#do i make a draft for my hand-drawn ad poster project

[such-a-downer]

🤔🤭

I'm done with loiyor ala charles and jane....

Some funny idea is coming to me with this pic...

[charliedoesadvertising]

Goal 1: Improving Technical Skills

As someone who isn't very proficient in design at all, I would like to use this project as a means to practice designing advertisements such as posters or social media posts. Whether that is using tools such as Adobe Illustrator, something widely used within the industry (Superside, 2023), or any other tool, I believe being able to at least mock-up any of my concepts could be very useful for any future designers I work with as I will be able to provide more of an idea for the concept I create. Being able to create at least a primitive mock-up as well as the creative concept will build my toolkit of skills. This will allow me to be much more flexible and adaptable, as well as allowing stronger points for communicating my ideas and concepts when working with others.

Goal 2: Enhancing Project Management Abilities

As I have never completed a full advertising campaign concept, or mock-up, before, I really want to make sure I have as many pieces of information of it covered before actually crafting and forming the advertisements. As such, I have broken the project up into 3 main categories.

Research and Planning

Find Client and Advertising Concept to build upon

Develop Advertising Problem & Objective

Analyse Target Audience, Competition, and Market Trends

Create Key Campaign Objectives

Outline Campaign Goals (SMART Goals)

Decide on Key Messages and Unique Selling Points (USPs)

Choose Platforms that Best Fit Target Demographic

Develop Principal Benefit of Product

Develop and Analyse Brand Character of Client

Concept and Development

Sketch Initial Ideas and Create Mood Boards

Decide on Colour Schemes, Imagery, and Typography (Brand Image)

Draft Headlines, Taglines, and Key Messages

Draft Copywriting for Ads

Prepare content tailored for different media channels (social media, billboards, posters, etc.)

Design

Develop digital mock-ups and examples

Create sample placements (social media posts, banner ads, billboards, posters)

Finalise designs that best demonstrate creative vision

Goal 3: Refining Creative Solutions

I have never been very good at planning, in the past, I have tended to think of the concept mentally and delve straight into creating, rather than developing plans and drafts. Practicing proper process and following developmental steps was indeed more time consuming, but certainly made sure that I was covering many more pieces of information than I may otherwise have i the past. It allowed me to properly layout my advertising concepts and research, and help find any holes or pieces of information that I may have missed.

When I started this project, I had really wanted to expand and delve into creating art physically, through drawing and designing. However, I soon realised that that really is not my strong suit. I've decided to keep one of my hand-drawn designs for the advertisement as a means of stepping out of my comfort zone. It is definitely not the strongest looking ad, with pretty weak line work, but it is something that I want to put out there to show that it's something I can actually do, given the time. Perhaps in future I will delve further into art and drawing, honing my skills where needed; however I do not see that coming to fruition too soon. Hopefully I can one day get to a stage where I will not need to trace over a reference image to draw.

Goal 4: Expanding Understanding of Industry Standards

As someone who has only ever made singular advertisements before, rather than a whole campaign, I never realised the depth and considerations that are needed. To create every single aspect of an advertisement campaign is a large undertaking, and something that I had certainly not tackled before.

Overall, I definitely could've delved a lot deeper into more proper aspects, such as laws and codes of ethics, however I'm not properly trained in any such areas, so didn't have too much of a concept of what I should/ should not be covering. I'm glad I leant into that area however, it was certainly an interesting read and gave me a greater appreciation for the amount of restrictions that must be placed on real advertising agencies.

The project required a lot more brain power and focus than many other advertising projects I had done in the past, as I was creating everything from the ground up, except for DoorDash's existing brand. Therefore, this project exceeded how much work I expected to be undertaking before even getting to designing an ad. I can also now see why certain professionals pick specific niche's, rather than cover every single stage in an advertisements life.

Conclusion

Some of my biggest takeaways from this project were to never underestimate much work goes into the creation of an advertising campaign, how much skill is required to create effective designs, and how being a "jack of all trades" may be harder than expected.

Originally, I had planned on covering every aspect of this campaign to help expand my skillset and become more flexible in my future career. After completing this project, I have realised that that may be stretching myself too thin, and that for future works, I should find a specific field or niche within advertising to grow and work within. It may be wiser to strengthen myself in a field, rather than be mediocre at multiple.

Overall, this project was a great learning opportunity. Although the designs themselves may be weaker in comparison to that of actual advertising agencies and professionals, I like to think that they are a solid and promising start. Keeping and documenting every step of the process has allowed me to not only cover any and all bases, but also gives me something to look back on and be proud of. Watching everything come together into one large campaign document was a very fulfilling experience.

I may not in future decide to build an entire campaign again, however I am still very glad that I gave it ago, and had a good experience when doing so.

