Thursday 6th November 2014:
Today we had a seminar on CV writing. Up until now I always thought a CV had to
be plain, straight forward and ‘business-like’. However, today I discovered a creative CV. Which makes a lot of
sense when writing a CV to reflect your creative mind and when applying for
creative jobs.
It’s still important to include all the necessary information e.g.
- Academic Qualifications (going back to GCSE’s)
- What I’m doing at the moment (BA Hons Degree Illustration at UoG)
- Non-Academic Qualifications (if they’re justifiable)
- Industry related work experience
- Contact Details
- Online Links (Portfolio, Webpage, Blog)
- Profile
- Skills
- Experience
- Additional Info (published work/awards/prizes)
- Interests
- References (available on request)
So I must include all of these things but I can make it more interesting. I can use colour, I can use a different layout, I
can include pictures/drawings.
I basically need to make my CV eye catching and memorable. When applying for a
job where there’s going to be a lot of competition, I need to make sure that my
qualifications and abilities stand out to the person who will
be reading it.
Thursday 13th November 2014:
Today Zanna and Harry from Papio Press, came in to discuss the ins and outs of setting
up an independent company like Papio Press. They’re both illustration students
in 3rd year and came together when they found out that both of them
were interested in selling products with their illustrations on. They mostly sell
their products online through websites like etsy.co.uk and notonthehighstreet.co.uk.
Etsy.com is great as the website is full of creative minds and people who are
all in the same boat. You’re able to ‘Favourite’ products or companies that you
like and share what they’re selling in the hope that in return they will do the
same, hence you’re products are seen by more people.
Notonthehighstreet.co.uk is a bit more competitive, there’s not the option to ‘Favourite’
or ‘share’ so you’ve just got to upload your products and hope for good reviews
when someone has bought your product.
They also discussed how important social media is now for independent companies. Their Facebook page can be liked,
followed and shared and therefore be seen by many. They’ve also recently set up
their twitter account so this is also a good way to get a company known as ‘Retweets’
and ‘Favourites’ will get your company recognised.
They also sell their products at creative fairs. They pointed out that it’s
important to do some research to find out how much a stall or table will cost
at a fair before going ahead, as you need to make sure that you will make your
money back, if not make a profit, from the fair. If the table/stall is expensive you may be setting yourself up for a massive loss.
They explained how easy it was to set up their company. Once they’d found that
their products were selling quite well they registered with HRMC which was
apparently very straight forward and they could carry on what they were doing straight
away.
The products they are selling are compact mirrors, phone cases, letter graphics
(that can be framed), bags etc. and they’re looking to expand to other products
like cushion covers. They told us that it’s important to work out how much
products would cost for postage and packaging, as things like ceramic mugs need
quite a lot e.g. bubble wrap/tissue paper, box. Whereas things like phone cases
just need a padded envelope which will cost a lot less. So it’s important to think
about this before deciding on a new product, along with the cost of printing
onto different kinds of surfaces.
When setting up your own company you must invest all the money you make through
profit back into the company. This will allow you to expand the company further
and make more money and ensure it is successful.
Having Zanna and Harry talk to us today was very helpful. I gained an insight
into a different way of selling illustrations instead of just book/poster form.
It was interesting to see just how easy it is to set up a business but also
what you need to do to make sure you keep on top of it all.
Thursday 20th November 2014:
Today Georgie Hounsome talked to us about her line of work in the illustration
industry. She does screen printing, book making, printing, lecturing and also
owns a small company; Pirrip Press.
Georgie explained to us the idea behind Residences…something I’ve not heard of
before.
The aim is you go somewhere that isn’t where you'd normally live or work, it can
be in the same country or abroad, and you can go for anything from a week to a
year. In this time you can build up your portfolio, work on a project or create
something. By going away from your natural surroundings you have a different
source of inspiration and different ideas flow. Residences can be paid or
unpaid. Georgie alongside another illustrator had offers from galleries abroad
to create a working print room and create a book in bulk. Everything was done
so that members of the public could come round and speak to them whilst they
were working. This is a great way of getting your work known further afield. I
think that the idea of residences is fantastic, getting away and seeing
something different is perfect to keep your creative mind active…something to
consider in the future!
