CSAD - In the Beginning

IN THE

BEGINNING

CONTENTS Gaynor Kavanagh : welcome Steve Thompson: introduction James Allum Matthew Bush Chessie Gordon-Band Sophie Chatham Rachel Codd Holly Cook Angelo D’Onofrio Imogen Higgins Maya Holthuis van Houben Jade Jenkins Hannah Makepeace Rosanna Marns Naomi Morgan Sarah Morris Nicola Murtagh Alexandra Purnell Nicola Snowden Rebecca Sawyer

Cover image:Sam Emm, BA (hons) Fine Art 2013

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Cardiff School of Art & Design, Llandaff Campus

In September 2014, CSAD will finally move into its new accommodation on Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Llandaff Campus. This is the first of three magazines that take us towards that most significant event.

In this edition, we throw the spotlight on our students, by showcasing just how much our students achieve in their first year of study on our undergraduate programmes.

Later in 2014, our magazine will focus on the some of our extraordinarily successful graduates, Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Alumni. Then, to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Cardiff School of Art and the movement onto the Llandaff Campus, our magazine will look at both the history and the future of the School.

We hope you will enjoy learning something about this remarkable group of people and what they achieved in their first year of study with us. I am sure we will be hearing much more of them and their work, as well as that of their many colleagues, in the years ahead.

Professor Gaynor Kavanagh Dean Cardiff School of Art & Design Cardiff Metropolitan University

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In this magazine, we present a truly humbling collection of ideas, with work from students who have completed their first year of study with us. I am sure, like me, you will be awed by their ability to see so clearly things which most of us may never have spotted, and to find questions we may never have thought to ask.

We are creatures of culture and invention. No other species on earth, or as far as we know elsewhere in the universe, develops abstract concepts into fully formed ways of understanding ourselves and our world; and builds on those same concepts to form entire cultures and societies.

Sometimes our ideas are made physical, sometimes they remain as intellectual abstracts, but almost always they are irrevocable. Once an idea is out there, it is difficult to ‘unthink’ it. It is an awesome responsibility, requiring us to moderate and situate our ideas in the light of wider social, ecological and economic considerations. In this sense, we learn to harness the power of our ideas, and their potential to damage or enrich that which we have previously held to be beyond argument.

Artists and designers cannot claim to be the only people who have ideas, of course, yet their unique insight and education can stop us in our tracks nonetheless. Their vision invites us to rethink both ourselves and our world.

In their ability to see the world in extraordinary ways, artists and designers bring something truly wonderful and special to the process of thinking. Many of the breakthroughs in science, engineering and technology that we take for granted were created by artists and designers.

This collection of work from our first year students gives us great hope. It shows that, at Cardiff, the culture of ideas generation can still be combined with the skills to make those ideas tangible and to situate them in a wider context. Only ideas can save us from a life of decline and brutality. It is reassuring to see that some authentic schools of art and design remain and provide an uncynical place to nurture and develop the very concepts that will shape our world into the 21st Century and beyond.

Dr Stephen Thompson Deputy Dean Cardiff School of Art & Design Cardiff Metropolitan University

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To what extent is Tim Prestero's statement; “There's no such thing as a dumb user, only dumb design” true? And who or what is really to blame for an unsuccessful design outcome?: A case study in airliner seat-belt design.

JAMES ALLUM I think it is important to highlight here that the term ‘dumb' is taken in the informal sense as a synonym of the word 'stupid', as opposed to the dated definition of 'someone not able to speak'2.The precise definition of ‘dumb' in this case should be taken as the same definition as the term 'stupid' and is therefore; 'lacking intelligence or common sense'3. If we apply this definition to Prestero's quote, then we can therefore deduce that he believes there is no such thing as a user who lacks intelligence or common sense in using a product, but instead that the design of the product lacks the required details or consideration to prevent it from being used in an unintelligent manner.

‘How can I design a product that fulfils the needs of a user?' It is a question successful designers of all disciplines, from textile designers to architects, have considered in increasing detail for the last fifty years4.

All designs are created for use by a user, and while the end product can be designed in an infinite number of ways producing an infinite number of variable and successful outcomes, the user is one thing a designer has no way of directly altering prior to them interacting with the design5. Many designers, particularly those whose design philosophy is based on the 'user centred design' approach, (which was brought to attention in the nineteen-eighties by design academic Donald Norman)6, therefore consider it paramount that their design proposals are based on, and begin with, the abilities and preferences of the user. He or she is the key within the design, and designing an experience based on the needs and ability of the user is the most important factor in developing a final product which will be successful7.

But if this is the case, then why are there products which do not succeed in providing the user with the desired design outcome? Is it possible for a user to be wrong, and can they be to blame for not being able to successfully make use of a product produced by a designer? (the 'dumb user' argument). Or is the exact opposite the case, is it in fact the lack of consideration and research by a designer that results in an end product which is too complicated or completely unusable? (the 'dumb design' argument) Or could it be neither, but instead another factor which cannot place blame on either party, such as; funding, resources, authorities specifications, or a lack of the required technology itself

to make the design function? In this essay I aim to explore these factors and determine which, if any, is to blame for unsuccessful design outcomes.

The case study which I am going to focus on in this essay is the design of the seat-belt fastening mechanisms in commercial airliners. This topic was brought to my attention by an online news article on flight safety8 combined with my own interest in aircraft and their design. It has been suggested in research by Fire Safety Engineering expert; Professor Ed Galea, and the Director of British Airways' Safety Awareness Course; Andy Clubb, that a factor involved with people losing their lives in aircraft crashes is because they are unable to operate the seat-belt clasp mechanism in the result of an aircraft crash landing9,10. Continues on page 8.

Contemporary push trigger car seat-belt mechanism12.

James Allum 20, Product Design Ask his seventeen-year-old self and you'll learn that Product Designer James Allum is on completely the wrong path - he's supposed to be studying Medicine by now, having already chosen Science over Technology and Design. Failing, as it turned out, was the best mistake he'd ever made.

At GCSE level, James Allum was presented with an innovation award by the First Minister of Wales for a clever and equally charming design of a desk toy.

“It was a mechanism which released coins after certain time periods," he explains. "It was like a psychological incentive idea, which I think they liked as it was a bit unusual."

At the same time, he was offered a tour of the Cardiff School of Art and Design, which he politely declined.

“At that point I still thought I wanted to study Medicine," he says. He did Biology, Chemistry and History at A Level, only to fall short of the grade for getting into Medicine and decide that Science at Higher Education level wasn't for him. He gained his current place, on Product Design, through UCAS Clearing.

“To this day, I'm grateful," he says. "I think it's made me all the stronger and I'm very encouraged by the work I'm doing now and how much I'm enjoying it."

In some ways, all the clues were there. "I come from quite a creative background," James says, quite underplaying it: a father who's an artist; a mother who's a nurse – "I think I get quite a lot of technical assets from her" – and who taught James to knit and sew; one grandfather an engineer; the other a graphic designer.

“I've always been encouraged to be as messy and creative as I can be with work," he realises. "It's been within me forever and it's just come out now I've had the opportunity to show it."

“I like getting that idea from your head straight on to paper and thinking, 'that could really be something.”

I like communicating with people and working in teams and being able to have a flexible methodology so it's not the same every time," James explains.

Practically speaking, his first year was a test of regaining technical skills – such as sketching and Computer Aided Design – as well as his sense of creative expression. He particularly enjoyed model making and working in card using folding techniques.

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In academic work, he shone for initiative in exploring the humble airline seatbelt – why are they different to the ones in cars, and what impact is it having on the individual? Research informed him that some users – including some pilots in panic situations – were unable to operate the device successfully. "It was causing delays in people exiting the aircraft or putting people at a further risk than they needed to be," says James, analytically.

He chose to investigate the topic quoting CEO of 'Design that Matters', Tim Prestrero, who had argued there to be no such thing as a 'dumb user', only 'dumb design'.

James progressed to explore governing bodies and their regulations, uncovering there to be no restriction on seatbelt shape, only that a design other than the current lever system would require further testing (read: investment). Next to be scrutinised were commercial statistics: There are two main aviation companies for long-haul aircrafts, Boeing and Airbus, versus 20 different car companies making over a million cars a year – this equals greater competition for producing parts.

Finally, he sought a cultural and historical approach.

“At one point, I think in the 70's when it was becoming fashionable to have seat belts in cars, the two designs were very similar." Yet car seat belts have developed to become more lightweight and easier to operate, whereas those in planes are relatively unchanged.

James' simple idea seemed to break new ground.

“It was a critical analysis of the whole system: designers aren't keen to change something if it's already successful, companies aren't arguing for change, and governing bodies aren't encouraging it – it's a cycle; a combination of people not taking on board the advice of research which is showing that the safety for passengers can be improved. The design can be improved."

A strong academic argument, true. But it's in the conviction that you sense it's being made by a born designer.

Right: Contemporary pull lever commercial airliner seat-belt mechanism13.