[emsykesillustration]

Portfolio Reviews

As part of my portfolio reviews, I’ve been in contact with several people in the industry to gather feedback and advice for my portfolio so far. Rose Lloyd Rose Lloyd is a Stockport alumni, and has risen far in the industry. She’s represented by Eye Candy agency, who are massive in the illustration world. Her work is bright, bold and at such high quality she’s had clients such as the BBC, The Times, and the British Medical Journal. She uses texture and shape as a forefront for her work, which is something that makes me very lucky to have been able to speak with her about my work, as it’s not just inspiring but also very similar to my own work. Having a creative who can understand your work and the processes behind it, is brilliant in getting feedback. One of the first points Rose made when looking through my work is that she could see that I had a versatile range of media in my visual language, as well as my output. She mentioned that versatility is important, and that if you use more than one medium in your working style, let potential clients and agencies know that. I’m going to continue using different styles, as well as employing various techniques such as using mock ups, as well as if suits best - photography of my work, such as t-shirts, prints and books if needs be. Rose also suggested the I add my contact details to the back, as it’s a nice note to end with. I currently have mine at the front, so I’ll see if other artists suggest the same. Business cards were also suggested, which I’m currently designing! I’m also ensuring I keep my font, colours, and general feel consistent - I’m a brand as an illustrator and clients and agencies need to see that, purely because it looks so professional. Rose, speaking about getting work, also mentioned looking up art directors in Manchester, and just getting yourself out there, emailing your portfolio over so you’re in their books and getting your name out there for potential work! She also mentioned if I wanted to go into editorial work, it’s well worth getting current articles and adapting them as your own. Editorial is so fast paced, so it’s good to get into that fast frame of thinking and ways of applying your skillset to text in a short amount of time. It’ll also put your work into context and be super applicable for potential clients.  It was wonderful to speak to Rose, and really nice to see how far you can go in the illustration world! Flow Creative I was given the amazing opportunity by Barney to visit the team at Flow, a huge agency in Manchester. They're a design agency who specialise in motion design an animation, but are super versatile. They have a massive client base and a team who are always looking for work from freelance illustrators - so it’s safe to say they have a good eye for the illustration industry.  I spoke with Karl Doran, the creative director, and Sarah - accounts manager, as well as other members of the team. Feedback included my portfolio, website and social media accounts being consistent, presentation of my work being well ordered, and they liked how my website  is an open portfolio. Karl commented that my mix of mockups and full digital photos was refreshing, and that mockups used with my (Re)Collection work, as well as both print and digital campaigns is brilliant - agencies and potential clients love to see things in context, and the applicability of your work, so to keep that up!  Feedback also included to add sketchbook workings, and work leading up to it - this may be drafts or screenshots - it’s important that clients see this, as it puts your work into context some more, and shows the importance of your process, and how you’ve worked as a designer. I definitely need to start adding these!  After showing  my ident animations, it was amazing to see that the whole team actually really liked what I had going on - for something I’m really new to, a process that I struggled with, and is still a work in progress - they loved the looping of the saxo wheels, the general over-the-top-ness of the 90′s items, and the lo-fi, VHS feel. Points to improve on were looping my work, perhaps simplifying transitions, and putting them on my instagram as loops or GIFs, as people looking for work such as agencies and clients absolutely love this. Karl mentioned that I should check out Ruffmercy on instagram, and I’m so glad he did! I’m so inspired right now!  When chatting, I mentioned how I felt worried that by using the MTV logo so much in my (Re)Collection work, I may be ‘ripping off’ the brand, however the whole team said that it’s a good thing - people in the industry have published ‘knock off’ potential designs and actually gotten work off the original brands!  They also mentioned that using Beer Paper from GF Smith for my Beer work was so effective and a really nice touch, and possibly even creating business cards that are beermats! I am SO getting on that! Beermats are collectible, usable, and the thought of someone lifting their mug off it while looking for inspiration and seeing my contact details is a great idea! An amazing feedback experience with lots of things to take back, and my confidence boosted. Thank you for checking my work out and for your time! Tyler Spangler I contacted Tyler last year for a small interview about his views on the creative industry, and so contacted him again this year for some feedback on my PDF portfolio. Tyler is based in California, and uses amazing colours in bold designs covering character, text, and many types of concepts. He has some amazing clients including Chanel, Nike, Outkast, and has featured online in Dazed and Confused, and Hi-Fructose magazine. He’s lovely to talk to and has always had time to give me advice, and is in a great position to learn from and get advice from from within the industry. On sending him my portfolio, he mentioned that he remembered my work from last year because he likes my uses of texture! This is great, as being able to be consistent with my visual language means that I’ll be able to stay in people’s minds and proves better to staying in the radar as a creative! He mentioned that he thinks it may be nice to include project information on my PDF portfolio, similarly to how I do on my website - that it’ll give the viewer some more context. At the moment I only have my captions as to what they are, media, and when they were done. However, my website captions, such as here - simply even with how and why I came about it, why it’s grapefruit, etc. I think this is a great idea, as as well as working sketches and drafts, it gives the full information to viewers and potential clients. If I’m sending a PDF portfolio over