The Guardian Brief

At a bit of a last minute decision, I decided to tackle the Guardian brief, a) because it is a fantastic opportunity to have a shot at winning and having my work feature in their newspaper and on the college website and b) I wanted to stick to my word of saying yes to everything and pushing myself further this year.

The brief was to produce three illustrations under the umbrella of; graduate jobs in the arts industry, pursuing analogue techniques in a digital era and producing the perfect portfolio.

Rough Sketches

As I was rushed for time, I didn't produce a vast amount of rough sketches, and mostly pushed on with my best ideas.

Graduate jobs in the arts industry

Here I have shown the stereotypical cap throw of a graduation ceremony. To me, the symbol of the cap represents success, relief and the opening of a new gateway to the graduate stage of life, with these gradually turning into symbolic artistic materials, showing that progression of going upwards into the real working world of the creative industry.

Analogue/digital techniques

This image was mostly inspired by the 'made you look' documentary I went to see last week, emphasising the beauty and originality of analogue techniques in todays predominantly digital era. The second image shows the analogue process of screen printing, and the screen sort of ironically revealing digital processes.

Building a perfect portfolio

This was the hardest image to produce without it being overly literal. I have shown a lot of skills that  Leeds College of Art provide you with during the time of study, all around the symbol of the a1 portfolio. These include analogue and digital skills, opportunities and goals to aim high and achieve, ideas and innovative ways of thinking, and time management and efficiency skills.

The final images

To say that I decided to tackle the brief at a fairly late stage, I am really pleased with the outcome of the images. I used Illustrator to produce the images because I felt that it was my strongest skill last year, although I do hope to enhance my analogue skills further in the future.