Studies reflexion

I’ve never been so close to the end of my student life, which feel exciting and scary at the same time. Being a student is nice because you have the freedom of not being a teenager anymore, without all the responsibilities of being an adult.

But after 6 years of studies, I can’t wait to have a job. Being independent and able to do something else than studying and eating pasta. Start to build a career, doing concrete stuffs and hopefully feeling proud of my work. Seeing some of my dreams becoming reals and simply moving forward in life.

6 years of studying is quite a long time. I went to lots of different Uni/schools – doing something slightly different almost every year. Let’s dedicate this SCAB to reflect on my journey and see what every year brought to me, and how all of this experience made me the Gémina I’m today.

2013 – End of secondary school, Economic and social baccalaureate, Le Mans.
I’m 17, I just finished secondary school where I had good results during 3 years without working too much. I particularly love sociology and writing, but also art and design. I decide to mix all of that and go into a public school to study Communication, aiming for a “BTS” (Diploma in 2 years). I wanted to move from my mom’s house so I decided to go in Angers, 1 hour from home, also because the guy that I fancy used to live there (which, to be honest, was quite naive and stupid).

Best thing I’ve learned

I remembered that we had an hour per week of learning photoshop. It was like a revelation, this is so cool, I thought – I want to do that more.

Reflexion

Was nice to experience freedom for the first time, wasn’t nice to live in a little student room. The course was boring, I had the feeling to still be in secondary school, to not learn anything. Basically, that it was too easy for me (sounds arrogant, but true) so I decided to find something else for the following year. I finished the year because when you start something, you have to go to the end.

2014 – Plastic Art + Art History, Uni of Rennes
So I decided to go from a public school to Uni. It went from 35 hours a week to 20 hours, so the rhythm was pretty nice. It was a really abstract course, were all I did was painting and drawing abstract stuffs and then find a reason why (I was pretty good at finding a sense out of nothing). I also studied Art History which was the best part of it.

Best thing I’ve learned

This year really opened my brain about art and culture, made me learn a lot more stuff about art which was really useful to understand a lot of what happen today.

Reflexion

Made me realise I’m not an artist. I’m creative, I love finding ideas, but I felt like I needed to do it for a reason. So I though I should go in a design school, to do object, space or graphic design.

2015 – Design, Institute of Colour, Image and Design, Montauban
So I applied to go in a design institute in the south of France. I didn’t want to start from the beginning obviously, because I already did 2 years of study, so I asked to get in directly in year 2 and they said yes.

Best things I’ve learned

This school opened me to the world of design, and I fucking loved it. Giving a proper meaning of beautiful design and aesthetic appeared to me like the best thing you can do in your life. This year was quite general and I navigated between space, object, food and graphic design. I realised that graphic design was my favourite bit. What an amazing power to be able to create visuals and aesthetics and using them to communicate a message.

Reflexion

Alright, so after this year I definitely knew what I wanted to do, it would be graphic design and nothing else. The problem was that this institute wasn’t really known, and didn’t pushed craft leaning enough. I decided to meet an Art Director and to ask him some advice on how to reach this goal. He talked to me about Brassart, a private graphic design school with a good reputation, that cares more about people and their potential than about actual skills. I decided to apply.

2016 to 2018 – Brassart graphic design school, Tours
The bad news was that I had to leave the south of France to go back north. I had an interview with the director of the school where I managed to show how motivated and ambitious I was despite the weakness of my skills. And good news, he believed in me and decided I could integrate the school directly in year 3.

Best thing I’ve learned

Well, everything. All my graphic design skills. I learned how to present, how to write. Why green should never go with red, what is a grid, how to use adobe properly, how to do motion design, illustration, how to choose a typography. I also had an amazing teacher of Art History who makes me learn so much about the story of Design and the vanguards. I loved her, I remember that she gave me a 19/20 for a presentation about Francis Bacon. I also had my first placement in Paris, then an another one in Montreal.

Reflexion

Well, it was amazing! I mean, I’ve learned about everything about graphic design during the 2 years I spent there. But as the month went on, I realised that I wanted to use these skills for more than making things look cool, and that I didn’t want to just craft someone else idea. I had more ambition, so after graduation, I decided that I wanted to go farther. I wanted to be an art director, why not in advertising, so I started to look at school where I could do a masters degree. I hear about SupDePub, which is a pretty famous french ad school. After my placement in Montreal, I wanted to go abroad again, so I applied for the course in London in partnership with… SCA obviously. The interview went well and here I am.

2018

As we know, I started with SupDePub then managed to stay in SCA.

Best thing I’ve learned

Well, everything, again. Everything about advertising. This part could be a SCAB on his own, so I will keep it short, but I definitely learned so much here, and I’m still learning.

Reflexion

I think I could say a lot again, but I will probably keep that for my last SCAB. Also, I don’t like talking and making a statement before something end, could bring bad luck! I just hope everything is gonna end well, but I feel alright. The only thing I can say is that I won a D&AD pencil and I’m proud!

6 years of learning, of finding myself. As a general reflexion I’ll say that everything you do brings you where you are, and there are no wrong paths, no wrong decisions, you just have to keep only the best of it, and never give up. There is someone outside who’s gonna like you and see the potential in you. Just find him. Because in general, people are nice to you if you are nice to them!

Gem ?