it typically means I can’t show someone my work in person, where I’d normally explain and talk through what I’d been working on and why. So that’s a great piece of feedback! He also mentioned that his favourite piece in my portfolio is Elvis Juice, so I’m glad I’ve put it so prominently on my business cards! A few people have mentioned that it’s their favourite when looking through my work, and so it’ll be nice to be able to show people my best work here, especially in chances were first impressions are small, short, and therefore need to be really good and lasting, and an essence of my visual language as a whole. I’m going to add small captions to my work, making sure it doesn’t take over too much or become too much of a read. Ken Maylor Ken is a proper old school illustrator. He’s based in Lancashire, and has been illustrating for decades. He’s produced work for the likes of Star Trek and Elvis Presley annuals, Oyston’s Estate Agency, produced spray positives of photographs for various catalogues, as well as being a police officer for years, he created drawings for the Police and Crimewatch, as well as airbrushing. We couldn’t find any of his old work together, but he now mainly fly ties - as you can see here, he’s got an incredibly craft hand and so it’s no surprise he did so well with airbrushing and producing realistic drawings for the Police and Crimewatch! Looking through my updated portfolio with captions and sketches of the process thanks to Flow Creative’s and Tyler Spangler’s feedback, he had lots of positive feedback. Generally, he said he loves the colours I’ve used, for myself as a brand, and the boldness in the illustrations - they grab attention. The use of my batman making faces image as my logo alongside hand-drawn type is quirky, and he thinks they’re positive and there’s humour. This is great, as I’d love this to be a first impression for agencies and potential clients! Looking through my (Re)Collection work, compiled together with suggestion from Tutorial Feedback to categorise my work, the ‘90′s Called’ poster design reminded him of 90s films such as Lethal Weapon - knowing that the use of items to promote nostalgia has set off in this way for a variety of people who remember the ‘90s differently is great! The (Re)Collection campaign is definitely nostalgic and giving the right message about the ‘90s. The Inflatable Sofa piece casts a good image and Ken said it made him wonder whether watching tv is relaxing, as he saw the sofa as floating on the ceefax due to its transparency - which is a new way of myself looking at it - considering it to be possible to be used for an editorial piece covering technology etc! Going to the beer area/pieces of my portfolio, he suggested that Elvis Juice could appeal to bikers, and the ways in which the grapefruit is used for the wheels is again humorous and thought provoking - it’s lovely and refreshign to see that a fresh pair of eyes can see something like this consistent throughout my work when I’ve never noticed it before! He also mentioned that the sketches and process components are great - the feedback from before has paid off! The use of texture and paint dragged over on such a large scale gives a lovely effect in Beer Dive and allows a relaxing thing to look at - I never thought of this as a relaxing piece, but it’s now something I can use within my visual language if I need to create something relaxing or scenic! The Red Screes design is very relevant to the suggestion of where the ale is from, helping promote its locality - continuing to use the culture of the client and what my work is based on proves well and really shows that there’s deeper meaning and a lot of work put in behind my illustrations - I’ll definitely keep working like this. The craft beer book is accessible, readable for both experts and non-experts, and makes you want to go out and try craft beer! This is wonderful, exactly what I set out to create when I made this - from a portfolio page, I’ve managed to get the best choice and range of photos for Ken to be able to tell this! The Brodie’s Prime fox stance works well, as it looks mischievous but as hough he could be affectionate too, with a good stance considered in the sketches to show he’s on the prowl for mischief. The Tarn Hows XPA piece with the lemon over the building is brilliant and works well with the spotted background, representing the way the lemon is squeezed and he also loved how it makes you think - one of my most conceptual pieces which I’m glad it’s not just me that thinks of it in this way! The Palace cinema piece sets the tone well and the selection of what I’ve illustrated is so apt to the location, using Lancashire roses shows so much relevance. The House Plant piece is so differential in terms of shapes used - he said he could see a sloth, a birds head, a goose - he mentioned that you look for shapes when looking at the illustration and it casts your eye all round. The more you look, the more you see - and then he saw an elephant looking away! And now I see it! I’ve had some amazing feedback from Ken, and I’m so glad I was able to get feedback from such a practiced illustrator with a different variety of work to other artists I’ve looked at - it’s wonderful to see that artists from different disciplines can help me see my work differently, and can bring wonderful suggestions and feedback.  Eva Stalinski Eva Stalinski is an illustrator based in the Netherlands, who works with bright colours and bold outlines, with most of her work screen printed as merchandise. Her work is here! Like Chris Madden and Tyler Spangler, I contacted Eva last year for some insight into the creative industry, and received some amazing information and advice! Again, I contacted her for a portfolio review and received some really good feedback. On looking through my PDF portfolio via. email, she mentioned that she really liked the bright colours used, especially yellow - I never realised myself how much I use yellow, and just how much it works nicely with my work!  She also mentioned that my work is different from hers in discipline, and in that she uses bold outline a lot, however she could really see my work as merchandise! I’d love to explore screen printing some more as I have a screen printing kit at home, and I love using it! Finally, she mentioned that my beer work is really together and nice. She suggested looking at International breweries, as it’s always good to branch out and get myself out there! It’s strange, because as much as I love beer, I’ve never thought about this so I might do this! Thank you to everyone, as I’ve had so much help with my work generally, and my portfolio has improved massively!

