STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 4 - Debates on Linkedin

After posting up some of my work on Linkedin it caused a bit of a stir. Someone commented on the image that it was racist, and this lead to a heap of comments in my defence about how the image was not considered racist.

I have to say I quite enjoyed sitting back and reading them, because it proved that illustration can be something that makes people question things.
Taking something that is happening in the news, making work on it, and it creating a debate I think is pretty good going!! People are talking about it and thats the main thing. Whether that is good or bad, different people from all over the world are looking at my work and having something to say about it.
That's quite scary…

Off the back of that I gained over 100 new followers and 270 odd page views. I had direct messages from people telling me how much they liked my work, some asking if they could represent me, and others asking for links to other social media/websites where my work could be seen and shared.
From one negative comment, I gained a mound of positive ones. I now have 500+ connections; and now that I know people are taking the time to look at my work I will post more often.

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 4 - Updating Linkedin

I updated Linkedin with my new email adelepiercedesigns@gmail.com
I posted a picture of my most recent work which is this homeless kanye

And I was starting to get some nice feedback on it, so I think I will carry this on in future

And I added my online portfolio to my profile to give people a better idea of what my work is

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 2 - CONTACTING artists & contextual references

I don't look at other people's work enough. I made myself sit down and look at other illustrators for the morning. Thought it might influence me with these greetings cards I'm working on and to gain a better sense of the work I want to be producing. It also means that these are the people I'm up against and the standard of work I need to be aiming ABOVE so that people want to buy my things over buying things off these guys..

AOI

Alastair Taylor

I think I chose him because he has a similar approach to digital painting as I have and he uses quite realistic colours still within his work, one block of colour rather than tone and this works well. I would like to be a little more fluid with my line work like he is.

Derek Bacon

Derek work is realistic and FUN 

Jon Berkeley

Jons work is a comment on society and what is going on in the news which I'm also interested in. 

Ben Douglass

I chose this artist because his work was playful and vibrant and reminded me of my cushions. 

Ian Bilbey

It lead me onto this website that talks about why you should use humour in illustration 

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/illustration/15-ways-you-should-be-using-humour-in-your-illustrations/#1

The Boy Fitz Hammond

I liked his stuff because its clear he likes to draw people as do I, things that are current and commercial, and he has a love of writing too. 

He mocks celebrities and politics. 

I decided to email him. 

Gal Shkedi

I liked how his website was set out, simple. I also like how he incorporates his illustration with reality this might work well with some of my designs. 

I saved this because it reminded me to talk about myself in 3rd person on my website

I liked this web layout as well where you have to click on the illustrations to visit the page

However, she is a bit of a rip-off Mr Bingo.

Decided to email her too

Jonathan Allardyce

I love this stuff

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 4 - Updating Tumblr

I'm updating my tumblr. Taking away the illustrations of my title so that I am open to more work.
I am also taking off any old work that doesn't represent the work I want to create in the future such as the portraits..

I've added my recent work to it too.
I'm keeping general sketches on there because I think it's important to show what your work stems from sometimes.
I want to eventually home it down into advertising, product, prints..

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 4 - Buying a web domain

Buying a web domain for bowdown seemed pretty difficult because we would need it to be.com and we couldn't have that because it is already taken. We can have bowwdowwn.com or b0wd0wn.com but I think they look a bit silly

The only thing we figured is if we were bowdowncollective.com

but then I asked, are we a collective?

We could have The Bow Down or Bowdown2

The Bow Down isn't saying bow down to us, it's more us Bowing down to society through our cards which we don't want. 

Reasons why we like bowdown2 

• theres 2 of us
• it's like saying bow down to us
• we thought of bow down in our second year at uni
• its our second attempt at it
• it reminds us of kanye wests bound 2 video
• people will wonder what it means

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 2 & 3 - The Plan: Bow Down

The plan is to set up Bow Down as a business online

• What is Bow Down? 
• What work does it produce?
• What can you buy?
• When will it go live?
• Where can you find it?

Bow Down will be an online presence initially seen through social medias such as Instagram Facebook and Tumblr presenting our work. It will be humorous designs that play on current trends whether that be musically, culturally, politically or socially. These designs will translate across onto product.

I really want to collaborate with someone on this because I think that I would like to get other illustrators involved who share a similar sense of humour and interests, this isn't something I want to do on my own. Initially we will only sell greetings cards to trial the designs and see which are most successful, plus I want to master this first. As I've touched on greetings cards in the past I think they are cheap to produce and easy to make money off of and that's a good starting point for us especially if we're coming fresh out of uni with no money! We then plan to expand our products further onto clothing such as shirts, stationary such as notebooks, individual prints, and more. 

