Highest NCAD Scores for portfolio submissions

We would like to congratulate all of the students in the Art Group B and Fashion Design Studios that have received their portfolio results from all the various Art Colleges over the last few weeks. There is always an underlying nervousness when we hear that results have been issued! Students have worked especially hard throughout the year to get to this point not knowing where they will be progressing to next year.

Over the years our students have been very successful with the offers that they receive from the 3rd Level Colleges and we have a very high progression rate to 3rd Level. Some students end up with 4 or 5 conditional offers which is fantastic.

This year we have had students apply to ATU Galway, TUS Limerick, MTU Cork, NCAD, IADT, TUDublin, University of Ulster and Sunderland University in the UK. Portfolio scores are generally marked out of 600marks with the exception of NCAD. Galway scored our students in the high 500s, Limerick also scored our students in the very high 500s. We had students achieving full marks for MTU Cork which is a testament to the standard of portfolio submitted.

NCAD have always intrigued us with how they grade the portfolios. Assessing Art and Design portfolios can be so very subjective and yet our students have always done well at the assessment stage of the application process. This year we were blown away by some of the results. One of our Level 6 students achieved the highest score ever given to one of our students.

Anna Pieper

Anna Pieper is a super talented artist/designer. She has worked very hard to produce an incredible portfolio of work. Anna hopes to pursue her studies at degree level in Fashion Design. She scored an absolute amazing score of 975/1000 for her portfolio for Fashion Design in NCAD. It will go down in the History books of this studio as the score to beat for NCAD! Anna has had a very productive year in DIFE. She also placed in the recent LMETB Inter Schools Art Competition for the Further Education Category judged by the wonderful and highly respected Robert Ballagh. Annas work was exhibited in the Droichead Arts Centre alongside the other winners. Anna has also applied to NCAD via their direct entry route to 2nd year and eagerly awaits word on this. She is a super star and we will watch her progress closely and hope she remembers us when she is rich and famous!

Wishing all our wonderful students the best of luck in their final QQI Assessments and we wish them every success in their future studies in their chosen disciplines.

One Add-On Year to complete Degree in Fashion

Aleksandra Milenberga

The Fashion Department are delighted to announce the dawn of a new and very exciting relationship with Sunderland University in the UK. After a recent visit to our studios they were so impressed by the standard of the work being produced in the room they had some great news to offer our students.

They suggested offering our students the option of one final year to complete a BA(Hons) in Fashion Design and Promotion on successful completion of our Level 6 Advanced Fashion! Our students will have the opportunity to apply directly to Sunderland once they complete the Level 6 Programme in DIFE and successful candidates will be offered this amazing opportunity to secure their degree in one year.

The first of our Level 6 students that has been offered a place on this 1 year degree programme is Aleksandra Milenberga. She has been invited to interview with Sunderland on the recommendation of her Fashion Tutor Joan Kennedy and hopes to travel to the University to complete her studies in Fashion at degree level.

These links with Universities that offer pathways into 2nd or 3rd year after completing a course in DIFE provide our students with another option in pursuing their studies at 3rd Level. It means that they can secure the core skills at an affordable price with incredible support and guidance from Industry experienced teaching staff in DIFE and move with confidence into final year degree programmes.

We hope to nurture this relationship with the Sunderland team and look forward to seeing our Level 6 Advanced Fashion students progress on to their degree programmes and fly the DIFE Fashion flag!

https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/

Former Students visit the Studio

We had the pleasure of the lovely Lauren Gribben and Aoibheann Birch visiting the studio this week! Both graduates are from the Art Group B class. Lauren completed her Bachelor of Design in Textile Surface Design in NCAD last year and is currently completing her Masters in Textile Sustainability and Innovation in Leeds. She told us how she particularly enjoys the research element of the course and is considering doing a PhD when she finishes. We will have a Professor on our hands! Lauren has secured work placements in Botany Weavers in Dublin who specialise in Contract Furnishings. She has also worked with Jennifer Slattery Designs so has excellent placement experience under her belt. We wish her all the best with her future studies.