[jaimetucker]

Evaulation

Throughout this module we’ve been exploring the ins and outs of the key principles of graphic design, including contrast, colour, space, proximity etc.  We began out first week looking at typeface and what puts together a letterform, I found this to be the most interesting part of the module, learning about the terminology and different fonts and types is something I’m really interested in and have been practicing through throughout. I found knowing about the x-height, tracking and other elements of type made my handwriting practice a lot easy and created much neater, more professional looking pieces.            Moving on for this, we began a mini task to create a fresh, contemporary architecture magazine called ‘Arkitekt’. This was my first time not only creating a magazine but also using in-design and because of this I found the brief quite difficult. I originally started off with a very safe piece that although looked quite nice, was not the look or the challenge I was looking for. Therefore, I began again by scamping up ideas for a magazine that uses parts of buildings that have strong angles and shapes to create a strong, unique look. I studied a photographer called Janie Airey who does exactly that, especially in her works on the Olympic stadium, and it inspired me to look at the buildings in separate segments and to look at the materials/surfaces as a chance to get some great contrasting photos. Following this, I went out into Birmingham heading to new street stopping along the way to take photos of any buildings with unique and interesting looks/surfaces. I had chosen New Street as my main subject because of the mirrored roof, I wanted to use its reflection to create pieces perfect for my magazine. I looked at different parts where it reflected other buildings and where it reflected the natural parts of the surrounding environment and collected a variation of images so I can really experiment with the magazine. Beginning the digital piece, I looked at cropping, copying, rotating and more to images with strong linear angles to form interesting shapes for my front cover. I didn’t want just an image of a building on my front cover as I had done in the first piece which lead to a lot of experimentation with colour and images, some of which was inspired by The Design Republic and the style of the 90’s. I looked at using a very retro style like many of the artists in the 90’s where I added a splash of colour to an otherwise quite neutral background. Although this didn’t make it to the final draft, I did really like the look at will be using it in a further project. I continued this style throughout the magazine, using over-lapping and continuing to play with placement to create the inside spreads which went ok in my opinion. Overall I feel the piece was reasonable successful when I factor in this was my first try with indesign/magazine spread. I personally wasn’t 100% satisfied as a whole, the look of the three spreads could have fit together better with a more similar theme throughout and I didn’t feel it was professional enough to be something you would actually see out in the world. I continued to play with the piece for a long time changing very minor things to the point where I feel I couldn’t have gone any further without restarting the whole piece. It may be something I revisit or retouch with a fresher mind and more time.                     The main brief of the module was creating an interactive poster based off of a poem you have chosen. Poetry is not something I often explore so at first the brief was a bit daunting, however after spending a few hours searching the internet with no previous poetry knowledge I found a beautiful, quite famous poem called ‘I know my soul’ which I found very personal and thought provoking. The main idea of the piece was about discovering and overcoming your emotional issues, Claude Mckay (the poet) writes about how self-realisation is one of the first steps to recovery and how you can find comfort in knowing your pain. From this, I wanted to feel of my poster to be about discovery and to have an element of reveal which entices the audience to look further into its meaning. I began mind-mapping ideas that included covering up the word ‘SOUL’ in different interactive ways. These included having a pop up, a wooden puzzle that audience put together, digital click reveals and more. I started to look into mental health and some of the previous awareness projects that have been around in the past and from this deciphered that I wanted to create more of a campaign style piece including possibly a selection of posters. I began looking up different ways advertising companies have pushed forward ideas and got themselves heard and the one technic you see a lot if using a ‘’#’. These include ‘#putacanonit’ by Red Bull and the recent ‘#Thisgirlcan’ by Nike. This sparked the creation of ‘#Letstalkaboutit’, a campaign raising awareness for ‘Mental Health week’ and encouraging people to talk about it; just as the poem had. The first thing I created, after scamping, was a blank ‘I Know My’ that I originally planned to have a reveal of ‘soul’, however I wanted it to be more inclusive of its audience which I felt wasn’t reached by just having a flip up or a puzzle. I re-read the poem and asked others to read/interpret it and realised that it was very different for each person; I wanted to include this in my piece. From this, I had the idea to have people write their own words, in their own way onto the same blank poster. I thought about separate platforms that this could be done on, from instagram to hand drawn handouts, and began to create mock up versions. I handed out blank sheets to a few people in the class and sketched up some basic designs for websites/gifs/etc. This created a lot of great work that I really enjoyed the idea of however I felt that there wasn’t enough of an ‘end piece’. I wanted something that could be presented at the end to put forward all of the ideas that these quick pieces where presenting. After a short discussion with Martin, he introduced me to the idea of a branded collection of posters. By this I mean a collection of 5/6 posters that are instantly recognisable as a brand/campaign even though they don’t contain the same content. I really liked this idea as it allowed me to use my simple, blank/crossout poster within in but also take it forward with a more professional look. I began looking again at Nike campaigns and different artists that used this style, including Paula Scher who created a new look for the New York Atlanta theatre company doing exactly this. She used a strong 2-tone look with a spotlight shape that ran throughout. From this and others, I began creating my pieces. I made choices about continued styles throughout them, including my chose to use ‘Alternative Gothic’ as a font because of its bold, simplistic style that had a unique x-height, creating a recognisable and brand-able look. I also decided on using green as it’s the main colour associated with mental illness but I wanted to have a selection of 2/3 separate tones to add a layered look to the posters, increasing the idea of having to look deeper/further inside. A lot of choices were made about shapes and layout that can be viewed on my blog under ‘#IKNOWMY’. Overall, I really loved the concept and the idea of the whole piece and the final 6 pieces were fresh and along the lines of what I was looking for. With a bit more time I would have refined my final outcomes and maybe make changed to some individual posters (The ‘I need not gloom’ poster probably being the one I would look at the most). 

