In my last post I described the hell I went through at my new high school in a strange suburb where I didn’t have a single friend and battling academic endeavors were poor to say the least. Having a social network at this age is fundamental. I didn’t have this and I left halfway through year 10. I don't regret it for a moment. This was liberating! There were bigger things to move onto.
In 2000 I enrolled in a diploma course in graphic design and visual communication in Elsternwick (I know this was a million years ago) This school since closed and I can’t find them even on Google. Maybe I just imagined these two years!
In my initial interview, the head honcho interviewed me and looked at my work, which consisted of Microsoft pain art, no Photoshop, and I presented a number of paintings. I was accepted on the spot. I was warned I would be the youngest in the class and I had to hold a certain level of maturity. I did my best but I was a teen, who knows what shenanigans I had planned.
The trip to class was a bit of a big one. I caught buses, trains and trams and it took me well over an hour and half to make it to class. I loved the transport. It gave me the chance to read my latest design magazines and keep up to date with current events by scanning the newspaper.
Day one of classes: This was mostly an introduction to the course and a get-to-know my fellow students. I automatically connected to my comrades. This was a mix of people who had been through VCE and some elderly folk wanting to make an introduction to the design industry. I was amongst my people. Country boy meets city! At first I enrolled mostly for the fine arts but it wasn’t long before I fell in love with the design programs using the G4 Mac. Photoshop was my passion and I still dabble in this, but I found love in web design, meaning I had classes in Flash, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks, Photoshop and QuarkXPress also. I’m totally out of the touch with these programs 25 years later. So much has changed and updated. Today I focus on my fine art.
I met some awesome people who I have lost contact with. Nathan, Dan and Heath reach out if you read this. Every lunch we would go to the same burger shop and there may or may not have been some pot smoking intervals between classes. It was an art school after all. Most of this was done with my teaches!
After this was all over instead of finding employment in the industry I created my own business in web and print design. I did really well with this before becoming unwell and not being able to liaise with my clients. I was in and out of hospital and couldn’t keep up with my commitments. I left a lot of unsatisfied companies in the lurch. There was nothing I could do about this.
Still, art school was the greatest thing I ever did. I also did some certificate courses in fine art with a teacher who put me under his wing at the same school. The whole experience is in my distant past but I still have the memories.