Art and Design Fundamentals

Not sure yet whether your future lies in illustration, graphic design or animation? Art and Design Fundamentals is a one-year Ontario College Certificate, taught over two semesters at Cambrian College’s Barrydowne campus in Sudbury, and it is designed to let you test several creative disciplines before you commit to one. Because it is a portfolio building programme, you do not need a portfolio to apply.

The first semester lays the groundwork with Ideas & Imagery, Design Fundamentals, Colour and Design, Fundamentals of Drawing and Fine Art Studio 2D, alongside Art and Design Communication and an early look at layout in Graphic Design Studio. In the second semester your drawing deepens through Life Drawing, Drawing from your Imagination and Analytical Drawing, while Applied Colour, Applied Multimedia and Fine Art Studio 3D push your ideas into new media. Introduction to Art History and Decolonizing the Creative Arts give your studio practice a critical and cultural context.

Cambrian runs the programme as studio learning shared with classmates heading towards different creative fields, so you learn to critique and explain your work as well as make it. You work in Adobe Creative Cloud on your own laptop, and the group has the opportunity to create and install a mural that improves a public space. Graduates can transfer all of their credits into year two of Cambrian’s Design and Visual Arts diploma, or apply to Animation, Game Design, Graphic Design or Media Communications with a far stronger portfolio in hand.

With this certificate, graduates can start in entry-level creative roles such as junior design assistant, art studio assistant, print production assistant or mural assistant, although most use the year as a springboard into a specialised diploma. Art and Design Fundamentals suits people who sketch constantly, want honest feedback on their drawing and colour work, and would rather explore 2D, 3D and multimedia art before choosing a single creative path.