End of Module Evaluation

Throughout PPP this year, I have really had the opportunity to find my own voice and where my work exists in the world. This has definitely been a challenge and I feel as though I will be looking for this answer as long as I am a practitioner.

The most straightforward part of this module has been identifying parts of the industry I am interested in working in. My work in other modules has definitely influenced this because I discovered new skills or how much I enjoy a particular area. For example, my work on product and packaging in OUIL505 really confirmed that I want to continue working in this area. Earlier on in the year I had already identified that I really liked illustrated products and I know that interest has always been there, it has just taken me a long time to realise that’s where my practice might fit.

Trying to find my own voice as an illustrator has been the greatest challenge so far. I am aware that I have an opinion on lots of things and there are issues that are important to me, but I have found it challenging to convey this in my work. Looking at other practitioners, such as Babs Tarr, Paulina Ganucheau and Sophie Campbell has given me an idea of how I can use character to convey some of my opinions and how colour and line can affect this.

Developing my creative presence has been quite fun and as a result, the interest in my work has definitely increased. I have created a few social media pages to showcase my work and I plan to continue developing this so that I am on as many platforms as possible. Recently I even had somebody commission me for a logo because they imagined what they wanted in my ‘style’ – not my choice of words but I took this as a huge compliment and it means I am on the right track.   However, I have discovered that maintaining these pages does take a lot of time and recently, I haven’t had much of that to dedicate to this. Over summer I plan to really capitalise on my online presence so that by the time I get into level 6 it’ll just be a case of updating with new content.

Creating a promotional pack has been very interesting. It put me in a position where I had to make decisions on which of my work I wanted to represent me. Rather than create a logo or pseudonym as some other practitioners do, I chose to keep the text really simple and let the images attract people. This meant that I could have more than one design on business cards and I could apply the same designs to other products, such as bookmarks; key-rings; stickers and fridge-magnets. This also means that when I feel I have outgrown a particular design, I can just replace it with something more recent. So far, the response to my business cards has been great and I have handed out quite a lot. I do however, need to get into the habit of having a few on me at all times – you never know when opportunity strikes.

With my new found understanding of what kind of illustrator I am – or that I want to be, I feel much more confident about what kind of work I am going to be producing from now on and where I should think about marketing it. A few months ago I sold some prints at the Hepworth Print fair and I would love to do it again. I have considered applying for a table at various conventions but I don’t think my work would really be suited to that audience. Starting from now, I think one of my aims will be to get a better understanding of the market for my work. This will help me develop my voice and familiarise myself with the industry so that it doesn’t seem so intimidating. 

Final Presentation Slides

Extra Promotional Products

As I've finished the main part of my promo pack, I decided to expand on my promotional material. I thought about what sort of freebies I could possibly hand out at events that people would actually use. I came up with bookmarks, fridge magnets and key-rings. I kept the designs consistent with the promo pack and the business cards I have already created, so potentially this range could be expanded.

I made sure to include a few details on each item. For example the key-rings have my email address and facebook page. I chose to put on the facebook page because pretty much everybody has it, and there is a section with all my other page links - plus I don't have my own website yet, so it's the closest thing I have to a directory of my work/contact details. 

(EDIT) I found a typo on the back of the keyrings, which has now been corrected!

Finished Promo Pack

To ensure an overall better quality to my promo pack, I re-printed it using an inkjet printer so that the colour doesn't crack along the folds anymore. Once assembled, the whole thing is roughly 10x10cm. I chose to keep it relatively small because it needs to be something I can reproduce on my own. I won't always have access to the larger printing facilities in college, so to me, it was important that it wasn't too complicated to make. I have chosen not to include one of my business cards inside the pack because my contact information is already on the creative CV. The business cards will be handed out separately. 

The pack is now sealed with a sticker, so hopefully it will be more intriguing to whomever opens it next. 

OUIL505 End of Module Evaluation/Project Report

Promo Pack

I chose to re-print the outside of my promo pack onto some thicker stock with a laser printer. I really like how the toner makes the colours stand out and the over-all finish is much smoother. However, where is has been folded, the colours seem to crack. The sticker I use to seal it also seems to pull away some of the colour. This really bugs me, so I am going to re-print it with an inkjet printer again. I'm not sure what weight stock has been used for this one, but I think 220gsm card should be sturdy enough. 
For the inside of the promo pack, I've printed off ten little samples of my work. I chose quite a wide range of stuff to demonstrate the flexibility of my skills. I will also be including one of my business cards and a couple of stickers. However, I need to put my name somewhere on the stickers, so that whoever gets it, doesn't forget!
Ten samples of work might be too many to send all at once, so this potentially could be sent in various stages. Initially I could send a little pack with just the creative CV and a couple of stickers and then a few weeks later, some samples of work and a business card. 
As I'm still not happy with my creative CV, I am going to edit the text and re-print that onto thicker stock. 

