Home Assignment
So, after doing London stuff, I had four days to do my home assignment before flying to Scotland and to the Netherlands after.
We had to choose a socially relevant subject, that is somehow personal, and we had to create a poster with just typography and ten images that go with it.
I tried to make a basic idea and concept on the airplane on my way back from London. Research took pretty long at home, because I wanted to make infographics.
My theme was about immigrants because well, my looks, my nationality and the place where I grew up and still live are all very different. I did my research on Hungary, the place where I live and the Netherlands and England, which are places where I might go.
Since I am very illustrative, I had a hard time using just typography to create a poster. I chose to make an image from letters and made an infographic using a hundred letter of "i"s which each represent a person (1 %) and colour them by using my information on immigrants and a skin colour map.
My main introduction is about being an outsider because of one's looks or nationality. By choosing my theme I was mainly influenced by the changes in the educational system and the rapidly growing anti-foreighner mentality in Hungary (in 2013, 40% of Hungarian residents are said to be racist by tárki.hu).
In the next three images I colour coded each country and used their own language to show information. These images were drawn to show stereotypes, introducing the countries.
The last six images are all infographics showing some information on immigrants. The left pie chart shows all residents and the right pie chart shows immigrants only, which holds the exact same information as the bottom three images.
Admissions
After arrival we all had to wait in the canteen. I had a great chat with other participants, mostly with Product Designers. My first thing to notice, was that I really stood out. The school was full of people with wild looks (piercing, vibrantly coloured hair, daring clothes, etc.) and it kind of felt like I didn't belong there. Also, I didn't get a chance to talk to other foreigners (if there were any).
After waiting for 15-20 minutes, they finally called all Graphic Design participants to go upstairs and put down our portfolio on a table with our name card for the first round, then we had to return to the canteen and wait for a few hours. They provide free wifi in the building, but a book would've been nice to keep my mind away. Waiting for the results was quite nerve-racking.
After those few hours they call us again, and we are led to a room where a speech was given. After going back to the portfolio-room we had to grab our portfolios and go home if the name card was still on it, or otherwise go back to the canteen and wait for the second round, which was the interview. I honestly looked through everything to make sure I don't unnecessary wait in the canteen. Heck, I even looked under the table and searched a bit around the portfolio that was next to me.
I started to panic after waiting for 1,5-2 hours in the canteen. All my chat-buddies went home and the place started vacancy. Still I assumed they either forgot about me, or there was nothing to forget, because I simply didn't make it to the next round. In the end a few second year students sat with me for a chat and helped me figure it all out. Turns out I was last to go (I waited 6 hours total that day). They gave me some tips on the interview, for which I am thankful to this day.
The interview went pretty well. The teachers were very polite and listened to what I had to say. I'm happy they liked my home assignment and they appreciated my works in the traditional media as well. They also told what parts of my portfolio they didn't like, which I really liked.
Results
After a week or two I received an e-mail that I was accepted. I still haven't decided which school I want to attend. All I heard and know about HKU is that the first year is traditional media only, the teacher-student relationship is great, but the school is a bit messy and unorganised. Also, what I know is, that animation students tend to want to go there.
Oh, and I got on the wait-list at Edinburgh College of Arts, which is pretty neat.