It is believed that in the result of an air-crash many people revert to attempting to open the belt mechanism in the way they most commonly do, which is the way they would in a motor car. As the two mechanisms operate differently, the motor car mechanism being a push trigger mechanism and the airliner mechanism being a pull lever mechanism, this causes confusion and delay in releasing the mechanism which in turn delays the process of exiting the aircraft. Clubb goes as far as citing that; "People who have survived emergency landings frantically search for where they expect the seatbelt to fasten (on the hip as in a car). You often find bruising and cuts in that area."11 In the case of the unsuccessful airliner seat-belt design, who is to blame? The design of the motor car lap seatbelt did at one time resemble that found in commercial aircraft now14. But while the motor car seat-belt was developed to its current design, under the pressures of market competition and new legislations through the late nineteen-fifties through to the nineteen-seventies15, the commercial aircraft seat-belt did not face these pressures.

Is it therefore the fault of the designers for not having pushed the aircraft seatbelt design in the same development direction as that in motor cars? Is it the fault of the user for not paying enough attention during the pre-flight safety briefing to understand how to use the seat-belt provided? Is it the fault of the aircraft manufacturer who made the decision to choose a seatbelt design which differed significantly from that found in contemporary motor car? Or could governing authorities for flight safety, such as the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, who are the legislators for the designs of aircraft, be to blame for offering legislation for unsuccessful design outcomes?

The research of professor Ed Galea, who has collected a database of over two-thousand passengers accounts of air-crash incidents9 suggests that even the most veteran fliers have been known to attempt to open their seatbelts in the same way as they would a car seatbelt when faced with a potential life threatening scenario; "There was a passenger who was actually a pilot during an evacuation situation who couldn't unbuckle his seatbelt, he was pressing the button rather than pulling the latch."16 If even the most qualified fliers can experience problems with opening their seat-belts then this effectively rules out the argument that the user can be blamed, and therefore, in this case the first half of Tim

Prestero's statement that "there is no such thing as a dumb user" is proven true. The design in this case must be to blame. But whose fault is it that this design outcome came to be so common in commercial aircraft?

We now turn our focus onto the other parties involved in the process; the designers, the manufacturers and the governing authorities.

In the case of the aircraft seat-belt design, the component is most commonly purchased from an external company with a team of designers and marketing professionals, rather than being produced by the aircraft manufacturers themselves. The leading company to provide seat-belts to airliner manufacturers in the world today is AmSafe, recognised as; 'the world leader in aviation restraint technology'17 they provide their 'Traditional Seatbelt'18 to the likes of Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier aircraft manufacturers18. It is almost certain that a designer working for a company such as this would have certain restraints when designing a product to such restricted specifications. They would have budget, timing and testing restraints, and the pressures to produce a product which is considered acceptable to both the final consumer and the aircraft manufacturer who will be purchasing the component.

So even if a designer was able to develop a radical new seat-belt design, or wanted to start a new trend in the design style of the product, the brief or specification may outline certain criteria associated with the final user or aircraft manufacturer which might make this impossible.

The factors which are most likely to have influenced the choice of the aircraft manufacturer are; the cost, the product life-cycle and the product reliability. At this stage the aircraft manufacturer may be influenced by the brand-identity and integrity of competing seat-belt manufacturers, and might compare the results of product testing between brands and varieties of seatbelt designs. As AmSafe themselves pointed out, they are; 'The world's undisputed leader in aviation restraint systems.'18 and with the likes of leading aircraft manufactures such as Boeing, Aerospace, Dornier and Airbus18 choosing their products it would be hard to argue that their products are not well designed. Another factor which may also influence the aircraft manufacturers choice is their own expectations, or ideas, of what the 'correct' product should look like. It could be argued that the manufacturers might be more likely to ‘play safe' and choose a design which they feel is well established and tried and tested. In the case of the aircraft seat-belt there is evidence that a large majority of the market is taken already by AmSafe and the design that AmSafe produces.18 As this design has become customary, aircraft manufacturers may be less likely in this case to embrace any radical design changes as they will fail to see reason for it.

It might be the case that the reason for a lack of redesign in aircraft seat-belt mechanisms is because there was no real pressure to do so. While motor car seat-belt manufacturers had the incentive to develop a more comfortable and less cumbersome design to attract orders from a broad field of car companies, producing a greater number of cars for the expanding market of potential car owners, fifty-four million in 199719 to eighty-four million in 201220, there wasn't the same incentive for aircraft seat-belt manufacturers to do the same. Compared to the large number of car manufacturers that car seat-belt manufacturers have the potential to sell to, with eighteen different car manufacturers producing over one million cars each in 201121, the commercial airliner market remains small, with just two major manufacturers; Boeing and Airbus22.

This limited number in turn restricts the number of seatbelt providers, and in doing so restricts the inevitable design development which is brought about through competition (as seen in the car seat-belt design). As we have established, AmSafe is already the seat-belt provider to both Boeing and Airbus, as well as a provider to a number of smaller regional airliner manufacturers

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such as Bombardier, Embraer and Dornier18. With this lack of competition there is little incentive for the designers to change the design. There is little gain to the manufacturer in doing so, quite the opposite in fact, as it would cost money to redesign, re-test and re-launch the new design afresh. No legislation makes it necessary, and no airliner company is turning to a competing manufacturer for a different design so there is no incentive to make the development.

Is it then the fault of those who are in charge of legislating the design of airliner seat-belts for not recognising the research undertaken by the likes of Professor Ed Galea, or the experiences of British Airways safety specialist, Andy Clubb? In the United Kingdom a Civil Aviation Authority exists to specify requirements and standards for all civil aircraft and their components23.

In one of their published documents it highlights one of the requirements of the seat-belt; 'The means of fastening and releasing shall be rapid and obvious'24.

From the evidence I have collected for this study it could be argued that no pull lever mechanism could possibly be considered obvious, a piece of evidence I have collected to assert this is taken from the results of a series of experiments titled: 'Human Factors Associated With the Certification of Airplane Passenger Seats: Seat Belt Adjustment and Release'. As a result of this experiment it was found that; 'The maximum release time was 2.85 seconds. Fifteen subjects (7% of the total subject pool) had to try at least twice to get the buckle to release. Of the 15 subjects with double attempts, 9 occurred with the 90° lift latch configuration. In each case but one, the second attempt was successful in releasing the buckle. One subject repeatedly tried to push, rather than pull, on the release lever, as normally would be done in an automobile.'25 I would hypothesise that these results would be improved if the mechanism tested were that in the style found in a motor car mechanism, and that all those tested would be able to successfully release the seat-belt rapidly. This report went on to highlight that a factor not considered in the experiment was the; 'difficulty in releasing the belt if the occupant was in a folded posture due to post crash injuries, debris, or aircraft inversion. These scenarios could make it difficult to release a high-angle buckle due to interference with the abdomen.'25 This again is a scenario which could be easily prevented by developing the style of the design to feature the push trigger rather than pull release mechanism.

Another piece of evidence that emphasizes that the pull latch system is a confusing and unsuccessful design outcome is taken from an Aeronautic Psychology thesis titled; 'The Effect of Cabin Crew Behaviour Upon the Competitive Evacuation of Passengers From a Narrowbodied Aircraft'26. In this piece of work the researcher discovers that; 'During levels of high stress ones ability to perform even the most simple tasks can be reduced.

An individual in an emergency situation has to quickly respond to the cues he receives. This response will also be affected by how familiar the behavioural response is to that particular situation (Becker, 1973). It has been shown that the performance of even a simple task such as oxygen mask operation (Johnson, 1984) and seat belt operation may be detrimentally effected. The difficulty may be due to individuals reverting to a more familiar mode of behaviour (Spence, 1960) Therefore, an individual is more likely to perform a more familiar response in a highly stressful situation; for example, many passengers, revert to operating the aircraft lap belts as one would an ordinary car seat belt.'26 This again highlights that the means releasing the pull trigger seatbelt mechanism is neither rapid nor obvious in a life threatening situation, and adds a more statistical argument that the design should be more similar to that found in a motor car. A report in the Independent Newspaper suggested that even the Civil Aviation Authority themselves had research evidence noting that passengers have difficulty with the usability of the current seat-belt mechanism; 'Research into emergency evacuations by the Civil Aviation Authority in 2006 found that a significant number of passengers struggle with the most basic of tasks: releasing the seat belt.'10 Is this then perhaps the most clear piece of evidence that the authorities must take at least part of the blame for the 'dumb design' of the airliner seat-belt? After all, they have the power to bring in specifications which could push the design of the mechanism in a more successful direction.

The only other apparent specification requirement of airliner seat-belts, and the mechanism, is that it reaches testing standards at a minimum of 'TSO-C22g'24 standard, TSO stands for 'Technical Standard Order'27 and without passing this series of product tests neither the UK's Civil Aviation Authority nor the United States of America equivalent; the Federal Aviation Authority27, will grant a TSO marking. Without this marking the product would not be manufactured or legally sold to airliner

manufacturers. However, there is no evidence to suggest that there would be anything to prevent a well designed motor car styled push trigger seat-belt from being able to pass these tests and receive a TSO marking.

