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WELCOME

Amiens School of Art & Design has two main departments :

  • The department of Designspecialises in graphic design and interaction design. The department is also well-known for its post-diploma in type design (EsadType) and for its research in typography, signs and sign language.
  • The department of Animation (Waide Somme) specialises in 3D film animation and video games.

How to Apply

We welcome all applicants from abroad to study for a whole semester at our school.

To apply, please send your portfolio (pdf format no more than 9Mo) and your CV accompanied with a letter of motivation stipulating the perdiod of study. These can be in English or in French. Please send to our International Coordinator, Alisa Nowak, international@esad-amiens.fr

Spring semester 2024: 05/02/2024 to 07/06/2024
Winter semester 2024/2025: 09/24 to 01/2025 
Holidays: 26-29 February 2024, 22-26 April 2024

Application deadlines

Winter semester: 15th of May

Spring semester: 15th of November

Application documents requested after admission

Certificate of health insurance (for EU citizen copy of the EHIC) Civil liability insurance (assurance responsabilité civile, obligatory en France) Copy of your passport or Identity card

Study program for international students

Most courses last for a whole year but are often split up into projects by semester. We recommend to apply mainly for 2nd or 3rd year grade courses. You can participate in both years. During the first week of your stay, you’ll be invited to check out several courses in order to fix your final choice.

Please find here below the practical courses (6 ECTS/course) which are accessible to our Erasmus-students.
All classes are taught mainly in French, but accessible with

30 ECTS / semester

1st year grade

Winter and spring semester

  • Drawing (Gilles Elie)
    This first year is devoted to learning the fundamentals of drawing and colour. We will explore the major themes of representation: the nude, the portrait, the self-portrait, the still life and the landscape, while looking at the history of art and contemporary creation. The aim is to acquire the technical foundations to develop your sense of drawing and colour.

  • Graphic Design (Jean-Claude Chianale)
    The first year is devoted to learning the fundamentals of graphic design. Each project enables students to acquire creative methods. From brainstorming to research work, students must be able to develop graphic responses to issues related to each field of application. This learning of the fundamentals of graphic design takes place through practical and experimental exercises throughout semesters 1 and 2: writing and typography, the typology and meaning of the image, the relationship between text and image, the construction grid and page layout, publishing, the status of the sign (symbol, pictogram, ideogram), printing, signage and graphic coding (code, language, visual identity).

  • Typography (Éloïsa Pérez)
    The workshop is intended as an introduction to the discipline of typography. It will explore the expressive and functional possibilities of textual material. The various individual and group exercises will provide an introduction to letterform design, poster design and editorial production. They will provide an opportunity to familiarise oneself with the anatomy and vocabulary of the letter, the basic principles of constructing a graphic system, the connotations associated with typographic usage and the current state of contemporary typographic production. Historical and contemporary references to typographic culture will be presented to accompany the launch and development of each project.

  • Photography (David Rosenfeld)
    Understand the challenges of historical and contemporary photography. Engage in photographic practice by combining meaning and reflection. 3 exercises leading to collections, wall displays or presentations.

  • Sculpture-volume (Mathieu Allard)
    The aim of the sculpture-volume course in the first year is to provide students with certain fundamentals relating to materials, systems, scale and semantics. The field of sculpture is vast and this course does not pretend to cover all the concepts and practices. Around ten subjects will be covered during the year. Each subject is treated as an experiment that will provide students with an opportunity to explore concepts such as structure, interweaving, materials, function and use, scenography, landscape, models, movement and light.

2nd year grade

Winter and spring semester

  • Creation of websites/programming (Benoit Wimart)
    The transition from paper to screen is not a natural one, and designers need to be able to resolve a range of issues linked to the constraints of the medium. The processes involved in creating websites are constantly evolving. Knowing the basics allows you to acquire maximum autonomy and enhance your know-how.Creating or experimenting with different projects requires a good understanding of the fundamental principles of the web. Understanding web browsers, how they evolve and their differences makes it easier to design relevant sites.Thinking about graphics, prioritising information, formatting, making the site interactive and accessible while offering a suitable user experience defines the qualities of a web project. Approaching design through code is a major challenge for designers, as breaking away from conventional tools gives them a better understanding of the digital environment.

