Monthly Review: January

How am I doing generally?

I'm great! I'm feeling SO much more enthusiastic about the course now, and I'm really enjoying everything that we are doing, as well as seeing my work developing weekly. I'm finding more of a balance in my schedule too, doing a good amount of work (not too much so that I wear myself out) balanced with social events and exercise, I've taken up running and surprisingly love it! So keeping a good balance of everything = happy Ellie = GOOD WORK.

What am I proud of?

I finished my final prints for 504 and submitted everything, which was a massive weight from my shoulders after so much blood sweat and tears went into that module. I'm actually quite happy with the outcome of the prints, the gradient worked really well and I received some really positive feedback from my peers and tutors. I completed the sting too, which I struggled with so much at the start of the year; although I look back now and see many areas that I could have improved on, I will take these forward if I produce any stings in the future.

I am also proud of how much my digital work is improving! I still have a lot to learn and develop on both Photoshop and Illustrator, but I'm so pleased with the outcomes I have produced in using these programmes. I'm glad that I set myself the task to use digital methods in my Illustration Friday images for responsive, it has really pushed me to try new things and be more expressive and imaginative in the marks that I am making. 

Two of my favourite pieces of work to date have come out of using Photoshop and Illustrator, which are the mock-ups I created for our PPP Life's a Pitch proposal for our wall rejuvenation business, 'Visuwallise'. After reading the book 'Enhancing the Healing Environment', I was inspired to compose designs for children's hospitals, after discovering how much the surrounding environment can have an impact on patients recovery. Hospitals can be really daunting places especially for children, and it has been proven that they feel a lot more at ease and less anxious in spaces that are decorated with bright colours and bold shapes.

What am I struggling with?

Responsive! I'm finding it so hard to make time to complete my personal briefs, that I'm so worried I won't finish them in time, especially now as we have started the collaborative brief too. I am so keen for my outcomes for the penguin design award to be top notch, and I don't want them to be rushed at the last minute. Seriously need to get a wiggle on!

Also, COP...forever on the back burner. I'm disappointed in myself that I kind of left submitting my essay to the last minute, BUT I have a strong first draft with good references and images to support the content, so I'm feeling positive about it. I need to make time to do some sketchbook drawings as well (I don't think I've done any since November-oops!)

Upcoming Events/Opportunities

Now that I feel like I'm back on my feet after a difficult few months, I really want to throw myself in the deep end and take up as many opportunities as I can. 
Having recently developed an interest in illustrative projects that can help people's wellbeing, I want to make this part of a focus for my practice in the next few months. I'm going to do some further research into charities and organisations that work with the sick, underprivileged and disabled people and use creative workshops to help improve their quality of life, with the scope of becoming involved myself. 

Through my student ambassador role I have also secured myself a place on a programme called 'Flood a School', which I am SUPER EXCITED about! It is a one day workshop on the 25th Feb at Crofton School near Wakefield, and I will be shadowing an art teacher and helping them deliver their lessons for the day, as well as informing pupils about my own practice by showing them my portfolio and talking about recent projects I've been working on. This will be a great experience for me to get a taster of art teaching life, especially as I'm really keen on intertwining education into my illustrative practice.

Fred also informed us of some opportunities we can get involved in. The first is a request from 'Crispin Orthotics', which is a company that designs and produces prosthetic limbs for amputees and disabled people. They would like design students to produce patterns and artwork that can be applied to these prosthetics, to make them look trendy and interesting, rather than people feeling as if they have to hide them away. I would be really keen to get involved with this project; knowing I could help someone who has gone through the trauma of losing a limb would be really uplifting and rewarding, and would also tie in with my further research into art and healing.

Another opportunity is the ELCAF workshop brief. ELCAF have requested for a creative workshop proposal for visitors to get involved with, focusing on the narrative and comic theme that the fair is based on. Although comics aren't really my area of expertise, I would be really keen to help design and deliver a workshop. The briefing is on the 10th so I will be attending it to find out more information.

