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you want to teach and find a video to match. When teaching technical elements, I’ll ensure that I have related videos for many of the lessons coming up, as backups for absent students and those keen to recap certain topics and processes. Link towhat students love It seems that nearly everything we encounter and interact with nowadays includes some form of branding, visual identity or graphic design. Let students decide what the focus of their projects should be, and then use this as a base to which you can link the teaching. Our course covers logo and typography design, websites and packaging – all of which can be applied to any number of sectors. Take an album, for example – there will be a logo indicating the record label, website and social media details for the musicians, the dimensions of surrounding packaging itself, the CD cover and the typography used across it all. I ask students to pick any brand – a product, place, film, album, book or campaign they’re interested in. The only area we steer clear of is game design, since games already have such a clear visual element. This is, of course, covered across the duration of a 2-year A Level course, and you don’t have to do it all. You could tackle just one area. Decide if logos play to your strengths, or if typography is what excites you. That way, your students can gain insights into applied art while still leaving time for those fine art activities. Consider other pathways I’ve focused so far on graphics, as that’s what I teach, but ‘applied’ can refer to any outcome that has a commercial end product. Could your students photograph the rehearsals for the school’s next big theatre production and design the program? Could they design sculptures for a shared space within the school grounds and create a maquette as their outcome? Could they redesign the art block with architectural drawings, or design the bedroom of their dreams, complete withmood boards, fabric samples and their own self-designed lamp? One of our ex-students, who nowworks as an architect, visits us from time to time and sits in on lessons. After recounting a potted history of his journey from this very college to his current career, he sets the students a design brief hinging on a specific problem at a certain location, and provides themwith a map of the surrounding land and existing building(s). Most recently, this activity concerned a football club that needed to rebuild its changing facilities. The brief presented a mix of limits and possibilities and challenged students to find a balance between the two. For that lesson, the students were able to experience the type of work undertaken by practising architects and consider it as a possible career route. Indeed, several students stayed after the session to grill him, keen as they were to find out more. So whatever you do, don’t overlook this varied and exciting aspect of art education. It’s where many of our students will likely end up, should they choose to enter the world of creative work – so let’s show them how to get started. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hannah Day is head of art, media and film at Ludlow College ONLINE INSPIRATIONS If you’re unsure where to start with teaching applied art, see if the following suggestions can get those creative juices flowing... PHOTOGRAPHY You can find plenty of visually inspiring feeds on Instagram – one I particularly love is @things_i_see_when_its_ quiet. Get students to record their visual style – maybe it’s muted colours, geometric shapes, industrial locations – then respond to their work, presenting it in the same grid format. TEXTILE DESIGN Instagram user @imakestagram is full of crazy tutorials. Her original clothing garments are somewhat resource-heavy, but her accessories are made with everyday items and easy for students to recreate themselves. Link to millenary, footwear or costume design to widen the contextual base. ARCHITECTURE Tiny Houses (see their Facebook page at facebook.com/itinyhouses ) serves up numerous examples of compact living. Use these as inspiration to get students designing their own living space with a series of limits. This links well to environmental, housing supply and cost concerns. FREE RESOURCES A ‘Bauhaus’ graphics project containing class/homework activities, visual displays and evaluation questions bit.ly/ts141-AA1 57 teachwire.net/secondary T H E A R T S