We were invited in to our former school (Sherburn High School) to talk to groups of year 5 Art students about the highs and lows of being involved in the art/design industry and also running your own business.
Personally, I vividly remember a similar moment happening to me over 25 years ago.
A former student gate crashed my beloved double art lesson claiming to be a "graphic designer" and wanted to show us her portfolio of work. I didn't have a clue what a graphic designer was (or did), so I sat politely and listened and looked.
From that moment on I have been forever in her debt as I have worked as a graphic designer/artists ever since. Therefore I felt duty bound that we would return to our old "stomping ground" and hopefully inspire other students in the same way.
We waxed lyrical about all things creative including social media, brand awareness, the importance of standing out "from the crowd" and everything in between. To be fair the students sat and listened very patiently and even asked the odd question or two.
Fortunately we brought a couple of our huge acrylic wall arts with us and when we showed these they really caught their attention! The were interested in not only the art styles but also how they were printed, produced and sold.
This also led to a discussion about the thriving video game industry and how art plays a pivotal role in the production of any AAA or Indie game title.
We were very surprised to learn that one of the students was in fact a budding concept artists himself and his end of year project featured several manga and concept inspired art pieces.
It was great to talk about our business journey and spread the love for digital art.
Hopefully we have inspired a few budding artists who will go on to enjoy a rewarding and profitable artistic career.
We would like to end with a big thank you to all the students for listening to us, Mrs Landon for inviting us in and Sherburn High School for letting us share our vision.
