College life is rich with opportunities to create friendships and develop interests beyond just passing a class. Some students do just attend classes, but for those who participate in events outside class, the Ultimo campus is full of new experiences.
AV Club
AV Club is run by Alex Taleski and provides extra learning resources for Video and Film students. The club invites industry professionals to demonstrate techniques and equipment in a relaxed environment throughout each trimester. The club is all about collaborative development of skills and ideas and is a great way to network with professionals as well as learn from them.


Breakout Area
At Billy Blue Ultimo campus the student lounge is not some hidden away place, instead it is a vibrant space to relax located in the middle of the action near the library, food, reception, and Success Coaches. The chairs and sofas are comfy and the company is friendly. Breakout of stress, and enjoy the moment.


Tuckshop
Food and coffee power the student life. In the Breakout Zone is a delightful cafe appropriately called The Tuckshop. Tuckshops have been a part of the Australian education environment for a hundred years and the tradition lives on at the Ultimo campus.

Adventures in Autodesk Maya
Billy Blue College of Design has some wonderful lecturers who are passionate about their classes and students. Max Baron teaches 3D animation. He is the superman of Autodesk Maya and is very patient as we struggle with learning the complex world of Maya. According to Max he is there to dispell the myth that computers make art “It’s the people behind the computers who do it. I like to share the passion for the art. This is an artform just like any other and so connecting with students is a process of connecting with ideas.”

“Seeing ideas taking new directions in student art is exciting and cool. If I see someone who is struggling suddenly get it, it is like seeing a butterfly unfurl from a cocoon. I provide the structure and discipline that facilitates the learning, or more correctly, I provide the structure for the student to discipline themself for self discovery. Emotionally the work is just you, and I am trying to enable the students to be their best artist selves.”
Max Baron
First Aid
The Ultimo campus has its own Florence Nightingale, but her name is Holly. I found this out one day when hurrying to class. I was a little late and moving faster than I should have been, and going down the hill in Broadway I tripped and did a good impression of someone trying to smooth out the pavement with my head. I lost quite a bit of skin from my forehead. I am the sort of guy who prefers no fuss, but Holly sought me out and treated my injuries despite my protests that I was all right.


Custodian of the Books
Terry is passionate about books. He is the librarian and presides over the 250,000 books available to the students at the Ultimo Design Campus. Of course most of them have been digitalized and as someone who loves paper and the tactile sensation of traditional books he has mixed feelings about that, but as he says “you have to move with the times, and students now want books that they can move on and off their computers. Ultimately it is what the book says that is most important, rather than the format it is in.”

“My love of books first began when I went on holidays with my family as a kid, and my mom read The Magician’s Nephew. We got under this old blanket on the sofa and she read that to me, and I remember being totally amazed the way a book could spark the imagination. It is just words on a page, but in that format it is somehow just magical.”
Terry

“It is always a thrill when a student comes up and asks for a specific piece of information and I can say – look, this is how we can look it up, and we can go search the catalog, we can build a search strategy, and you can see in their eyes them getting more confident with finding more information for themselves, and that is always wonderful to see.”
Terry