However, before any of that I need to get the designs right and make sure they are going to sell. Home in on our target audience. I believe seen as some of the designs may be quite crude and offensive, our target audience will be 18-35. 

Initially we will present the designs on social media, selling our work on etsy. We will then set up a website with an online store where you can purchase the products. I would like to expand on this by submitting some of our designs to other retailers such as Scribbler, Paperchase and OhhDeer. 

I have to consider constantly remaining light hearted with our language when emailing, or presenting ourselves. We want to be funny, we want to be current and we want to be fresh. 

I want to touch on trends people have not touched on yet. 

It will go live on instagram as soon as we have all of our designs ready, we are giving ourselves a month to do this. From there, we will advertise the instagram page as much as possible and try get as many followers as we can with the hashtag system. 

I will have a mock up of our website planned. I am currently thinking Cargo Collective for our template domain but may use a web designer to be more original. 

For the logo, I have decided to seek help from a graphic designer for this as this is not my strong point, but I would like to be as involved as possible to keep the style of typography reflective of my drawing style. 

Some of the designs from my 603 module will translate across onto this as I am challenging myself to come up with greetings card designs as part of one of the briefs. We will then mesh them together. To collaborate with another illustrator on this will give it more of a range and a bigger audience range too. Language is a huge thing for me too, so some posts may just be quotes I've played on typography with.

Eventually I would like to be the next Scribbler and Paperchase and take in designs from other illustrators that have been influenced to make similar humorous work. That is the dream for this.
For PPP I want to focus more on this, than my own individual practice as Adele Pierce the illustrator, because this is ideally what I want to do. 

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 2 - Old ideas still ringing true

I still like this idea we had back in Life's a Pitch of an online presence, humorous and stocking humorous products. Products that mock society and cultures. I really want to get my teeth into that more for when I leave University.
I want it to be completely current.

This was the old logo, I still like it, there's an aspect of it I like, I like the name. It's saying we're here, were the new wave, bow down to us.

I still like the idea of this :

But perhaps instead it being BOW DOWN as the company, like OhhDeer, then sections of illustrated greetings cards, cushions, wrapping paper, other products… 

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 1 - Google received my portfolio

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 2 - My Competition

If I want to create a website stocking funny greetings cards, wrapping paper and other products.. Who's really my competition!?

Nevermind who stocks the cards, who is my competition design wise? I can stock my cards in these stores.. but who am I up against?

Brainbox Candy
Ohh Deer
Bexy Boo
Mr Greetings
Nocturnal Paper

All stocking their cards in other stores such as Urban Outfitters.
Maybe I need to stop contacting them to work for me, and contact where they're supplying their cards to!?

The other problem is with certain sites like Paperchase, there's no mention of who the designer is in the title of the card, or in the description, so no one would know I'd made it:

Unlike Urban Outfitters who mentions it in the title :

STUDIO BRIEF 1 -CONTACTING Brainbox Candy for a job & their reply

Brainbox Candy are a ridiculously stupid card industry that stock funny cards online and are then sold on sites such as scribbler, urban outfitters etc..

I've emailed them once before in the past, but it wasn't to look for a job. This time I'm hoping they will take a look at my portfolio and give me some feedback.
I am not sure if they even hire designers, because their careers section is so blazee.

Their response:

I wasn't asking them to stock any of my designs into brainbox candy I just wanted some feedback on my style of work and then were there any jobs going. So maybe I should have been more specific about this. In my reply I have stated that I am working on some greetings card designs and will submit them, which I intend to do - as they will be more specific to Brainbox and their humour, and they can buy the liscencing of them. 

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - CONTACTING Paperchase and Scribbler for a job

I contacted Paperchase and Scribbler for a job via the telephone, Scribbler had nothing available but said to hand in a CV and Paperchase said that they may have something coming up in a couple of months but not at the minute. All they were looking for currently was part time sales staff during the week which is no good for me being at University. Cry cry. I would like to be a part of a chain like this part time again just to see how the business works and get my head around cards and products as an industry.

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - CONTACTING Ohh Deer for a job

I emailed Ohh Deer asking them how I can get involved. It pretty much said please take me in.. kind of begging.. as I thought it would be quite humorous. They sent me quite a lovely reply, and I've sent over my portfolio. I'd love to be a part of that industry just to see how it works and what people are buying into.

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PART 1 - Portfolio