The CAA specification points out that; 'Where means of release other than by a conventional lever are employed the functional characteristics and release loads of such means shall be agreed with the CAA.'24 which suggest that the Civil Aviation Authority do test and legalise nonlever style designs even if they do consider them to be unconventional.

In the conclusion of this essay I return to Tim Prestero's original statement; "There's no such thing as a dumb user, only dumb design", in the instance of this case study on the design of seat-belt mechanisms in airliners, the evidence suggests that users certainly cannot be to blame for misusing the pull lever operated seat-belt mechanism, the evidence for this is in the vast number of instances where the product has been incorrectly used and this stands as a testament to the fact. As for the 'dumb design', the evidence also stands in agreement with Tim Prestero's statement. From the vast quantity of evidence highlighting the ease at which errors can be made in using the product, it is clear that in this case the product itself is 'dumb', it could be argued that in this case, the pull lever operated mechanism appears particularly 'dumb' because there seems an obvious and simple design development direction for rectifying the issues it creates, that direction being towards the motor car push trigger seat-belt mechanism. Attention now turns to the second focus of the essay; 'who or what is really to blame for an unsuccessful design outcome?'

As discussed already, there are at least three potential parties to blame for the outcome of a 'dumb' design; the designers, the manufacturers and the authorities who outline specifications. It could be argued that a combination of these, and the lack of communication between these parties is the real cause for the 'dumb' design in this instance. Although the final decision of changing the seat-belt mechanism specification and testing the product lies with the authorities, it is a combination of the creativity of the designers, with the financial backing and marketing of the seat-belt manufacturers who really have the power to develop and improve trends in the commercial airliner seat-belt design outcomes. Without this push the design will remain unchanged and the potential for a successful design outcome will remain unattained.

REFERENCES: 1 Prestero, T. (2012) Design for People, Not Awards - TED Talk lecture. TEDxBoston.

2 "dumb" Apple iPad dictionary. (28/4/2013) 3 "stupid" Apple ipad dictionary. (28/4/2013) 4 Jones, J. C. and Thornley, D. G. (1963) Conference on Design Methods.

5 Fabricant, R. (publication date unknown) www.designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/power/designwith-intent.html (Accessed 20/4/2013) 6 Norman, D. A., Draper, S. W. (1986) User centered system design: New perspectives on human-computer interaction.

Cornell University: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

7 Hoult, K., Geschka, H., Peterlongi, G. (1984) Need assessment: a key to user-oriented product innovation. the University of Michigan: Wiley (p. 74) 8 Hobica, G. (30/1/2013) www.travel.yahoo.com/ideas/what-they-don-t-tell-you-inthe-plane-safety-demo-004511936.html (Accessed 28/4/2013) 9 Galea, E. (15/11/2011) www2.gre.ac.uk/about/news/articles/2011/a2093-how-tosurvive-an-air-crash (Accessed 26/4/2013) 10 Calder, S. (3/10/2011) www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/basrichest-passengers-let-in-on-secret-of-surviving-crashes-236 4866.html (Accessed 28/4/2013) 11 Burge, R. (15/11/2011) www.travel.uk.msn.com/traveladvice/how-to-survive-a-plane-crash (Accessed 27/4/2013) 12 (date unknown) Mercedes Benz seat-belt (photographer unknown) (photograph) www.images.thecarconnection.com/lrg/mercedes-benzrear-active-seat-belt-buckle_100381257_l.jpg 13 (2008) Airliner seat-belt, MacDonald, C. (photograph) www.callum-macdonald.com/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2008/12/fasten-your-seatbelt.jpg 14 (date unknown) Car seat-belt, image 6 (photographer unknown) (photograph) www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/escape/timecar.html 15 School Transportation News (2012) www.stnonline.com/resources/seat-belts/the-history-ofseat-belt-development (Accessed 25/4/2013)

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16 BBC, 2006. Horizon: Survivors Guide to Plane Crashes (3/10/2006) (Available to view at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOCnBAweLW8) 17 AmSafe seaat-belt (publication date unknown) www.amsafe.com/products-services/commercial-aviation/ (Accessed 27/4/2013) 18 Traditional Seatbelt, AmSafe (2012) www.amsafe.com/wpcontent/uploads/Aviation-Restraints_A4_FINAL1.pdf (Accessed 27/4/2013) 19 OICA, World Motor Vehicle Production by Type and Economic Area (1998) www.oica.net/wpcontent/uploads/2007/06/cl98type.pdf 20 OICA, 2012 Production Statistics (2012) www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/ (Accessed 27/4/2013) 21 OICA, World Motor Vehicle Production (2011) www.oica.net/wp-content/uploads/ranking.pdf 22 Reid, L. (18/3/2013) www.ascendworldwide.com/2013/03/are-the-emergingoems-a-serious-threat-to-airbus-and-boeings-duopoly.html (Accessed 28/4/2013) 23 United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (publication date unknown) www.caa.co.uk (Accessed 27/4/2013) 24 United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority, Specification No.1 Issue: 6 (12/3/2004) www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CASPEC01.PDF (Accessed 28/4/2013) 25 Human Factors Associated With the Certification of Airplane Passenger Seats: Seat Belt Adjustment and Release (June 2002) Office of Aerospace Medicine, Washington DC. 26 Cobbett, A. M. (January 1995) The Effect of Cabin Crew Behaviour Upon the Competitive Evacuation of Passengers From a Narrow-bodied Aircraft. Cranfield University.

27 Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration (5/3/1993) Technical Standard Order.

Washington DC.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: McGuire, W. J. (1976) Some Internal Psychological Factors Influencing Commercial Choice. (pp. 302-319) Yale University.

Perrons, R. K. (1995) Make-Buy Decisions in the U.S. Aircraft Industry. (pp. 52-62) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts.

Sparke, P. (1989) An Introduction to DESIGN & CULTURE in the Twentieth Century. Unwin Hyman Ltd. London.

Matthew Bush 22, Maker Matthew Bush made a last minute decision to join the Artist: Designer Maker degree course at CSAD, and he's been enjoying himself ever since. From the quest to conquer ceramics to the challenge of suspending a table mid-air, he takes it all in his stride, including defining that all important question: 'So what does a maker actually do?’

The 'cabinet' brief was a way of bringing together all the work produced in the first year of the Maker course.

“Some people literally bought a cabinet and handed work in with that," says 22-year-old Matthew Bush. His design was a little more 'out there', and it sounds like he had fun creating it.

He lay out each of his pieces – ranging from glasswork to ceramics and, even, a wooden table – on a sheet of wood and drew an outline about 2cm thick around each of them, creating silhouettes from within which he would hang individual pieces. "I literally just hacked at it all day," he jokes.

“The idea was for an exhibition space, it was designed for that environment so that people could walk around and see the work from both angles," Matthew says. "I used chicken wire to hang most of the work so that it would just look like it was hanging there, suspended."

“The glass pieces were quite difficult to hang up as most of them didn't have hooks on," he explains. "Seeing them all together, my favourite piece was probably a pot that I raku fired."

“The table…" he adds, "I thought it would be funny to get the whole thing in! I wanted to have it hanging in that space but it's actually held up by two little blocks of wood, almost as a joke."

The cabinet display certainly signified the breadth of skills and technique which are open to first year Makers.

For Matthew, this paved the way for new and unexpected interests.

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“Ceramics kind of shocked me," he says with a laugh.

“Before, I'd see a nice ceramic pot and I'd think 'that's a nice ceramic pot'. Now, since we started throwing, I appreciate it a lot more. It's really difficult to do and I'm still not a pro at it!"

It was the broad, hands-on appeal of the course which stole Matthew away from his original plans to study Product Design. "It just felt more open," he explains.

“Maker was art and it was design, and I liked that it was about traditional processes as well as brand new ones, like 3D printing."

In school, Art, Design and Physics were Matthew's top subjects, affording him an analytical nature which remains very much a part of his new, creative environment.

“I do like to analyse things quite a lot and experiment," Matthew explains. “And I'm always doing tests on materials. My tutor, Jon says I seem to choose simple processes but then try and experiment with the process itself to create something different."

So where will it all lead him – what does a maker go on to become?

“That's the funny thing," Matthew says, "throughout the first year nobody knew the answer to that question. I just say 'I'm a maker' now, I'm sticking with that! You do design, you do art, but with Maker you don't have to say ‘I'm a designer' or 'I'm an artist', you can be open with it."

Chessie Gordon-Band 19, Graphic Communications Chessie Gordon-Band's pocket-sized first year project had a big statement to make about the world today.

Here, she explains her house for a mouse – plus how she's found herself very much at home.

When Chessie Gordon-Band was challenged to pick a place in Cardiff and 'make the ordinary extra-ordinary', her instinct was to seek out somewhere old. "Looking at somewhere old is always interesting," she says, "there's lots of layers to it."

