WdKA Portfolio Night 2018
On the hunt for new creative talent
After a month of living here in Amsterdam, I had been asked for an opportunity to go to Rotterdam to scout for future creative interns. We went to Willem de Kooning Academy — one of the most prominent arts university in the south.
Prior to my internship, I was at Art School as well — so the vibe here was very similar. The way students dress to express themselves through outdated style and the need to try and be ‘unique’ was a recurring theme to my past. I think I saw some students here that looked exactly like people I knew from Falmouth University — but the Dutch version of them! This goes to show how similar art school environments can be.
When we arrived in Rotterdam, my impression of the city was that of a complete juxtaposition to that of Amsterdam. The look and feel of the place was more modern, the buildings had no uniform in coordinating with the other older ones. Especially ‘Markthal’ — the food hall, the structure looks very wacky!
The exhibition had showcased shows ranging from the departments of spatial design, illustration, animation, graphics design, advertising, fashion design to the fine arts. Our mission was to hand out business cards to the students who seem like they could be interested in joining VBAT later on.
So I wandered around across all floors, most exhibitions. It was interesting to see work from a Dutch art and design school as I couldn’t help but compare it to my arts university. (Of course I kept this in my thoughts) I spoke to a lot of the students, who had explained what their work was about and they handed out their creative business cards. Someone had made theirs out of laser-cut plywood whilst another person presented it in a tape cassette case.
The atmosphere of the displays of hard work from the years the students had at university combined to visitors browsing the student’s work was exciting to see. Spectators would educate themselves more into what art and design is through the eyes of the younger generation. Going to art school had made students feel free to become creative talents — this was the perfect place to find future interns for VBAT. Hopefully, something good could come out of this, one of these students could be our future intern!
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written by Annabel Loftus, Creative at VBAT
edited by Connie Fluhme, PR at VBAT