacher's class will be more enlightening, including some new training.
Apply for studying in the United States Most of the students may have considered whether to go east or west. The east is home to most famous schools, as well as the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Chicago Art Museum in Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In the west, there are Silicon Valley, Disney, Pixar and Hollywood, where contemporary art is well developed. Most of the majors in art schools are applied, such as film, animation and interaction design.
Compared with the east, California in the west is full of sunshine, beaches, and hormones. It advocates individuality and freedom. Of course, works of art created in such an atmosphere will be more different. Artist David Hockney likes California crazily and describes Los Angeles as the dream city in his mind.
The CCA California Academy of Arts, where student M won a scholarship of 60000 dollars, is one of the top art schools in the United States. With the advantage of geography, it provides graduates with super resources every year, such as Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Disney, Sony, Levi's, Airbnb, Intel and other world industry giants!
Teacher Zhang
Contemporary Art Curatorial Design of Kingston University
Good at: industrial design, interaction design, art management
Teacher Zhang, tutor of industrial design works collection, graduated from Cardiff City University with a bachelor's degree in product design, and graduated from Kingston University with a master's degree in contemporary art curatorial design. He once participated in the Intensive Program sponsored by the Home Industrial Design Center on behalf of the school as a team leader; When working in Sto Werkstatt, England, as an assistant, I worked with famous architects Francessco Draisci, HASSELL studio, J ü rgen Hermann Mayer and others on installation projects. The industrial product design collection tutors Mr. Zhang, who specializes in speculative design and interactive product design, has in-depth research on the entire art and design industry, and is very good at guiding and training students' design research and divergent thinking to help students maximize their professional ability.
Natural light recommends more topics for you:
What is studying abroad in industrial design? What is the difference between studying abroad in industrial design and studying at home?
Ranking of British Industrial Design Universities
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