She ultimately found herself at the Castle Arcade.

“It's easy, as first, to be distracted by the pretty shop windows and bustling coffee shops downstairs, but upstairs is practically empty," she explains. "It's filled with ‘To Let' signs and is heavily decaying." Fuelled by researching the economic reasons for this stark contrast, and particularly studying renting and property types, Chessie's artistic streak emerged with the discovery of something tiny but significant.

“There is this one corner of the corridor that's especially lonely, with a hole in between some wood and the wall.

It had an odd sort of charm, and I ended up basing my project around it."

Her eventual piece became a tiny estate agency booklet for mice. "I liked the idea of something being hidden in plain view," explains Chessie. "The piece includes descriptions, maps, room dimensions, an illustration of what the property looks like, how it's furnished – with things taken from the shops in the arcade – and it's compiled into a booklet and scaled to the size a mouse would need."

It's a charming idea, but it also serves as a profound statement about the real-world financial and housing crisis. "It very much brings into question who properties appeal to anymore," Chessie assesses.

“With their high rent and lots of work needed doing to them – all in a time when people are trying to save money."

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Chessie's scaled-down approach was a technical challenge as much as it was a conceptual angle. "Most of it was drawn by hand and then scanned, manipulated and developed in Photoshop and Illustrator," she explains. "It was a lot of trial and error to see how small I could make it… whether type was legible and images could be seen clearly. It meant there was such an emphasis on attention to detail," she adds, “especially when printing and folding the booklet by hand."

Throughout the rest of her first year, Chessie has enjoyed the expanse of creative freedom, and grew particularly fond of video work and typography. Indeed, the variety of the course was one of the things which most attracted her to it, an instant warmth she had felt from the place itself. "I like using lots of different mediums in work," she explains, having always loved design and with a BTEC background in Graphics and Illustration.

“And I chose Cardiff because I like the city and being in a place that I liked was important to me. When I came to visit and had my interview, it was the friendliest atmosphere I encountered, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Sophie's 'inanimate object narrative' was born of an earlier project (below), where she worked in monochrome to juxtapose human elements with the inanimate.

Sophie Chatham 21, Illustration

Given a brief about her home town, Sophie Chatham brought to life the story of her daily commute.

Here, she reveals how a little imagination can truly innovate.

“The tutors are the reason I chose this course," explains Sophie Chatham, a second year Illustration student.

“It's a relatively new course that they've set up and I think their dream is to teach Illustration a bit differently.

They've got really different backgrounds but are all so incredibly enthusiastic about it – they make it exciting."

Whilst completing her Foundation at the Cardiff School of Art and Design, Sophie realised a particular talent and interest in illustration. She decided to pursue it further and felt strongly that she was already in exactly the right place to do that.

“So, if they were young, they might be made out of toys, and that would say something more about them."

The idea, it turns out, lies quite close to home.

“My Mum did Fine Art," says Sophie. "She makes a lot of three dimensional sculptures and often the materials she uses are things which have been thrown away."

Reflecting on her piece, Sophie is proud to have risen to a challenge.

“It forced me to find something I wanted to pursue, to experiment with materials and create a narrative that “At a lot of other Uni's you turn up for a lecture or seminar other people would understand.” and maybe have a desk once a week for a couple of hours," she explains. "Here, we have our own studio space."

“I'm cluttered," 'she admits, laughing, "I have everything out!"

“I'll put up all the different things from each project so I'm surrounded by what I'm trying to create: pictures, colour palettes… The brief! Sometimes you forget what you're trying to show and you need to come back to what people actually want."

“I need a bigger space, really!"

In her first year, Sophie particularly shone in the work produced from a brief about her hometown, Cardiff.

She fondly recalls the task itself being "exceptionally vague" – "It was just something to do with Cardiff," she says.

“I get the train every day so I used the journey as a format to base the narrative on, creating a set where you could imagine what was happening beyond what you could see."

In an 'imaginative inanimate object narrative', Sophie brought to life every day items to personify subjects.

“It's basically taking random objects – like shoes, hairdryers and coats – and creating them to represent a person," she explains.

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“To develop it, I'd probably have changed it more into an animation," she says. "Something you could actually watch happening."

With the unique opportunity to pursue Animation as part of an Illustration course, Sophie certainly looks forward to broadening her skill set and can already see the momentum with which her work has developed since joining the course.

“I think my style is not as naturalistic as it was before," she explains. "Now, I'm choosing things that are in this world and taking them to a new platform. I'm also trying to develop more of a colourful palette, where last year I did a lot of work in monochrome."

Sophie says she is still particularly drawn towards every day things – "interesting shapes, lines and shadows," she adds. Her favourite illustrators are Luke Best and Sara Fanelli. As for what's next, Sophie is in no hurry to leave the place which ignited in her a thrill for "chasing narratives" through illustration.

“I think I want to do an MA afterwards," she explains, "in Visual Communications, encompassing Graphic Design."

And, in the mean time? "To carry on developing my narrative work and incorporating colour," she says.

Ambition, creativity and an obvious desire to learn and to improve; maybe a bigger desk is in order after all.

Rachel Codd 20, Ceramics While some artists stumble into a niche by chance, Rachel Codd discovered her's early on and nurtured it over time.

Yet something about her says, quite clearly, she won't be resting on her laurels.

“From a really young age I enjoyed getting pieces of jewellery and taking them apart," says Rachel Codd, remembering how she'd adopted (probably without permission) a pair of pliers which her brother had been given for his birthday. From then, it seems, she was hooked. "I wanted to take beads and produce something that was solely mine and made from scratch," she says, the grown-up voice of that creative young mind.

It was at secondary school that Rachel was first introduced to the field she'd fall in love with. "Monmouth Comprehensive had a really great art department," she remembers. "They had a couple of ceramics days in art lessons there and, in Year 8 or 9, I was picked out – I was quite good at it. From then on my teachers encouraged me to pursue it."

Rachel progressed to study Applied Art at Sixth Form, quickly realising that her teachers had been right to point her in the direction of working with clay.

“I love to draw and, with ceramics, I loved that you could then bring a drawing to life – turn it into something you can use and hold, so it becomes kind of a reality."

It was in combining her two passions that Rachel found her niche – ceramic jewellery. She has now made around a dozen pieces as part of her course, and more than double that in her spare time. A lover of narrative, her art is also highly detail-orientated.

Rachel works with small pieces of clay, both when wet and dry "to get rid of as many imperfections as possible".

A basic firing is followed by glazing and a second firing, in between which she will often "scratch back into a piece" to add more detail.

Recently, Rachel surprised herself by finding inspiration in literature. "At the moment I'm taking the words of the poet, Keats, in La Belle Dame Sans Merci," she says. "I've broken it down and found visual elements of the poem, making a cameo for each verse." Rachel explains that these will then be linked together in porcelain to make a necklace.

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“I never thought I'd work in porcelain," she adds. "It's amazing what possibilities open up to you." She credits the freedom of the course – from the materials to the program of study, and the constant support – with particular fondness for its emphasis on patience.

“I've been learning to take my time with things," Rachel explains. "It's been quite interesting, having someone say it's ok to produce something in three or four weeks and see how good you can get it, not just that you can make it."

It's a mindset which stands her in excellent stead for third year and beyond, with her ambitions to get ceramics recognised for all the right reasons.

“If you do see ceramics, it's usually in the gift shop," she explains. "I'd like to be one of those people who brings it into exhibition work."

Between now and then, Rachel's focus is on expanding her skill set – be that in sculpture, slab building, terracotta or functional pieces.

She still looks up to the first ever ceramic artist she discovered, Gesine Hackenberg, who recycles all kinds of artefacts to make statement jewellery. "I was so inspired by her," Rachel remembers.

With the ultimate goal to launch her own business in ceramic jewellery, it is safe to imagine that, one day soon, a similarly bright-eyed art student may be saying the same of Rachel Codd.

Holly Cook 20, Fine Art There's something exceptionally clever about work which is enjoyed first and interpreted second – it's no accident. Such is Holly Cook's appeal.

Here, the second year student reveals the fun in Fine Art, plus how it continues to surprise and inspire her.

“It makes me laugh," says Holly, diminishing any sense of artistic ego by chuckling through an introduction to her proudest work. "I photoshopped an image of myself, saving myself from an explosion…"

The 20-year-old Fine Art student, originally from Herefordshire, surprised herself at Level 4 with a sudden interest in all-things photography.

“When I left sixth form, I thought I'd go into painting, and then all of last year I never touched a paintbrush. It opened my eyes to different kinds of medium and the things you can do – there's a lot more available than I'd ever thought."

With this particular piece, a unique answer to a portrait photography brief or, in her own words, "a Photoshop mash up", Holly had fun toying with humour. Inspired by movie posters and with feminist undertones, there was also the added drama of challenging conventional ideas of portraiture.

“It's probably my favourite piece of work so far – the one I'd point out and say 'actually, I like that.' It's quite lighthearted."

