End of module evaluation

I think overall on the module I have pushed myself to take on as much as possible. In life's a pitch I took control of the group and organised us, putting together ideas and the presentation. It may not have came off as I'd of hoped, but the idea was there and I am glad we tried something different. I think I took a lot away from that presentation and the feedback we got which was to be more professional and be taken seriously. Be funny, but not for all of the wrong reasons. I reigned in my presentation a lot this year compared to last year because I think humour is only good when it is necessary and I can't always rely on that. I must say I don't think my blog has been consistent. I think that in the beginning I was up to scratch and when it came to life's a pitch it sort of faultered because I was more focused on trying to organise us as a group rather than organising myself individually. Most of my focus has been on Studio Brief 3 in putting together my pack.

Life's a pitch was frustrating because I'd teamed up with my friends and with people that created work with a similar context to mine. However, in terms of organisation, it was not the strongest group to work with because no one attended altogether at one time. This meant I was left to do the majority of the work. When collaberating later on in Responsive this was something I considered as I did not want to pair with someone that left me to do the majority. I wanted to pair with someone that did have a similar style to me, but was willing to work equally as hard. I will bare this in mind in the future too, when collaberating further. I think that Responsive was great collaberating with Hannah we came up with some polished designs that could potentially be successful in winning and I learnt a lot from Hannah's way of working and her digital skills. However, if I were to approach the module again I think I would gain more from working alongside someone of a different practice such as a graphic designer or animator, to see how my images could be evolved.

I hope that in this module I have put across a sense of who I am, who I am becoming and what I'd like to become. Most of my focus in first year was about experimentation and being funny. This year I am considering myself as a business much more and trying to be taken seriously. I have established myself as a brand through my logo and taken this across onto social media and product. I think that my time management has been great this year and I have tackled many issues where I could have faultered but kept going. I think that I have also tackled a range of approaches to image making that I had not considered in first year such as animation, etching, collage. I have learnt so much this year in terms of the industry and where my images can be taken. In first year my focus was more about creating an image that had great composition great line of sight etc and this year it has been about taking that image and putting it into something that is marketable. I think Responsive was a great challenge for me to adapt myself to briefs and translate a brief into something that I would enjoy working on. There were briefs I did not enjoy as much such as SpiceUk, Yorkshire Tea I got a little bored of, Secret 7 my image did not really work in the end. There were briefs I enjoyed such as Threadless, WrappedCo and FilmDoo and I put that down to the product I was creating for; I got a sense that I could potentially do that in the future. Taking on these briefs and these products translated into other modules because it gave me a sense of what I could achieve such as wrapping paper, mocking up tshirt designs and iPhone covers. This was something I had not considered before and I learnt these techniques that made my presentation boards more professional. My presentation boards have improved massively and now give off a sense of professionalism and finished designs.

Context of Practise has allowed for me to become passionate in the subjects I have been researching and give it some social and political context. This has given my work much more value and has pushed me to create work that would make a difference. Looking into modern culture and how it is constantly changing gave me the idea that I could potentially create trends for the better within my work which translated across into my postcards, and in other modules such as 504 with my greetings cards. Modern culture can be a powerful thing if the right message is put across. It is also interesting to see how PPP has influenced my other modules without me realising. In Studio Brief 1 Creative strategy I chose to look at greetings cards because of how vast they were and all the avenues you can explore within it; and subconsciously I chose greetings cards in 504 Applied illustration as I felt that cards had resinated with me as a successful idea. Illustrators such as Mr Bingo that I looked at in this module, his practise and how he works as a business, has also resinated with me in other modules such as 504 where I created work that could be equally as successful.