Finally, Fred mentioned an opportunity to create large scale wall art for the side of the new buildings at Victoria Quarter; this really excited me because it is basically 'Visuwallise' coming to life! It would be absolutely amazing to see work I have helped to produce on such a large scale, with thousands of people seeing it everyday at the same time as contributing to the art culture of Leeds.

I think I would find it difficult to fit all of these things into my schedule but I really want to push myself and try my hardest to try out new things to develop my practice.

Plan of Action

• RESPONSIVE BOOK COVERS ASAP!!!
• Produce a portfolio for Crofton School Visit
• Plan my schedule back from deadlines
• Research further into health and art
• Do not neglect COP...

Life's a Pitch: Final Preparations

Today we pretty much finalised everything that needed to be done for the presentation in a weeks time, and just wrapping up all of the loose ends that needed to be addressed.

(Here we all are plotting away)

Previous discussion (Facebook group):

Topics we discussed today:

Logo design: We decided that Tom's logo was the strongest, with the typeface being angled to look like a three dimensional wall. We were yet to decide whether it would be white on black or vice versa, as in some of the previous presentations that we viewed looked a little stark with black text on a white background.

As well as a logo, we wanted to come up with a presentation concept that was strong and memorable. George suggested that we present previews of our images within triangles, as a metaphor to present the way we operate within Visuwallise; the three artists (points of a triangle) working together with Tom to rejuvenate wall spaces.

Finalising roles: In a realistic business set up, we would need a leader to oversee our projects and take care of the managerial and co-ordination responsibilities. As Tom is already the team leader, we decided that he would be most suited to this role, with George, Amber and I working as the practicing artists for Visuwallise. 

Finances: We worked out that we would need a start up loan of £10,000 to cover the costs of materials and a deposit for a studio, rent etc. We didn't go into too much depth with the finances, as we wanted to ensure that we had a really strong business concept, which is the most important aspect.

Presentation Features: It was proposed that we demonstrate a live drawing within our ten minute pitch by using a smart phone projector , however this may not work as it requires a very high level of darkness to be successful. Failing that, George has offered to produce a live drawing on one of the whiteboards in the board room, just to give the audience a vague idea of what we are capable of as practitioners.

As for the actual slide show, we proposed a skeleton frame with subheadings to be filled within the upcoming week of information and images to pitch to the audience, informing them about Visuwallise.
The structure is as followed:

• Visuwallise Logo
• Manifesto, USP
• Who we are
• Our individual practices, mock ups
• Who our competitors are 
• Costs
• Conclusion

Photographs: I took head shots of everyone individually, to potentially be placed within the triangle templates. It was best that we had individual photos rather than a group photo to show how we individually contribute to the business, as well as showing little attributes of our characters. 

As well as photographs, I set up a link to the framework of the presentation on google slides, so that we can all contribute to the production and making of it.

At the end of todays session we compiled a to do list by Friday :

• Send all images to Tom to mock up 
• Produce mock ups for social media campaign
• Further research the target market in more detail
• Contribute towards the presentation
• Research bank loans

Colours May Vary: Marketing Team

For our upcoming exhibition entitled Off the Page at Colours May Vary, I have signed up to be part of the marketing team.

Responsibilities include:

• Event promotion
• Producing and distributing posters/fliers 
• Inviting professionals
• Taking photographs
• Updating via social media

Team Members/Roles

• Jazz and Chay - Team Leaders
• Molly and Amber - Social Media
• Olive- Poster Design 
• Joe and I - Photo Team

FIRST MEETING 20.01.16

In the first meeting, we established what needs to be done in the time between now and the launch of the exhibition:

• Make a Facebook group
• Come up with roughs for poster designs
• Devise a list of professionals to invite 
• Research where we can print the posters
• Think of businesses that would advertise our posters

SECOND MEETING 26.01.16

The second meeting was a lot more productive with procedures beginning to take place and shape. We have made a Facebook group so that we can communicate all together and discuss ideas and meeting times.

Here are some really quick roughs I came up with for the poster design (emphasis on  really rough). But I look back now and realise that they are very cliche, and they surprisingly weren't chosen for the final design...