She says light-hearted as if it stops there, but, in reality, Holly makes difficult things look easy. Her work, like her, is sharp, witty and not at all intimidating. It is underpinned by a love of her subject and a practical understanding of its breadth.

“This is what I've always wanted to do," she explains. "I love the concepts and ideas, it's all so clever and thought-provoking."

It's this element of her field which Holly considers the common thread, whatever the medium.

“It doesn't matter what it's made out of,” she explains.

“So long as it's there and it's got the idea behind it – that's my understanding of Fine Art anyway," she adds, with a characteristic little laugh.

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“A lot of my ideas come from seeing the work of other artists and what my friends here are doing. At the moment I'm really enjoying humour and what other people have to say."

Most recently, Holly has worked with other people's hand-written letters. "I've been sort of toying with their words – sometimes turning them and twisting them into a complete reverse meaning."

During her first year, she discovered a flair for photography, which she explored through historical processes such as cyanotypes. "I find it fascinating," she explains. "With new technology, we write things off thinking it's all microchipped – this is much more organic.

I'd like to bring the old techniques back because it's so lovely and charming, being able to do all of that."

And from retro processes to modern platforms, another of Holly's Level 4 projects proved particularly innovative.

Answering a brief in which she had to find inspiration from the city, she created a blog. "I chose a street and wrote an archive entry from the future, looking back to present day and making all these satirical comments about what things might have been used for." Palm trees, then, she offers as an example, "those were were to trick people into thinking they were living in a warmer climate."

Although she enjoyed stepping into the online world to use the internet as a Fine Art medium, Holly admits that humour can be a bit of a mine field.

“It's definitely a challenge! At the moment I'm just going with what I find funny and hoping that everyone else does. If they don't, they don't!" she jokes, without actually sounding nervous. That's the thing about Holly…

Knowingly or not, she occupies a sought-after space, one far from unapologetic yet never self-deprecating, and, fuelled by good old-fashioned enthusiasm, it's brimming with potential for the future.

Angelo D'Onofrio 24, Product Design Product Design is about innovation, decision making, and the ability to fulfil a brief – making 24-year-old Angelo D'Onofrio a smart match. His detoured path to CSAD featured a few more decisions than most, but it's been delivering on his potential and ambitions ever since.

Cardiff-born Angelo D'Onofrio's bright concept for an electric car may have presented a solution to a global need, but its roots were very much closer to home.

“We got sent to the Welsh History Museum," he remembers. "We had to define our own brief from this site visit."

“I was basically looking at how they lived in the past and how they managed sustainably, which eventually led me to this project of the electrical vehicle." The subsequent stages – research, including gathering facts and figures – all supported Angelo's intuition, informing his progressing concept design.

“Our transportation systems are not environmentally friendly, they're unsustainable," he explains. "An explicit example of this is the smog crisis in Beijing. We have an ever growing population, whilst our journeys are becoming shorter – so we need a cleaner solution."

Ultimately, Angelo's design simultaneously confronted environmental and congestion issues, with a heavy focus on autonomous navigation.

Describing it as a "highly conceptual" project, Angelo says "my creativity was set loose."

Both in fulfilling this brief, and in terms of the wider course, Angelo, 24, embraces the advantages of relative inexperience. "The course is a steep learning curve," he says. "When you're starting out, you approach things in a naive way so you're more creative than someone who's been in the practice for years. You're not bound by the rules. It was good to approach this brief in that way, but as you learn you get more specialised."

One thing is for certain – Angelo is, at last, in the right place. A self-confessed 'oldie' of higher education, his decision to study Product Design was far from made by default.

Having achieved A Levels in Art and Design, Design Technology and IT, Angelo initially secured a place studying Architecture in Leeds – but quit after six months. "It was an expensive but essential decision," he jokes.

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He travelled around South East Asia, gained some 'real world' experience and paid his dues in the catering industry before finding his feet with CSAD. “It's so stereotypical, isn't it?" he laughs. "To say 'it changed me'… But I think all that time really sets your head straight."

So what will it take to succeed in his field? "You definitely need to understand who you're designing for.

Presentation technique is a big part of it, too, as we use them every week," Angelo explains.

“Then there's your sketching skills, as well as being quite capable in terms of computers. I think you need to have an interest in materials and material science – to always be looking at things around you and wondering how they're made.”

In Angelo's case, it's sometimes the more awful examples that spur him on. "The thing I do most often is look at products that annoy me, like children's toys for example, which come in this big plastic box full of rubbish."

As for positive inspiration, he names architect Zaha Hadid. "She does a lot of organic, fluid design but she also does product design as well," he explains.

With longer-term goals to secure professional placements and, ultimately, a role with an in-house team or design consultancy, Angelo looks forward to a couple more years of taking in all that CSAD has to offer. From the brainstorming sessions to the live projects, it's clear he is in his element – and in good company, too.

“I've really enjoyed being surrounded by people with similar interests," he says. "You don't have to constantly explain yourself. It's nice to have people around who you can talk to and who understand what you're doing."

Imogen Higgins 21, Ceramics Imogen Higgins doesn't see flaws, only possibilities.

Her dyslexia was an opportunity to pursue her creativity, and her creativity loves the challenge of embracing so-called mistakes.

Here, she introduces her striking 'seamed vases', and reveals an exciting opportunity on the horizon.

“Most of the time when I'm throwing, I embrace accidents because often I find it's what makes a piece," says Imogen Higgins, a 21-year-old Ceramics student with a flare for what others consider flaws.

Some of her latest work – 'seamed vases' – shows her attitude in action. In a slip casting workshop with tutor, Pauline, Imogen's focus turned towards the debris left behind from plaster cast moulds. Seams, as they are known, appear jagged and unruly and are usually removed.

But something about them grasped Imogen's imagination, and she was drawn to explore it further.

“I felt the seams were the most interesting part of it," she explains. "It was the only part of the process I felt I didn't have absolute control over."

The unpredictable nature of the results reminded Imogen of earlier sessions in wood firing. "You'd put a piece in and never really know what was going to come out and I liked the thought that the process – almost like nature – was something happening outside of my control."

To exaggerate the seams for her subsequent project, Imogen designed and threw each piece, layering clay between each plaster cast mould. When she broke one piece by accident, she decided she liked the look of it and broke more. They were then scratched into and, ambitiously, raku fired.

“I thought it seemed mad to try and raku it – people would wonder how such a delicate thing could go through such a rough process. Some of the seams snapped off a bit, inevitably, but ultimately I felt it worked really well."

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A similar sense of daring is reflected in one of the artists she most admires, Seung Ho Yang. "He interacts with nature and his work has a brilliant flow to it," she explains.

“Whilst he also experiments with the placing of his ceramic objects." How so? Well, in one instance "he put his work in the sea, for two to five years, and when he took them out they were covered in cockles."

Imogen was lucky enough to meet the artist when her Dad insisted they pay a trip to his studio during a visit to France, but it was years earlier that father and daughter had first enjoyed the art form together.

“My Dad is a ceramicist," Imogen explains. "He had me on the wheel at about 11 – that's where I got my basics from.

Doing wood firing then was quite exciting!"

At school, clay became a creative outlet which unhinged Imogen from her dyslexia.

“The material itself is so interactive," she explains.

“It's instant and has always appealed to me – I've always lived in a 3D world.”

Aged 15, she began to think seriously about pursuing ceramics as a career. Now in her second year at CSAD, Imogen hopes 2014 will promise adventure as she prepares to explore Estonia through a four-month ERASMUS programme for studying abroad.

“That's going to be really exciting," she says. "I have no idea where it's going to take me because I'm guessing they'll have so many different ways of working with clay and it will be a totally new environment…"

And before it can be suggested that, if Imogen embraces accidents in the studio, she'll surely find inspiration in the unknown, she adds, excitedly: "I'm hoping it will take me in a whole new direction."

Maya Holthuis van Houben 20, Fine Art Second year Fine Art student Maya Holthuis van Houben puts a lot of herself into her work, finding inspiration through memories and personal experience. Here, she shows how to give insight through ordinary aspects of life, and reveals her interest in art's past, as well as goals for her own future.

The real challenge of coming into study Fine Art for Maya Holthuis was just in getting her head around how the course operated – "the way it ran, who to go to for what and all those logistics," she recalls. A normal teething period, you might call it, because after that there was no stopping her.

Maya's ultimate goal in fulfilling this brief was to try and reflect her personal experience. At the time, commuting to and from Bristol was a very significant part of my life," she says. "I'm happy with the finished book, I think it successfully reflects the way I was feeling on those early morning commutes."

Excelling in academic work, Maya explored the way in which the concept of painting changed during the sixties, with particular focus on Pop Art and Expressionism.

Though a set brief, she found it particularly enlightening in understanding the progression of art, coming to view it as a "dynamic continuum, where artists, designers, critics, and the public, as well as their social and political context, are all fully integrated and connected."