In terms of next year I know that I need to be more free with my linework, crits and tutorials have taught me that I could experiment more with pattern and collage within my work. I definitely need to look more at illustrators and carry on reading things such as Varoom magazine to get an idea of what work is being produced and push my own further. I want to get in touch with these illustrators more, I have not had any responses back so far and this is disheartening but I will continue to make that effort. I want to get involved more in events and organisations which I will make a conscious effort to do over the summer. I am already starting this by getting involved with Moo'd cereal house giving them prints to decorate their walls. I want to be more of an active presence within the university and ensure I am attending as much as possible. This has really benefitted my work, staying behind and not working as much in my part time job. I think next year I will cut my hours down at work and focus more on this course to achieve my potential.
I feel my digital skills have came on a long way and I have learnt lots of new techniques, mainly through other people that I have collaberated with or just asked questions, but also through trial and error. In the summer I will obviously have a well deserved break but I will focus on researching into practitioners and on free'ing up my linework. I will also be taking on commissions as I now have a mac and a wacom tablet! I also feel that I know much more now about the industry, and copyright, terms and conditions. I think that I have came a long way this year and I hope to look back next year and think the same thing, I hope by the end of next year to be a freelance illustrator with my own website selling products.

Final Pack put together

I purchased a brown box from Paperchase that I'd earlier researched into and placed my products inside along with my cv. I still had a full box of merchandise left which I am going to sell and this will give me good exposure

I really feel that my pack has came together nicely however if I had not of included a pen pot I perhaps would have made myself a flatter pack to make it tie in together nicely. The only problem with a box is that if you move it everything inside falls and it can end up looking really messy. I think that my pack looks professional; if I were to ask if the pack suits my personality I think that it does not show off how humorous my work can be but it is simple, straight the point, and has little hints of funny within it which is what I'm all about. I think that my work is professional and to a good standard and can often be humorous which this pack says. I think if a company recieved this pack they would get a feeling that I was taking things seriously which is something that I have tried to achieve more this year, finishing work to a high standard. I think my logo works well across products and the pack works well together. I am proud of what I have achieved here as I have put a lot of time and effort into creating it. Especially cutting out such tiny circles! It was pretty theraputic though. I think with my pack you get a nice feel of hand made alongside professional and marketable.

Local Opportunities - Moo'd

My friend told me about an advertisement Moo'd cereal house in Headingley had posted on Facebook looking for local artists to get involved with wall art in their store. I decided to pop in and ask for more information on this, and introduce myself. 

I approached the girls at the counter who turned out to be the directors and asked them if they were looking for the walls to be painted or whether we could put up prints. They said that they were looking for anything whether it be prints posters or painting on the wall itself as the walls were 'pretty bare' and they wanted them filling. I asked what kind of stuff they wanted up there and once again they were open saying anything cool as long as it is not offensive. They also said we can put on the bottom of our artwork our name and websites. 

I think this is an amazing opportunity to get involved in and something that I want to take charge of and organise within our class and perhaps the year below to come together as illustrators and take over the walls of this store. It is great exposure for us and is something permanent whereas an exhibition only lasts so long. 

I decided to message Moo'd again to introduce myself once again in order to get our foot in the door and tell them we would be going ahead with bringing in designs. I also told them to follow our Facebook illustration page to check out some of our work. They followed me on my illustration instagram page too!

I really want to get involved in more local opportunities like this and get our work seen on a permanent basis

Studio Brief 1 Presentation

I think my presentation sums me up well as a person and what I am aiming to do within my work. I think I've covered certain aspects that have not went right and why, and things I have enjoyed. I think anyone watching will get a sense of how I work, what my work looks like and what I plan to do with it. I am hoping my personality comes across within my presentation but that I am taken seriously at the same time. I've tried to get a balance between being professional and showing off what I do and still having hints of humour within there to keep the presentation fresh and keep people interested. I done this by adding funny images every now and again; last thing I want is people being bored.

Studio Brief 1 Prompt sheet for presentation

What I need to say 


1)TITLE

2) WHAT AM I GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT ( READ BULLET POINTS)

3) WHAT HAS GONE RIGHT THIS YEAR --  This is me listening intently to fred in class. Come a long way this year in terms of being a presence in class, attending, punctuality and taking part. This is reflected in my submissions, solid submissions with final outcomes

4) Staying behind more but I finally have a mac which means I can now work from home taking the pressure off and been a great help with blogging

5) Producing more polished and finished outcomes I am proud of spending more time colouring and ensuring they are ready for print

6) Establishing myself more as an illustrator on social media sites

7) Selling my work doing commissions and taking part in competitions some of which went well such as wrapped collective and filmdoo some of which I hated such as SpiceUk

8) Digital experience touching on animation seeing my images in movement was a big step for me and a new way of thinking. Other formats that my images have been taken across onto such as product

9) Concepts driven by passions for subjects - been watching the news more, getting clued up on politics which is not like me at all! But I care more now. COP allowing me to become passionate about subjects such as equality which often drives my work

10) Become comfortable with my way of working and knowing how long it takes me to do things means I plan better and I am less stressed with deadlines, been creepily calm about them.

