OUIl602 - Summative position statement

Before the end of the year, I intend on fully completing my promotional material and professional branding to a high enough standard to allow me to send them off to potential employers and agencies. At this point in time, after a lot of thought post PPP presentation, I feel like I have a much better understanding of the position I am in and what I need to do in the coming months in order to achieve my short term goals. I want to focus my energy on doing publishing work and sending my portfolio and books to as many different children's publishers as possible. Although publishing will be the main focus of my practice I don't want to stop experimenting and exploring 3D craft and everything else I didn't get chance to fully involve myself in throughout this year, mainly ceramic work and craft illustration. I know that I need to being pushing my social media more and getting myself known and out there. I want to try and utilise Twitter more, alongside Instagram, to create a professional, but still approachable and funny persona. Finally, my placement at Hallmark in May will give me the chance to professionalise myself and my practice, and gain more feedback from people outside of the course. I think Hallmark will give me the chance to hone my skills in pattern making and really get a feel for applied illustration in it's context, I'm very hopeful about the skills and experience I will gain while at Hallmark and am also hopeful that it may lead to a job afterwards.

OUIL602 - Summative evaluation

I found PPP quite difficult at times, but also very useful more towards the end of year, being expected to contact people out in the industry helped me to put my professional practice into perspective when trying to make plans for my future. I found contacting practitioners that inspire me really motivating, and the feedback I received was informative and key in helping me try and transition from student to professional. I have always had a lot of ambition and sometimes feel like I want to take too many things on at once, this module has definitely helped me to focus my sights an pin point what kind of practitioner I want to be in the future.

Sending emails to other illustrators has shown me the importance of getting my work out there, and has helped me feel a lot more at ease with contacting potential employers. I have a better understanding of who I should be contacting and when, I feel like sometimes, getting a reply is just a matter of when you attempt to contact someone and partially luck, which has definitely spurred me on to keep up with contacting people and to not be disheartened if I don't get a reply straight away. Although I believe that I would have benefited more from contacting people earlier on in the year too, I wasn't confident enough in my work and my ability as an illustrator to approach professionals asking for feedback and advice, but feel like I have made a solid start on building up a list of contacts which I can use in the months to come. Rather than printing my promo pack myself, I intend on sending it to a printing company in order to achieve as professional an outcome as possible, although this may end up being costly if I need to be constantly updating it with new work. I think I've taken better advantage of social media this year, starting with my website, which is a huge improvement to only using my Facebook page.

My website is the main hub of my social media, and contains links to all my other sites, including Etsy, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I found creating my online presence and personal branding one of my favourite aspects of PPP, and didn't have much trouble creating my logo and my websites. I tried to tone down my ideas for my promotional pack and business cards and feel like my pigeon book is a good showcase of my talents, while trying to demonstrate my personality too. To make all my social media recognisable and work well together, I started to use my Pigeonsaresick logo to try and create some uniformity, although I think my work, despite being quite different at times, is unified and recognisable through the similar colour schemes that I use. Some feedback that I received on my work from Tiger Tea illustration, was that my work had "ethereal use of colour", I was pleasantly surprised by this comment, and think that this was a turning point in my work, in that I know what some of my strengths are, and can work hard to capitalise on them. I think that my entry for the Secret 7 brief which combined texture, collage and a limited colour palette.

Although my PPP presentation itself wasn't extremely successful, a lot of good thought did come out of it, and I received some feedback that helped me do some decision making. Focusing on publishing, and sending the books that I already have to publishers, will benefit me in that it gives me direction and an end point to work towards, narrowing down my field of vision in terms of what I want to do in the future has cleared things up in my mind and motivated me to crack on, although there are a lot of avenues I want to explore with my practice, I think it's good to have a main focus and a unique selling point, which I think I am doing well developing. 