As for her journey to the course in the first place, Maya's passion for Fine Art was well established in her time doing Foundation at City of Bath college. Progressing to study at CSAD, she remembers that her first year really pushed her practice forward in ways she hadn't anticipated.

In her practical assignments, Maya was recognised for a unique book of prints inspired by her typical commute.

“I've always liked books," she begins, “and bookmaking was something that I really got into through my art practice over the past year."

She took as inspiration a common journey. Originally from Bristol, Maya travels by train to stay in Cardiff and study every few days. Her used tickets became the primary materials for this project. "Documenting my journey to and from Bristol was an idea that grew quite organically through my studio work," she explains.

“My final book brought together several of the processes and ideas I had been developing over the year, including collage, print and book binding."

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Currently, she's finding inspiration in a video installation by 2013 Turner Prize winner Laure Prouvost entitled ‘Wantee and Friends'. "I love the narrative she creates as she invents stories and relationships between herself and fictional characters," Maya explains.

And it is relationships which remain at the heart of Maya's ultimate goal – to become a practising art therapist. "Following my degree I want to study an MA in Art Psychotherapy," she explains. And, in the meantime, she's as driven as ever to broaden her own experience; “to start working in a more spatial and dynamic way, incorporating play and installation as a way of expressing narrative and challenging the concept of a 'book'."

Jade Jenkins 20, Maker The Maker's studio is a haven for creatives who can't keep their hands still. For Jade Jenkins, it has quite literally served as a place in which she can dissect the best means of engaging an audience.

In an innovative and ambitious first year project, Jade Jenkins wanted to reflect the heartbeat of her home city in a way that would intrigue and engage people.

She succeeded every step of the way, with added shock factor thrown in for good measure.

“I've been in Cardiff my entire life and had totally taken for granted the indoor market," the 20-year-old Maker student explains.

“I get inspiration from making people think about things, and I was hoping my piece would make people think about this because it really is a hub – it's something that makes the city what it is."

Her idea was simple and effective – to recreate a human heart. The challenge, in her own mind, was making it as anatomically accurate as possible.

“Luckily my Nan is a nurse so she had quite a lot of medical texts I was able to borrow, and a GP she knows leant her a model of a heart used to teach medical students," Jade explains.

Then there was the small matter of dissecting a pig's heart – all in the name of research.

The actual model was made using 3D stitch, with Jade then incorporating modern technology in the form of an Arduino board – an easy to program computer board reading data from a sensor which, when held, measured your heart rate. This was represented by the pulsing of a red LED light from within the heart's shell.

“Some people thought it was amazing and wanted to play with it," Jade recalls from watching audiences engage with the final piece. "Some were literally running around the room or holding their breath to physically alter their heartbeat. Others just wouldn't touch it!"

It may have helped in this case that Jade isn't squeamish, but dexterity was also one of the major appeals of the Maker course – where before she had struggled to pinpoint exactly what she wanted to do.

“I definitely love the fact that it's unrestricted in a material sense,” she says.

“The lecturers are highly focused on encouraging us to do every possible workshop, from textiles to glasswork, and people are starting to specialise in some very definite extremes – icing sugar, for example."

Now with ambitions to study for a Masters and become a lecturer, Jade's own education didn't exactly go to plan “I bought it from the indoor market, surprisingly!" Jade before CSAD. laughs. "There was a butcher there who had a few hearts – Ox, lamb and pig – and pig's is the closest to a human's.

“I actually failed Art," she laughs. "I got a D at AS Level They're really cheap," she adds. "One heart cost me and I completely failed my A Level so I was very lucky to about a quid!" get in." An unconditional offer to Cardiff Met introduced The dissection attracted quite a crowd in the studio, Jade Jade to her now-subject leader Ingrid Murphy, whilst advice from a lecturer on her Art Foundation course remembers. "It was very interesting to see the response even in those conceptual stages," she says. "The range of provoked her last-minute switch from Ceramics to Maker. thoughts and how people reacted – I didn't expect that “It was really for the best," says Jade, who hadn't heard of so early on." the course at the time but now feels right at home.

“Honestly, I just like doing things! Maker really gives you the opportunity to get your hands on everything."

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Hannah Makepeace 20, Illustration Thoughtful, sweet and understated– that's how to describe Hannah Makepeace and her latest work as part of Illustration at CSAD. Here, she explains her long-held love of narrative, and newly-discovered passion for colour, pattern and shapes.

A trip to Jacob's Antiques Market made for the beginnings of an animated love story from the mind of talented Illustration student Hannah Makepeace.

“We were encouraged to invent stories from objects or things that we'd found," she explains.

“I found these two little porcelain-type rabbit figures in Peruvian dress, so I invented a love story."

Set in the Peruvian mountains, Hannah's ninety-second animation begins with the wife rabbit hanging out the washing on a blustery day. "There's a strong wind and it sweeps her away with her sheets – up into the air. The story follows the husband rabbit chasing after her before catching her right at the end."

“It was really quite a simple story," Hannah remembers, “but I think it worked."

It was an unusual approach to decide to bring her story to life through animation, one that came about through an early group feedback session.

“Someone saw my work and said that it would look really good as a stop-motion animation, and so I went forward with that." Distancing itself from the express field of digital animation, Hannah describes her project more as “making illustration move."

Each move of the characters was drawn individually, cut out by hand and then surrounded by three-dimensional scenery such as Hannah's fabric mountains. "It's a lot simpler than what it sounds" she says, shyly.

Although she has always been creative, with a long-time love of the stories and work of Oliver Jeffers, it wasn't until her Art Foundation that Hannah, originally from North Devon, seriously considered pursuing Illustration.

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“At A Levels I was always doing a bit of everything, Textiles and Fine Art… I was doing Illustration but I wasn't thinking at the time about going down that route. It was only later I found that Illustration seemed to click as the happy medium, and as the right label for what I did."

Her favourite element of the work, she says, is the narrative.

“What I enjoy the most is anything with a story.”

However, different briefs within her course have enabled Hannah to branch out.

“My work has changed quite a bit from what it was," she explains, remembering a particular project in which she studied David Hockney's set designs and pattern work.

“I've clicked with making patterns, I can keep being new with it. I work quite a lot in colour, pattern and shape and am enjoying playing around with that."

For new ideas, Hannah immerses herself in research – whether picking up a book or sitting down at a computer, she finds inspiration by informing herself about particular artists and mediums.

If anything, her biggest challenge at Level 4 was preventing herself from becoming too immersed. "It sounds obvious, but time-management is a big factor. It's quite hard not to get so involved, but the deadlines set have been good to allow us to develop without being stifled by time."

In the long-term, Hannah has aspirations of establishing herself within the industry, either as a freelancer or working in a studio. Simply enough, as she puts it, “hopefully making a living out of being an Illustrator."

Rosanna Marns 20, Graphic Design Fulfilling a brief is an art in itself, and a competitive one at that.

Here, Graphic Design student Rosanna Marns mixes skill and straight-talking to ambitious effect, and reveals why she'll always fight the corner for her course at CSAD.

Rosanna Marns has got that defiant edge born out of passion for an industry within which she is driven to succeed.

So much so that the question of what she wants to do answers, instead, what she does not want to do: “I'm interested in… not just doing a poster," she says.

“Not being a Graphic Designer who gets a call saying 'Can you make this poster in an hour?' And I really the hate the thought of logos – I want to do something more than that."

But then, being opinionated can hardly be a hindrance to someone in the business of communicating messages in memorable ways. It was because of other people's opinions that Rosanna realised her future was in Graphic Design.

“Basically I was told my work wasn't Fine Art," she explains of her earlier education completing the International Baccalaureate in Penzance, Cornwall, where she had moved from Birmingham at the age of 16.

“The IB was really good because it was so open," she reflects. "And, in the end, a lot of the work I produced lended itself more towards Graphic Design."

“I looked at the previous year's work and I noticed a lot of it was print-based: books, cards, or online… I wanted to do something which had another purpose for after the project."

She started with what she felt she knew for sure; “students drink a lot…” Although originally considering bespoke plastic cups, internet research proved screenprinting would be impossible given the two-week time frame.

Beer mats, too, were considered, but costs were a problem. Ambition, however, still in vast supply, Rosanna finally had her 'lightbulb' moment.

The result? Twenty-six acrylic coasters with the 'A-Z' of everything Rosanna learned in her first year at CSAD, laser-cut by the designer herself.

“They're different but they all have a theme," Rosanna explains. "They're clear perspex, each engraved with a design at the bottom. I've used the same typeface for every major word of each one, and they're pink and orange neon acrylic so they're quite striking. I'm really proud of them."

“I enjoy doing work for other people,” she explains.

“I felt art was often for yourself – if someone else gives me a task I'm more likely to want to do it than if I gave myself a task.”

Having previously attended a London arts university to do her Foundation, Rosanna – who rates InDesign and Illustrator but says she's "not a big fan" of PhotoShop – is particularly vocal about the level of support and atmosphere in Cardiff by comparison.

Perhaps this attitude is why she so excelled in her recent project, fulfilling an 'A-Z' brief aimed at next year's Freshers.