11) Looking back on first year and the kind of work I was producing it makes me cringe how bad it was but its nice to see how far I have come and the skills I have acquired along the way and I hope I can look back onto this year, this time next year, and cringe and think of how much I’ve learnt then.

12) One thing remains the same though, I have the same aim within my work and what I want it to be, just with a little more social and political awareness now. Looking back at last years work I was creating work for the sake of it or for just fulfilling briefs and when it came to the end of year show I wasn't proud of any of my work, whereas this year any of my work could be put in the show because I feel i've pushed it as far as possible 

13) Collaborating, first with Hannah on YCN, then pairing up with 3rd year graphics student to design my logo got along well with both and gave me a great insight into how other people work, producing work we were both proud of at the end of it

14) Communicating, Emailing companies and illustrators even if I didn't get any replies, sometimes i did and got freebies!

15) Logo has been successful I feel it looks slick and has been taken across onto social media sites, as well as on products, cvs, business cards. 

16) Personal branding Succesfuly branded myself and I think my pack is sufficient in highlighting this

17) image of my pack

18) I've become more professional. Seeing my craft as more of a business now

19) Colours may vary in charge of the drinks, went well, planned far too many drinks but we needed them in the end. Successful exhibition. Wasn't really proud of my final outcomes for it but I'd really battled with them as etching was a pain in the...

20) Tackled new challenges such as collage, etching, animation, pdf'ing, burning disks, making cvs and business cards, stickers, products. Learning constantly mostly through other people around me, asking more questions. 

21) What’s gone a little wrong - Etching! What a module that was, extreme hard work because it kept going wrong. Plates in the acid weren't taking and I was losing months worth of work, close to tears. Pulled it around in the end and had lots of prints for the exhibition

22) Animation. Wasn't a huge fan of this couldn't really get my head around it but I learnt the basics which I later got a commission out of.

Some ideas not coming across perhaps how id of liked them to like My idea of a fun pack for my promotion material didn't come out because it was going to be far too expensive, scratch cards etc cost hundreds unfortunately

23) Lifes a pitch presentation went wrong despite being practised we didn't pull it off on the day which was a shame because it would have been funny but ended up being funny for the wrong reasons

24) Initial ideas for 505 ended up being far too offensive got carried away and that didn't reflect my views well as a person or as an illustrator so had to reign that in and create something more sensitive

Earlier modules perhaps too research heavy and not enough focus on the final products whereas the later modules were more based on creating products that could actually sell.

25) Since a part of this is personal then Ill add that I had a Breakdown mode. Had a little meltdown half way through the year and was diagnosed with stress, exhaustion, insomnia etc from the doctors so had to re evaluate my life and figure out where I needed to take a step back. Something had to give, but it wasn't going to be uni. Had to cut my hours down at work and other stresses at home.  – Time management

26) What kind of things I’ve been looking at

27) Watching the news. I never used to want to do this because it depressed me, but now I know I was just being ignorant. This has really influenced my work and I can't stress that enough, I am becoming passionate about things, about the world. 

28) Speeches and reading up on equality gender rights

Books, but Illustrators are something I really need to look more at. The summer is going to be all about pushing my line work and experimenting. 

29) Politics. First time this year I actually voted which considering im 25 is pretty shocking

30) Looking at businesses online such as Paperchase, Scribbler, Jolly Awesome and Brainbox Candy and realising I can do that! I want to do that.

31) What I feel my practice is becoming

32) Drawings that are digitally painted, that can be animated, that can also be taken across onto products and packaging. They can be transformed into pattern.

Character design, light hearted and humorous but some are serious at the same time ‘ seriously funny ‘

33) professional, slick, ready to sell, marketable

Presented well, looking at typography more, I can make presentation boards! Finally!

