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Art Department - March 20th, 2025

I went to this event not expecting a lot. I didn't know what was going to happen. I went with 3 of my fellow students.

When we first got there was an interesting light installation.

This was the first thing that we saw as we entered the event. We were entertained by it for a bit

Then we continued to the next section, which was a game design studio (if I remember correctly).

I found this really interesting because I have been thinking about choosing 'game design' for a minor in the next semester. On one hand, I could see the amazing things that these people came up with and on the other hand, it felt kind of intimidating because everything looked so good I felt like I could never compare to this level.

After my minor existential crisis, we continued through the venue.

There were a lot of stands with people showing items that they made themselves, this reminded me a bit more of what we have also done in the previous semesters with branding. I liked seeing these stands because you could see the themes and things that these students(I believe) were interested in and passionate about.

There were also quite a few fantasy-themed stands and I found these really cool because I also like fantasy themes. These stands also made me realize that it's possible to embrace certain themes completely. Not that I didn't know this was possible, but I think this is the first time I have seen it like this and not in a theme park format (?). it also inspired me a bit to make things that I find interesting, not that I had a revelation but it was cool to see.

After going past the stands we went back to the beginning of the venue were there where these drawing tablets.

I have been thinking about getting a drawing tablet in the back of my mind for a while now. So, it was cool that I could try out some more professional ones. I'm far from good at drawing but it might be something I'm interested in developing more as a side skill. I have been painting and stuff like that for my whole life but I've never done it digitally.

We also went to a seminar given by an artist.

The artist was Feefal. I had never heard of her before, but after seeing her work on the big screens, I was intrigued. She talked about a lot of things, but one thing that stuck with me was her story about how she made characters of cells, and that she did a lot of research into how everything worked exactly so that people who worked in that field could also appreciate her art. This stuck with me because it made me realize that research will always be necessary to create the best version of what you have in mind. So if I ever decide to make one of my works on a certain theme, I should try to dive deeper into it.

I also liked how she made her art, combining two elements and keeping it simple, clear, and relatable. It motivated me a little to maybe pick up drawing again/more.

We also went to one of the film festival events.

This was interesting to see because we got to see a few different students' work and it was really interesting to see how these different people came up with completely different concepts and drawing styles.

Career day - 17th of April

In the image above, you can see my ticket for the career day. I will be exploring job vacancies at this event.

The jobs I will be looking for:

At the upcoming Career Day, I'll be exploring job vacancies in the design and game design sectors. I'm especially interested in positions where I can focus on visual design and creating engaging user interfaces. Roles such as graphic designer, UI designer, or game designer appeal to me, as they allow me to apply my creativity and design skills without being heavily involved in user research, surveys, or data collection. While I'm comfortable testing and refining designs, I prefer to focus more on the creative and technical aspects of the design process. Salary is an important consideration for me, so I will also be looking for roles that offer competitive pay and opportunities for career growth.

Specialization research

Because I am interested in potentially choosing Game Design to be my specialization for the next semester (semester 4) I looked into it a bit.

I read through the specializations that I thought I would find interesting. I went in thinking I would like game design the best, and that proved to be true. So, after looking at the specialization info, I went to YouTube and looked at three different videos regarding game design. Here are my findings:

At first wrote what I found interesting in my notes.

After writing the notes, I used ChatGPT to construct my notes better.

In this document, I wrote my findings and the conclusion I came to.

On the actual career day, I first went and checked out the specializations, even though I already knew that I wanted to choose game design.

We also went to the game design stand and basically got told that we would not find work in that field except if we were the best of the best, which was maybe not the nicest thing to hear. We did get told that if you do applied gaming that there is work to find there. This, however, did not stop me from choosing the game design specialization.

After seeing all the stands, we decided to go to the next floor, the floor where all the companies were.

It was very busy during the career day, so we did not stay very long. There were also surprisingly few companies that interested me. Only one I found seemed okay.

The company was called Stuurmen Branding Agency, and it just seemed like a pretty straightforward branding company, not very interesting, but the only one that seemed fine because I like branding a decent amount.

Excursion to Germany

My group and I went to Germany to explore a real Roman village.

We did this to maybe get a better understanding of how the colosseum was built, but the colosseum they had there was very simple, and there was not much we could get from it. Even though our mission failed, I did enjoy the day, and it was good for team building. It was also just interesting to see all the things they had there because I like history.