WORK EXPERIENCE

My initial thought with work experience were to look into a career in art therapy. I thought that this would be a nice area of work to have experience in.

However, after further thought I decided to look at a more traditional career such as a freelance illustrator. I thought that this would be something I would enjoy to get an insight into. Also, I thought that a career within art therapy would not fulfil the skills I have already learnt whilst being a university.

For my first piece, someone had contacted me to recreate a piece of their photography in my style of work. 

I found this extremely fun and good to do. They wanted the piece to be completed within a week. I did find this quite hard to do between other things. I find it quite a struggle to manage my time between work and its not something that I hold as a strong point. 

The client was happy with the result of my painting so it made the hard work worth while. 

Final Image 

LONDON BOOK FAIR

I went to the London Book Fair recently and I was not sure what to expect when I got there. I knew little if nothing about the book fair before going to it and was not aware of how well it is known internationally. I went with the an open mind and just wanted to go to experience it and to know what would be expected of me if I was to go again. 

It was interesting to have a walk around and have a look at all the different stands and to look at what different publishers had to offer but I did feel a bit bewildered and really wasn't sure how to approach people. 

Whilst there, I went to a talk and four people from Scholastic gave a talk about what their position was within the company and what they were looking for in peoples portfolios. I thought that this was a brilliant opportunity for people to show their work and potentially have the opportunity to work in such as prominent and well know company. 

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

Jewellery Pieces 

These items stood out to me in particular because the are well made and presented. The items of jewellery look professional. The packet the items come in are well made. I like the black and white design with the slight hints of blue in the type. The items of jewellery stand out well against the white background.

I also appreciate these items as I imagine there was a lot more thought put into these then just your typical print. I also imagine that using shrink plastic was interesting and something different. 

The product is also something that would have a long life line. Its not just something you would have for a week and then throw away. However, like most delicate pieces of jewellery, there is the risk that it may snap or break in some way. These pieces of jewellery are also useful. They are something that could be used on a day to day basis.

I have never thought about jewellery as a promotional item to display my illustrations but from these piece of work, I can see that the results are successful.

Postcards 

I was drawn in by the designs on the postcards, the delicate use of pen, ink and pencil and the almost simplicity of them. There is not much colour to the pieces of work. 

They are well made, very crisp and professional looking however, I don’t really see them as being particularly useful. However, I think in terms of advertising your illustrations, they work well. They are at the perfect size to pick up and keep. 

I think that as long as they were looked after correctly, they would have a long life line however, I believe that people would easily chuck things like this away.

Colouring Book 

I really like this product. I think that colouring books are fun item and an extremely good way to get your work out there and show off your illustration skills. 

The book itself looks professional and well made though I feel that the cover of the book could have been produced in colour. Its not necessarily an useful product but its something that will get a lot of use.

Again, I have never really thought about producing a colouring book or sheets to show my work but it is something that I would definitely consider.

Mug and Postcards

What intently stood out to me with these items were the illustrations themselves. I am a big fan of the style of these illustrations. They are also bright and colourful and stand out to you. 

 I think that the postcards are fun, especially the biscuits with the “the biscuit for when you are feeling…”. They are well made and presented. 

The mug in particular has a long life and is very useful, everybody needs a mug. The postcards have less of a life span and are less useful but they still something that could be pinned up on a board or wall to be admired. 

Colouring Sheets 

Similarly to the colouring book, I think that this item is fun and does well in promoting the illustrators work the public. 

I think that these items have been produced well and I like the sleeve that the colouring sheets have been put into to keep them as a set. 

This product is extremely similar to the colouring book in that the sheets have little usefulness but are fun product. 

GROUP WORK (Task 2)

Also, within the same group we were given the task to devise a plan for a promotional event, collective, exhibition, campaign or publication. For this task we were given a £200 budget. 

We decided to host an exhibition and then from this, researched what we needs to be considered when hosting an exhibition.

Firstly, we decided to look at venues. Initially we considered the university drawing room as it is a good space and would keep the cost down on the venue. However, we did look at other spaces to hire. 

We then looked at the cost of framing. After looking around at a few different websites, it seems that on average, we would be looking at spending £25-£50 per frame.

Finally, we considered the different ways of advertising our exhibition. Leaflets and posters could be produced in the studio again to keep costs down. We also thought of using social media to advertise people of the event. 

GROUP WORK (Task 1)

Task 1 

Within our group, we had to create five rules for life. For these, we could only use type, no images apart from graphical elements. For each statement we had to create an A3 poster. 

At first, we wrote down a number of sayings and quotes including some that we live by ourselves and promote positive thinking.

From the number of sayings and quotes we had, we shortlisted it to just five which included:

• “Actions speak louder than words”
• “Punch through that wall”
• “I don’t know why but that is doing something for me”
• “Domino’s later?”
• “Have a fire for every experience”

For each of the poster, we wanted to take a different approach and explore the different ways in which we could create each of the posters. 

