Author Archives: Claire Ridall

Students celebrate their achievements at Art in the Library

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It was a proud evening for students and their guests to celebrate the launch of Art in the Library at Collegiate learning centre on 27th November. 

Joined by staff from across the University, we welcomed three of our recently graduated artists:

  •  Sachin Limbachia, BA (Hons) Graphic Design
  • Kitty Griffiths, BA (Hons) Metalwork and Jewellery
  • Alicia Gledhill, BA (Hons) Creative Arts Practice

 Guests were taken on a guided tour of the building, given limited edition postcards to decorate their office, and enjoyed talking to the students and hearing about their experiences.  Tracey Lancaster, Director of Corporate Affairs said: ‘The Art in the Library project puts outstanding, creative and widely diverse student work in the very latest learning spaces, providing flexible, modern and student centred facilities. It captures what our University is all about!’

Sachin Limbachia with his work on display

Each student had their photograph taken with their work, and came away with a feeling of prestige at receiving positive recognition for their achievements.

 There will be a spotlight feature on each of them next week but a few highlights from the event included a welcome from Nuala Devlin, Director of Learning and Information Services, and a quote from Lord Robert Winston:

“Offering a creative environment for students is a positive way to encourage their individual learning styles. The concept of having art around the building that reflects the nature of their studies shows thought and care for the student wellbeing on a physical and emotional level.

Lord Winston agreed that students need a bright and vibrant learning space to work in

 

Students learn in so many different ways, and having something bright or thought-provoking can help them to enjoy their surroundings and promote new ways of thinking. It can bring inspiration and sometimes, a little light relief to the hothouse of the study environment.”

If you missed out on last night’s celebrations, why not come up to Collegiate for a look around the learning centre?  Take a look at some tweets from the night:

 


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It’s almost time to launch…

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Student artwork will be unveiled at the event tomorrow evening

What’s under the cover?  Come to the Collegiate Learning Centre showcase tomorrow to find out!

Exhibitors including Sachin Limbachia, Alicia Gledhill and Kitty Griffiths will be there to celebrate the new displays of their work.

The launch starts at 5pm. We’ll be tweeting during the event with photos and highlights – you can follow us  @shuartinadsetts and look out for the hashtag #CLClaunch

Countdown to the launch – 3 days to go!

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Come to the launch event, and enjoy a glass of wine and a nibble

In three days time we’ll be celebrating the launch of Collegiate learning centre and the Art in the Library exhibition.  If you haven’t already booked, there are a few tickets still available online – just register at https://artinlibrary.eventbrite.co.uk/  You’ll have the chance to meet some of our exhibiting students, talk to staff from the library about the facilities on offer, hear more about the refurbishment project and take a tour of the new spaces and art on display. The event starts on Wednesday 27th November from 5.00pm in Collegiate learning centre.  We hope to see you there.

Beat the clock – Nick McLoughlin

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Ever had one of those nightmares before a deadline?  The fear of time catching up with you is a familiar scenario for most people – Nick McLoughlin is no stranger to the race against time.

Nick is another of the students on the Visual Storytelling module, and his animatic tells the story of a student who is being chased by a monster of a deadline in the shape of a clock.

Thankfully, Nick’s character is able to turn to the learning centre for help – and it proves to be a source of security and even builds stature with the power of study skills workshops!  Once again, we’re full of admiration for our students’ creativity.

If you want to meet some our exhibiting students – come to the launch event on Wednesday next week!  Tickets are available through eventbrite:  http://artinlibrary.eventbrite.co.uk/

Liam Hall’s learning centre shows character!

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Liam Hall is another student on the Visual Storytelling module who has breathed life into the learning centre.   In Liam’s idea, the library comes to life in the form of… Steve!

Steve introduces himself by offering help to a student character.  The student is initially suspicious, and rejects the offer, but returns later to find help is on offer for finding recommended texts, reserving books on a hold shelf, booking a PC or working late in the building.

 

 

Liam’s animation shows emotions from both characters and has a really clever soundtrack.  The simple shape of Steve’s character has plenty of movement as he morphs into different services such as a PC monitor and even a meeting room. 

It’s fascinating to see how Liam’s work has developed from a storyboard concept to a fully animated video in just a few weeks – with simple designs giving personality to services that we see every day. 

We can’t wait to bring you more information about Liam’s work, and the rest of the projects from the Visual Storytelling module – our next post will feature Nick McLoughlin’s ideas in progress, so be sure to follow the blog or twitter feed for updates. 

 

Hungry for knowledge? Dan Hodgson recommends the learning centre

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Dan Hodgson has been interested in animation from an early age – both from watching it and animating things himself. He is one of the students on the Visual Storytelling module led by Oksana Fedotova, and as part of the module assessment is developing his storyboard concept of ways to promote the learning centre in induction.