[emsykesillustration]

Skills Audit & Action Plan (And a bit of a reflective PDP post)

Although it’s been a while since I initially worked on this part of my Survive Guide, I feel that it’s really helped shape my work as a whole, as well as my visual language and the front I put on as a professional illustrator. 

Looking into my strengths, specific skills, and how they can be applied within the industry has helped me open my mind and think about where I can take my work, as well as apply these strengths to units after this exercise - I’ve become much more confident as an illustrator, and also spent more time honing the skills that I feel are primary to what I do, and rather than shaping myself into an industry, it has helped me shape an industry to me - there is a place for everybody, and as Keith Haring said, art is for everybody. I’ve now just gotta make mine really good!

 In the audit, skills I highlighted were: 2D Digital 

It’s pretty clear that my most primary method of working is 2D - recently, I have been adding things such as drop shadows, slight dimensions to my work however, such as here. I think that allowing my work to remain 2D keeps texture as the forefront of my visual language - I would like to explore into 3D design, however it’s quite a ‘clean’ dominated area from what I’ve seen, and I still have so much more exploring and prospering to do within 2D! 2D work is also super fitting for media and units that I’ve worked across, for instance editorial briefs, commissions for a beer bottle label, and media campaigns - things to be put onto posters, billboards, and even small animations. Abstract 

Abstract is a weird one, I see my work as quite abstract in how I use texture as a shape form and a platform to add onto my illustrations and the parts around that one texture I’ve used. Looking back to second year, my What Do You See? Zine was very abstract, images and shape were intertwined, the zine was a method of enticing an audience to dissect what they saw and become engulfed in the chaos that had been laid before them. Although I feel that this was a successful piece of work and I enjoyed my methods of working, I think I’ve evolved a little more as an illustrator since, and even in the process methods of how I worked, layering, distorting allowing things to be in front of what I see as more important now; legibility, message, perspective, gesture, and shape, I’d like to say abstract work could be something I perhaps look into in the future, or if I want to create extra pieces of work, accompaniments for a client, crops of parts of texture and works could prove as nice abstract pieces. My textures set so much of a mood for me and my work that I feel that this could be, if done rightly, a strong thing to keep hold of - I guess it’s a case of whatever creativity I yield and what’s required of me in the future! Animation

 Animation will aaaaaaalways be something I keep aspiring to do. It’s something I keep doing, and something that’s been included in my work each year, but I still can’t quite put my finger on it and keep it mine. Experimentation with stop motion in James’ workshop in first year really got me more confident in seeing that animation wasn’t people sat behind MacBooks on really fancy software that nobody else could do, it was more than Pixar stuff, but it was and still is, simple movements, lo-fi ways of making things happen, making them happen in a different way, and I think a method of me either enhancing my work or adding a little movement to it. Drawn frames have been something I’ve used a lot, particularly in my Illustrator/Authorstrator unit, I’ve drawn hundereds. Some have worked out lovely, and some just haven’t done it for me. Compiling an animation of a collection of ‘90s inspired MTV idents was a huge learning step for me. I learned things along the way, mastered making GIFS, became a little more familiar with frame rates, and saw the importance to detail and consistency. For me, I think the biggest thing is the context requiring the animation, media used, and simplicity. I need to stop focusing on how many frames I have and how intricate it is (although this did work for such specific movements in the Inflatable Man ident animation), but really nailing what I need to. I was recently shown a bit of work from one of the artists in the We Are Goodness agency, and it just blew my mind that a few variations of one frame can come together and be so effective. I’ve begun to become familiar with Adobe Character Animator, and I think this’ll be a great place to start looking at developing my animation skills - there’ll be less of a separation of stuff being too hand rendered and media use being limited (my Jeff Koons animation was almost solely line, and even after hours of deliberation it still didn’t mix in properly), and working with my illustrations and introducing a little movement. Architecture