Overall I'm pleased with what I have gained from this module, even though at times I became unmotivated and put PPP to the back of my mind, especially during COP, the push over the last few months, and really getting my teeth stuck into PPP and constantly self evaluating, has really helped clear up my busy mind and set me on the right path to a fulfilling career. I intend on keeping up with keeping some form of blog and really creating a hype around my social media, especially using Twitter and Instagram, I think that keeping a blog will help me to keep my creative juices flowing and help keep me in the creative loop, which I will have taken for granted with being in a constant creative environment at University. 

OUIL602 - Presentation

Overall I wasn't too pleased with how my presentation went, I definitely panicked and rushed through what I had written down. Although aside from that fact I do feel that the content of my presentation (had I presented it properly) was good and I'd spent a lot of time preparing notes on everything that I wanted to say. I wanted to try and explain how my work from Level 4 and 5 had influenced what I wanted to carry on doing in the future, and how I've chosen during Level 6, to focus on what I think my strengths are.

If I were to do the presentation again I would try and stay a bit calmer so that I don't rush what I need to say, add some more of my work from this year and explain how all that went, and also explore my social media and book publishing for the future a little bit more. I did get some good feedback that got me thinking about prioritising certain aspects of my practice in order to have a USP, and not lose direction by trying to tackle too many things at once.

OUIL602 - Presentation boards

These are my final presentation boards. I had to edit them once or twice as I finished more of my personal branding, I changed the layout of my business cards and the background design, so I added that in, unfortunately I haven't had chance to photograph my business cards, which came the other day, so I just created a PSD mockup.

OUIL602 - Portfolio PDF

As well my e-portfolio, I also have a physical portfolio which I intend to use when I go and visit studios/employers, I mainly need it for when I go to my Hallmark placement, as they requested that I bring it to get a feel for my work.

OUIL602 - Wrap Magazine

Wrap magazine celebrate contemporary illustration through their magazine publication and also their stationary and gift range.

I'd LOVE to send my dog cards to them, I might wait until after my time at hallmark so I can send them the really good patterns I make while I'm there.
I definitely won't forget though, I need to get some sort of noticeboard for my bedroom where I can keep track of everyone I want to contact after the end of PPP.
There range of wrapping paper really interests me, I could definitely see myself being sold amongst the others:

OUIL603 - Hallmark

So, I received some very exciting news, I got a last minute Hallmark placement! I emailed Rachel, a creative development assistant on the Thursday morning, and she got back to me within the hour! Nice.
I was asked to send over my favourite piece of work, and I sent them my pigeon pattern that I use on my branding. I have to take my portfolio with me on my first day, so that everyone else can take a look through it and give me some advice and feedback, this is scary.

I have a place confirmed for late May, which I am extremely excited about, it's giving me something to look forward to, and I think it will give me a major confidence boost, and something ace to put on my CV. I think that getting live feedback from people who aren't involved with the University will be beneficial in so many ways, non biased feedback will allow me to really get a feel for what people think of my work, and what I need to improve upon, they may think I'm really good!

I'm really looking forward to see how my work progresses over the 2 weeks I'll spend there, and I'm hopeful that it will open up lots of further opportunities, I intend on working really hard, impressing lots of people, and possibly being cheeky and asking for a job, whether or not it's just making cups of tea, doesn't bother me.

OUIL602 - Social media

Over the past few months I've been trying to get on as many social media sites as possible, although I'm still struggling with using Twitter, I plan on using it a lot more often after uni, to keep me engaged with the illustration community.
I'm a bit dissapointed that I couldn't have my logo at the top of my Instagram profile, it doesn't allow much customisation, but the majority of my other social media sites use the logo so that they kind of make a recognisable set.

My Twitter looks quite nice with the huge logo at the top, but I haven't got round to using it much yet, I plan on creating more of a hype around myself on Twitter, because it's easy to post silly little updates, I don't think I'll post much progress drawings on Twitter, I'll keep that to Instagram, but it'd be nice to have a few life updates on my Twitter, so people view me as a real person and not just a business. 

Finally my Facebook page, which doesn't look as impressive as my Twitter page, but you can see what I'm trying to do with the logo. I find Facebook a lot easier to update than other things, but I've kind of slowed down with posting on there. I need to link up all my social media so I only have to post once.

