how to succeed at UAL.

We were asked by our friends at Spy Studio to write a 90-second animation script illustrating UAL’s ‘assessment criteria’. You can see the final film below.

If you’re already wondering what that means … well, that was really the point of this exercise — to explain to UAL students clearly and accessibly how their work is assessed, and what they need to do well in their studies.

The arts-focused university comprises six colleges — Camberwell College of Art, Central St Martins, Chelsea College of Art, London College of Communication, London College of Fashion and Wimbledon College of Arts. Students at all these colleges are marked on five different qualities (or ‘assessment criteria’).

As a starting point, we were given reams of background material to wade through. It was dense, very academic and, to be honest, about as dry as Saharan sand. Our role was to distil this all down into five short, punchy segments, make it feel exciting and relevant, and give it a natural narrative flow.

The script was storyboarded by Spy and then niftily brought to life by the talented animator Bill Porter. And the voiceover, suitably enough, was provided by one of the students.