 Architecture is a strange one. I still struggle to see past fancy pants diagrams and blue prints, but in my work it’s something quite comfortable for me. I like illustrating things. I loved the concept of how objects evoke nostalgia and memories in my (Re)Collection unit, and having something to focus on and make it really work is something I love doing, not just in Architecture based work, but as a whole. First year saw me use a little sketch from inside the John Rylands Library in a screen print experiment, to commissioned work outside of uni of The Palace Cinema, which I actually just casually showed the owner who I work for, and she actually loved! 
I’ve more and more begun to look into what actually makes up what I’m illustrating, for instance in the Palace Cinema illustration, I spent hours gathering the different colours of the bricks, to make it look bricky. I’ve begun to see that you can own something that’s real, make it your illustrative style and visual language without it having to be realistic. I spent less time on making sure every little thing was the exact same, and used the colours and shapes I’d studied within each detail to highlight them, exaggerate them, introduce daring blues into greys, and oranges into bricks, to get an end result I was pretty impressed with. I think that’s what helps make my work so striking. Not just the texture and shape, but separating myself from expectations, what it should look like, and make the item itemy.
 Business

 If I’m honest, I’m a bit of a kid and easily stereotype this bit. I see grey computer chairs and a murky office. BUT, applying myself into the industry, as well as other industries as an illustrator, has really helped me realise the importance of illustrating for business. If you work well and present as a confident, professional illustrator, you’ll be taken seriously. Businesses look to you as an illustrator who specialises in something that they don’t, and it’s important that you keep in mind that that’s why you’re there. If a business wants you to illustrate something, or illustrate them as a company, you need the output to gather the essence of them. Even if I got a commission for a magazine on something like wooden pegs, it’d be so important to study their importance, function, and what the client wants and needs. I think that the b biggest creative challenges I’ve faced, especially in one day briefs, have been because I’ve either not been familiar with the subject topic, or the industry itself. Recently, again, I’ve become involved within the cinema business. It’s all about illustrating things you’re not comfortable with, or haven’t illustrated before. But that adaptability, to a certain level, and making it yours, it’s what’s important. Publications and organisations such as the Financial Times, Guardian, and Business Insider/Weekly are highly successful commissions for illustrators and I’d like to aim high! Collage 

I like to see past collage as something kids did in school as an ‘art’ class. It’s all about instinct, and for me, collage is my skills of bringing hand rendered things, textures, markmaking, objects, cut shapes, together with Photoshop and creating something unique and eye-catching. I like to see my illustrations as collages themselves, I’m literally adding bits and bobs together for people to stand back and go ‘Oh, yeah its a person climbing a mountain but she’s made up of all bits and bobs, that’s pretty cool that’. For something that I used to see as just photomontage and for people who’s work was solely strong as hand-rendered and perhaps just scanned in, it’s now a skill I see over a lot of the time, but definitely the roots of my visual language.  Design 

DESIGN IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME, I NEVER REALISED HOW MUCH I ACTUALLY FIT INTO AND ROCK THE LABEL AS DESIGNER! I think that since working on my Future Self part one, the beer project, I’ve begun making much more informed decisions about my work. Type, placement, composition have all become really important in my creative process. Design allows me to make my work apply to certain things, such as my zine being more than just a zine for uni, but a self-published piece that I can have in my store and say “I made this, it’s about beer, it’s unique, and you can buy it if you’d like” and be confident in saying that! Each illustration now has so many possibilities, and I think that design is more important than ever for me because such texture-based works need the design element there, to allow for space around them, and elements within them that push them that little further to being something that’s worthy of being professional. Design has also taken on now as being a part of my actual visual language rather than just a skill - it’s now on the drafts for my business cards, as I do see myself as a designer. I’d like to think that because of the informed decisions and time put behind my recent (Re)Collection work, the logo, the brand, authenticity, space as advertisements themselves, that my work’s been seen not only by university as design-led, but the outside world and the industry. I’ve been asked to design and illustrate actual things outside of university because of my skills and design behind my final works.  Fantasy

 I’ve developed past someone that saw fantasy work as pixies, fanfic illustrations and very 3D based, realistic work. I think I actually fell into the Fantasy skillset by accident! A major step in dong this was probably my Future Self part 1 work, such as the illustrative responses, Elvis Juice and IPA ’74. I I mean, a skeleton fully clad in biker gear, with a grapefruit helmet, on a bike with grapefruit wheels is cool, but it’s definitely not real. But I managed to illustrate that, and make it conceptually plausible. Channelling my responses to the tastes and experiences from the beers I was trying, the content for my unit, past what I just tasted, to what it felt like and would really work as was probably one of the first big things that allowed me to start feeling like a proper illustrator. I saw Elvis Juice as a badass, punchy, refreshing fruity number, and channelled Brewdog’s punk scheme of things as was, to create a damn cool illustration. I saw drinking the first proper IPA I’d ever had, the most hops I’d ever tasted at once, into a pool, no, a sea of beer. I added colours I’d never have thought to add to something when illustrating beer, and it really worked. 
Editorial