OUIL603 - Extended Practice

BRIEF TITLE

Mental health monsters

Brief

Explore character and story, while looking at a serious topic aimed at a young audience. An educational pack that teaches and informs children about their mental health/emotions and aims to teach them how to deal with emotions and what they are thinking and feeling.

Product

- An educational pack containing illustrated learning materials.

- Possible extended merch range

- A collection of character profiles

Tone of Voice

- Educational

- Fun (aimed at children)

- Informative

- Bright and engaging

- Not patronising

Audience

- Children aged 5-7

- Their teachers and their parents

- The project isn't aimed at a specific gender

Context 

- Could be used in both an educational setting in schools and after school clubs

- Could be used by schools within their student support 

- Could also be used at home, as a teaching aid for parents.

Additional information/considerations

- Must be very accurate information

- I need to take into consideration the age range of my audience

- Also need to consider the time frame I am working to, I can carry this on afterwards but what should I aim to have done by the deadline.

Mandatory requirements

- Detailed character profiles

- At least 10 strong characters

- A range of educational materials

Deliverables

- Educational pack

- Accompanying prints in A4 format

- Collection of emotion monsters, with information and branching off into other characters.

OUIL602 - I must be a part of this

http://mp-arts.co.uk/

While I was doing some research into other illustrators for my 603 project, I came across a few artists who were represented by MP Arts agency.

The standard of the work and the artists in the agency is really high, so it would be an honour to be represented by them. Once all the deadlines are out the way I want to send them a promotional pack and pester them a little bit to see if I can find out what they think of me.

OUIL602 - The art of ping pong

http://www.theartofpingpong.co.uk/bats

I found The Art of Ping Pong on pinterest while I was looking for character design. 

'The project invites artists to create a series of bespoke ping pong bats, auctioned off to raise money for BBC Children in Need.'

I wasn't too impressed with some of the designs but it was interesting to see how different types of work from different people can work well together as a set when placed in the right context.
I've started getting more into really bold and bright work, especially while working on my main extended practice brief. I've found it much easier to complete a finished piece of work without messing around with it digitally, by using a mixture of gouache and paper collage.

OUIL602 - Elliot Kruszynski

I've been trying to find more examples of artists using bold. block colours in their work, Elliot's is similar to other practitioners I've found but his work has a really cute charm to it. 

I could see little scenes like that working well for my 603 mental health monsters book.

OUIL602 - Oliver Hibert

Since buying some fancy gouache, I've really got into a lot bolder and brighter work. I find it quite easy to achieve a nice even finish with block colours of gouache, which are working well in my main extended practice brief. 

I want to explore shape and colour more using cut out paper and gouache, and try things at a larger scale. I really enjoyed making the large scale collage of the tear drop man. 

OUIL602 - Till Hafenbrak

Another practitioner using bold colours! I like Till's work best for the way they draw people, drawing stylised people is something I've really struggled with over the past 3 years, I'm hoping that the new way of working I'm experimenting with, using gouache and cut paper, will allow me to try something like this to try and find a way of creating people that I actually like.

OUIL602 - Contacting Urban Graphics

I sent an email to card company, Urban Graphics, I haven't heard anything back yet but I sent them a few attachments of my dog cards, as suggested by Ben in my tutorial. 

I want to send them to a few more card companies, and also make more dog cards so I have a larger collection, maybe branch out into other animal ranges! I think they would go well with my patterns, so I want to try and combine the two things somehow. 

OUIL602 - Venya Son

I thought that Venya Son's work was a good example of bright work, that utilises texture and pattern to stop the colours being too flat. 

I think the patterns work particularly well, and would look really good with my new way of painting and using collage. 

I'm excited to try and use some of these techniques during my Hallmark placement and see where that takes me. 

OUIL602 - Pictoplasma

I was really interested in Pictoplasma during Level 4, when I was looking into the different types of illustration,  but kind of forgot it existed. I'd been following them for a while on facebook and decided to take another look.
I thought that some of the Pictoplasma monster characters could be relevant for my final 603 projects.

