Club Profile: Concept Art
Image courtesy of SCAD’s Concept Art Club
SCAD has very specific majors designed for its students. However, concept art is too broad for just one major. While the school is working on a masters degree program, there is a concept art club geared for students interested in working pre-production.
“It basically deals with all the stuff that happens before you start animation, video games or films,” explained Erin Costello, a third-year sequential arts student and the president of the Concept Art Club.
According to Costello, the “fairly new” club was founded two spring quarters ago “because there was nothing like this on-campus.” There are only two concept art classes, which are for sequential arts majors and are taught by Professor Mel Curtin.
“We want to build a community, get together, learn about [concept art] and practice it,” said Costello. During club meetings, which are held every Friday at 6 p.m. in Hayman’s Hall, the members learn the basics of concept art, the industry and the jobs available.
“It’s also good for networking,” said Costello. “Not only with students but with professionals.” Each quarter, the club brings in a professional from the industry to talk about their experiences and give advice for aspiring concept artists.
There are also workshops, which are handled by the officers, other students, professors and professionals. Costello said they “usually have students do them more than the professors because they’re not as busy.” Students learn how to design an environment, build character silhouettes, draw thumbnails and understand design language.
Aside from learning and networking, the club holds contests for members. “There are three areas of concept art: the characters, the environments, and the props and assets. For the contest, we give them a theme and they have to design one of the three,” explained Costello. The prizes are usually art books, but “this year we’ll try to expand the prizes to Cintiq pens.”
Because concept art is so broad, the club “is open to any communications arts major,” said Costello. “We encourage them to come to the meetings because if they need concepts, they can come here to network and get inspiration.”