Thursday 27th November 2014:
Today Fumio Obata talked to us about his experience when he was getting his books published and what was involved. The process is a lot more difficult than you would hope. Fumio told us how important it is to read the contract held with the publishing company thoroughly before you sign anything. There is sometimes small print that you would skim over in the excitement of getting your book published which you wouldn't necessarily agree with on a normal basis.
Fumio also explained that even though it is your book, you've written/illustrated it, you don't actually get any money from the book until a certain amount of books have been sold. And the number of books that need to be sold is usually a lot!! Even when you've reached that mark you will receive some money from the book but you wont receive any royalties.
Thursday 8th January 2015:
We've been set a book making project brief as a class. We've been split into a number of groups and each group is required to focus on one topic; careers, health, law etc.
My group has Careers within Illustration so we need to come up with an illustration suitable for risograph print. The illustration needs to be 200x200mm with a 5mm bleed. It needs to be black and white and can have a spot colour but this will be applied to the risograph by hand once they have been printed.
After working on our ideas for a few weeks, today we finalised our ideas in our groups. We needed to make sure our ideas linked together to make sure they are suitable and ready for printing to start next week.
My ideas started with thinking about what an illustrator uses in their career. I thought about what I use the most. I use a lot of ink, a lot of fine liner pens and I have a collection of pencils that have been sharpened within an inch of their lives. So I started playing around with different layouts of these objects. I tried incorporating a sharpener and different nibs for an ink pen but I didn't feel they sat well with the pens and pencil. I then thought about how often these objects are actually in use (pretty often!) so I wanted to see what they'd look like if I drew them as if they're being used. I like this idea, but I thought that the plain background was quite boring. I then tried it with swirly patterns but I thought the pattern took away the focus of the main object. So I decided to split the background into four equal sections and having it alternate black and white.
This is the illustration as a finished product, I really like the simplicity of the objects. The objects are clear and they appear to be ready to use which is how an illustrator likes to see the main objects they use.
Thursday 15th January 2015:
Today was 'hand in' day for our risograph images. We had each of our images checked and then loaded onto a file ready for printing. We then each voted on the type of layout and type of font we would like the book to be printed in. The name of the book was also decided on, this being 'Illu', short for Illustration. We felt it went well with the universities Illustration book 'Olio'.
Thursday 22nd January 2015:
Today we had illustrator, Jenny Bowers, come in to talk to us about her career as an illustrator and to look at the illustrations we are all working on.
Jenny works as a collaborative team of ten illustrators in a studio in London. Very rarely do all ten of them work on the same project/job, but very often two or three members of the team will work together and use the best of each individuals skills to produce a great piece of work. When a job is sent through, as a group they discuss:
1. Who has the time to do the job
2. Can they, as a team, afford to do the job (is it paying well)
3. How many of the team should take part in the job
4. whose style suits the job
There is no pressure for anyone to do something they don't want to do as each person is better at some things than others.
If there is an opportunity for the team to advertise and show their work to others to gain potential clients and contacts then a couple of them will take a selection of everyone's work to show. It is clear that they definitely work as a team. However, Jenny explained that some problems do come with working as a collaborative team. With ten people in one studio, a lot of different opinions and ideas for the projects are suggested and sometimes coming to a final decision is not the easiest.
I think its a great idea to work in this sort of situation because you would never really have to turn a job down as there should (hopefully) always be someone who has the skills and ideas to get the job done.
Jenny told us that each week there is always a goal to be working towards and always keeping you busy. Also in spare five minutes that comes their way they will be working on their own portfolios and getting any private work they have done.
