#pdp3

Recently I’ve been looking into potential clients I’d like to possible work for in the future. Since I’ve always struggled with what I actually want to do after graduating this years PDP has answered some questions of mine. The potential client list has made it clear to me that I’d like to work on pattern, surface and packaging. From this I looked into various uk clients. Such as; Butterfly Cannon, a ‘luxury packaging design agency’. 

Contrado, a London based company who specialise in fabric, homeware and clothing products. Contrado is another client I’d like to work for because of the opportunities they can offer along side the support of their creatives. 

A more ambitious client would be Cath Kidston, a well known retail store who's prints/illustrations are pattern based and vintage inspired. I’d like to create an identity within my illustration/pattern work which Cath Kidston has, it is a goal I’d like to achieve.  

Meanwhile, looking into other potential clients I thought about editorial work. It’s always a place to start when looking for clients so I thought about Independent, The Daily Mail and even the Gardeners World Magazine. The Gardeners World magazine being closer to home for me because my work is influence heavily by nature and has an environmentally conscious ethos. I could see some how my work would fit into a magazine like this.

Illustrated by Tanja Wilmot

I’ve been very fortunate to have had many opportunities to attend talks from many creative people including, Emma Reynolds, Barney Ibbotson, Brian Grimwood, Olivier Kugler, Chris Madden and others. All of which have been very interesting, informative and stress relieving. As a student, you often worry about getting work after you graduate but each one of these professional have mentioned that it has taken years to get where they are and the thing is that it is a journey to get where they are. 

http://www.maddenillustration.co.uk/#/adweek/

One thing Emma mentioned in her professional practice talk was that she didn’t just fall into a full time job or freelance, she got a part time job after graduating, this is what I’ve picked up from many talks is that it is a smart idea to get a part time job in the creative/design world. This allows you to have time freelance and build up your clients and focus on your work meanwhile, getting a steady income and gaining skills from the real world. Emma also told us more about tax, and claiming yourself as a business which was an information overload but it was good, it let me understand how to make my first steps into the world straight out of graduation. In a talk from Chris Howker, he told us that he is a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to clients but Emma Reynolds is the opposite, keeping on top of her work and payments as soon as possible, this just goes to show people work differently and we will have to find our way of working. 

Summarising my feedback for Illustrator/Authorstrator. I started the project trying to figure out what brief to do, after a lot of back and fourth I decided on information overload. I wanted to do a project based on shed life which through development this quickly changed to the Tiny House Movement. A movement in which people are downsizing their regular homes to a space of around 400 square foot, tiny! I started by worrying too much about the brief which made me focus on infographics which is not my thing. In my tutorial feedback I was told I spent too much time worrying and some advice I received was to just create, forget about the brief because it will develop and structure itself over time. After I received this advice I had a quick turn around and started developing the project. My worrying prevented me from progressing my work further.  Once the project was developing I came up with the idea of creating a laser cut product to advertise tiny living and how to downsize. I got asked what my context was, I thought it was the fact I had a product however, I got told to develop this, think about the company behind the product. I responded by creating a business plan and company design. A suggestion to develop my project was to create multiple products as a product range with correlating packaging and get these photograph. In my most recent feedback a suggestion was to maybe film the tiny house product rotating on a platform for digital mediums thinking about presentation and finishes. Relating to finishes, the interior of my box has a different colour palette to my exterior design I was advised to edit the colour to fit more with the exterior design to make everything look connected and maybe create a few different interior designs. For my mid feedback my agreed action plan was to create 2 laser cut tiny homes, one painted and flat and one painted and made. Get them photographed in context and film the product rotating on a platform for digital mediums and sell the business as a concept for sustainable living.

Over the past couple of years I have been having portfolio reviews from many creative people such as; The Chase, Brian Grimwood (HOW LUCKY AM I!?), WeAreFlow, Beth Mills and more. Each review gave me an outsiders insight on my work. Overall, I am very happy with the responses I have been receiving and the constructive criticism has been so helpful in preparing my portfolio. 

The first thing I will mention is to have your portfolio ready to show, you do not want to show someone, especially a professional an unfinished portfolio. It will reflect badly on you and be straight up embarrassing. Luckily, I haven't had to experience this yet apart from minor outdated information which has no been updated. I would also like to start of by saying people love handouts and physical portfolios, Flow called mine ‘an old school portfolio’. A well presented portfolio is a not just to show your work, it’s showcasing what you are about. A shoddy, juice soaked portfolio is not going to reflect well on you so keep it clean and professional. Neat, tidy and aligned, good paper stock and quality prints are all thing you need for a professional portfolio.