  • Drawing (Olivier Charpentier)
    Continuing to learn the fundamentals of drawing should enable students to acquire the essential mastery of a language that they will need to use throughout their course and well beyond. The aim is to help them acquire sufficiently solid means of expression to open up perspectives for their future projects. In this final year of drawing at Esad, these resources will be used to initiate their own writing, through a variety of projects involving reflection and the construction of a narrative. The main aim of observational drawing is to refine the perception of reality in all its complexity. Drawing will be seen as a means of understanding what we see, but also as a means of expressing a sensitive and intelligible personal point of view through our choices of representation.

  • Graphic Design (Arnaud de la Bâtie)
    Understanding what graphic design is: form and content, the rhetoric of the image, the production and articulation of meaning, what ‘makes’ a sign, the role of culture and documentation in nurturing a subject. The topics are developed over 3 to 6 weeks. Each subject deals with a central issue in graphic design: the making of the image and the relationship between text and image, visual identity and brand identity, the image in space and signage. Formats and media are imposed.

  • Photography (David Rosenfeld)
    To develop the ability to design and implement independent work by experimenting with black and white or colour, silver or digital photographic images and to be able to support visual references.

  • Project/design/volume (Rémi Dumas Primbault)
    Students, the future graphic designers, will have to invent new professions: the new relationships they will forge with the world. Pencils and computers are not the only tools of the graphic designer: you can engrave a sign, stamp a pictogram into a surface, mark space with smoke or sand, or use a tractor and mower to write in the landscape… So many ways of making graphics. The three-dimensional design experiments are carried out in the workshop using a variety of tools: a great deal of research in the form of sketches is required, and the projects are then developed using models and, where appropriate, prototypes with the various materials (cardboard, wood, metals, plastics, earth, etc.) readily available.

  • Typography (Sarah Kremer)
    Because the link between the general and the specific, the system and the detail, is fundamental in the production of publishing objects, the workshop proposes to approach typographic design through simultaneous manipulation of the macrotypographic (layout and page layout) and microtypographic (lettering and type design) scales. These two levels of attention, initially considered independently, will intersect as the projects progress.

3rd year grade

Winter and spring semester

  • Creation and interactivity (Donald Abad)
    Understanding the moving image, the acted image and the interacted image. Discovering ‘digital’ culture (art, design, use), its issues and challenges. Acquire a working methodology for the design of video and multimedia devices, as well as the use of production tools (software and hardware).

  • New Media/programming (Mark Webster)
    Designing Programs is a course specifically designed to introduce the art of computer programming through a systematic approach to exploring and creating graphical systems.The courses introduce the practice of programming with the aim of teaching the key concepts of a plausible design approach, reinforcing both the practice and the thinking of the designer. They will focus on a good balance between theory, to encourage in-depth reflection, and practice, to introduce the main techniques of graphic design with code.The first semester is devoted to exercises and small projects that give students practice in the key concepts of programming. They are then required to submit a personal or group project on a topic imposed by the teacher.

  • Communication, Medium, interactivity (Dominique Giroudeau)
    The projects in this course provide practice in communication and visual storytelling and test the student’s sense-making and critical analysis skills. Students move from the research stage to execution, finding the right balance between meaning and form, and mastering the coherence between intentions and the formal result.- Opening up to expressions of contemporary creation (art, performance, theatre, music, dance, architecture, design, comics, writing, film).

  • Photography (Hally Pancer)
    The third year is the ideal time to develop a photographic ‘posture’: designing a project. Students enrich their practice with contemporary and historical reflection. They contextualise their work and assert their commitment.The winter semester is devoted to two photographic exercises which the student enriches with a presentation. This work introduces a preparatory method for the diploma (practical photography/library work). The summer semester focuses on the student’s ‘personal project’. The method acquired in semester 5 enables students to assert their choices and contextualise their project. Reflection on the tactile support of the work, on the display itself, becomes an inseparable axiom of this photographic work.

  • Typography (Geff Large)
    Typography is one of the main tools used in graphic design. Students need to understand and master typographic rules and their vocabulary. This knowledge will provide students with a sufficiently solid foundation to design and/or experiment with the aim of producing quality applications.The first semester will begin with an understanding of the basics of micro- and macro-typography. Through a number of exercises, students will tackle the issues of typographic scale, the format in which information is set, the choice of typeface, the hierarchisation of reading levels and text composition.The rest of the year will be devoted to a global theme around which the students will experiment with new methods of visual design. Several media (printed or digital) will result from this research.