We came up with a solid list of where we can display our posters and fliers:

• Cafe 164
• Belgrave
• The Wardrobe
• Leeds University Union
• Smoothie Company
• Village Books
• Fred Aldous
• Lanes
• Corn Exchange
• LCA reception
• Munro House Reception

After discussing with Fred, we have chosen to print 25 A3 posters and 150 A6 fliers, which will cost a total of £22.00. 

The poster must include:

• LCA logo
• CMV logo
• 'BA(hons)Illustration

I have also arranged a meeting with Andrew Craske, head of marketing, so that he can send around an email throughout the college to invite students and members of staff to the exhibition.

OUIL504 End of Module Evaluation

As this has been the first module that has taken place over a long period of time, it took a fair while to adjust to the pace of producing work as well as taking a more independent approach to research, planning and making. This has taught me ways to maintain motivation, and make the best of the time available to explore as many potential possibilities that will contribute to a final outcome that reflects the best of my ability. 

Learning how to use Adobe After Effects has been an essential foundation tool into creating basic animations, in the form of a 15 second sting. Although I struggled to get the grasp of this programme initially, I have successfully combined a series of moving images with a soundtrack to advertise a documentary on my chosen author, Oliver Sacks. Now that I know the basic functions of After Effects, I have the ability to animate any future work, which will demonstrate a broader range of skills in my portfolio.

Putting an emphasis on printed processes has also helped to broaden my skills. Having the confidence to independently produce screen prints has been a really big step for me, as I often avoided the process with the fear of complexity and gaining a low quality outcome. I was also encouraged to use printed textures within my digital work through the mono-print process, which increased my attention to detail and care when intricately crafting marks that would be applicable to the characters in my sting.

With the project being based around the life of one person, I have noticed that my work has become more personal and sensitive in a number of ways. As Oliver Sacks practiced as a neurologist, I became very intrigued about the patients he worked with, and the complexity of the conditions that they suffered with. Reading his books helped me a great deal to empathise with these patients and their families about the immense frustrations of the urges and confusions associated with day-to-day tasks . I developed a strong interest in wanting to eradicate existing stigmas associated with these conditions, and make sufferers feel less isolated by informing others about the experiences of having a neurological condition, and how difficult it can be to cope with such debilitating symptoms; I wanted this principle to be the main concept of my work. Illustrating symptoms of neurological conditions, without being too literal was a challenge within itself, so I decided to take a metaphorical and narrative approach within my prints and sting, to try and visually explain what someone might be experiencing if they have a neurological condition. I have found previously that my work using vectors has been successful, so I carried forward this process which enabled a clean, crisp and clear outcome.

Having a long period of time to work on this project has encouraged me to try out a wider range of processes and techniques, which has allowed me to grow out of my passive habit of just going with my first idea due to the worry of not finishing in time. This has contributed to increasing my level of patience and self confidence in my creative ability.  I also have developed a greater understanding of the importance of visual communication due to the fact that my subject matter is so personal and sensitive to such a wide audience; in future work I will capitalise on my tactile and open minded approach to developing  powerful and informative concepts.

It has been difficult to appreciate the work I have produced at times due to having looked at it for so long, and slipping into the mindset of thinking that ‘there will be plenty of time to make amendments’ as opposed to having short, quick turnaround briefs. I struggled a lot at the beginning of the project with expressing my knowledge and understanding of Oliver Sacks through the visual journal, as I was simultaneously intimidated by the quantity of work that my peers had produced, and having the deadline so far away that I couldn’t put into perspective how much work, and what kind of work that I needed to be doing. In hindsight, I have learnt not to compare myself to others, to just go at my own pace and enjoy myself; I found that the quality of my work suffered when I wasn’t in a good mindset. Working to long deadlines has encouraged me to plan my time more efficiently in a way that I plan my own flexible and realistic deadlines so that I am able to keep on track of my progress at a steady and stress-free pace, resulting in a higher quality outcome.

