Wednesday, 16 April 2014
Hopes, Fears and Opportunities
Looking at my last post on Hopes, Fears and Opportunities, I'd say I still feel relatively the same about everything, some things have changed but not massively. I'm obviously still yet to know what grade I've come out with so I can't really comment on that. I'd say my confidence has improved quite a bit, so thats good! Though as the final major project is coming to an end I am getting a little less confident in how good its going to look, just feel like there is a lot of pressure (duh, cuz there is) and hoping I can produce something I'm proud of at the end of it all. This year in general hasn't got off to the greatest start personally and thats definitely affected my work, which is unfortunate but can't be helped I suppose, just terrible timing. One of my fears was that my work wouldn't be up to standard, which is still a worry if I'm honest. I guess I won't know until all my work is printed properly and I've decided on what I'm using as my final pieces but I feel like thats always a constant worry! I also changed my idea of doing 2 projects and stuck with one, though it did change direction half way through but I wouldn't class them as two separate projects. So all in all, I do feel better than I did before Christmas (which is when the last post was about Hopes & Fears) but of course, I still have the same worries from time to time. I don't really know what will happen after I graduate, everyone keeps asking "what are you doing after uni?" and my answer is still "I don't know!!!" or "a year long holiday". But no in all seriousness, maybe I'll look into getting a studio with some friends or something, I'm not sure yet, I really have no idea what I want to do, since doing this final project I'm definitely interested in making greetings cards etc, so that could be something?
Though I don't really know what I'd do with that. We will have to see I guess! At the moment, as long as I get to graduation, I will be happy :).
Though I don't really know what I'd do with that. We will have to see I guess! At the moment, as long as I get to graduation, I will be happy :).
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Creative Process
I wanted to share this as its something I always struggle with. When I look at some of my favourite illustrators work I always envy how amazing it is and its easy to think thats the first version they did and it came out perfect, or that it wasn't that hard for them to get to that final piece. But obviously, its not, everyone makes mistakes and has to do rough things before getting to the final outcome. I follow Kelly Thompson on Instagram and she posted this and I thought it was very accurate and made me feel better that this is exactly how she feels because its how I do most of the time!
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
Major Project (Update 6)
I started to make my own little hand drawn invites but its so hit and miss with watercolour, it could easily go so wrong so I think I'm going to carry on doing things separately and then put them together on Photoshop, because its too risky doing hand drawn ones as the first things I do usually aren't the ones I use anyway. Going to print out my final pieces on to water colour print paper so it doesn't lose the effect of the paint on normal paper.
Friday, 4 April 2014
Liz Earle Post Packaging
Jo was ever so kind as to give me this Liz Earle letter that was originally posted through her door! I love the type and the cute illustrations dotted around it. It definitely inspired me, thanks Jo! (And Liz Earle) After seeing this I popped into google "Liz Earle illustrator" and clicked on the first thing that came up…though I don't think I found the person who did this, I did find this illustrator! http://www.willagebbie.com
She works with watercolour so obviously I'm automatically a fan…she paints mostly people and has worked with clients such as Kurt Geiger, Ciate, Umberto Giannini and many more.
Monday, 31 March 2014
Portfolio Visit - Day Job Collective
When visiting London, we met with some of the guys from Day Job Collective. It was really good to meet them as they are also recently (ish) graduated so it was nice to see what they've been up to and what they did after uni (which was obviously, create this collective!) They collaborate on big group projects and they're work is just wonderful.
http://day-job.org
They were all so lovely and I really liked the space they worked in! I think its a really great idea to get together with other people after uni and work as a team, have a studio space etc. This is something they said was definitely a positive thing, getting a studio together. Its good because you can have people with different skills and all come together as one and also help motivate each other.
A few of the girls had a look at our portfolios and their comments/advice on mine were to carry on this "greeting card/party favours" thing I'm doing at the moment, but maybe include different occasions as all the work in there is mostly birthday stuff, they suggested throwing some other things in there so it shows I do other things! I agree with this and shall be exploring things such as wedding invites next! They also said it looks slightly graphicy because of the typography. One question asked was how they stayed motivated after graduating? They mentioned about entering competitions which of course, gives you something to work towards and also possibly gets your work noticed and out there! And again, getting a studio together with a few of you motivates you as well.
http://day-job.org
They were all so lovely and I really liked the space they worked in! I think its a really great idea to get together with other people after uni and work as a team, have a studio space etc. This is something they said was definitely a positive thing, getting a studio together. Its good because you can have people with different skills and all come together as one and also help motivate each other.
A few of the girls had a look at our portfolios and their comments/advice on mine were to carry on this "greeting card/party favours" thing I'm doing at the moment, but maybe include different occasions as all the work in there is mostly birthday stuff, they suggested throwing some other things in there so it shows I do other things! I agree with this and shall be exploring things such as wedding invites next! They also said it looks slightly graphicy because of the typography. One question asked was how they stayed motivated after graduating? They mentioned about entering competitions which of course, gives you something to work towards and also possibly gets your work noticed and out there! And again, getting a studio together with a few of you motivates you as well.
Saturday, 29 March 2014
LDN
We got a chance to go to London for 2 days to meet with clients and it was a fun/busy 2 days! We hopped on the (6 HOUR) coach to Victoria Station and made our way to London to firstly visit Daniel Moorey, head of print at Adam and Eve DDB.
He talked us through websites and what he prefers to see. He had the biggest list of Illustrators I'd ever seen! And a folder for each different style, was amazing! He mentioned to keep it simple, not have too many things to look through to actually get to your work, agents/clients are not interested in anything else but that and they want to be able to access it quickly and simply, as no one has the time to click through 3 title pages before actually getting to your home screen. And of course making sure your contact details are clear.
He talked us through websites and what he prefers to see. He had the biggest list of Illustrators I'd ever seen! And a folder for each different style, was amazing! He mentioned to keep it simple, not have too many things to look through to actually get to your work, agents/clients are not interested in anything else but that and they want to be able to access it quickly and simply, as no one has the time to click through 3 title pages before actually getting to your home screen. And of course making sure your contact details are clear.
On the second day, a few of us got to meet with the daughter of Abram Games, Naomi Games. With him being one of the most influential graphic designers of the twentieth century, I felt rather special to be in the presence of all his original work. The vast amount of it was literally insane! It was so amazing to see it actually right in front of you, see his work process, how he was thinking/what he was thinking. And the skill of it, wow, I can't even begin to go into it. So incredibly talented. As I said, I felt rather lucky to be able to look through all his original work, if it were to be in a gallery it would have been such a different experience, so a super big thank you to Naomi Games for letting us come and see everything and for also being the best host, we even got to have a coffee in the cona coffee maker, it was very cool (see below).
Wednesday, 12 March 2014
Major Project (Update 5)
From my sketchbook I've been scanning in images and making things like patterns that I imagine could be used as wrapping paper patterns. I'm really enjoying doing that! I'm soon going to be thinking about what I could put on greetings cards but I want to try different ways of creating type first. I also bought some large roles of paper that I'm going to be trying hand paint on, though we'll see how well that turns out!
