I had a one to one which really helped me figure out where I'm at in terms of how I want to represent myself.
THE PROBLEM
I started to get really confused between promoting myself as Adele Pierce and promoting myself as the brand I want to be which is Bow Down.
I was confusing the cross overs with 602 and PPP because the work I am making in extended practice is what will form the website Bow Down so things were becoming confusing in my head.
WHAT WENT DOWN IN THE 1 TO 1
I was told to lay out all of my briefs and talk through how they have informed who I am and what my practice has become for PPP. It was interesting to see how I started off taking on briefs that were not really of interest to me just for the sake of doing them or because other people were. The big briefs I thought were substantial like YCN, editorial and book publishing briefs that are what it appears to be to be an illustrator, doing what everyone else around me is doing.... but its not me.
I get bored of it, it doesn't keep me entertained.
WHAT IM INTERESTED IN
You can see my journey from start to finish where I've really battled with who I am and how taking on one brief informs another and I start to really establish what I am interested in.
I like topical events, I like to know what's going on around me, what people are talking about, what they're picking up on, how I can twist it, how I can make it funny, how I can get people thinking about things, how I can shock people. I like human behaviour and I always have done.
Translating these interests across into illustrations I like to see them on products, I want to sell sell sell.
WHERE IT CAME FROM
Bow Down originated from Life's a Pitch last year, I'd thought up the name and it was based on how we as a culture bow down to what society tells us to do, how to act, what to believe. This was a new wave of illustration, bow down to this idea of what life is through our art, take note of this instead of what you read or hear in the news or around you. I like to question things, I like to mock things.
The idea has stuck with me as something I really want to take on. I want to create a website whereby I can sell my illustrations on products under this name. I want to be known as Bow Down instead of Adele Pierce illustrations.
CREATIVE PACK & PROMOTION
Last year creating my pack I really struggled. I am not a graphic designer, I can't make business cards, I can't do logos. It's not my thing.. so I put together a pack that was non representative of me and who I really am, I just put it together for the sake of the module which is wrong. It doesn't tell you anything about me or what my work is like. Yeah I made some keyrings with my work on, but the pack itself wasn't fun.
SOCIAL MEDIA
This year I don't want to be Adele Pierce.. that's boring. Bow Down allows me to take on this persona and I think is far more interesting. When contacting people I will be Adele at BowDown. All my social media sites under Adele Pierce illustrations will stop. I won't delete them because they were a part of me becoming who I am but I will make new accounts under Bow Down.
PORTFOLIO
All of my work from now on will be focused on work that will be sold on products on the site. I will create a new portfolio for that, and a separate one for my personal work under Adele Pierce that I may wish to send to clients.
CONTACTING PEOPLE
The main reason I think I want to make this site and become a different brand is because when I try to show people my work and get involved in sites such as Threadless, Brainbox Candy, Scribbler etc they all decline my work and this is due to either copyright issues, being too crude, or not fitting in with their aesthetics. Last year I tried to mellow this down with my greetings cards not being so crude and trying to fit in with what I can get away with selling in companies like that. However this year I thought, I don't want to water myself down. I want to be who I want to be and do it for myself. I now see these people as my competition, not someone I want to work for... queue the 'if you cant handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best' speech! Just because my work doesn't fit in with what they want, doesn't mean it won't sell and theres not a market out there for it. Say for instance I have Bow Down up and running, if someone emailed me a really cute bunny card that wouldn't fit in with what I am trying to do either, but I am not saying there isn't a market for cute bunny cards.
I want to become more like Chris Simpsons artist, Mr Bingo, these people that have a name for themselves for being a little bit out there and crude and different. Work you wouldn't expect to find in store. I guess that makes me a little bit nervous though about how I am not leaving myself much scope to work for other people.
No comments:
Post a Comment