Bigheads: Charlotte Mei and Grace Helmer

• Charlotte Mei and Grace Helmer are both based in London, having studied at Camberwell College and graduated in 2012
• The things that have changed in the three years since they have left university are the kinds of work they get, and the contexts that they are in. They felt that in art schools it is common to get bogged down by the prospect of concepts, and to feel trapped inside the 'art school bubble'
• Having fun is an integral part of your work, you need to keep interested and keep motivated in the studio
• When they first graduated, they found full time jobs to pay the bills and get themselves started, and would come home and illustrate (how on earth they managed that I do not know) but they made work at any opportunity

Charlotte Mei's Work

• Internships at Camberwell press and Hatto press helped them in the early stages
• The transition from graduation: leaving wasn't as scary as they'd thought it would be. It is a great feeling because you don't have anyone telling you what to do, but you have to tell yourself what to do.
• When they graduated they weren't sure where they wanted their work to go, but tried to do as much work as possible just to keep in the process.
• It was liberating and overwhelming at the same time. Faking it till you make it gives you confidence in what you're doing.
• They pushed themselves onto people by 'applying for everything ever'. All of the graduates got a studio together! 'Day Job' Its an art collective, they decided to work on a group project and make a zine about their day jobs at the time, e.g. chocolate fountain technician, biscuit ice etc.
• Since then they have run workshops, produced books and exhibited at elcaf print fair

Grace Helmer's Work

• Very proactive about making things happen online, as there are so many opportunities
• In their second year, Charlotte and Grace went on an exchange programme in Japan to stay for six weeks and make a film. Then a few years later they got a space in an exhibition over there.
• It is good to exhibit somewhere thats not London. People can get in a bubble, and sometimes it doesn't 'fit in'.
•  Japan was a very different audience, and it was like they were looking at their work with fresh eyes. The Japanese illustration scene is pretty fun and not as serious.
• You don't need to be in London to get opportunities!
• Some down points of illustration: illustrators work is sometimes put into stereotypes. Very drawn in to what sells and that can sometimes effect your self confidence.
• Making a great image is difficult to making a product. Youve just got to make it and like it and test the water.

Advice to first year: 

You can't be precious about things you do at uni. Do as many different things as you can, when you leave you don't have those facilities. You've bought this time to experiment so use it well. When you come away from it you have an idea about how to create a drawing thats not just flat.

Don't think that something is impossible just because you've not done it before. Also, if you don't know how to do something, work with someone who does! It's fun to work together and share skills. Do not limit yourself to anything, even if it seems ridiculous.

What makes great illustration great??:

Knowing there is a genuine feeling or idea behind it. Something original rather than coming from a needs to an end.  How a picture can speak to you without reading an article.

Reflection

It was interesting to see two recent illustration graduates that are just establishing themselves in the industry, and the steps that they are taking and saying yes to opportunities to help promote their work. Grace and Charlotte have really inspired me to go out there and look for opportunities, and embrace my creative talent, as it is easy to slip into the mindset that work will be handed to you on a silver platter as soon as you graduate, which certainly is NOT the case. 

Being four/five years ahead of where I am now gives me scope into what I could potentially produce, and how much my work will develop and evolve by the time that I graduate, and its a really exciting concept! I also love how they have their own collaborative studio where they run workshops; having interactions with other creatives is something that I see as essential to making progress as a practitioner, helping you flourish as an individual as well as an image maker.

Life's a Pitch: Session Five

In today's session we started to think about what sort of specific information in relation to our business that we need to include in our presentations. 

Potential integral elements to include:

• Who are we? A memorable, professional photograph would be a great opening slide to the presentation. Plus, if we were competing against other businesses, the audience may forget who we are and what we look like if all of the presentations subsequently merge into one.
• What do we do? Telling the audience what we do will set a confident tone in the proposal that we are about to deliver.
• What do we stand for? Having a set of values is crucial to gain customer trust and lay a good set of morals within the business itself, which will enable the members to work efficiently and as part of a team.
• Aims and objectives? It will set a good impression to the audience if we set ourselves targets to work towards, and knowing the steps which we need to take to reach success shows that we are level headed and enthusiastic about the future of the business.
• Business roles? Important to show our individual input, and the sharing out of responsibilities.
• What skills and services do we have to offer? This is where we sell our trade, why are WE the best people to come to for the service we offer.
• Target market and promotion? Distinguishing who our target market is will help us to define the product to meet the customers needs. With our business Visuwallise, we have a large target market as we would like to apply our wall space rejuvenation service. Therefore we need to use the appropriate language and tone of voice to approach a large range of ages.
• Promotion strategy? Having a strategy in place is essential for the function of day-to-day tasks in the business. Also what TYPES of promotion will be important, especially as we are promoting to such a large target market.

