NTU Masters Exhibition

Today whilst I was in Nottingham I saw that Trent University had their masters exhibition on display! 

I went to the Visual Communication section, so Graphic Design, Illustration etc, and unfortunately was a little underwhelmed. I know that sounds mean, but there was no 'wow' factor to me, and nothing that stood out to me as being anything higher than undergraduate level. 

However there were two projects that I really admired. Foolishly I did not write the artists' names down, but I managed to sneakily take a few pictures as I don't think you were supposed to.

The first was a children's picture book with an educational element drawn to understanding autism. I loved the layout of this book, as it was cleverly designed to be from front to back, and back to front. It tells the story a lively and enthusiastic squirrel desperately attempting to befriend and understand the strange behaviour of the autistic hedgehog.

I loved the sensitive and naive approach that the narrative takes, trying to get across such a misunderstood condition. It was clear to tell that a lot of research had gone into the concept, but not so much experimentation and refinement in the imagery through the students sketchbook and final outcomes. Nevertheless, I loved the layered textured watercolored finish, and I would definitely consider buying this for my child (if I had children).

The second was more of a Graphic/Visual Communication campaign style approach in response to the matter of food waste. 'Ugly' is proposed to be a specialist chain of restaurants that places emphasis on their produce consisting of 'rejected' misshapen fruits and vegetables; completely edible yet didn't make the cut to be sold in supermarkets.

I think that this concept is fantastic in the way that it highlights the shocking volume of food that goes to waste in the UK, as well as making an effort to be environmentally efficient and kind to the planet. I also saw another underlying message (that could be slightly cringey) along the lines of 'not judging by appearance' in terms of us as people, because we are pretty much all the same on the inside no matter how we look.

In a nutshell, I was impressed by a small proportion of the work I saw today and it kind of made me rethink the purpose of doing a masters. I don't know what I would personally gain from doing a masters specifically in Illustration as by the time I graduate I will probably feel ready to step into the industry, and keep learning in a personal and professional manner rather than educationally structured. 

For me a masters would be beneficial if I wanted to learn more about a specific area of illustration, for example I know some universities do a masters in Children's book illustration, which is has a clearer direction and is much more specific. 

So to save myself another 10 grand for now, I may put the idea of doing a masters to the side for a good few years and consider doing one in the future.

A REALLY NICE CUSTOMER EMAIL!

Today I checked my ~business~ email to find that a lady that came to the end of year show had taken the time to write me a lovely message!

Reading this really gave me such a confidence boost; it is so uplifting and reassuring to know that people that I have never met are fond of, and appreciate my designs and enjoyed using them.

I am going to print this out and stick it on my wall so that if I am having a bad day/feel like I am not capable of becoming a successful illustrator, I can read this to remind myself that I need to keep going :)

Exploring Norfolk

My family and I decided to have a British seaside holiday this summer, so we spent the past week exploring Norfolk. Besides getting embarrassingly sunburnt and binge eating fish and chips, I decided to use this as an opportunity to take a creative approach to exploring and discovering new places.
It was interesting to take in the cultures of the different towns and villages that we visited, how some were more quaint and well kept, and others heavily commercialised such as New Hunstanton with the seafront being filled with amusements and donut stalls. 

Sketchbook Bits

I was totally lazy and didn't draw as much as I anticipated I would, but I kind of just needed a break from everything because as much as drawing is my favourite thing, it does stress me out a bit at times (perfectionist habits) But anyway here are some sketchbook bits:

Seaside Art

So I discovered that seaside art is a cute little niche along the British coast! Maybe not in places like Skeggy, but more quaint seaside towns with a lot of history and character. In the cottage we stayed in, ALL of the decor was seaside themed which made it feel really homely; I'm assuming a lot of seaside/holiday cottages have nautical/beach themed interiors so this could be a potential market to operate within as a creative practitioner.

The Strandline

The Strandline is a tiny little driftwood craft store en route to Old Hunstanton beach. Mum and I spent such a long time in there talking to the owner, Alison, who makes all of the stock herself. I could tell she was really confident and happy within her business, having a lot of experience and influence from different cultures within her creative output. She asked me about my practice and I showed her some of my work, to which she surprisingly took an interest! Have I just made a contact?! 