“I didn't get much tutor time in London and it felt like everyone was out for themselves, whereas my impression of Cardiff – and it was right – is that you get a lot of help if you need it and it's a friendly environment.

It's a much better uni life than I found in London."

She still returns to the big city for inspiration, though.

“I go to a lot of exhibitions there, like at the V&A," she says. But her main source of ideas? "Just having conversations. And I'm always doing Mind Maps – I have to write loads of pages before I start doing anything!

I think it's really important to research."

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Naomi Morgan 21, Fine Art Second year Fine Art student, Naomi Morgan, has a quiet way of challenging convention.

Here, she talks printing, portraits and people-watching, and why she won't be setting in stone her plans for after CSAD.

In both of the major briefs which Naomi Morgan undertook during her first year studying Fine Art, the common thread was breaking from tradition to challenge the accepted approach.

The first – The Book Arts Project – invited Naomi to choose an existing book and turn it into something new.

"I picked up a copy of 'Life on Earth' by David Attenborough from a charity shop," she explains. "I was really interested in the imagery of the book so I began to transfer it by printing it onto different materials such as acetate and coloured card."

“I didn't want to show my prints as a traditional book,” Naomi adds. Instead, she wanted to play with conventional display and embrace new surfaces for print work.

In much the same vein, the second brief – portraiture – had 21-year-old Naomi thinking outside the box. It was actually in 'getting stuck', as she remembers, that the idea for her eventual interpretation was born.

“The photography project focused on pushing the boundaries of what I perceived to be a 'typical' portrait,” Namoi recalls. “I took a series of photographs of my younger brother and sister where I'd asked them to remain still for a number of seconds."

“Although I was very much connecting with the process itself, I was struggling to connect with the final images as portraits," she continues. “It was at this point that I began shooting digitally and experimenting with time."

Combing the series of images, all shot with black and white 35mm film, Naomi's created an overlay of portraits.

Reflecting on them now, she likes that there's a certain unease emerging as a consequence; “For example, within the portrait of my younger sister," she says, “the eyes can be seen to overlap. I think it adds an eerie element.”

It is no surprise that Naomi is so drawn to capture personality and essence – she says that people are her biggest inspiration. For her latest work, research consisted of documenting human interaction within a set

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space over a long period of time. Observant and articulate, she has also enjoyed the academic side to her course at CSAD. Last year, Naomi studied the impact of new media in galleries, and explored the theories of museum design and experience as theorised by Carol Duncan and Charlotte Klonk.

“New media is such a prominent part of our culture today," she explains. "I found that the way in which museums and galleries have embraced it has added a whole other element to the experience."

“I really enjoyed researching and writing about it," she adds.

The breadth of Naomi's enthusiasm is reminiscent of the old adage: ‘choose a career you love and you'll never work a day in your life'. But then, this is what she has always wanted to do.

“Ever since I was a really young child I have loved pens and paper," she explains. "I've always collected things – things I would cut out from magazines and newspapers, stickers or old photographs – and I also had an interest in cameras."

She was given her first 35mm camera as a child, she remembers. "It was shaped and decorated like a bee!"

With a love of art which developed throughout her time at school, Naomi's "natural" next step to Foundation, followed by Fine Art, at CSAD was right in front of her.

She'd grown up in Cardiff and had the support of her family, who always taught her to pursue what she most enjoyed.

Given the ways in which she has enjoyed challenging convention since, why should Naomi worry about not having a "definite career" in mind – "I never really have done," she says, charmingly. "It's hard to settle on just one!"

The truth is, at 21, she's already cracked a secret to happiness which some people take their entire adult lives to understand: find something you truly love doing, and simply do more of it.

Sarah Morris 20, Textiles Often, with great story tellers, the best ideas are the simplest and the talent is in the telling. Sarah Morris has such a way with Textiles. Sharp and delightfully quirky, her work is what happens when creativity and commercial appeal lock eyes somewhere wonderfully 'outside the box'.

Two things become immediately obvious when Sarah Morris talks about Textiles. The first is that she is brimming with creativity, the second is that she knows her ideas inside and out. Just shy of becoming the type of artist to get lost within her narratives, Sarah speaks excitedly, as if perched on the outskirts of each project and looking inwards at all it is yet to become.

Her outstanding project in first year was a simple and instantly loveable concept which, when traced back to its roots, only becomes more fulfilling.

“It was called ‘The City Project'," 20-year-old Sarah explains. “It was broad, but I had an idea straight away."

Having just moved from the Swansea area to start Textiles in Cardiff, Sarah chose to afford herself the time "to let myself get lost... to find places and explore."

“Whatever they wrote would become the flavour of the tea," Sarah says. "I'd make the bags out of calico material and fill them with their pieces of paper so that each one would look similar to how they had described it."

She had developed a story to be totally charmed by, evidently, because there was certainly no sign of the British stiff upper lip.

“I feel like I just made people smile,” she reflects.

“When I went to tearooms, people thought it was lovely, and when I sang the hymn praising tea, everyone would start singing with me.”

Indeed, this was exactly the note on which Sarah chose for her project to end, wrapping things up by gathering her friends outside on a picnic blanket for a video shoot on a rare sunny day. "Everyone learned the song She began a tour of local cafés and tearooms, and it and we sang it together and drank tea," she laughs. occurred to her to explore how a cup of tea – a simple, yet iconic, every day event – could bring people together. “It genuinely did bring us together."

With the brief demanding that she also take inspiration from a second location within the city, Sarah started drawing parallels with Llandaff Cathedral – in a truly original way.

“I thought about what brings people together in the church and I thought of hymns, so I wrote a hymn praising tea."

To accompany the song which Sarah, who plays the guitar, wrote and performed herself, she also made around a dozen hand-stitched tea bags. The family members and friends that had joined Sarah on what she affectionately calls her "tea journey" were asked to write down their thoughts of this most British of traditions.

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Enjoying her work with zero pretence, she adds "I love being creative. On this course, I'm able to combine my hobbies and hopes for the future."

Sarah originally set out to do Fine Art, but changed to Textiles after Foundation having realising her biggest interest was in working with materials. "The first year really helped," she remembers, having little experience of textiles beforehand. "We did loads of workshops, the tutors are really helpful and you can definitely see a development from first year to second."

She now considers Graphic Design and Illustration to be among her biggest influences, and aspires to work commercially in interior design – a promising next chapter, then, for an artist already so skilled at weaving many sub-plots into one.

Nicola Murtagh 27, Architectural Design and Technology At sixteen, Nicola Murtagh was tipped for having a talent in art and physics which would lend itself well to architecture.

It wasn't until a decade later that she'd realise it for herself, by which point she'd have the background, drive and – crucially – the self-awareness to grow into her own.

Nicola Murtagh started her career in Fine Art. Originally from Northern Ireland, she says "I was very driven and single-minded in what I wanted to do."

Somebody had told her, already, that her flair for physics and talent for art had the promise of a future in Architecture. But, as Nicola puts it, “being sixteen, I was like 'I'll do what I want'." Looking back, there are early indicators of a split decision. Drawing was Nicola's big passion and, while portraiture was her main focus, buildings were a close second. "I ended up drawing a lot of buildings," she says. "I was very interested in lighting."

After a year as a self-employed artist, Nicola knew she had to go back to that earlier fork in her path. "When I was doing Fine Art – as much as I love it – I pretty much spent every single day of my life drawing. There was no distinct line between work and leisure time so I ended up feeling like it wasn't for me anymore."

“After that I didn't draw for about two months," she remembers.

When she finally returned to her sketchbook and noticed the prominence that architecture was taking, she decided: "Maybe I could be designing buildings for myself."

The decision to study in Cardiff was made during one specific moment of Nicola's selection interview, she recalls. "I saw the work that was being put out by the students at the time and I was completely blown away by it. I knew I would love to be on this course."

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Her biggest achievement therein, to date, has been in ‘The Monmouth Project.'

“We were given a wee plot of land in Monmouth," she explains, "It was south facing… in terms of getting light into your building it was pretty perfect." The task required Nicola to decide upon materials – the more sustainable the better. "At the moment it's very important to consider reclaimed and recycled materials," she says.

“I actually ended up specifying some reclaimed stone for this brief, as well as making it a timber frame building."

What becomes more and more clear is that Nicola thrives on technical details, and – to use her own word – adores the ins and outs of architecture.

“I like to have a challenge, I need to be constantly thinking things over,” she says. “If I'm not I don't feel like I'm spending my time as I should.

It's sort of a puzzle... It's finding the different ways I could possibly resolve something and in the most clean cut manner, as well as in a way that ensures the entire structure is sound.”

Architectural Design and Technology clearly tops Fine Art in her own experience, although she is keen to draw parallels. "It's similar in that your style naturally grows from your influences at the time – those become engrained in your work," she says.

And what of that elusive work/leisure balance in her new field? "I actually still enjoy drawing buildings," she says.