More specific and intricate elements to include, and tips:

• Working hours: the creative industry is a 24 hour process, especially when dealing with clients on a global basis.
• Hourly rates 
• How we plan to break even
• Don't put too much type on the manifesto or the audience will become overwhelmed and distracted.
• Who is your competition and how will you compete?
• What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
• How will you structure your studio?

Group ideas for presentation:

We couldn't make any proper final decisions today as one of our team members was off sick, but we did have a few potential ideas for our presentation, for example producing a live drawing to demonstrate the scale in which we work in, or a sped up time lapsed video showing what we are capable of. Also, we established that it would be important to include a professional group photograph as well as mock up examples of our work as we came to the conclusion that visual elements would be more enticing and interesting for the audience, whilst simultaneously setting a memorable impression.

Productivity plan:

• Meet on Thursday as a group to discuss ideas with Tom who was absent for today's session, also plan the slides for the presentation
• Next Tuesday: Meet up and prepare the presentation slides, write a script and practice our pitch
• In the mean time (between now and next Tuesday), prepare my mock ups for the presentation

Life's a Pitch: Session Four

Today we learnt the importance of marketing. Marketing is the process of understanding what a group of consumers want or need and how to deliver it to them. It is much to do with market research and identifying customers needs as opposed to advertising; advertising is just a tool of marketing.

6 Functions of marketing

• Identify customers needs and develop new products through market research
• Promote and introduce products to an identified audience or target market
• Product management-monitoring and assessing the performance of the product
• Developing an appropriate pricing strategy
• Identify distribution network
• Value added-improve customer experience through value added benefits

What can be marketed?

Anything! Goods, services, events, experiences, personalities, places, organisations, properties, information, ideas and concepts. It is a creative process, each marketer has their own approach

The four P's (marketing mix)

• Product-tangible or intangible good or service that satisfies the needs of a customer
• Price-price paid for the product or service
• Place-arena/context through which the customer can access the product
• Promotion-all methods of communication used to inform all parties about the product

Benefits of marketing

• Describe and expose your product/service to potential consumers using a range of techniques
• Helps you to understand what unique needs your product/service meets
• Marketing delivers the message and philosophy underpinning your product/service
• Helps to reveal weaknesses and gaps in comparison with competitors
• Identify a range of audiences to advertise to
• Inform existing and new consumers and new customers about new and developing products and how and where to access them

How???

Market research!

• Primary- new data specific to product/service that has not been collected before 
• Secondary- existing data

Research types

• Quantitative- factual
• Qualitative- opinionated

SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)

Strengths: 

• Routed in illustration, not interior design
• Traditional hand craft techniques
• More personal customer relationship
• Able to make mock-ups, increasing customer trust

Weaknesses:

• No first-hand experience as of yet
• Manifesto too broad/vague, we need to rethink this or we could be misinterpreted
• No confidence in the materials we are to use
• Large scale and time consuming tasks

Opportunities

• Annual events-more likely to gain customer loyalty
• More customer awareness with exposure
• Collaboration with other local businesses

Threats

• Imitation by mega corps
• Lack of power

Evaluation

Today's session has been really helpful to refresh my mind about the whole marketing process which I learnt in A-Level Business studies and really enjoyed! Although it was more exciting today because as a group we actually had the power to apply these principles to our business, which is a big jump from simply writing on an exam paper.

Studying the marketing mix and the functions of marketing laid down a strong foundation in which we can refine and develop our existing ideas for 'viswallise', and become stronger and more confident as a group. Admittedly, for a lot of us PPP has been sitting on the back-burner for a while due to the heavy demand of practical work in other modules, but today has really inspired me and urged me to work really hard in Life's a Pitch, and deliver a substantial, high quality service with my group.