Aoibheann completed her studies with us in the same year as Lauren and also chose to pursue her studies in NCAD albeit being offered many other courses including Crawford in Cork. I remember getting an email from Crawford to express how impressed they were by the standard of Aoibheanns portfolio it was that good! Aoibheann is currently in her final year in NCAD completing her joint degree in Education and Textiles. We wish her every success for her Degree.

We are always delighted to see past students and follow their progression into the world of Art and Design. The diversity of careers that are on offer to our graduates is always highlighted when we hear of each students individual journey. We have Fashion Designers, Stylists, Fashion Buyers, Trend Forecasters, Fashion media, Product Designers, Textile Designers, Graphic Designers, Illustrators, Art and Design Teachers, Tattoo Artists, Ceramic artists, Jewellery Designers, Fine Artists, Set Designers, Film Makers, Costume Designers, Interior Designers, Visual Merchandisers, Architects etc… The list goes on!

Visual Merchandising Graduates

Huge congratulations to former DIFE Art Group B and Fashion students Leah Heenan, Alannah Connolly, Caoimhe Dunne and Tara Nuzum who graduated recently from TUDublin.

All girls completed the Visual Merchandising degree course in TUDublin in their Grangegorman campus. The progression rate into employment is excellent from this course with a big emphasis on work placements throughout the duration of the degree.

Caoimhe is already employed in River Islands Head Office as an area Visual Merchandiser. The world is their oyster with skills that are transferable into all areas of Design. We look forward to hearing about all your future adventures! Together in DIFE and together in TUDublin and beyond!

DIFE Art Graduate sells Degree Work to NCAD

Shane Thornton completed his QQI level 5 in Art, Craft and Design in 2020. He was an excellent candidate for 3rd Level and progressed to NCAD and specialised in Graphic Design and Moving Image. He completed his portfolio in DIFE and was successful in every college that he applied for. Shane recently graduated from NCAD and they purchased part of his Degree Project to display on the campus. We are super proud of him and his adventure continues into the world of Graphic Design and Moving Image. We are very happy to showcase this work.

‘The goal for this project was to create a charcoal animation that tells an emotionally compelling short story. Disney movies are a great example of how people can connect and empathise with fictional stories and characters which is what I wanted to emulate when I was writing my story for animation. I chose charcoal animation because the natural characteristics of a hand drawn approach is more likely to make the viewer connect and empathise with the characters within the story. In addition, charcoal is a strong choice for setting the tone of the story that I have written. The story is about the loss of a loved one and how an act of kindness can bring happiness to those who are grieving.’ (Shane Thornton)

General information : The animation consists of 1,200 hand drawn frames. The frames were captured using a camera mounted on a tripod. The frames were then composited in a video editing software. Music was added and edited to match the pacing of the story. The aspect ratio is 16:9 / 1920X1080. Time length is 03:04. 

The animation was completed as part of my final project on 12/05/23. 

The animation was later purchased by NCAD and is to be put on display in the Grace Gifford building. 

A Bag Full of Colour

New Day, New Project! All students were given a draw string bag to fill with ‘Colour’. The brief asked them to choose one colour and collect as many items as possible in that particular colour. They could use all values within that colour story.

They were asked to photograph all the items individually and then being placed inside the bag. They then had to record themselves emptying the contents of the bag out onto the table. Once the items were poured out they had to play with lots of different arrangements of the items until they found one they liked best.

Looking forward to seeing the final results from this new project! Some fantastic drawings coming through.

Former Students Visit the Studio

Calum Hoyne, Leah Tallon and Jasmine Carroll

We were delighted to welcome back some former students from the Art Group B Group to chat with our current students and show them the portfolios that they completed with us in DIFE.

On Thursday we had Logan Connoway pop in and chat with the groups and today we had 1st year NCAD students, Calum and Leah and 2nd Year NCAD student Jasmine Carroll visit. Calum will be specialising in Fashion in NCAD and Leah is currently in Common Entry with the hope to pursue Illustration or Graphic Design. Jasmine is in her 2nd year of Education in NCAD where she is completing a joint honours degree with Textile Art and Artifact.

