School of Communication Arts 2.0

INTRODUCTION

This part of the site runs on wiki –  just like wikipedia – which means that these pages can be edited by you. Even this page is editable. After registering as a mentor, you will be able to edit these pages too. Lucky you! To edit any page, simply go to the bottom and click ‘Edit Page’.

The editing of pages takes place inside an intuitive web editing page. It works just like a basic word processor. When you have finished editing, don’t forget to press the Update Page button or your hard work will have been wasted.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?

This part of the School’s website is a repository, where information that can help to prepare the next generation of talent is stored. We are focusing on three vocations; copywriter, art director and ideapreneur. Information added to this wiki by our mentors will be used to deliver the Diploma in Communication Arts that we are creating with University of the Arts London Awarding Body. It will also be freely available for everyone’s benefit.

Each of the links below will take you to the wiki page for that unit of the Diploma. We estimate that our Diploma will consist of about 45 units across the three vocational pathways, but we expect to be merging and expanding the unit list behind the scenes if we are guided to by the mentor community.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

When you have registered as a mentor, you will be given the ability to edit any page of the wiki. Find the wiki page for the unit that you would like to contribute to, scroll to the bottom of that page and then click on the ‘Edit Page’ link.

The objective is to populate these wikis so that they become encyclopaedic pages, indexing the knowledge that a graduate needs to be able to display. You can help either by proposing topics that need to be learned, suggesting ways that these topics may be learned, or by referencing case studies.

EXAMPLES

We have seeded a few ideas in some of the wikis. Some of these ideas are intended to flesh out a unit with kernels of knowledge that students should be expected to learn. Others are simply ways of delivering knowledge in an interesting way.

Example 1 – ‘Typography and Visual Culture’
We thought that it might be interesting for students to be taken to a cemetery to witness the evolution of typography, so we wrote the idea in our post. Then an old student of John’s remembered doing a typography exercise that involved designing a new typeface to spell out the name of an animal, so he commented below our post. Another post has been added, suggesting that we should discuss the ways in which art directors decide which font to use, and reminds us to educate students about the common font formats – TrueType, PostScript and Open Type.

Example 2 -   ‘Mobile Campaigns’ and ‘The Network’
We saw a campaign by PayPal that could become a case study for two units. PayPal has launched an iPhone application, making it possible to manage transactions on the phone. PayPal have been promoting the mobile application over Christmas with email marketing and a Facebook group. We have posted an example of their email marketing and a link to their Facebook Group in the two relevant Discussion Threads.