Life's a Pitch: Refined Research

For part of 'Visuwallise' we have agreed to produce mock ups of our art work where we could see our particular tone of voice being applied to. At the minute, I am developing my digital skills by using bring colours and shapes within my illustrations; I believed that I could push this further by making plans for my wall designs to be potentially interactive/informative, possibly aimed at a younger audience. It is important to me that people that see my wall designs gain a memorable experience from their viewing, rather than just thinking 'that looks nice'.

Enhancing the healing environment

As part of my COP project I have been researching into healthcare and the NHS, and I came across a book called Enhancing the healing environment. The book emphasises the importance of design within hospitals and other places of care and how high quality and well considered design can be applied to help patients feel more comfortable and relaxed, therefore enhancing their recovery experience. This is something I quickly became interested in, especially as I had previously considered a career in health care and I would find it extremely rewarding and gratifying if I could help people in an alternative way by uplifting their spirits through art.

As I wanted to explore producing work for younger audiences, I had a look into projects that had taken place in children's hospitals. I came a cross an organisation based in London called 'Vital Arts', which is charitably funded to deliver programmes within the arts for the wellbeing of patients and staff at the Barts Health NHS Trust. http://www.vitalarts.org.uk

In one of their most recent projects, Vital Arts commissioned 15 artists to make the London Royal Children's Hospital more comforting for its young residents. Their responses were absolutely mind blowing. So much imagination and care to attention has been delivered through these designs, guaranteeing the levels of the children's anxiety decrease significantly during their stay. The vast majority of hospitals across the UK obtain a very dull and clinical atmosphere, which can make the whole experience really daunting. But the designs produced by artists including Chris Haughton, Katharine Morling, Donna Wilson and many more create an exciting and imaginative world that completely draws away from the worrying preconceptions of the hospital environment.

I also had a look at other projects in hospitals across the UK and funding programmes that contribute towards rejuvenating the quality of spaces within places of care. Due to the current government spending cuts, a lot of these projects are only eligible to take place in major cities, such as London, Manchester and Sheffield. I found out about another art funding charity called 'Artfelt' based in Sheffield, and a recent project that they commissioned  for illustrator Nick Deakin. He created artwork for six spaces in the orthoptic department, and found it really challenging to produce work that met their expectations. Eventually he came up with a concept to create a character based group of friends experiencing different adventures; he wanted to initially create a family of characters, but struggled to include all aspects of cultural diversity within.  


My Response

In my sketchbook I jotted down a few ideas of different exotic places and imagined worlds that children may be interested in, for example jungles, space scenes, under water etc. whilst also recalling some of the memories and powerful imagery that I remember from my childhood. I embarked on a fair few visits to hospital as a wheezy asthma-ridden three year old, and I remember there being colourful patterns of animals footprints along the ceiling and floor as far as decorations went, the rest was quite dark dingy and generally un-inspiring. I would have felt more at ease in a bright and colourful environment, therefore lighting is a really important element of design too as well as the imagery. 

I did initially intend to develop my designs further by creating more interactive elements for example removable fixtures like puzzle pieces; something educational for instance. But I figured that some children may be really un-well and unable to partake in such activities in a waiting area or corridor, so I could keep that idea in mind when designing somewhere like a play area for instance. My two strongest ideas I believe were the jungle-bugs and the under water scene, so I invested a fair amount of time into digitally producing what I hope to believe are good quality images that would be suitable for corridors and waiting areas of hospitals. I produced two mock ups for these, which I am actually really proud of! 

Reflection/Action Plan

I have become really quite interested in producing work that will help improve healing environments since beginning this research, and this is something that I hope to continue with after Life's A Pitch.  I will continue to research into this particular area of illustration, as well as contribute to completing the presentation and refining all of our proposals for Visuwallise. Tom fortunately has some software that produces 3-D mockups of walls within an architectural space, so we have all been requested to send him our JPEGS and he will produce those for the presentation. In our next group meeting we will take headshot photographs and refine our individual roles within the business, and discuss the design and layout for the presentation.