34) A representation of what I care about

35) What I want to achieve next year : More business focused, creating an online presence

36) social media master, going to turn into one of those idiots with the hands free sets all over me, have a website set up

37) More competitions and commissions
Making work backed up by COP and my dissertation that will be intelligent and will make a statement, but also become a trend and try change modern culture

38) Get involved in more events and opportunities , local events, see what there is to offer around leeds

39) Master of printing onto products. Kind of cheated this year buying stuff in from wholesalers but I want to learn to print onto bags etc. Make things myself. 

40) I want to talk to more people, show them my work, hand out my business cards. Need to start making money, as much as I like fooling around, I wanna have a range rover like Daniel Craig


41) Attend more exhibitions and take part in more. Better linework, draw funny. Paul Davis

42) What do I want to do when I leave? Helppppppp. I still don't know. I need to know, need to attend career talks. 

43) Ideally I want to be abroad so If I have a website set up and a good online presence going on I can sell things on the side but I need to be looking for work, creating a relationship with clients. I think knowing where the work is the most important thing, knowing where to look for it. Do I want to be a freelance illustrator? I don't know. Do I want to be an illustrator? I don't know. Sometimes I have ideas that don't necessarily come across in the way I work, I see myself being some sort of director in the future. Working alongside other people bouncing my ideas off of them. Kind of like telling people what to do in a weird way, I'm used to being a manager so I don't like people telling me what to do which is why I should have my own business. It's in my blood too all my family have their own business. 

Will being an illustrator be enough? If you hit it and hit the big time you're rolling, but do you need a sideline job?

44) if all else fails I'll become a female rapper


45) And that’s my year summed up in a nutshell

Studio Brief 3 Promo pack

My pack is made up of stickers, a creative cv, compliment slips, my business card then merchandise to support it. The merchandise I have included is a pack of one badge one keyring and one bottle opener sealed with my logo. A selection of 5 coasters, 5 fridge magnets and a pen pot. 

I decided on a box for these as it had to be the right width to hold my cv but the right height to fit in the pen pot. 

I kept everything minimalistic with black and white to make it look more slick and easy to read, easily accessible. I want to be taken seriously as a professional but I added in an illustrated image of myself to my cv and examples of my work within my merchandise to cheer it up and get a sense of personality across. I think it sums me up that I am professional, I do have a serious side but I can be light hearted, full of surprises. I decided not to run with the idea of a fun pack because I think it would have got too silly and I would take the focus away from my drawings. 

When someone opens the box I think they will be pleased to get an array of information that is straight to the point, an idea of the style of my drawing and a sense of my personality coming across. They will have products that are both practical and fun and everything is simple yet effective. 

Typeface

This was a google typeface so I would not be done for copyright and could use this later on on websites etc.

Sticker designs

Victoria helped me set up these stickers ready for print and we decided on a set of larger ones to include in the pack, with one on the front of the box, as well as smaller ones to include on the merchandise as labels.

When printed I think the larger ones could have been even bigger especially for on the front of the box and could be used for the back of a mac.

Stickers printed

Pen pot

Left : coaster Right : Fridge magnets

In the bag : badge keyring and bottle opener

I am really pleased with how these turned out but I think the bag looks a little scruffy at the minute it needs something to neaten it up. Also my cutting of circles is not the best so they are a little rough!

I have not priced any of these products because I am unsure whether I would hand them out as promotion, sell them, or send them to companies as packs. I could get 10 packs sent out to companies with all of my products, business cards and cv in.

I took influence from Mr Bingo's stickers for the layout of the smaller products by sealing the bag with a piece of black card 9cm x 5cm with a sticker of my logo on. I thought this looked more professional.

Cutting out the black card

I decided to add stickers to the back of the coasters as a label too

Stickers cut for the pack

Studio Brief 3 Branding : Business cards and compliment slips

Contextual Research

Graphics

I like this one because it is so simple

Branding :

Once again I knew what I wanted but felt I didn't have the skills to make it happen. I went back to Victoria Redmond with my ideas and asked how I make business cards as I was not sure how to make them double sided, and how do I make stickers. She sat with me and set up the layouts for me ready to print. The compliment slips were easy enough, I just spoke to Victoria about what stock and format would be best and she said a medium inbetween paper and card and at A5 but when I looked at A5 I thought that was going to be too big and decided to go for A6.