OUIL602 - Anja Mulder

Anja is another illustrator/creator that I found during Level 5, she really stood out to me then because of the way she capitalises on the style of her work with the way she presents it online, she is based in the Netherlands and calls herself a collection maker, which I find quite interesting. I think one of the things that I like most about Anja is the mixture of textures and materials she uses, it definitely makes her work stand out to me.

I contacted Anja via her website to ask what inspires her, and any advice that she can give me. I couldn't find her actual email address but I contacted via a form on her website, hopefully she still gets it!

OUIL602 - UAL Children's book opportunity.

Recently I emailed Milena Nassimov at the University of Arts London about an opportunity to illustrate a children's book, I sent her my portfolio and PDF's of my two most recent finished books.

Unfortunately I didn't get the main opportunity but she said she liked the work that I had sent her and asked me if I wanted to take part in a different children's book project that they were working on called Q-Tales, I don't have much information on it at the moment but Milena said she would email me some more details.

OUIL602 - Emailing emailing.

SO I started trawling through some of my contacts on LinkedIn to see if there was anybody that worked in any relevant places to my practice, so that I could email them and ask for some advice!

I found a girl who went to (it turns out she still goes to) LCA and now works at Hallmark, so I emailed her and asked her how she ended up there!

Had I known that she had not yet graduated I don't think I would have emailed her, as I was more looking for people who had already had some experience of the real world, but it was nice to get a reply from her!

OUIL602 - Paula Grieff

I was looking through my Level 5 PPP blog to see what I liked back then and see if any of it was relevant, which it was surprisingly! I became really fascinated with ceramics and craft at the end of last year but haven't had the chance to really do any of it this year, but I know that life certainly doesn't end when the modules do, and I'm really excited to have the time to try new things!

OUIL602 - Art Bus

Erik's DesignBuss is a mobile design studio owned by designer Erik Olovsson, I really really want to own something similar, which I could use to travel around the UK (and possibly further) to sell my work and also look into doing workshops out of it.
I'd have to look into getting some sort of funding for this, because there is no way I could do this on my own.

Although mine would be quite different on the inside, I'd want some form of sleeping place so I could stay over night in the bus if needs be. I'd need a desk to work on obviously, with lots of storage to keep my art supplies and work. 

I'd have to consider whether or not I wanted to have electricity in the van, so that I could have printers and computers in there too, there's a lot to think about, but it's definitely soemthing I want to put more thought in to for the future, when I have more time and money.

Another mobile studio I found was created by Base Landscape

"Andreas created the Mobile Design Studio because of a simple belief: the best design should be informed by and performed in situ (on the site). Equipped with a bamboo drafting table, a small reference library, solar power and wifi, the studio provides a comfortable, functional, and elegant office that is easily towed behind a car"

This looks like something that could be slightly more realistic than the full on converted camper, although I would still need a car to tow it, and it's no where as big as the camper. 

Hmm, many things to think about. 

OUIL602 - The Art Market

I decided that seeing as I didn't get a table at Thought Bubble this year that I'd like to make some work to seek at the end of year art market, which I think is much less of a strain on my time compared to the amount of preparation needed for Thought Bubble.

I think that I want the theme of my work for the market to be animals, mostly animal patterns, something that will make me happy after the stress of the PPP module and all the other modules really. I sent off my application form so hopefully I'll get a place to sell some work.

I may expand on my watercolour pigeon pattern that I'm using for my branding, maybe also do some crafting with the pigeon character to go along with the patterns.

OUIL602 - Awesome Merch contacting

I wrote out a huge email to Awesome Merchandise a while ago and found it in my drafts recently, I think that I didn't want to send it because it was all very long winded, I'd rather wait for my promotional stuff to be printed and then send them things, which will be weird because they are the ones printing it ha, but I guess it shows my interest in the company and what they do.

OUIL602 - My secondary dream job.

