"I have had a long and enjoyable association with the ‘College of Art’, as my generation still like to call it. In 1969 I had just moved to Brighton from London and was a freelance graphic designer. I applied for a post in the Graphic Design Department and was interviewed by John Biggs."
"My interests have always been in graphic design, the history of design, technology, science fiction, space travel and making things. Since retiring from the university I have had more time to pursue my hobby relating to these areas: building model rockets. I now have an embryonic business designing and making model kits.
"I have had a long and enjoyable association with the ‘College of Art’, as my generation still like to call it. In 1969 I had just moved to Brighton from London and was a freelance graphic designer. The firm I was design consultant for had just gone into to liquidation and I thought I would like to try my hand at teaching. I applied for a post in the Graphic Design Department and was interviewed by John Biggs. He thought I was more fitted to a vacancy on the Foundation course and that became my first teaching experience, on the ground floor of the Circus Street annexe. It was wonderfully rewarding to teach the calibre of students attracted to Brighton.
"I went on to teach part-time in both the Graphic Design Department and on the Foundation Course (Department of Three Dimensional Design). In 1975 the latter role became full time. In 1983 the Foundation Course was transferred out of the Polytechnic, and I successfully applied to study and MA in the Department of Cultural Studies in the Royal College of Art. I was awarded this in 1984 and began to teach in the Department of Art and Design History at Brighton, subsequently the School of Historical and Critical Studies.
"In 1998 I reduced my teaching commitments and joined the CTI Art and Design unit at Grand Parade. Here I edited the journal OutLine and supported the centre manager. This gave me the opportunity to develop my IT skills in editing for publishing and to use my graphic design abilities.
"In 2000 I helped establish the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Art Design and Communication Subject Centre, and was responsible for editing the newsletter and coordinating design and publicity, in print and electronic form.
"Apart from the satisfaction of teaching various subjects over the years, I would like to think that a useful contribution I made to the college was curating various exhibitions. These were Alphabet Allsorts in 1978, Robots and Space Toys (with Chris McEwan) and finally in 2005, Tin Toys."
Paul Clark, 2009