As an individual illustrator, away from the collaborative group, Jenny has done quite a lot of big projects. She has an agent in America and she used to have an agent in Sweden as well. Jenny designed a lot of work for the famous American department store, Bloomingdales. At Christmas, a few years ago, she designed six different illustrations to be printed onto bags, as well as illustrations to be displayed in store.
She has done a Christmas editorial for The Independent, editorials for Christmas at Waitrose as well as editorials for an array of different things in the UK, Japan, Sweden and America.
She designed work to go on the walls of UCH Children's hospital in both the children's and teenage wards to brighten up the area and make it more friendly and welcoming.
Jenny was hired by an architect who was aiming to transform South Croydon. She created a mural and bright illustrations to be put in the front of empty shop windows to make it appear more welcoming in the area.
Jenny then spoke to us about self initiated work and advised us to never turn down a job because even if it's something really awful, there is always something to learn from it.
Jenny also gave us advice on commission work. There are many precautions you must take when negotiating this work.
1. The money - make sure you're not getting ripped off
2. The location - find out where they intend to use it and if it's going to be used in more than one country
3. Time - how long can they use the image for....(1 day, 1 week, 1 year, 5 years?)
4. Copy right - you own the rights to your image, not them.
You need to be really firm with what you are agreeing to. Otherwise they could own your illustration for a silly fee.
Jenny also advised us to always refresh your websites, business cards, adverts. Keep everything up to date and exciting, showing off what you can do.
Jenny has also had a children's book published. After the group talk I was able to have a tutorial with her about my own children's book. I showed her my work so far and explained my thought processes and what I intend the book to look like at the end. She gave me a few pointers on things to change and gave me her honest opinion which was very useful as I can make the changes that she suggested.
It was really interesting having Jenny talk to us today. Hearing from an experienced illustrator and the way she works gives me an insight to the professional world as an illustrator and the opportunities that are available out there. I'll definitely take the points she has made on board and consider them when making future decisions.
Thursday 29th January 2015:
Today Helen Ward, a children's illustrator came to the studio to show us some of her work and described to us how she prefers to work.
Helen has written and illustrated many books, sometimes collaboratively, sometimes her own books and sometimes other authors books.
She had been working on a Dinosaurology book which was created with 4 or 5 other illustrators. She told us how it was difficult to get the movement of the dinosaurs correct. Her work required a lot of rough drawings of trial and error. She also looked at the way her cat moved to work out the movement of limbs.
Helen said she has to write her story before she starts drawing otherwise the words will never be written and she'll just work on the illustrations. She also goes through fazes where she'll do a lot more writing for some books than others. When she does start her illustrations she doesn't do them in the order of the book because her style always changes throughout the process. She explained it's best to start with the easiest pages and then go on to the hardest as you'll be really good at the style at the end and the harder pages will therefore be easier.
Helen prefers to draw animals that aren't realistic. She does this because if a realistic drawing is slightly wrong then it's open to be criticised. Where as made up animals have no reference to go by and therefore cant be criticised.
Thursday 5th February 2015:
Today, Fumio Obata talked to us about Copyright. He told us a great book that we should all get to undertand the rules of copyright to make sure we always know our rights over our own work - The Illustrators Guide to Law and Business Practice. Simon Stern. 2008.
He then went on to tell us some facts about copyright:
- It is a law
- The owner of the image is the only person with the right to copy the image
- The artist owns the drawing, unless they are an employee or if they copied someone elses work
- You do not need to use the copyright symbol to own copyright
- Copyright lasts a lifetime +70 years. After this the image is out of copyright and enters the public domain
- Copyright doesn't apply to similarities that happen by chance.
- It does not apply to buildings and sculptures
- It is best to not sell your copyright
- Use your own reference material, primary resaources
- If you want or need to use something else, ask permission and get the permission in writing.
Infringement - if you take a 'substantial' part of someone else's work and use it.
Penalties - You can be fined and your work can be destroyed.
Keeping copyright:
- Grant licences (permission)
- purpose
- territory
- duration
For commissions you should use an Acceptance of Commission Contract, this will ensure that both sides of the deal stick to their word of what is expected.