My designs and outcomes printed

I think I have definitely began to establish myself as a brand and gained a sense of identity and these business cards are a way of me starting to take myself seriously and consider myself a business. I will carry the business cards around with me after submission to give out. I felt I needed this recently when speaking to Moo'd cereal house about getting involved with their wall art, I had nothing on me to say 'This is who I am, this is my work' which was quite embarassing. I later had to message them to introduce myself, which is not very professional so business cards will definitely benefit me in these situations. 

Studio Brief 3 Instagram Facebook Tumblr & LinkedIn

Instagram

I already have a personal instagram which I posted most of my illustrations onto anyway, but decided to set up a separate instagram as this would be more professional and a way of exposure. I could give my instagram link to businesses, clients and companies to refer to. I have done this recently with Moo'd Cereal house, in a message to them I told them to follow me to get an idea of my work which they did. I think its faster than going through websites and is more of a current trend.

Linkedin

I joined Linkedin but I must say I don't really understand it yet. I think this is something I will get my teeth into over the summer, it is a good way of making professional contacts.

Tumblr

I set up a Tumblr back in first year because I was taking on comissions and wanted people to get an idea of my work. I think a tumblr is great because it is easily accessible and this is the page that I have advertised on all social media and products as reference of what I do. It includes some of my favourite work over the year and highlights how diverse I can be.
This is not necessarily a representation of the work I would like to be producing though; if I were to set up a website I would only include my digital work as that is the field I want to continue in. I no longer work in watercolour or ink and have not written any poetry for a while so I think perhaps this needs updating.

Facebook

I represent myself as an illustrator on facebook by constantly posting my work, my cover photo is my logo and my profile picture is an illustrated image of myself.

Studio Brief 3 Creative CV - illustrating myself and the design

At first I used a size 11 typeface but when printed it was much too big so I edited it down to 9

I went ahead with an illustrated picture of myself to include on this to give a sense of who I am, my personality, what I look like but also my style of image making

Studio Brief 1 Presentation Ideas

10 minute presentation reflecting your progress and where you think you're going to be heading next year

Reflecting, what's gone right whats gone wrong, what pieces of work worked well and why

Whats went right:

• Come a long way this year in terms of being a presence in class, attending, punctuality and taking part. This is reflected in my submissions, solid submissions with final outcomes

• Staying behind more but I finally have a mac which means I can now work from home taking the pressure off 

• More polished final outcomes that I am proud of

• Establishing myself more as an illustrator on social media sites
• Selling work and commissions. Taking part in competitions - which ones went well which perhaps didn't

• Digital experience touching on animation seeing my images in movement was a big step 
• Other formats that my images have been taken across onto such as product
• Concepts driven by passions for subjects - been watching the news more, getting clued up on politics which is not like me at all! But I care more now

• COP allowing me to become passionate about equality which often drives my work
• Started to see a future for myself and the work that I produce, it has purpose now
• Become comfortable with my way of working and knowing how long it takes me to do things means I plan better and I am less stressed with deadlines, been creepily calm about them.

• Looking back at last years work I was creating work for the sake of it or for just fulfilling briefs and when it came to the end of year show I wasn't proud of any of my work, whereas this year any of my work could be put in the show because I feel i've pushed it as far as possible 
• Collaborating, first with Hannah on YCN, then pairing up with 3rd year graphics student to design my logo got along well with both and gave me a great insight into how other people work, producing work we were both proud of at the end of it
• Communicating, Emailing companies and illustrators even if I didn't get any replies, sometimes i did and got freebies!

• Logo has been successful I feel it looks slick and has been taken across onto social media sites, as well as on products, cvs, business cards. 
• Personal branding Succesfuly branded myself and I think my pack is sufficient in highlighting this
  

• I've become more professional. Seeing my craft as more of a business now
• Colours may vary in charge of the drinks, went well, planned far too many drinks but we needed them in the end. Successful exhibition. Wasn't really proud of my final outcomes for it but I'd really battled with them as etching was a pain in the...

• Tackled new challenges such as collage, etching, animation, pdf'ing, burning disks, making cvs and business cards, stickers, products. Learning constantly mostly through other people around me, asking more questions. 