 Almost as a combination of both fantasy and design, I like to push the boundaries of what something should look like and represent, but also keep it cool and professional - not too abstract - although I take much more of an Authorstrator response, I like to keep to the brief and adapt to the client’s needs, but keep my visual language at the forefront of things. The one day brief really helped me to see this - although it was a slightly shoddier version of my better work, it still grasped the topic and article content - I enjoy the challenges of using limited colour pallettes, and although I like to make my work hyper representative of what I’m illustrating, taking the actual colours away from something and applying a new palette can really help embolden my work and add meaning and context however I may need to. I like creating work that I can see applied throughout various media in the industry. Although my Peak of Culture piece wasn’t for anything editorial as such, it was the first piece in my (Re)Collection work that really hit it as a piece that could be distributed into the media. The way that I’d really worked with the perspective of the climber’s legs, to allow her to stand out, and make sure that you could see she was climbing and almost leaping - the true lengths she was going to - was something important for me - it was as if I’d adapted this frame of mind where I can see that I may have a limited size of image, or audience - either familiar with my style or not - to get as much as I need to out there, in the best way that I can. I like making my work accompaniable, and strive to see the final outcome as something I could see out there as a professional piece.
 Merchandise 

Merchandise isn’t something I have too much experience with, as I’ve made t-shirts as a secondary product to my What Do You See? Zine, but it was very rookie and basic. The t-shirts had linocut designs of mini illustrations featured in my zine, and although they were somewhat aesthetically okay, there’s something more I need to keep doing. I enjoyed getting appropriate photos to fit the feel and crowd of my t-shirts, and putting them online - I’ve also learned the importance of social media as an illustrator, as well as self-promotion. Plus, my visual language has evolved from there. Being more confident now, I’d love to be able to adapt some of the ‘90s work I’ve used in my (Re)Collection work onto t-shirts and even tea towels - ‘90s fashion is such a comeback right now and it could really nicely adapt. Perhaps screen printing work and illustrations, definitely text, would prove quite nice as some merchandise. My own merchandise is also important, as it’s a source of money. Aside from commissions, getting my own work out there as something saleable is important - I’ve got prints and my zine of past works up there in my store, but there’s so much more I could do. Merchandise in terms of commissions for others is something I really really aspire to become involved in - campaigns such as Everpress are really good ways of me kickstarting this and getting my work, on t-shirts and merchandise, out there into the industry - it has a very tight knit creative crowd, and there could be fashion designers and brand owners amongst them. Aiming high, I aspire to create merchandise for brands such as Vans, to even smaller brands - merchandise for bands, posters, t-shirts has always been something I've liked to do - it’s applying! I’ve currently been experimenting with screen print at home using DIY stencils, mixing colours and applying ink in ways that create texture - this has proven successful, and with some tweaking could be something I could further with and really grasp onto for my last unit. Narrative 

I very naturally and comfortably allow my work to take on a narrative approach, as my visual language can be very high-energy, and telling of the subject. If an object or character requires movement, I’ve adapted the surroundings or features using shape, space or form to be able to enhance the movement. Pieces such as the Saxo or Dancer from my (Re)Collection work, required a lot of time into skewing, perspective, and strength in colour to be able to get their angle, energy, and capturing their possible movement. I think that narrative is something I improve on with each brief (hopefully!), adapting to the needs of what's asked of me, and how my work can meet that. Social Issues
 Social issues are something I’m very aware of, and as many people know, voiced around. Because of this, I do take time to explore any issues I cover, and although most of the time I do tend to choose briefs that don’t cover social issues, when I’ve had works that include concepts of it, or decisions that require a moral or social input, I’ve always been happy to add to it and take the time to think it through. I think the most prominent socially aware piece I’ve made is one of the double page spreads for my What Do You See? Zine.  I’d collaborated with photography student Ellie Andrews to swap works covering sexuality and identity, and mixed with her work as well as my own illustrations, it became a successful piece, I think covering it as it should be. Freely. There was nudity, masturbation, and topics that required equal exposure. Gender fluidity, the male and female body, and it would have proved quite difficult if I hadn’t considered why I was covering this, and how. I ensured every subject was covered, and that things weren’t too vulgar or in your face, but things such as the female nipple, and male anatomy were clear for all to see. These are such things that currently are being more accepted in society, but art is a great platform to be able to get this out as well as laying out facts.
 Generic Skills

 The generic skills I selected as my strongest, rating at 4 and 5, were:

 -Coherent visual language 
- Reading and understanding a brief
 - Using visual research
 - Recording your process 
- Making corrections to your work 
- Working in a given format
 - Scanning artwork
 - Preparing artwork digitally
 - Sending hi-res artwork 
- Sending a professional email
 - Verbal and written communication
 - Working to a deadline
 - Working under pressure 
- Working independently 
- Working in a team
 - Adapting to change 
- Establishing client needs I feel that I work really well on all of these, my visual language is something that’s come together really neatly over time and something that will continue to develop thanks to these exercises, my briefs, and feedback, as well as the creative process itself. I’m used to recording my processes, however things like working to my sketchbook need to be looked at nicely as well as stuff on here - I need a good balance as sometimes I forget how important my sketches etc are. So much of my work is prepared digitally, and preparing for things such as the One Week Exhibition at Kosmonaut at the start of the year really helped me to get a hang of hi-res, the right format of colour, and sending things over to be printed. Emailing practitioners to get feedback is something I’ve worked really well on, as I managed to hear back from some great people! I’m hoping to do the same again when asking for Portfolio Reviews. Specialist Skills