Sophie Campbell

Sophie Campbell is a comic book artist and another reference I used in OUIL505.

The reason I looked at her work is because she gives her characters a really edgy aesthetic & attitude. At the time I was trying to do the same thing, so I was looking at the kinds of colour palettes she uses and the quality of her lines. I tried to somewhat replicate this quality of line in OUIL505, using a brushpen.

Jen Bartel

 

Another contextual reference I found during OUIL505 in this post. 

Similarly to Paulina Ganucheau  Bartel uses quite feminine colour palettes and coloured line work (rather than black). As I am currently trying to improve my digital work, this is something I really want to try out because I always end up disliking my black lines. 

A lot of her work is for publication/art books, which isn't an area I see my own practice fitting within. However, it's the type of work I would buy  and I am increasingly noticing that a lot of the stuff I am interested in looking at, perhaps for the colours or techniques, isn't necessarily the kind of stuff I want to produce. 

Paulina Ganucheau

During OUIL505, I was hunting for a bit of inspiration and I came across Paulina Ganucheau (original post on studio practice blog here). I love how she creates a kind of sassy/edgy vibe with her female characters and still manages to use typically 'feminine' colour palettes. This is something I tried to implement into my characters for OUIL505 - I'm not sure how successful I was however. 

Whether it is conscious or not, her work definitely has a feminist tone of voice. There seems to be a lot of 'girl power' being put across - which is why I love it. I haven't ever really been interested in comics, but I think that's slowly starting to change. I really love how the lines are coloured - much more interesting than just using black. 

What really resonates with me about her work, is the strong female characters. I don't use character a lot in my work at the moment, but when I do, I definitely want them to look cute and badass like Ganucheau's.

OUIL501 End of Module Evaluation

Throughout this module, the focus of the work has been to create synthesis between written theory and practical outcomes. The topic of my essay not only informed the practical aspect of the module, but I found a topic I am passionate about and I feel as though I could take it further. 

To an extent, the topic of my essay was both its strength and its weakness. There were lots of academic sources readily available on women's rights and gender role, but as I chose such a broad topic, I didn't really get the chance to be really critical of any sources/information. I think perhaps 3000 words weren’t enough to write about how the female role has changed in the last 100 years. In order to conduct a much more in-depth study on this topic, I may consider taking it through to level 6. 

I found that educating myself on a topic and then trying to draw it helped me understand where the gaps in my knowledge were and in order to fill those gaps, I had to go away and do more research. I feel as though my practical response illustrates my written work quite clearly and concisely and hopefully it communicates a specific tone of voice. Without realising, I had applied knowledge from other recent modules and I found that I was considering how the practical work could exist in the world, which audiences would use it and what it’s purpose was. As a result, I think the end product was well considered but didn’t require lots of investigating in order to get to this stage.

I’m pretty happy with the overall quality of the practical work but I didn’t reach this stage without issues. For one, choosing to create a paper-doll on magnets meant that I had to figure out which parts repelled each other and which sides would stick together best. For the smaller parts, physically cutting them out was challenging too. I found that various curves/lines required a different tool to get the best edge, so it was quite a time consuming process. If I were to do this again, I would definitely seek out a laser-cutter to ensure a good quality line and less strain on my hands.

At this stage, I think the lack of physical visual journal work is my downfall. I think I spent a long time refining the final artwork so I didn’t really give myself a chance to explore other avenues. I would have liked to work with more analogue materials in my sketchbook, but the balance of work between this and other modules at the time, meant that I just couldn’t find the time. I suppose this is just the downside of having other work that needs more attention sooner.  

If I had the chance to revisit this module, then I would definitely try and push the artwork further. At the moment, I feel that the illustrations look a bit cold and flat. To an extent this is because of my chosen audience and the educational context; however I would have liked to create something a bit more lively and enticing. As the practical response has such a wide range of potential applications, there could be opportunity to collaborate with someone in an area I am unfamiliar with – e.g. actually creating a simple app/game. As far as time management goes, I think I have done a pretty good job of making sure everything gets done on time. I admit I was very slow to get started on the practical work because I was struggling to find an essay question I wanted to answer. I think this may have been a consequence of being busy with other modules and not really finding the correct balance with my workload. Overall I’m very pleased with the progress I have made on this project and I am now recognising the synthesis between not only the practical and theoretical work for this module, but between all the modules I have tackled this year. Even though I have had to draw it to a close, I feel as though this work could be continued and used as a tool to explore other areas of gender roles. 

Tigerprint Shortlisted!

Even though the Responsive module is over and done with, I wanted to document this because it feels like a bit of an achievement to me! One of my 'Make Your Mark' patterns got shortlisted on the Tigerprint blog! I didn't win, but it is still encouraging and I'm looking forward to entering their next competition on the 19th May.