Essay and Professional Project

My essay research is underway though I am struggling to find myself the appropriate images and title. I want to focus my essay around my Professional project and look at editorial illustration, perhaps looking at how it's changed from as far as back as the Gutenberg press. I'm unsure whether this will give me enough to write about so I will run it past my tutor today.

Last Friday we handed in the Learning Agreement and over the weekend I've bought myself a couple of books based upon contemporary illustration which should provide me with inspiration and initiate the ideas process for the project. I need to ensure that I structure my time well and research thoroughly so that I produce the best possible outcome. I've found that I already have an idea of how I want it the work to look which I need to leave and develop ideas based from the research.

Steinberg lecture

Today we had a lecture with Anna Steinberg who is a freelance illustrator. She gave a presentation and provided advice on how to get yourself set up as a freelance illustrator which was really helpful and refreshing. I had the chance to have a quick chat with her and showed her my portfolio. She identified that my work needs to have more cohesion as the work doesn't seem to have a consistent style which I agree with to an extent. From my point of view I am still exploring different ways I communicate through my illustration. I'm unsure that I have established my own style, I think it's something that will come naturally over time.

At this moment in time I'm trying to decide whether to move onto Illustration for my 3rd year or to continue with Visual Communication. My worry is that my illustration hasn't developed enough over the last couple of years to get me onto the illustration course. I need to have a chat with my tutors and a chat with a tutor over on the illustration course to give me some direction. If I were to continue on my current course I feel I could still carry on with the work and run my own self initiated illustration alongside which I have been currently doing.

To help me make my decision I definitely need to sit down and have a chat with tutors, peers and family. Take all of that advice on board and ultimately make my decision.

Where do I see myself in the future? Where does my passion lie?

Animal Farm Event

The Animal Farm fund raiser went really well and apparently the Panda screen prints I did sold really well! Which I can't quite believe but it was a great night and very rewarding seeing my work sell.

Professional Project thinking

Tomorrow I have to present my initial ideas for my professional project. Right now I think I have got an idea in a mine field of other thoughts. I'm struggling to produce one solid idea to present for tomorrow so I think I am going to have pull together my ideas and run through a couple and hopefully I can gain feedback that provides me with one solid idea so I can give myself some direction. I'm feeling confident that I will present well and this will build upon my confidence to present on front of several people.

Fund Raiser and ycn meeting

Me and Ben met up today to progress with the competition brief and then prepare work for the fund raiser on Wednesday at Sixty Million Postcards. Out of the screen prints I produced 5 were good enough for sale and another 4 will be sold in a separate bargain bucket as they didn't turn out as well as the others.

Professional Project launch

So the professional project has launched, the day that seemed so far away when I arrived back at uni in October and somehow it's here. This morning I felt confident of my idea and the direction I was heading but now it seems that what I thought was going to work probably wouldn't after a good discussion with peers on the course.

I find myself lost on day one which is a very strange feeling, as this usually happens at least a week in! Though I think it's good that I've woken up and realised this is my opportunity to create the best piece(s) of my career so far. It's highly unlikely that I will have a chance as good as this to design whatever I want. I know that I want to produce a more illustrative based outcome, however I don't want to shut off other possibilities with this golden opportunity. My initial idea was to create a brief where I designed a Graphic novel, which I would create and develop characters, storyline, setting, layout, typography and overall design. I saw myself designing the whole thing, but I had sat back and asked myself; What do I see myself doing in ten years? Even five years!? Where would I want to be in the future? These questions I can't seem to answer, but I think I can answer them with the Professional project. Maybe that's what my project should be about, my journey to find the answers, my dreams and ambition.

Who knows... All I know is that I am going to push myself as far as I can because I don't want to look back and have regrets.

Put together the illustrations of a human heart today for the Bleeding Heart Boy project. I drew them up in pencil and then used watercolour. I might alter the contrast slightly on Photoshop to bring out the red and make it darker.

Bleeding Heart Boy

Spent the last hour or so working on the Storyboard brief. I'm currently drawing up a human heart from different angles, I'm not entirely sure how the drawings will be used but I've designed a fairly detailed heart from 4 angles which I will watercolour with a deep red. I will upload the first set of storyboards over the next few days then look to the second script.

I've found it difficult liaising with a client who is based in a different part of the country as it is so much easier to understand the brief and what the client wants in a meeting. It's certainly been more challenging working on this brief as it's difficult to understand what exactly the client wants. Without being face to face you can't gain the level of feedback needed on the work you send over so I have to improvise with what I understand and my interpretation. I've also found it difficult to retain contact with the client due to being busy, so I've learnt that I need to chase up clients a lot to ensure I can continue to work on the brief. I think in the future I must chase the client up on a more regular basis and make sure I ask for a telephone number if they are in a part of the country that isn't easy to reach in such a short time frame. By taking on this Live brief I've developed a better understanding of how to approach a client in a professional and friendly manner. When chasing up a client I have found that you have to be wise to how you word your message to ensure you are friendly but assertive.

Competition brief meeting

Yesterday myself, Ben and Luke arranged to meet up to launch our competition brief properly. We began to research into famous British musicians from past decades. The album covers all had similar elements running through their designs. We gathered as much imagery as possible and made note of what we thought worked.

Our task is to create a campaign concept for the Great British Music Experience so we've decided that we're going to design a series of 4 posters, each from a different decade. We're starting from the 60s and ending with a poster for the 90s as we feel this is manageable and we can execute our idea well. After a couple of hours I think we all had several ideas that we could run with, so it was agreed that we would all attempt designing roughs of potential layouts and styles. I aim to put together 3 or 4 different designs and then arrange to meet up with everyone again so we can have a look at our designs and have a small critique betweens us. Hopefully we can combine all of our styles to form an overall look and provide continuity throughout the series of posters.