I asked Dan to tell me a little more about himself and his interest in study:

“I chose Sheffield Hallam because it encourages students to get involved in all areas of animation, including traditional 2D, stop-motion, digital, and 3D animation, whereas other universities tend to favor one or the other. My main area of interest is traditional 2D animation, which is the method I intend to use when animating my promotional piece for the learning centre, with some digital compositing mixed in”.

httpv://youtu.be/cBtbwC3AR1k

So how did Dan create his idea to promote the learning centre? 

“My idea to promote the Learning Centre features a stomach named ‘Giles’ – a SHU student nearing the end of his course – in an interview about his experiences with the Learning Centre, and how it helped develop him as both a student and a stomach.”

 

Dan did a lot of research into how other libraries and learning centres market themselves – in his design he’s used a combination of student and staff interview formats, and inspiration from things that would appeal to the target audience, such as Adventure Time, the cartoon idea that went viral after it was launched, and Compare the Meerkat which has become a popular recognized brand.  The metaphor of a stomach absorbing facilities, services and skills has a really creative appeal.

“The idea initially came from a sketch I produced featuring a heart demanding that a stomach go disco dancing with him, and in trying to think of a protagonist for my Learning Centre animation concept the stomach immediately jumped out as a good candidate in that a basic art style and character premise was already there, and it gave me the idea of using ‘Hungry for Knowledge?’ as the theme and tagline for my animation.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m2L8DUFBYk

We’re incredibly impressed with the amount of detail and progress being made by Dan, and all of the students on this module. Hungry for knowledge? Sheffield Hallam students have got the appetite!

Where are they now – Graduate Journeys #3

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This is the third in our series of ‘Where are they now?’ features on previous exhibiting students.  We had an informal question and answer session with Daniel Weaver, who graduated from the BA (Hons) Film and Visual Effects degree with first … Continue reading →

Got a way with words? Enter the poetry competition!

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The learning centres don’t just provide books, access to PCs, and of course our fantastic art exhibitions.  Did you know they also have poetry on display? 

The annual student poetry competition, UniVerse, has been launched this week and is open to all students.  The competition began in 2008, and each year the winning poems are printed onto canvas and displayed in each of the learning centres – the collection of poems has its own dedicated poetry wall on floor 2 of Adsetts! 

Along with the winning poems going on display in the learning centres, this popular competition offers Waterstones vouchers, limited edition postcards, and a celebration event rather like a poetry slam for everyone to come and listen to judges and winners alike read from their collections.  All details of how to enter, along with a copy of the rules, entry forms and FAQs are on the Universe blog where students can also see photos of previous winners and their poems, and video footage from last year’s prize-giving event. 

The poetry wall, Adsetts level 2

It’s fair to say that we love a bit of culture in the learning centres – but we also love to promote the creativity of our students.  Check out the UniVerse pages for more information, or take a look at shuspace, and get writing!

Alarmed by the weather report? No need to scream…

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“The Scream”, by Edvard Munch

   If the view from the window or the gloomy predictions of the weather forecast are making you feel a little grim, why not take a look around the blog…? There are slide shows from the previous exhibitions since Art in Adsetts began in 2010, highlights of some of the launch events, and our new series of ‘Where are they now’ features, to give you a cheery prospect from your PC, laptop or mobile device. So turn your back on the weather, put your feet up, and read our previous articles.  Our next post will be all about Dan Weaver and his journey after graduating from the BA (Hons) Film and Visual Effects degree.

Get an adrenaline rush from interior design!

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Red Bull Extreme Sports Venue
Julie Wyer, BA (Hons) Interior Design

 Participation in extreme sports has seen a meteoric rise in the recent years.  Interior Design graduate, Julie Wyer, has combined brand impact with clever use of space in her project ‘Adrenaline Junkie – Red Bull Extreme Sports Venue’.

The powerful visuals were on display during the Creative Spark 2013 exhibition, and stood out with their eye-catching splashes of colour and branding.  Julie’s work will be on display at Collegiate learning centre as part of the new student art exhibition, which will be launched on 27th November.  

Julie gave us an artist’s statement to support her work, which explained a little more about the design and the thinking behind it –  

 “Throughout studying interior design I gained a huge interest in branding and creating a successful customer experience.   The space reinforces the brands values and ethos with exciting innovative design elements such as large voids and bridges connecting different areas. This also makes the brand personal to its clientele and provides small communities within a world of Red Bull.  Red Bull is an already established brand where energy drink sales are consistently high, however Adrenaline Junkie provides added value through customer experience to ultimately gain brand loyalty, expand the brand further and create relationships with their customer base.”

 Julie’s portfolio is available to view online at www.juliewyer.com – in the meantime, we’ll be posting information before the launch event here and on twitter and facebook.