Mystory@Manthana S Tanpure: How I chose my course and career path

I was always passionate about learning something related to design in college. I was searching a course for my field of interest when I came across Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), a degree course which included Applied Arts under which I could learn many streams like illustration, photography, drawing, commercial design, User Interface (UI) design etc.  And therefore, I opted for the same solely because it was something that interests me and I was good at it and wanted to learn more to enhance my skills.

How I cracked college admission

I gave CET entrance exam for the BFA course for which I prepared myself with the basics of drawing. I referred the books used for elementary and intermediate drawing exams, and I also worked on English, Math and Logic. I had appeared for Elementary and Intermediate drawing exams during my school period. I even joined a local drawing class and made sure I thoroughly practiced it every day. I worked with different colours – pastels, water based, oil based and tried to get better. There were no specific colleges in my mind, my goal was just to clear the entrance exam. That’s how I got admission in my current college – Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Fine Arts, Katraj, Pune.

What I gained from my college experience

In college, we usually sit in groups, discussing our designs, giving helpful critiques to each other, with music playing on, the environment is really different here. We have a short lecture where we get a brief of our assignments and then we work on it for the day. There are also theory lectures once in a while, at other times it’s just us working and creating designs.

I took part in inter-college designing competitions and keep attending different workshops or exhibitions. I sometimes go for wall paintings and we also play sports. I worked at a company as a UI/UX design intern for 3 months, and that was yet another experience. My college insists that students go out and work, and see how the things actually work. We also visited a print and publication press to get to know about the process and gain perspective on how things work. We were always told that the process of designing – from initial to final stage is equally important, in fact, more important than the final result.

Our college has an annual exhibition every year, where we students display all our work we worked on in that year. We have an installation from every class and all students work together on a decided theme. This exhibition is fun and also helps us to learn to work in a team; we manage everything from our own class logo to decorating the college and classes. Everyone’s work is appreciated and a lot of known guests give us a visit and boost our spirit. This really makes us work even harder in future.

If given a chance I would not do anything else because this is what I like doing and this is what makes me happy. College experience has changed me a lot, it has made me a lot more patient, focused, be open to face different opportunities, and developed me as a designer with a greater perspective and sense of understanding in me.

About the Author:

I am a Final year BFA Applied Arts student, almost entering the corporate world. The idea of road trips to somewhere peaceful, sitting with my guitar or listening to music and drawing something interests me. I express through my drawings, and sometimes I write as well.