4th year grade (Master)

Winter semester only, because the summer semester ends up mid April

  • Calligraphy (Patrick Doan)

  • Global design (Eva Kubinyi)
    Students will work in pairs on a single main project. This project will address a complex issue in the field of graphics, such as the design of a visual identity and its applications for a large-scale programme (a city, an institution, a major facility, an international event, etc.). After an introduction, existing graphic systems will be researched. A critical analysis of the problem and the definition of the approach and concept will form the basis of the graphic work. A graphic language will be defined and applied to different applications. The main project will be finalised by the end of the first semester and presented at the Open Days.

  • Graphic and future-oriented design (Simon Renaud)
    Over the course of the semester, in the form of a large workshop, students will question the new tools associated with writing and reading. This course will deal with issues relating to signs and texts absorbed into human/machine interaction processes. These will be addressed in the face of widespread automation and digitisation, the production and circulation of writing and in the current context of networks. They will be asked to study what these inventions bring to the circulation of information and to observe the changes in our cognitive behaviour. The aim of this course is to encourage students to experiment and to open up to these changes: a mechanical evolution of writing and reading.

  • Information design (Olivier Cornet)
    Each year, a working context is proposed, providing a broad framework for the projects proposed by the students.This is followed by a phase of analysing what already exists, during which the group collectively carries out an extensive watch. This is followed by a phase of formulating the issues, during which the students must identify the high-level problems and the fields to which they apply. The next phase is devoted to identifying and meeting players who are specialists in the fields and issues identified, with the aim of gathering concrete feedback and constructive opinions on the project’s initial intentions. This is followed by a phase of graphic, interactive and functional experimentation, and then by the production of a demonstrator and communication materials for the project.

  • Interface design (Laurent Herbet)
    The aim of the course is to assimilate the methodologies and tools essential to interface design and to examine the social/prospective role of the digital designer in the design of digital products.

Accommodations in Amiens

You may stay at the residential accommodation unit « Résidence du Castillon » (CROUS) near the school. As soon as you are enrolled in the Erasmus program between your school and Ésad Amiens (and before the 1st of June for the Winter semester and the 15th of November for the Spring semester), you should inform us if you’re interested in staying there and we’ll organize this for you.

For student housing, but also when you rent a flat on your own, you need a householder’s insurance (assurance multirisque-habitation) which is obligatory in France. You can get one of these in Amiens at any insurance office, once you have arrived. For Crous you need to do this within 8 days after arrival.

Partners

Ésad Amiens is part of the Erasmus+ program.

Our Erasmus Partners

Our International Partner

Notre stratégie Erasmus+

La mobilité de nos étudiants est une priorité que nous confirmons tous les jours. Nous aimerions davantage développer les mobilités de nos enseignants, voire de notre personnel qui reste à initier à la démarche. Nos objectifs sont une grande ouverture d’horizon pour nos étudiants et une chance d’élargir les pratiques pédagogiques pour nos enseignants et notre personnel.

Nous sommes également en réflexion sur l’internationalisation de nos projets de recherche en rapport à nos domaines scientifiques. La participation au programme Erasmus+ s’intègre de manière à ce que nous proposions déjà des conférences ou séminaires internationaux, lesquels démontrent l’intérêt et de l’enrichissement que porte un échange entre plusieurs cultures dans nos disciplines. Nous avons déposé au Ministère de la Culture un projet de constitution d’un réseau européen pour la recherche en typographie sur la base de l’expérience de ces séminaires, dont le dernier co-coordonné en 2020 avec l’ATypI, Association typographique internationale. C’est essentiellement sur ce projet de constitution de réseau que nous envisageons une innovation propre dans notre stratégie d’internationalisation.

La participation au programme Erasmus+ dans notre établissement est focalisée sur l’enrichissement pédagogique de nos étudiants ainsi qu’à une sensibilisation et un enrichissement à la culture européenne. Les mobilités apportent une dynamique internationale, une curiosité et un esprit d’ouverture. Chaque année, les étudiants témoignent à leur retour de leurs expériences et soutiennent et facilitent ainsi les démarches pour les nouveaux étudiants. Pour cela, la participation aux ErasmusDays est un très bon moteur.

Nous soutenons et promouvons les nouvelles points forts du programme Erasmus et informons ainsi pour des mobilités avec un accès +inclusif, +durable et +numérique.


Charte Erasmus+

As part of the Erasmus+ program, we signed the Erasmus charter for Higher Education

esadamiens_charteerasmus_fr.pdf (216.45 KB)


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