 Specialist skills concerning the parts of the industry I aspire to go into include creating a range of works which link, and marketing myself - I think I’ve managed to do this well throughout - the previous units, both the Future Self part 1 and (Re)Collection had really helped me to get out there and pull my work together as one combined, consistent piece. I was lucky enough to get a commission out of my work in Future Self part 1, as a small brewery in Ambleside that I’d visited saw my work on Twitter, illustrative responses to beers similar to theirs and beers they were interested in, and asked me to create a bottle label for them! Putting myself out there as an illustrator as if I were being commissioned by the people I’m interested in is very cheeky but also very effective. Obviously I wasn’t commissioned by MTV for the (Re)Collection unit (I wish), but by allowing my work to look as though I had been professionally commissioned actually made myself look really professional and stepped me up out there a little bit. Because I’d put my work into mockups and adapted it that it were possible that I could have been commissioned, it really did attain a lot of comments and likes, a lot of people paid attention and I actually felt really confident. Emma Reynolds’ talks about being a professional out there also restored a lot of confidence - you don’t and you won’t hear back from a lot of people when asking for work or putting yourself forwards as an illustrator - particularly concerning things like editorial work - you have to put the work in as an illustrator and contact the right people - and if you don’t hear back, you don’t hear back. There are so many opportunities out there, that you just keep going and something will find you. Looking at the directories for agencies and editorial contacts was also a real confidence booster - I’m sure I’ll be terrified when I get to it, but it’s so nice to see that there’s people I can actually get in touch with in terms of getting my work out there! Aaah! The ability to visualise clearly was also something I rated myself quite well for, as I enjoy the creative process of brainstorming potential ideas, writing about them, what works and what doesn’t, and along with research and drafts, selecting the best ideas to represent not only my abilities and visual language, but the brief itself. Finally, one of the skills includes working to a tight deadline - I’ve really worked hard to get what I needed to done as well as I can, and as best as I can this year particularly - and after all of the grouchiness, tiredness and stress, it really pays off and I take a lot of pride in it. This is something I keep aspiring to do, as the final unit coming up is being cut a little short as I’m away for the actual deadline (!) so I’ll have to keep cracking on and ensure I can get everything handed in a little earlier and to the best that I can. Action Plan

 1) I need to learn more from professionals on how to deal with clients and financially work, such as sending invoices, how much to charge people, and taxes.

Professional practice talks with Emma Reynolds and Jo have really really helped me to be able to see how you work as a professional in terms of dealing with clients and finance - I’ve looked at what powers I’d have as a professional in terms of not being paid, and how to go about any difficulties with a client. I’ve also learned the hard way in terms of being paid on time - it’s best to ensure you have the money in case you don’t get paid on time! Looking at day rates for new graduates and what kind of work costs what is definitely something worth talking to illustrators about - it’s normally the same generally, and people are normally happy to share it with you. This may be something I may ask my contacts when getting some Portfolio Reviews, as this is pretty important to know and learn about before I graduate. Talking is good!
 2) Get myself braver and used to the commission process - the best ways to create rapport and how to approach the market myself. 

Creating rapport is something that still scares me now, but I’ve started noticing people and illustrators alike in the creative industry are actually really nice, and like-minded - sending messages to thank them for following me, commenting on work that’s really nice, and general appreciation is so important.  3) Market myself - find people who are interested, followers etc. 
It’s important that I continue to get myself out there, as this isn’t something that just happens. Especially with the importance of social media, although people use it so much, clients don’t just flock to you. It’s important that I ensure I keep my portfolio up to date, available online for people to see my best work, keep my website looking clean, and always have business cards to hand - you could meet someone that could be a potential client anywhere! Looking into the people who illustrators and those out in the industry are interested in, in contact with, and look up to is always a good way for me to not only open my eyes, but keep up to date with happenings in the industry, as well as trends, and good things to know. 4) Filter thoughts/ideas into the best that I can

This is a work in progress for me, and as a creative, I think it always will be. You can’t get better at something by not doing it. I’m going to keep filtering my ideas to the best that I can, and if I have the time to in a brief or a commission, sit back and think about if and how I could do something better, not only visually but as a professional. This proved really important in my work creating the logo for the (Re)Collection campaign, where authenticity was key. I actually had to look and find out what font the Guardian used, and when finding out how expensive it was, had to use the help of other creatives out there in the same position to be able to create a worthy piece!  5) Become more sophisticated with my craft, how I work, techniques, and myself.

God, I don’t leave myself much rest do I? This is so vital. The art world changes, and after learning through university how much illustration has actually merged into different disciplines, it’s more important than ever that my work is sophisticated, out there, and as professional as I can get it. Looking at my work and how I create it constantly will be something I need to get into the habit of doing, as it’s the only way I’m going to improve it! Looking back at my book cover from last year, to my most recent work, is quite scary - something I thought was the best I could be at the time compared to now, is so different!