Learning Lab

Writing an artist statement is an essential professional skill for any creative arts or design practice. Here you will find information that will help you to:

Understand what an artist statement is and why it’s useful.

Identify different types of artist statements and when to use them.

Analyse examples of real professional artist statements from our RMIT creative communities and art collections.

Practice how to write an artist statement in your own words.

Communicate your creative practice to others, develop your writing skills and find your 'voice'.

This section includes learning activities to help you communicate your creative practice to others and develop your writing skills.

Referencing: art and design
Clear and accurate referencing, using the correct referencing system, is an important aspect of tertiary academic writing.

Paraphrasing: art and design
Paraphrasing is when you rewrite ideas and information in your own words. In academic writing, paraphrasing helps to avoid plagiarism. Paraphrasing well involves changing the structure of the sentence and not just changing the words.

Harvard referencing and academic integrity
You demonstrate academic integrity when you present your work honestly. You do this by acknowledging the work of others and how it has contributed to your own ideas.

What is colour theory?

Colour theory covers a long history from antiquity to modern times. It includes academic and scientific investigations into how we see and understand colour. It also includes practical applications for using colour in creative work.

This learning resource explains the history of colour theory, how we see colour, and how to use colour systems to mix colour and create colour relationships.

Also included are quizzes to test your knowledge and practical learning activities to guide users in applications of colour theory for art and design. This content is relevant for anyone working with colour in creative and scientific fields.

Sustainable creative practice
You can apply this rubric table to your own creative practice. It suggests sustainable ways to approach your work, and outlines how you can support and inspire your practice no matter what style or mediums you work with.

Sustainable industries: fashion
Learn about sustainable fashion and textiles, and the issues facing this design industry.

Fashion: the Higg materials sustainability index
Learn about the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, which was developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to reduce the impact of fashion and clothing to the environment.

This resource outlines the process of writing an Art History and Theory essay. It highlights the key features of planning, structuring and writing an essay using the Futurism movement as a model. It demonstrates how to write cohesively, and how to effectively integrate visual and textual references.

These resources provide support for students undertaking design writing tasks based on examples of student writing in several design sub-disciplines.