Business is kick-started by course

An Art student from Havant & South Downs College has spoken about how his course pushed him to follow his dreams of creating tee shirt designs.

Jack Harris, who studies the Foundation Art Diploma at the College, displayed his range of prints and tee shirts at the Vocational Art & Design Leaver’s Exhibition on 13 June.

Speaking about his work, Jack said: “My dream job is to own a print company that sells my own prints and posters and tee shirts, with a really hand made, indie vibe.

“For my display tonight, I have hand made some tee shirts and screen printed them, taking inspiration from lots of punk bands like New Order, there’s even David Bowie lyrics on one. Music has really powered my work and it helped me a lot on my course.

“I have looked forward to being part of this public exhibition because you get a lot of attention and you get to show off all of your hard work and you also get to see everybody else’s work. As much as you’d think you would see a lot of creativity going on in an art classroom, you really have to keep your head down and focus on your own work. Now I’ve seen everybody else’s work and it’s amazing.”

And Jack will be continuing to develop his artistic flair at university in September.

He added: “I am going on to study Illustration at Falmouth University. I definitely feel like my time here has helped me with my next step, when I started, I was completely against the idea of going to university.

“I never really had any confidence in my work before, but with this course I have managed to get my own little business going.”

All Art & Design students’ work was opened up to the public on Thursday, with a variety of pieces from Photography, Graphics and Art courses showcased.

 Claudia Rowthorn studies Graphics and Photography. Her piece combined photography with graphic elements with the message ‘it’s okay to not be okay’.

She said: “Mental health is something I feel really strongly about, especially the stigma around men having to ‘man up’ when they feel down. It really angers me, especially when you hear about males suicides, people talk about it for a bit and then it just dies down again. I don’t feel it’s something people talk about enough.

“I wanted to show in this piece that it’s normal for boys to cry, it’s okay for them to show their emotions. To create this piece I did a couple of photoshoots and then I took photos of water to create the tears rather than drawing them. It was difficult trying to get the balance of it not being too jokey.”

Georgia Wood, who also studies Photography and Graphics, did her piece around a dance photoshoot. She said: “For this project we created our own brief and had to link it back to something we could relate to, which is why I chose dance.

“I wanted to explore the idea of movement within dance rather than just a series of static images. I wanted to create something more unique.

“It feels good to see it up on display, its nice to see the final product and have other people look at it. It’s have built up my confidence.”

Georgia plans on getting an Apprenticeship in Photography after leaving HSDC.

Other artwork included paintings and sculptures, with many sharing the same environmental theme about protecting the planet and reducing the amount of plastic going into our oceans.

For more information on Art courses at HSDC, visit hsdc.ac.uk/course-finder