AOI: Guide to Postgraduate Illustration

Today we had another talk from Lou Bones at the AOI, which i'm pretty sure was exactly the same information as last year, but never the less, was extremely useful! It was a very thorough talk and really helpful in terms of giving me confidence in the illustration industry, should I choose to pursue it for my career. 

I didn't make detailed notes from the session as I have them from last year, but I did write down a few key points and names of practitioners:

Alice Pattulo

This image was used on one of the slides and it really caught my attention - I love the textural quality of each drawing, and think that the way the image is composed to create a busy and intricate composition is really effective. I could see this image being used in a menu or on food labels, as I feel it has a really rustic quality. I would like to do some food drawings at some point to ~beef up~ my portfolio and show variety. 

Sara Gelfgren

This is another image that was used on the slideshow which I thought was quite quirky and heartwarming. Once again I love the textural quality and the bold use of colour to create this (i'm guessing) editorial spot illustration. 

Ben the Illustrator

This was a name that Lou mentioned when talking about finding the industry that your work would fit into - Ben the Illustrator has made a career out of making infographic posters that explain the way companies work/their values/their processes, to their clients and their employees. This got me thinking about how random some illustration design jobs can be, however if your style is commercial, obscure things like this could be something consider. (Also he makes a shit load of $$$$)

Overall the session was really useful in just getting me thinking about my career again - also brushing up on the basics of copyright law was needed also.

Blink Art

After my tutorial with Patrick I have started to research into some creative agencies, as i'm pretty sure this is where I see myself: 

A creative agency is 'a company that offers a combination of strategy, design, technology and advertising services to clients, it is creative or expert lead, it's made up primarily of creative professionals, and it's often strongly defined by values.' 

I see myself being represented by an agency because I think that it would be a good way to get exposure and projects especially when just starting out. I also don't feel like it would help to create a steadier flow of work, helping me to organise my time more effectively. 

Blink Art

Blink Art are a London based creative agency that don't specialise in a certain field, showcasing illustrators, photographers, animators, film makers and set designers. Compared to alot other agencies that I have come across, they are quite big in terms of the various services/platforms they work across. All of their artists have a very defined style which is clearly what is needed to be represented by an agency. Alot of the artists(Illustrators in particular) have also very similar styles and tones of voices which could be a way of defining if you'd be a successful candidate for a particular agency? 

From looking at this I feel that I, worryingly, do not have a clear enough/defined style to work with an agency just yet, which is something I intend to refine during extended practice. 

Tutorial with Patrick

Discussed:

- How COP went, really happy with my feedback. 

- Extended Practice - struggling to keep on top of what briefs I'm doing/wanting to do and stay committed when something better comes along. Make an action plan/Timeline in order to organise yourself. 

- Collaboration with graphic design.

- Breakdown of Assessment (Not being a grade hound but I could do with getting atleast a 2:1)

- Production Companies to look into: Big Active, Village Green, BlinkInk/Art, Eureka! 

From this meeting I got a clearer idea of how an Illustrator would fit into an advertising environment, which would be through a production company. This is the area I need to continue researching into/These are the people I need to send my portfolio to. I have been following a few of these companies on Instagram for a while and I really like their work. 

Working with Stratstone Harrogate - Overall Experience

Today me and Joe finished setting up our response to a brief set by Stratstone Mini in Harrogate, which involved creating a backdrop of 'Outdoors' scenes, to be displayed at the launch of the new Mini countryman. This was pretty much my first ever established client brief and so I was pretty anxious to make sure it good. 

When starting the brief, communication was a bit of a problem, as the spokesperson for the client really didn't have an idea of what she wanted us to create, eventually resulting in a completely different outcome to what she had originally told us. 

Final Printed Backdrops

After meeting with the clients (and actually finding out what it was they wanted) both Joe and I were really pleased with the majority of the outcomes and felt that we had answered the brief in an effective way, in such a short space of time. 

Backdrops set up in the Garage

Once setting up the images in the garage we were a bit underwhelmed at how it looked - we had designed these images to be used as a backdrop for a car, which when we arrived, found out it was to go behind a campfire set they had built, and so it looked a little out of place and underwhelming. 

Overall it was a great experience in collaborating, meeting real life clients and creating challenging physical outcomes on a budget and for a deadline - however next time I think I need to ask more questions and get a more than clear idea of what the client wants, to avoid disappointment. 

'Little Fictions' by Robert Hunter

I've been a follower of Rob Hunter for a while now and today his work on Elbow's album 'Little Fictions' was released. I LOVE this whole set of illustrations and animations, and think they're a really good example of graphic illustration. I love his bold use of colour and think its really atmospheric and honestly this is everything I'd love my own work to be. Something about this whole set has just really resonated with me and I just can't get enough of it. 

The idea of creating abstract bold landscapes has been something I've wanted to create for a while so this is really inspiring.

I also love the incorporation of type into his images - it just confuses me as to if this is a piece of graphic design? or illustration? or both? 

Elevator Pitch?

Today I had a go at writing an "Elevator Pitch" to prepare for networking opportunities that may arise in the future. 

An elevator pitch is a clear, brief message or “commercial” about you. It communicates who you are, what you do, what your USP is, and It's typically about 30 seconds - the time it takes people to ride from the top to the bottom of a building in an elevator.

Who am I as an artist?

- Digital Illustrator

- Graphic Design

- 

- Atmosphere/Lighting

- Narrative 

- Commercial/Advertising

- Book Cover Design

- Branding/Packaging 

- 3D

-Landscape

- Building layered images

- I'm a Leeds-based digital illustrator who builds textural, shape-driven and cinematic images and designs.

- Building cinematic and bold visuals, through layered textural shapes.

- Building stories through cinematic and bold imagery. 

- Your story in an image.

I feel like I'm definitely onto something here, but they are starting to become a bit cheesy which I'm not sure sums me up. Also I feel like i'm using the term "design" when I don't feel like I have THAT much design work in my portfolio? are the designs I'm creating "cinematic"? 

I need to focus on where my practice is going - and I know I shouldn't pigeon hole myself, but I don't see how I'd market myself and talk about my work effectively when I don't know what I do? Maybe I need to start looking at creating 2 separate portfolios.

AOI Sounds Of The City - Chosen!!!

I've just received the news that I have been selected for the AOI Prize for Illustration to be exhibited at the London Transport Museum in May! This is an amazing opportunity and will be a great way to get my work out there. Turns out I should've been notified about a month ago, however there was a mix up with another artist called Dan. I'm not 100% thrilled with the piece of work that was chosen to be in the show as I think that the illustrative quality doesn't fit in with my current portfolio? 

Never the less it is good publicity for me and the rest of my work and I'm thrilled to be one of 100 people in the uk to be exhibited!