Alison then said that next time I visit I should bring some bits and bobs along, probably greetings cards/postcards with a seaside theme. So this gives me something to work towards! 

Looking into Craft

The main thing that I would like to achieve within my practice is versatility, i.e. having lots of creative skills to offer and not just being a one trick pony. 

Now that I have a tiny bit more self confidence within my work, I feel the need to experiment further with different ways of working as opposed to limiting myself with the generic pen and paper stereotype. Every consecutive year for about five years now I have put 'LEARN TO KNIT' on my new years goals list...and I still haven't properly learnt BUT it is something I aim to pursue in the near future along with a whole list of new exciting creative skills.

I have recently made a pinterest board entitled 'Personal', for my own personal interests that don't relate directly to illustration. At the moment it mainly contains different DIY craft 'how-to's and a few recipes etc (for those of you who don't know that I love food and never shut up about food). The food thing may seem irrelevant and totally off topic, but like my other hobbies such as running and music etc it is important to have interests outside of illustration, and on the other hand they can be used within illustration e.g. to illustrate recipes/educate others about different interests.

Anyway, here is my board that largely contains ideas and inspiration for my Etsy shop that I hope to set up by the end of this month/early August. I'll have an upcoming ETSY blog post so please have a read if you'd like to see what I plan to sell on my shop! 

Greetings Cards Inspiration

I personally think that greetings cards are a great illustrators 'bread and butter', similar to that of editorial imaging etc. I usually make all of the birthday cards for my friends and family so thought it might be a good idea if I get a set of designs ready to sell either online via Etsy, or in a broader perspective potentially selling to different retailers. Also, I would be really interested in taking up an internship or even just arranging a studio visit to a design house to get a feel of how they operate and the role of an in house illustrator.

Paperchase inspiration

Whenever I need inspiring, paper chase is my go-to place for ideas (besides pinterest). The other day I spent a while looking at their range of designs/illustrators work they supply and wrote down a huge list of the creatives that appealed to me. Here are just a few though or this blog post would go on forever (mainly people that I hadn't heard of before!)

Black Olive Studio

Black Olive hosts a whole range of different collections of greetings cards displayed by a wide variety of artists. I get the feel that they wish to showcase diversity in the artists ways of working, thus communication to the tastes of different audiences. For example the 'Huge and Co' collection is largely aimed at children, having quirky fun animal characters communicate an exciting birthday message. 
My main point of interest for the Black Olive studio is their range, this makes me think of the following questions:

• What advantages do you see in showcasing a range of different artists work?
• Do you ever consider the prospects of your brand being more recognisable by sticking to a singular distinctive tone of voice?
• How does your studio operate? Do all artists work in the same space/collaborate?

I definitely need to add Black Olive to the list of people to contact!

Ashley Percival

Ashley Percival is a freelance illustrator who graduated from Falmouth in 2010, since then his illustrations have been licensed worldwide being printed on a range of products from album covers to stationary.

Percival's charming illustrations of animals and people really appeal to me. I love the sense of freedom that he creates by using a range of different materials and intricate methods of mark making; this helps to give the sense that each character has an individual personality. 

The images above are supposedly directed to an audience of parents purchasing artwork for children's nurseries, which surprised me somewhat as I believe that the visual language within these prints speaks to audiences of all ages, which in my opinion is an extremely valuable skill to have as an illustrator.

Percival is represented by www.brainboxcandy.com, a company which sells 'well funny cards and that', in other words a range of tongue and cheek, sarcastic, and humorous greetings cards. He has his own range under the 'funny cards-wild style' section.

Predicament

I would be so keen on applying for any vacancies/placements that come up in design houses such as tiger print and ukcards, but I feel like I don't have a good enough portfolio or enough work to show them? It's not me being negative or self destructive, as I normally jump to as many opportunities as I can, but I just don't have a strong enough range of images that I would feel confident enough to put forward to any companies. Yet, this somehow de-motivates me to work on anything specific because I want to try out as many different things as possible and find it hard to concentrate on one thing. It's so frustrating!
In the upcoming weeks I will just try and draw as many different things as possible to try and get some inspiration of some sort, which will hopefully start me off in a good position. Greetings cards are definitely something that I want to further explore within my practice; I would even consider setting myself briefs within the extended practice module in third year for example 'a greetings card per week' to push myself and develop my skills.