To summarise my reviews I can mention a few things that popped up a couple of times. The first being my use of colour, I feel that I struggle with colour however, after these portfolio reviews it turns out I’m not so bad after all. My last two reviews have said I have a great use of colour throughout my portfolio. One suggestion I got about the colour of my images was that a couple were too dark, they needed brightening up, which I did and now I haven’t had any negative criticisms on that. The next thing I heard a lot of was to make sure each page has alignment from one to another, there is nothing worse than a portfolio that is out of alignment on each page, it just looks unprofessional. Relating to layout I got one suggestion to be bolded with my layouts for example, my condiments page, the suggestion was to simply have one element like the ketchup bottle and place it on one whole page meanwhile the rest of them keep them on the next page. An interesting piece of feedback I got from Flow was that they would love to see sketches and processes in the back of my portfolio. I haven’t heard this from anyone before however, I really like the idea of it. Showing a client how I got to the final piece is just as important as the final piece. 

I worry that my work doesn’t always look like it is from the same person. Now I’ve have both negative and positive feedback about this. Starting with the negative, as a portfolio consistency is key to advertising professionalism and advertising exactly who you are now I’ve also had feedback saying that it’s not bad to have variety, it’s a good thing because it shows I have versatility. A note I picked up on was that it all depends on who you are showing the portfolio too. Agencies, companies and clients all vary on their opinions on what a good portfolio is about. So stick to your guns and be confident in your decisions of what you are putting in your portfolio or have a mini portfolio they can keep to showcase all your work. 

Another major thing to note down is context, always show your work in context even if it is a menu or a book cover. By doing this it is making it easier for whoever you’re showing your portfolio to understand how and where your work can be applied. This seems to be the most important piece of advice because I received it off everyone. I have images of my work in context in my portfolio but there never can be too much context!

I would also like to add that getting these portfolio really give you confidence, especially when Brian Grimwood likes your work! I have received so many tricks, tips, advice and constructive criticisms from these reviews. 

http://www.briangrimwood.com 

http://www.weareflow.uk

Tutorial Feedback - Project One

Summarising my feedback for Future Self p1. For the Kosmonaut Exhibition I responded quickly and efficiently, using my digital skills to re-create my gouache typography in just four selected colours. I am please with the outcome however, a suggestion I received was to do the full A-Z which is what I aim to do for the future. This would produce a whole collection of typographic illustration of toxic plants. 

After lots of playing about drawing and mono printing, I wasn’t getting the desired effect I wanted initially. So, I decided to use my digital skills to produce a vector pattern design. Above is the final design I created for the Star Anise and Cinnamon tea packaging. I used my mono print and digitally reproduced them and arranged then within adobe illustrator. Making patterns was a new skill for me so I wasn’t as quick as I wanted to be. However, I now have the hand of it and recently discovered the ‘Make Pattern’ option in illustrator making alignment and composition a lot easier instead of manually changing x and y axis on the edge elements to make it a continuous pattern. 

After observing my own skills, to see which skills I personally feel the need to improve on, I have made note on how I want to improve them throughout the year. The skills I feel the need to improve on throughout the year are ; working to deadlines, online presence, working in a team, understanding and keeping on top of trends and being able to use colour effectively.

Working to deadlines… I’m a procrastinator until the last steps of a project, I get the work done however, occasionally I’m not 100% happy with the final outcome so this year I want to keep on top of this by setting daily/weekly tasks to complete and create a plan of action to keep me on track and prevent me from going off on a tangent and procrastinating.

Online presence is a major thing I feel the need to improve on, since it’s such a great opportunity to  promote yourself and show others what you and your work is about. I want to improve on this by firstly setting up my E-mail and creating an Instagram account dedicated to my work and try to post daily. As of this point I haven’t yet made the Instagram account but I am planning on doing it shortly.

Working in a team… Bane of my life, not because I don’t get along with people, it’s just the fact that I don’t enjoy working with other people. I feel there are certain creative restrictions working as a team can have. It’s exactly the same feeling as working in a certain space that you feel comfortable  which furthers your enjoyment in the process vice versa in a place you don’t feel comfortable in you simple either don’t want to do the work or don’t produce the best work to your ability. For me it’s a personal preference, I prefer to work independently however, I’m not against team work. So I work improve this by simply enjoying team work more.

Understanding trends is a major thing in the creative industry because trends can have a lot of influence on especially online. This factors into the online presence, I need to get online more and see what other illustrators are doing, what’s trending and jump on the ‘band wagon’ but in my own way because trends could be a great way to get your work a presence online.