They discussed their personal experiences of completing the year in DIFE and how that helped them progress into NCAD with confidence. We were delighted to catch up with them all and see how DIFE helped them get to where they want to be. We wish them every success in their studies in NCAD and look forward to following their progression.

Hopefully they have inspired our current cohort of students and they can see what hard work and determination can result in!

Andy Warhol: Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin

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Art Group B and Fashion Design Students took a day trip to Dublin to visit the Andy Warhol Exhibition: Three Times Out in the Hugh Lane Gallery. Our 1st outing of the year and great anticipation to see the retrospective of Warhols famous works. This exhibition runs from the 6th October until the 28th January 2024.

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The Art students are required to visit a selection of Galleries as part of their Appreciation Module. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the works in real life. They also got the opportunity to see the works of Francis Bacon who has a permanent presence in the Hugh Lane Gallery. The ground floor encompasses other works that capture Impressionism, Expressionism and Cubism and the students were lucky to see paintings by Manet, Mary Swanzy, Jack B Yeats. A very cultural morning had by all with lots to see and inspire!

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Francis Bacon

Jack B Yeats

Former DIFE Graduate Exhibits at Barnavave

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Suzanne Carroll graduated from DIFE in 2016 after completing the Art, Craft and Design Portfolio course. She achieved the highest grade for her portfolio from NCAD that we have ever had! Suzanne is an exceptional artist and designer and it has been an absolute pleasure to follow her progression through NCAD and beyond!

Her recent exhibition: Barnavave-Tread Softly featured recently in an Irish Independent article. Suzanne took to the mountains for this exhibition which took place within the walls of a deserted village in the Cooley Peninsula.

This outdoor gallery experience was built on last year’s Mending Fences exhibition held on the hillside in the Cooley mountains. In collaboration with curator Shannon Carroll they invited eight artists from across the country to make work in response to this year’s intriguing site. In line with the exhibition title Barnavave -Tread Softly artists were encouraged to consider their materials and processes in relation to the environment when making work. The intention was to install the work for one-day-only within the dry stone walls of the Deserted Village on Barnavave Mountain, Carlingford.

‘As stewards of this planet we are each becoming more aware of how every action we take can affect the crisis we find ourselves in. By raising awareness and prompting discussion on pertinent issues artists and the art they make can encourage us to reflect for a moment, to consider the small or even radical changes we might make in our daily lives.’

How we respond to our environment is of paramount importance and artists and designers have a vital role to play is how they address these issues. This has been the trend in colleges of Art and Design for some time and the more it is explored the better for future generations. Designers are the innovators of the future and artists can inform others through their work.

Suzanne brought together eight artists of varying disciplines to respond to her brief and presented work using low impact environmentally friendly processes and techniques. What was wonderful for us to see that one of the eight artists she invited to collaborate with was also a former DIFE graduate, Una Curley! Una works with textiles and found materials and explores the face pace of consumption and subsequent waste. http://unacurley.com/

We wish Suzanne the very best with her next project as she is surely one to watch in the Irish Art scene!

Suzanne Carroll Visual Artist

Phone: 00353877825443  |  www.suzannecarrollart.com

suzanne.carroll.art@gmail.com

Ravensdale, Dundalk, Co Louth, Ireland

Graduation Class of 2023

What a wonderful way to celebrate the success of the Art Group B and Fashion Design classes in the TLT in Drogheda. The Graduation ceremony marked the completion of the QQI Awards and the fantastic achievements of each and every student that worked so hard this year!

It is such a short year! A year where each student grows and evolves in their specific disciplines, where strong friendships are formed and many memories made! We always feel very honoured and privileged to work with such talented young people and the Graduation is a way to acknowledge all their hard work and effort. Each of them will venture on to their next exciting adventure in their progression to 3rd Level and we wish them every success in their endeavours. We are super proud of everyone and look forward to following their progression.

Huge thanks to Pauline Sheerin and her team for all the amazing work that went into organising such a wonderful event. It is always so professional and impressive!

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