What's gone wrong : 

• Etching! What a module that was, extreme hard work because it kept going wrong. Plates in the acid weren't taking and I was losing months worth of work, close to tears. Pulled it around in the end and had lots of prints for the exhibition
• Animation. Wasn't a huge fan of this couldn't really get my head around it but I learnt the basics which I later got a commission out of

• My idea of a fun pack for my promotion material didn't come out because it was going to be far too expensive, scratch cards etc cost hundreds unfortunately
• Lifes a pitch presentation went wrong despite being practised we didn't pull it off on the day which was a shame because it would have been funny but ended up being funny for the wrong reasons

• Initial ideas for 505 ended up being far too offensive got carried away and that didn't reflect my views well as a person or as an illustrator so had to reign that in and create something more sensitive

• Earlier modules perhaps too research heavy and not enough focus on the final products whereas the later modules were more based on creating products that could actually sell.

Breakdown mode. Had a little meltdown half way through the year and was diagnosed with stress, exhaustion, insomnia etc from the doctors so had to re evaluate my life and figure out where I needed to take a step back. Something had to give, but it wasn't going to be uni. Had to cut my hours down at work and other stresses at home. 

What kind of things am I looking at? :

• Watching the news. I never used to want to do this because it depressed me, but now I know I was just being ignorant. This has really influenced my work and I can't stress that enough, I am becoming passionate about things, about the world. 
• Speeches and reading up on equality gender rights

• Politics. First time this year I actually voted which considering im 25 is pretty shocking

• Books, but Illustrators are something I really need to look more at. The summer is going to be all about pushing my line work and experimenting. 
• Looking at businesses online such as Paperchase, Scribbler, Jolly Awesome and Brainbox Candy and realising I can do that! I want to do that. 

My practise is becoming :

• Drawings that are digitally painted, that can be animated, that can also be taken across onto products and packaging. They can be transformed into pattern.
  
  
  
• Character design
• Light hearted and humorous

• Serious at the same time, social and political awareness. Seriously funny. 
• Professional, slick, ready to sell.
  
  
  
  
• Presented well, looking at typography more, I can make presentation boards! Finally!
• A representation of what I care about

Research into the type of work I want to make : 

(images)

Work for the future, what I want to achieve next year :

• More business focused, creating an online presence
  
  
  
• Social media master, on all technology, might even be one of those idiots with a hands free set soon
  
  
  
  
• Website set up
• More competitions and commissions

• Making work backed up by COP and my dissertation that will be intelligent and will make a statement, but also become a trend and try change modern culture
• Get involved in more events and opportunities 

• Master of printing onto products. Kind of cheated this year buying stuff in from wholesalers but I want to learn to print onto bags etc. Make things myself. 

• I want to talk to more people, show them my work, hand out my business cards. Need to start making money, as much as I like fooling around, I wanna have a range rover like Daniel Craig
  
  
  
• Attend more exhibitions and take part in more. 
• Better linework, draw funny. Paul Davis
  
  
  
  

What do I want to do when I leave? :

• Helppppppp. I still don't know. I need to know, need to attend career talks. 
• If I have a website set up and a good online presence going on I can sell things on the side but I need to be looking for work, creating a relationship with clients. I think knowing where the work is is the most important thing, knowing where to look for it. Do I want to be a freelance illustrator? I don't know. Do I want to be an illustrator? I don't know. Sometimes I have ideas that don't necessarily come across in the way I work, I see myself being some sort of director in the future. Working alongside other people bouncing my ideas off of them. Kind of like telling people what to do in a weird way, I'm used to being a manager so I don't like people telling me what to do which is why I should have my own business. It's in my blood too all my family have their own business. 
• Will being an illustrator be enough? If you hit it and hit the big time you're rolling, but do you need a sideline job?
• All else fails I'll become a female rapper
  
  
  
  

Tone and content is about you, but you moving towards a professional level of communication. Seriousness of pitching to clients and not just students
What are you looking at
What is your practice becoming
Research into that
How are you planning on working for the future
Evaluation of your progress
Investigating professional practice
Visual organisation of your presentation - thought into how it is presented and material
Verbal delivery