Thursday 19th February:
Today we were set two tasks to do in small groups over the next few weeks...
Task 1:
We have to come up with five A3 motivational posters. We can only use type, no illustrations apart from graphical elements.
I'm really looking forward to this, it will be good to experiment with type and work out how it works by using different sizes, style and colour to create effect and communicate a message.
Task 2:
We have a theoretical budget of £200 to make a promotional event, collective, exhibition, campaign or publication. We need to think about budgets, tasks, design, promotion, logo, branding etc.
It will be interesting to discuss and find an outcome from this task. I'm looking forward to seeing what we come up with.
Tuesday 24th February 2015:
Today we had illustrator, print maker and comic book artist; Jon McNaught, come in to the studio to walk to us.
Jon has a lot of experience in printmaking including, woodcuts, linocut, screen prints, lithographs etc. He tends to work in three colours, pink, blue and black. He layers each colour and creates a really great effect, especially in his comic books.
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| From: Birchfield Close. Jon McNaught |
Jon explained how he doesn't like making stories up. He prefers to create a narrative from real things that have happened. He often finds that printing from his memories gives his memories a different meaning to what he was expecting.
Jon has created many prints based on reflections in windows and in water. These prints are very effective. They give you two separate images in one, and also allows the imagination to work out what it is seeing.
We also had Illustrator; Paul Farrell, come in to discuss his way of working with us. Paul has his own studio in his home where he mostly focusses on working digitally on his computer and in a print room. He advised us from his own experience to have a list of core values for your projects, and o not allow yourself to drift off from these values. This way you can always keep your own unique style. Paul's core values are: folk, shape, simple, unique and nature.
Paul is always collecting colours for reference, colours can be scanned into the computer and replicated into projects he is working on.
Although Paul works digitally he starts generating his ideas on paper, as there is always something for him to go back to.
He is currently working on a book which requires 226 illustrations, and he is having to do 1 illustration a day. For this project he explained that his computer is key as he can get the work done a lot quicker.
His advice to us was to always be producing work and keep yourself on your toes. Retailers are always looking for fresh new work, and if you remain consistent and busy then you will achieve this.
For promotional material, he suggested making something hat someone can hold, and pu a lot of effort into it as people will see it and remember it.
It's very useful having established illustrators come in to university to talk to us. It gives me an insight to their way of working and what I should expect when I have left university and begin my career as an illustrator.
Thursday 19th March 2015:After a few weeks of planning and creating our group tasks, today we presented our ideas and research.
Firstly, Keira and I came up with five posters that were quite diverse in design and each portrayed a different inspirational message. We originally had a good twenty or so quotes but we deliberated with each one and came up with our favourite five.
The first poster we did using the letter press, after picking out the type of font we wanted we mixed up some ink.
This was just a rough, we printed a few copies to allow for mistakes and we also used this copy to test out a couple of fonts to see which worked best.
Here is the final print of our poster, the gradient effect on the 'FIRE' works really well. We weren't sure how it was going to turn out but I'm really pleased with the result. Some of the letters could have been straighter looking at it now, maybe some more practice with the letter press is needed.
The next poster we made was quite a long process and took some time getting the design right. Our original idea was to use stencil print.
I like the effect but we didn't think it made the statement we were looking for, we wanted more blocky letters and for it to be a more bold print.
Here is the final poster. We made a stencil and printed the brown colour for the 'wall' part first. We then used the letter press which took a few attempts to get the letters in 'punch through that' to line up perfectly with the background....but we managed it!
We then used a calligraphy pen for the outlines and for the effect of the wall.
I'm pleased with the outcome, however I think the wording for 'wall' could be clearer and I'd play around with the font and lettering a bit more to make sure it all works well.
Our next poster had a couple of designs.
We thought about a few different fonts to use and layouts, then we came up with this idea....
