AOD invites After A/L students to join its worldrenowned, complete, 100% internal Northumbria UK design degrees before enrollments close for 2018 intake

‘Having it all’ is possible with design

Success without inspiration and personal fulfilment is not true success. Similarly, personal fulfilment without financial stability or career success, is incomplete. Today, it is not about having one or the other—but rather, having it all for a balanced, inspired and successful life. For the creative minds that can think out of the box, ideate and innovate, one of the most promising career paths that offer this perfect balance between fulfilment, success and inspiration, is design. With a growing demand from the business world as ‘creativity’ becomes hailed as the most coveted skill of the future, ‘design’ is now a powerful career that presents incredible prospects and rewarding professional roles for young creative thinkers.

Design as a career in Sri Lanka

The biggest industries in Sri Lanka now recruit designers to enhance the value of their enterprises. Mega Industries like hospitality and tourism rely on interior designers and product design for spaces, furniture, cutlery, crockery etc. that expresses their own identity through clever design. Most large-scale exports like tea and cinnamon, whose international clienteles demand good design, rely on graphic designers for strong logos, brand identities and packaging. Similarly, businesses require fashion designers for corporate uniforms that are in line with their brand image while Sri Lanka’s massive apparel industry is also one of the biggest employers of fashion designers. With more and more brands entering the digital sphere, and the entertainment industry looking to harness the wonders of the latest technology, animation designers are also in growing demand.

Design at its best with AOD

Educating and preparing young creative minds from Sri Lanka and rest of South Asia for this fantastic career is AOD—the celebrated design educator that has won the support and trust of the business world and the government, as a leading authority in design and innovation. Joining in for a discussion on AOD’s head of academic faculty, British designer Karen MacLeod discussed the prospects that AOD presents its students, fresh graduates and alumni. “The way we approach design education at AOD is different. We have understood the role of design in the business world, where it becomes a mode of incorporating higher value, innovation and customer relatability to merchandise and services. So, the designers we create at AOD have been tailor-made to fit this need.” MacLeod explained that the AOD designer therefore, is trained to meet industry standards with early preparation on the theories, practices and ethics of the industries that they may join. This is exactly why AOD collaborated with UK’s prestigious Northumbria University close to a decade ago. “So, the AOD designers are not only professionals, they also belong to a global membership of creative minds who understand how markets and consumer tastes work across the world.”

A powerful partnership with the UK

Hailed as the world’s creative capital, the UK has been long regarded as the global authority for design and its education. Looking to make the best out of Britain’s wealth of knowledge and expertise in design, AOD has successfully partnered with some of the leading authorities in UK design education. The legendary design educator Central Saint Martins in London that has produced iconic designers like Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen, maintains a longstanding partnership with AOD where its Professor Emerita Jane Rapley is the academic advisory chair at AOD. Simultaneously, AOD’s academic partner Northumbria University that produced notable designers like the creative brains behind Apple—Sir Jonathan Ive, works in collaboration with AOD to present its globally accepted degree portfolio in Sri Lanka.

A design degree portfolio that means business

AOD presents five complete design degrees directly and internally offered from Northumbria University UK. These degrees have been specifically selected to complement the job demand from the major industries in Sri Lanka. Based on the AOD vision that education should deliver to the type of careers needed by the country, the degrees presented by AOD were all selected based on what Sri Lankan businesses need from ‘design’ and the creative roles they need fulfilled. This is one reason why AOD graduates are 100% employed.

Graphic and visual communication design + Animation

Among the design degrees presented by AOD is graphic design. AOD challenges the popular misconception that graphic design is based on software knowledge. Real graphic design is a career that demands a much higher creative and strategic thinking input. Also known as ‘visual communication design’ it is the creative and tactical backbone of the advertising industry that works with all other businesses to create brand images, visual identities, packaging, user-interface design, web etc. The Northumbria UK BA (Hons) Graphic Design degree at AOD, is a globally recognised programme designed to meet all these 21st century visual needs of the business world. A new industry that grows parallel to graphic design in Sri Lanka is animation design. AOD’s BA (Hons) Motion Graphics and Animation programme by Northumbria UK focuses on creating designers for film, television, computer games, advertising, software and new media.

Fashion design and marketing powering Sri Lanka’s biggest industry

The reality of the fashion industry is connected to the social and economic movements around the world. Fashion designers are the creative minds which respond to these changes through new looks and solutions in garments; for example, with humans becoming more and more integrated with smart technology, fashion designers today are integrating tech with what we wear. AOD’s BA (Hons) Fashion degree is structured to help students join this powerful industry by making their mark in the fashion world with own fashion brand or by joining Sri Lanka’s multi-billion dollar apparel industry. The newly launched Northumbria’s Fashion Marketing & Design degree at AOD is set-up to engage students in all aspects of fashion marketing studies, from forecasting, market research ifashion graphics, illustration, styling to promotional techniques and fashion media.

Interior architectural design

Interior design is a fast-growing sector that presents some of the most rewarding careers available today. It provides spatial and experiential solutions for hospitality, tourism, retail and other significant industries by allowing people to experience space in a new way. The Northumbria UK interior design degree at AOD is structured to cater to this need and to create professionals who are creative and independent thinkers with a great understanding of space and its elements such as lighting, surface texture and movement etc.

If Design is your dream to follow; visit Designspire – a design career inspiration open house

‘Designspire’ is an interactive session which is a great opportunity for creative young people to understand how following a career path in design gives them the ability to do what they love while discovering success, stability and inspiration. Designspire will be held on the 13th of January from 9.00am-12.00pm providing a great insight to the world of Design and how one can embark on a career which is unique and fulfilling. As AOD prepares to close its enrollments for the 2018 intake, the final window to enter these prestigious design degree programmes— conducted in collaboration with Northumbria University UK—is now open to all after A/L students including those on pending results. For free design career counselling, or to understand more about studying Fashion, Fashion Marketing, Interior Design Studies, Graphic Design and Motion Graphics & Animation Design with 100%internal design degrees from Northumbria University UK, reach AOD on 0775727772, 011 5867772 email [email protected] or walk in between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday - AOD, 29, Lauries Road, Colombo 4. www.aod.lk