"And now that I have a bit more of the technical knowhow, I can draw them with more clarity and meaning."

Alexandra Purnell 21, Textiles A broad brief was made touching by Textiles student Alexandra Purnell, finding inspiration in her late grandfather's story which would resonate with others in a very real way.

Twenty-one-year-old Alexandra Purnell had been set the task of choosing any Cardiff landmark as the basis for her next project. In Llandaff Cathedral, a simple and poignant feature made the decision for her – little did she know that her work would feature on the same walls only weeks later.

“I've always had a personal connection with remembrance service," she explains. Back in her home town of Bristol, she attended every year with her dad, uncle and grandfather, before he passed away. "When I was in Llandcaff Cathedral and I saw the memorial plaque, it made me remember lots of the stories and personal accounts of war my grandfather had told me."

A subsequent visit to the Cardiff Military Museum gave Alexandra's idea a local edge. "I thought I'd relate it to Cardiff and illustrate the personal stories of Cardiff soldiers," she says.

Her eventual piece was a devoré print, emblazoned with words from the poems of former soldiers of the world wars and their families. "I used a technique where I burned out part of the fabric," Alexandra explains, “so it was more of a 'taking away' than a 'printing onto' something… I think that illustrates well the sense of faded memories I wanted to get across."

“The soldiers and all their hard work were never forgotten,” she muses, “we still celebrate it.”

In fact, her piece was displayed inside Llandaff Cathedral for Remembrance Day 2013. "That was an amazing opportunity to have," Alexandra says, crediting the tutors who "have worked really hard to collaborate with the Cathedral" and to establish similar opportunities for students to get their work displayed in public.

“It was really nice to see," she continues, remembering the "hidden memories and personal stories" which emerged as a result.

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The most-part of first year, Alexandra remembers, was all about experimentation, with opportunities spanning from plaster to 3D stitch. Having transferred from Plymouth University after a year studying Illustration, she's been in her element ever since. "I've always been into fabric and print and making quite tactile pieces," she explains, "but I thought I'd challenge myself and do Illustration, but I realised it wasn't the right decision."

What particularly drew Alexandra to Cardiff were the workshop opportunities; "we learn loads of techniques we can bring into our work," she remarks. And, in the end, there were positives of having some previous training at degree-level: "I learned a lot of digital software like Photoshop and Illustrator at Plymouth," Alexandra explains. "Now I can experiment with them rather than try and learn them – that's done well for me."

Currently, Alexandra is enjoying working with children in mind, having taken a keen interest in the subject of their creative development. "When they draw a person," she gives as an example, "they have all the features but it's not realistic." The challenge in designing for this market, she adds, is in appealing to both parent and child. Using primary colours and stencilling technique, Alexandra explains, "the designs have got to be sophisticated but expressive and child-like at the same time."

Although keen to take this new interest into the working world after university, and certainly to pursue interiors in general further, Alexandra is equally set on avoiding limitations. "I find it quite fascinating how a lot of designers now aren't just doing interiors or design for fashion, they can design for everything," she says.

Indeed, her first year portfolio alone has shown that she can handle art as capably as practical and design briefs – the only question is how she will choose to build upon it, and the jist of her answer suggests openness is key.

“I'd like to work with someone who is experimental and can work in more than one discipline – someone challenges conventional ways of designing."

Nicola Snowden 20, Fine Art When Nicola Snowden first arrived at CSAD from Newcastle, there was no doubt about the fact that she was enrolled in the right course. What she couldn't have predicted, however, is how it would surprise her.

“I guess I've always been quite creative," Nicola says.

“All the way through school and A Levels I purposely chose art-based subjects because they were the ones I preferred and felt more drawn towards. They were my stronger subjects, over academic subjects, and if ever I had the chance to join a club I'd always choose the creative-based ones."

A general Art and Design Foundation "cemented" her ambitions to pursue Fine Art further. Little did she know that her studies would lead her in an entirely new direction.

“Before this year I'd never really been drawn towards photography but that's what I'm doing now and what I'm most interested in," she explains.

“That's down to the course," she says. "In Foundation we could do whatever we wanted. Coming to uni, it's realising there's certain topics and mediums you could be interested in. Applying and pushing yourself to develop your work in just those areas is really interesting."

The first year project Nicola most enjoyed allowed her to explore a developing passion for photography. Given the theme of 'interconnectedness' and having chosen her medium, Nicola worked in a group to explore the impact of natural elements on the human world or built environments.

“We started taking photographs at night on long exposures of things like water fountains," she explains.

“I felt it had a nice flow and rhythm, whilst long exposure gave you the blur of the water moving."

Nicola later used a projector to shine the photograph on to blank studio walls, where she then re-photographed it.

"I felt it gave it that extra level of depth," she reveals.

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The success of the project, she explains, is feeling that she was able to present natural elements for people to think about. "It was bringing to attention, if you like, things you wouldn't necessarily notice if you weren't looking for them."

Already with a strong portfolio of mixed media work and wary of pigeon-holing herself, Nicola continues to explore photography alongside other areas such as plaster, ceramics and contemporary drawing artists.

“I want to branch out a bit more before I write my dissertation and specialise in one thing – just to make sure that's exactly what I'm most comfortable with," she explains.

So where does she get her inspiration? “I use the internet for quick searches a lot,” she says. “I like going to galleries as well. Apart from that, just ordinary things like going to the cinema, seeing a film or reading a book – all of those can spark interests.”

Crediting her tutors for their support, Nicola reflects on the biggest challenge of her first year. "I think what I found the hardest was being really critical and analytical of what I was doing – sometimes it's hard to articulate yourself or justify your work to the tutor or your friends when they're asking what you are doing, why, and where you plan to take it."

“It can feel like it's all there, in your head, but hard to put into words," she says. "But I feel like I'm getting better at that now."

Rebecca Sawyer 22, third year Graphic Communications and Student Rep For all the nerves of moving away and creating your own path to follow, there is so much to gain from being challenged to grow.

Here, Student Rep Rebecca reflects on three years at CSAD, and reveals the only thing a new student needs to come into their own.

When Rebecca Sawyer first arrived in Cardiff, having travelled five and a half hours from home, the school had a big promise to fulfil. Would it be worth the journey?

Would she fit in, make friends, find inspiration, and ultimately, succeed?

Yet there should be no false sense of security. "The tutors would rather see an idea that didn't work out than something that's really safe," Rebecca says. "First year is the time to push yourself – it's when you can learn that failure isn't necessarily a bad thing."

Now, with graduation in sight, Rebbeca is in exactly the position to appreciate all the ways in which CSAD met and exceeded her expectations.

The open-spaced studios encourage this attitude, as students critique and support the work developing all around them. Certainly, with the university's new building offering a designated space for each student – a collective hub of mood boards and off-cuts, rough drafts and final pieces – there's never a shortage of inspiration.

Not least among those, is feeling in a strong position to progress. "To get a degree and come out being able to go into a job is really important, especially now," she says.

The biggest aspect of that, she reflects, has been the opportunity to build contacts and collaborate with industry professionals. In one such instance, Rebecca saw her ideas realised with world renowned design consultancy PDR. "We'd created a feedback booklet for keynote speakers at their conference," she explains.

“They were postcards; on one side, they had the name and face of the keynote speakers and, on the other, they were blank. At the end of the day we collected all these scribbled-on notes and a few days later we bundled them up and sent them to the speakers." It was a moneycan't-buy opportunity for the students, earned on the strength of their understanding of the brief.

“Normally, you wouldn't get to go to the conference unless you were volunteering," Rebecca says, her voice still ringing with excitement. "We met people who were key in their field, with the chance to speak to people in the business and from all over the world."

“Art is one of those things everybody shares," Rebecca reiterates. "You learn to talk to one another and present yourself. It's always constructive."

And when it's time to unwind, the city has a lot to offer.

“There's a great night life, plus so much going on in the bay and at Chapter Arts. We go down there about once a month," she says. “They do a lot of work with Cardiff Design Festival – another fantastic thing for students to get involved with."

With hopes of studying a Masters before starting her design career, Rebecca isn't ready to leave the university just yet. So what's her biggest piece of advice for new students?

“You just have to want to be there," she says. "You live and breathe Art and Design and it gets very tiring."

Back in the studio, the support of tutors goes a long way in equipping students with the confidence to harness such opportunities.

“Sometimes you will spend hours in the studio and something still won't feel right," she adds. "You have to push through and have that perseverance."

“As a Student Rep, I get to work with the course directors now," Rebecca explains. “There's never a stupid question or idea, they treat you as equal. You build a good rapport because, especially in first year, you talk to and confide in them a lot."

It's a telling answer, as nothing marks an artist like their inability to give into even the most crippling of creative blocks. And, by the way, that's not something which is taught; it's inherent, and the one thing every student at CSAD has in common from the moment they arrive.

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Credits: Copywriting: Vikki Hutton Photography: Mal Bennet, CSAD, Cardiff Met Design: Sarah Garwood, Creative Services, Cardiff Met