Firstly we decided to create the “Have a fire…” poster using letter press. 

We wanted the “fire” and “experience” to be in the same font and to also be in colour whereas the rest of the quote would be in quite a plain and simple font and also in black. 

We thought that red would be a good colour as it is very eye catching and punching, it draws your attention to it. Also, from this we decided to have the word “fire” transition from yellow to red.

As a whole, I am happy with the end result.

For the “Actions speak…” and “I don't know…” posters, we wanted to experiment with creating our own type. 

With the “Domino’s later?” poster, we thought it would be a good idea to put the words in a speech bubble, similar to the ones that are found on iPhone messages. Also, we decided to turn the “o” in “domino’s” into pizzas. 

For the “Punch through…” poster, we wanted to have the word “wall” to be bold and large and to have a brick pattern and then to have the words “punch through that” in the middle as if the words had “punched’ through the wall. 

Of all of the them, this is the one that we found the most challenging. We knew that creating a stencil would have probably been the easiest when it came to creating the hole in the wall however, it required a lot of trial and error before we got it correct.

RISOGRAPH

For the Risograph, we had to produce an illustration that was 200mm x 200mm with a 5mm bleed. The image would have to be in black and white and then our image could have a spot colour however, this would need to be done by hand. 

The class was separated into groups of about six. Each group was then given a title which each student then had to create an illustration in response to the title that was given. Our group was given the title “Health”. 

Initially, I wanted to create an illustration inspired by old anatomical drawings of internal organs, muscles, bones etc. 

After looking at these images, I decided that I wanted to create something that showed that with being an illustrator and being primarily at a desk most of the day, our posture was being affected. 

With this in mind, I decided that I want my illustration to show a skeleton at a desk sketching. 

Final Piece 

I am quite happy with the way my illustration turned out. I think that I could have used darker ink when apply the colour to my image to create a greater contrast and shadows on my image. 

PAPIO PRESS

Today, we had a talk from two third year students, Harry and Zanna, and their business, Papio Press. They explained that this was something that at first started in their second year and was as a result of their professional practice lectures. 

They showed us a few of their products, prints, cushions, badges etc. The company has its on Etsy   site and also has products featured on the website notonthehighstreet.com. They explained how their products on ‘not the highstreet' website are raised a little as the website takes a percentage from the items that are brought off the site.

Both Harry and Zanna explained how social media plays a big part in getting their work out there and noticed by the public. They're on a number of media platforms including a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page keeping people up to date with new products and competitions to win certain items. 

CREATIVE CV

Today, Paulin Ascroft came in to give us a seminar on careers and work experience. She also spoke about CVs and how to go about creating one for our particular field.

She went onto explain that as we are on a course that requires us to be creative our CVs are able to express that and so we can create a CV how ever we wanted.

Our CV is an expression of ourself but we also need to take into consideration who we are targeting. We should make a visual impact with our CVs and it should grab peoples attention, it should be different. 

Paulin then went onto explain the breakdown of what should be included on our CV. 

First of all our qualifications need to be included. Our A levels and results and the dates in which we took these. 

She also explained that we need to state that we are a BA Hons Illustration student and not just simply that we are an illustration student. It is also important to give the full name of the university that we attended. 

We could add any achievements or additional information that we thought relevant and helpful in showing that we could be the right person for the job. These could include industry related work experience, things that we have done at university. Other things could also include published work, awards, languages and competitions.

Next, she explained what contact details to included. Our name, big and bold, address, telephone number and email. She also mentioned that we could put our blog on our CVs too however, if we were to do this, we needed to make sure that our blog was up to date. 

Our profile had to included, three to four punchy, focused selling points or skills that we acquire. 

Paulin also made it very clear that we should make every word count!

I also learnt about the differences between a conventional and creative CV. 

The differences include:

CONVENTIAL 

• 2 Pages maximum 
• Plain
• Logical “flow”

CREATIVE 

• 1/2 Pages or 3D
• Use of colour 
• Focus on creative skills 
• More than one typeface 
• Include visuals 
• Webpage 
• YouTube CV

If we were to create or CV using one of the alternatives such as the webpage or YouTube, we would need to make sure that it is easy to find online. 

ILLUSTRATORS TALK

Today we had three illustrators come and speak to us about their work and how they came to be the illustrators that they are today. 

Will Morris 

Will Morris is a comic book artist and illustrator and created the fishing comic, Silver Darlings.

From the talk, he mentioned how he thought that it was good for us to experiment in our own time, find a style and technique that is best suited to us. He also, explained that when working on projects, he works big and then shrinks his work down tot he size that is required.

As far as payment is concerned when it comes to his illustrations or comics, there is little difference. For a comic, he can expect between £100-£150 per page and then for his illustrations, £100-£200 per commission.

Nick White 

Nick White is another illustrator specialising specifically in comics and poster predominately for bands and music events. He has also produced some books.

Ben Newman

Ben Newman prefers to work tonally first and then add the colour. He also likes to layer up shapes to create the illustrations.