![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/cap\u00e7alera3.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: Laura Fern\u00e1ndez<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
26 young illustrators from EINA, Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art, were lucky enough to be able to really explore the\u00a0Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya in October and November 2014. As a coordinator, teacher and creative collaborator I am proud to share with you the results of this experience.<\/p>\n
How it all began<\/h3>\n
At the end of 1999, the directors of EINA gave me the task of designing, coordinating\u00a0and being one of the teachers on the Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Illustration<\/a><\/em>. In 2014 we were beginning the 15th<\/sup> year of the programme.<\/p>\n Some of the programme\u2019s characteristics are:<\/p>\n The directors sought professional agreements and collaboration with businesses, publications and institutions so that the students could carry out real projects and\/or enter prestigious competitions and awards.<\/p>\n At the end of 2014, thanks to the interest shown by Pepe Serra, director of the Museu Nacional, museum managers contacted EINA to explore the possibilities for collaboration between the two institutions. Oriol Pibernat and Blanca Fullana, the school\u2019s directors of communications, respectively, thought that one of these forms of collaboration could be via the Post-graduate Diploma in Creative Illustration.<\/p>\n Every year, as part of the \u2018Press Illustration\u2019 course that I give as a teacher, we do a project<\/strong> for an Illustrated<\/strong> report, <\/span>in which the students have to look for a general-interest journalistic story and tell it through images<\/span>\u00a0and texts in sequenc<\/span>e<\/strong>. This year, 2014-15,\u00a0we were able to unify the projects around a common leitmotiv<\/em><\/span>: the Museu Nacional.<\/p>\n Illustration: Laura Fern\u00e1ndez<\/p><\/div>\n In October 2014, we had a meeting with the students, director Pepe Serra and the museum\u2019s public programmes department. There, the students were able to hear at first hand about the changes that have been introduced in recent years, the museum\u2019s current approach, and to ask about the problems it is facing, the successes achieved and the goals still to be met.<\/p>\n During the last three months of 2014, the 26 students had free admission passes to the museum and they were able to draw in situ and interview members of the public and museum staff, with great freedom of movement. Many even went on a guided tour of the museum\u2019s store rooms, an area off-limits to the general public.<\/p>\n Illustration: Didac Rocho<\/p><\/div>\n Sometimes, students that enrol to study illustration begin the course with preconceived ideas and \u201ctics\u201d that lead them to imitate fashionable illustration models, copying trends instead of looking for their own visual voice.\u00a0One of the important goals for teachers is<\/span>\u00a0to try and help the students to find and develop their own creative personality<\/strong>. It is not just a case of finding a unique style, but also their own ways of thinking about how to solve the problems\u00a0that crop up during assignments.<\/p>\n Therefore, in our class sessions we also did exercises focused on drawing from direct observation, <\/span>and on the search for visual and narrativ<\/span>e concepts<\/strong> with the aim of helping them to find practical resources for successfully completing the task. At the same time, we looked at classic examples, plus other more contemporary ones, and we analysed illustrated reports by great authors \/ artists (Goya, Saul Steinberg, Robert Weaver, Titouan Lamazou\u00a0and Cesc, among others), or even projects from previous years.<\/p>\n The main aim of the project was for the student to be able to tell a story as a visual journalist using images accompanied by text<\/strong>. It was important to pay attention to the structuring of the sequence of images and, as far as possible, to create the model of the project while making decisions about the typography, the composition and the page sequencing.<\/p>\n They presented the first proposals\/versions in December 2014. These were analysed and discussed with me and the final versions were submitted in February 2015.<\/p>\n There were a great variety of approaches as regards the subjects chosen: humo<\/span>ur, protest, didactic information o<\/span>r even poetry.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Themes as varied as:<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>How we organized and experienced it at the Museu Nacional<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>\n
\n\n
\n \n