We found that we end up asking each other this question quite often. Usually over text, hence the speech bubble design. I like that this poster is hand lettered, it gives the effect of someone actually saying the quote.
Our next poster also had a couple of designs. We liked the idea of having different fonts for each of the words, we thought this created a really good effect.
We played around with some designs and layouts but decided that this one worked out best....
I really like the use of different fonts, it gave the poster a classic appearance and the banner sits really nicely with the rest of the poster. Keeping it black and white keeps the poster very clean and simple and I think this adds to the 'classic' effect of the poster.
Our last poster took a lot of roughs. There were more words in this quote and therefore gave us much more to play around with.
So we played around with many designs, changing fonts, sizes, compositions etc. but decided that the last design gave the quote quite an old fashioned, classy appearance and we decided to take this design further. So we added some colour using water colour paint....
We then used Photoshop to add in the rest of the lettering...
I really like this poster, I think it's very pretty in comparison to the other posters and adds to the diversity of each one.
I'm pleased with how each of the posters turned out and I think each one works with the quotes well.
In our second task, we decided to theoretically set up an exhibition.
We quickly learnt that the budget of £200 was going to be a very tight budget. The locations for hiring for exhibitions were close to £200 before we even thought about anything else.
I enquired at places like The Wilson Gallery in Cheltenham, Pittville Pumprooms and The Garden Gallery. But after realising how much hiring these venues were, we thought of ways that we could possibly get around paying for location....and then we thought of the Illustration's Drawing Room at the University, using this large open space would allow us to use the budget on other things like framing artwork and advertising the exhibition.
We found that each venue had different specific rules for framing and mounting, and the artist/host was responsible for all framing, mantling and dismantling. We researched into prices for framing and found that they ranged quite widely from £25 - £250. But the cheapest other artists framed their work for was on average £25-£50.
We looked into advertising the event because of course the more people who find out about the exhibition and make an appearance the better. We thought of leaflets, posters, business cards and social media. These things could be printed in the studio, and that would just mean budgeting for the paper used to print. However, if we were going to use a professional print maker then we would have to budget around £30 for each type of advertisement, depending on the amount we decided to print. Of course social media is very important for advertisement, people are constantly on their phones checking Facebook, Twitter, Emails. All that's needed is a few people to share, retweet or forward a post and hundreds of people will see the event.
Lastly, our exhibition would need a theme. We researched into a few different themes but these ones stood out to us the most:
- Things that Move and Live
- Head in the Clouds
- Landscapes of the Mind
- Opposites Attract
We found that these were quite open subject matters and if we were to create pieces of work to show in the exhibition then we would both be able to relate to these themes, and equally if other illustrators were to enter work into the exhibition then I don't think they would have any trouble in relating to any of those themes.
Completing this task was really helpful, especially for future reference. I have gained knowledge in pricing and budgeting for an event like this and how much work and organisation would go into creating the exhibition.
Thursday 26th March 2015:
We were set the task of creating our own creative CV. After doing some research on Pinterest of examples of creative CVs I came across these CVs that stood out to me...
These CV's stood out to me because of the colours used and the different fonts used. This makes them look interesting and would make me want to read them as the person must be interesting if the CV appears to be.
I did a couple of thumbnail CV designs to play around with layout and to see what worked...
I think it's good to have a CV that requires the employer to handle it and I liked the design that opened up. So this is the CV I came up with...
I wanted to create a CV that required a potential employer to have to hold and open it. I felt it was important to keep the information on the CV to be short and to the point, providing all the necessary information.
Thursday 23rd April 2015:
Today I carried out a Skills Audit to analyse where I am with my skills; what I am good at and what I can improve on.
I'm comfortable with most of my skills, however I do need to work on my digital skills as working digitally can be quicker and can enhance my traditional way of working. There are some general skills and practical skills that I need to look into more as I'm not entirely sure what they are or what they entail. Overall I'm happy with the skills that I do have and there's always room for improvement in both the skills I have and skills I am still to learn.
