Planning
This page is a curated collection of my learning journey, organised into structured “Units of Learning.” Each unit represents a focused area of study, exploration, or skill development, bringing together key concepts, reflections, and applied work in one place.
This unit explores how a film’s atmosphere, narrative, and visual style can be translated into graphic design. Students examine poster composition, typography, and imagery, drawing inspiration from designers such as Bill Gold, as well as the distinctive and expressive style of Polish film posters.
Through initial experimentation with collage and digital design using Canva, students develop and refine their ideas, considering how layout, colour, and symbolism can communicate mood and genre. Particular focus is placed on the visual language of horror, exploring how tension, contrast, and imagery can evoke atmosphere and engage an audience.
These designs are then translated into a final lino-printed poster, allowing students to engage with both traditional printmaking techniques and contemporary design processes. The project emphasises both experimentation and decision-making, supporting students in creating a visually striking and conceptually informed final piece.
A Brave New World: Pro Tech Propoganda
In this second-year unit, students explored satire, design history, and visual propaganda by creating lino-print posters set in a fictional future where blind devotion to technology is mandatory.
Drawing inspiration from Soviet propaganda, especially the work of Dmitri Moor, students exaggerated the glorification of technology, control, and progress to absurd extremes.
Using bold composition, limited colour, simplified slogans, and emotional manipulation, the posters mimic how the Soviets once sold ideology, now reimagined through a dystopian pro-tech lens.
Designs were developed digitally using Canva and Photopea (as an accessible alternative to Photoshop), before being translated into lino prints, bridging contemporary digital tools with traditional printmaking and critical visual thinking.
This unit explores themes of isolation and loneliness through the creation of a figure within a landscape, inspired by the work of Edward Hopper. Students examine how composition, light, and colour can be used to communicate mood, atmosphere, and narrative, while developing their understanding through both photography and life drawing.
Using observational studies and photographic references, students investigate how the human figure can be positioned within a space to suggest emotional distance or introspection. They are encouraged to reflect on personal or imagined experiences, using visual elements such as negative space, perspective, and subtle detail to enhance meaning.
The project places emphasis on both technical development and personal response, supporting students in creating thoughtful, expressive work that explores the relationship between people and their environments.
This unit invites students to create a mixed-media sculpture exploring how technology shapes our sense of self and our relationships with others. Students are encouraged to consider the influence of digital devices, social media, and artificial intelligence on connection, identity, and the boundaries between physical and virtual experience.
The project focuses on the construction of a figurative form, using a combination of organic materials (such as wood, fabric, or natural found objects) and synthetic elements (including wires, plastics, or digital components). Through this process, students explore the contrast and tension between the human, the natural, and the technological.
Emphasis is placed not only on the final outcome but on the decision-making process behind material choices. Students are supported in reflecting on why they select particular materials, how these communicate meaning, and how their work engages with broader contemporary issues. The aim is to encourage critical thinking, experimentation, and the development of a personal and thoughtful artistic response.
Screens, Selves & Signals: Expressionist Self Portraits
In this second-year unit, students investigate how living in a tech-saturated world shapes identity, mood, and perception.
Drawing on expressionist approaches to distortion, colour, and emotion, alongside contemporary media critique, students create emotionally charged self-portraits that respond to the pressures of online life, such as filtered identities, algorithmic attention, and the constant signals we send and receive.
Each lesson connects visual culture to technology, examining tools and phenomena such as AI, deepfakes, and digital filters in dialogue with modern and historical artworks. Through constant making and reflection, the unit challenged the myth of seamless digital progress, encouraging students to reveal the limits, harms, and material consequences of the virtual world.