So I was looking on the Indeed job website and decided to search for dog jobs, because aside from illustration, working with dogs would be a dream job.

And I found the perfect job; dog walking and sitting company based in Leeds.

I made an illustrated dog CV and sent it to them, replying to an ad they had posted after a great conversation with Ted, the man who runs the company

http://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/Ted's-Pet-Care/jobs/Dog-Walker-Pet-Sitter-9b34ca54b98a36a6?q=Dog

OUIL602 - Someone finally replied - Tiger Tea

I contacted Amy Evans (Tiger Tea), an illustrator from Yorkshire and she got back to me with some great advice.

It was nice of her to suggest that I don't attach my full portfolio straight away and instead let my website speak for itself.
I was very flattered about the nice feedback she gave me on my work and it was a massive confidence boost! it definitely confirms it in my mind that colour is one of my strong points, as well as type! Both of these things I intend on capitalising on and really refining my skills. to a much higher standard.

OUIL602 - Crispin Orthotics

I think the Crispin Orthotics brief was a little bit of a turning point for me. I made a few patterns which I really quite liked, they were protfolio standard in my eyes and this pleased me. It kind of rekindled my love of pattern making, because I learnt a cool trick to make my patterns look a lot nicer when they are repeated. 

I'm looking forward to after deadlines when I can concentrate on making lots more patterns and applying them to different contexts, like fabrics and prints, through different hand printed methods.

OUIL602 - Birdhism

I follow a lot of animal pages on Facebook, one of them being Birdhism, which basically posts lots of pictures of cute birds, but the owner of the page is also an illustrator and she often posts really cute little illustrations she's made and has kind of made a brand for the facebook page. 

I sent her a message about possibly collaborating on some designs, I haven't had chance to do anything with that yet as I've been super busy with everything else but after the deadline I want to do some designs for stickers and badges and see what she thinks.

OUIL602 - I am contacting people.

I just emailed Printshop, a screen print company based in Leeds, that I found whilst looking at potential places to get my work printed after Uni resources stop being available to me. I intend on sending these places promotional packs whether they reply to my email or not, but it will do for now until I can actually visit or post something to them.

I also just rang up Awesome Merchandise and was told to email, again I intend on sending them some stuff, but I'm a bit apprehensive about emailing Awesome Merch right now because I would really really like a job there!

and then I rang up a recruitment agency called The Book Recruitment which is based in Leeds and they told me to email my cv to them.

OUIL602 - Personal branding

I was a little unhappy with my personal branding before hand, especially my business card, I've changed the design of my business card quite a few times now because I can never get it exactly how I want it! But I spent a bit of time making a lovely little pigeon pattern:

Combined with my logo I think this will look really nice on my promo pack, I'm kind of glad that I got rid of all the crazy pigeon butt clay ideas and kept it simple, I think it looks a lot more professional than last years, but can also be updated as I get better.

OUIL602 - Handing out my book

So my final screen printed book came out well, after spending the whole first week of Easter printing it, because of training at my normal people job. Most of the pages turned out well, except with one design, I couldn't fit the title on the same page, so I will have to write that one on afterwards.

Another thing was the front cover, I may re-print those digitally before I send them off to employers, because it didn't turn out as bright and noticeable as I would have liked, it worked a bit better when I put a few layers of ink down, but was still no where near bright enough.
I know for next time though, to use a lighter paper, or keep adding layers of ink.

Overall though I was very pleased with how the line work translated through screen printing, none of the detail was lost and it gave them a lovely handmade feel.

OUIL602 - Concept Merch

This morning I rang Concept Merch, a printing company in Brighouse to ask about sending them a portfolio. The lady on the phone was very nice and gave me an email to send my portfolio to: serena@conceptmerch.co.uk
I sent along some samples of my work, if they don't reply I want to then send them my promotional pack and screenprints.

I can't find many of their social media sites, which suggest they are quite a small company, this might benefit me when sending my portfolio, hopefully I will stand out to anyone else sending their portfolios!