Example Art and Design Foundation Personal Statement
Fashion permeates every level of our society. Whether people are fashion-conscious or not, through their clothes they inevitably are expressing some aspect of their personality, their worldview or their inner being. It is this universality of fashion design that has always attracted me to the subject. I’ve long been aware that garment design and style goes beyond the catwalks of the four fashion capitals. Whether we look at it from an aesthetic or a practical angle, clothes design is just as relevant a question to police uniforms or office attire as it is to the world of haute couture. This tendency of mine to see the design ideas behind the way people from all walks of life dress compels me to seek a career in fashion. Beautiful or functional design has a positive role to play for everyone and the opportunity to be involved in contributing my creative talents to this field is quite simply my life’s dream.
My love of fashion expressed itself for many years in the form of an instinctive desire for self-expression through clothes and accessories. My wardrobe was and still is to me a vehicle for shouting out my ideas and feelings to the world, an ever-changing, permanent artwork broadcasting the essence of my personality. However, studying Art and Design at college has revolutionised my understanding of fashion by unlocking its mysteries and codifying it into technical skills and ideas that can be put to use to create new works of fashion. Rather than seeing fashion in terms of other people’s finished garments, I am now able to understand the thought processes behind them and the painstaking creative processes and decisions relating to fabrics, folds and stitches. I’ve particularly enjoyed picking up practical skills such as drawing as they have given me the tools I need to be able to transfer a mental concept onto paper as the first step in then creating a finished work of art. Learning about a wide range of forms of art and design has also been very insightful because it has helped reinforce the importance of the key skills that lie at the heart of all types of design. I’m really looking forward to spending the next year gaining an even more complete grounding in all of these areas and putting them to use for my own creative endeavours through completing a foundation course in Art and Design.
I’m also very much interested in the logistical and business dimensions of the fashion world that make it possible for designers’ ideas to become a reality. Accordingly, I completed a work experience placement at an embroidery factory. From the placement I gained a much clearer understanding about the way that garments are manufactured and the relationship that textile businesses in the UK have with both overseas manufacturers and clothes labels here in the UK. During the placement I also gained a lot of invaluable administrative work experience such as ensuring records were properly maintained and also had the opportunity to develop my communication skills by handling queries from clients. In the second week of the placement I was based on the shop floor, an experience that I found fascinating because it gave me the opportunity to learn about the different machines used in the textiles industry and the effect they have had on the way clothes are made.
Art and design plays as big a role in my free time as it does in my studies. In addition to regularly creating my own clothes designs and developing my skills in a wide range of textiles techniques, with embroidery and knitting being two of my favourite activities at the moment, I am also an enthusiastic photographer. I love the challenge of trying to frame the world in a way that captures my perspective on life and what I find intriguing or joyous about the things around me. I also enjoy reading widely about the fashion and design worlds, both in the form of keeping up to date with fashion magazines and through reading books that cover all aspects of the industry.
We hope this example Art and Design Foundation personal statement is a useful guide for content and structure when writing your personal statement.