Networking and Self-Promorion

After listening to a few veterans of the design world, and from what I’ve been working out myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that self-promotion and networking are two important factors of this lifestyle. After all, how are you going to generate a fan base or get commissioned if nobody out there knows that you even exist?

This theory has been proven to me in recent weeks. I have a twitter account that I now mainly use for Illustration-based posts, and I follow a lot of other Illustrators and designers on there. I’ve also made a facebook page, showcasing some of my work, and currently have over 120 “likes,” but I’m aiming on improving this over the next year.

What I like about these methods of networking is that you can find out what people like about your work, and it helps not only what you can improve upon, but it boosts your confidence as well. I’ve also has other designers asking for collaborations, which I was surprised about, but it’s something I’m planning on doing more of after uni finishes, so I’m flattered to have been asked.

The only types of promotion I have at the minute are my page, my site and my business cards, but I’m interested in other ways of making myself stand out from the crowd. I’m interested in creating a small-scale comic, or maybe a zine, to leave in places of interest. I also love the idea of using guerilla advertising as a form of self-promotion, and I’ve looked at how businesses come up with these ideas.

The one thing I still want to do though, and I haven’t yet, is to attend more social meetings with artists and talk about my work and theirs on a more personal level. It seems like a perfect way to meet new people and really get in there with the crowd, and this is definitely something I’m looking forward to doing in the future.

Business Cards

I’ve been waiting quite a while do my business cards because I think that the business card should be a reflection of who I am as a person and an creative person, so I was waiting until I had a suitable style. This came really late on for me and it still needs a lot of refining so I had to improvise when I got my cards. It’s not too bad though because I can always update the cards with my style later on!

For the illustrative side of the card I felt that I hadn’t created a stand alone image that represented me and my work yet either, so thought it would be fitting, and more exciting to include five different designs that the client could choose. I decided to use a selection of images I’d made for my FMP because of three main reasons; they were my most current work, they were the most visually exciting because of their texture, and I felt that the roughness of them represented me a little more than my cleaner work.

Another decision I made when designing the illustrative side was that instead of giving the cards a whole image it would be more fun to only include a cropped version of my work, so the client would be able to see the style and work out what it was, but not get a whole narrative. This, I thought, was a good idea because it would get them enticed, and maybe be more inclined to check out the picture on my website.

The information side of my card looks a lot more business like; I used a smaller Helvetica font, and I made It a more subtle grey as black would be too striking. I wanted them to remain warm to the client. I also used my title as Kyle Hart: Visual Artist and Illustrator as to assure the client that I am capable of more creative duties than just illustration.

Working with Type

With time running short it seems that the best idea was for me to use my images to create a set of posters, using some of my line drawings, my printed images, and some type. I didn’t want too much type, just enough to give a kind of added element to my narrative, so when it is added to the poster a story is told.

Exploring what type I should use was interesting though. I looked into Paul Davis work, and then David Shrigleys. My initial thoughts were that they had the same working styles, and the type they used was pretty much the same, but I was still unsure of how I was going to utilize this to my advantage. I mean, I couldn’t use type like that without justifying myself could I?

However, Gary gave me a quick crash course into both of the workings, and we looked at what made their type theirs! Also how they had looked into design (well, more Paul Davis) before applying it, and I realized that this wasn’t just their handwriting, these works were carefully planned pieces, and the type was just another element! Like mine was aiming to be!

I realized that Shrigley’s type was a little more all over the place than Davis’, but I thought that it would be good to keep the type a little refined. I noticed how David kept his type slightly italicized, all in capitals and boxed or underlined certain words, and I liked all of these ideas.

It took me a while to get my type the way I wanted it, and looking good, and I know I can improve on this in future projects. It took me a few attempts to keep my lines straight, as I was working too big at first, but this is definitely a style of type that works for me, shows my personality well and one that I want to indulge in in the future.

Printing Ideas!

I’d been struggling with a way to get my images created for a good few weeks when Gary suggested that I look at making stencils and printing. I was a little unsure about this at first but then I thought, why not get stuck in and try something new out, what do I have to lose. T also made sense because a lot of people are more drawn to my printed work in my portfolio than the drawings.

I thought of a different way to make images with stencil instead, to try making the work a bit more “me”, and so far I think the technique has worked really well. It need refining in some areas, but after talking with Gary and Ian, I think that it’s still the drawing images to start with that’s the main problem, so I’ll focus more on that in the future.

My technique is quite fun, keeps me interested in several images at the same time and lets me be a bit freer with what I do. First I draw the image I want and then blow it up to make it easier for later. Next I draw around each element I want separate in the image and label each piece so I don’t get lost.

Following the drawing comes the cutting, where I make my stencils. This is the part where I try take my time, even though I’m quite impatient. However, I find this part quite therapeutic!

After that comes the fun part, where I get messy in the print room and use the stencils to create some textured shapes. I only use black ink, because at this stage colour isn’t important to me.

The next stage involves scanning in all of my shapes, selecting the best ones that work together and reassembling the image. As well as this I add the colour, and my image is complete.

Final Major Project: Final Posters

I have some final pieces to hand in! I had to leave the whole book idea for marking, but that might still come later on for my show. I have ended up with a series of posters, half landscape, half portrait, depicting scenes of my dreams. They all include some printing technique, some type and some of them also have line drawings, all on an offset white background.

I have to say that after a good few weeks of me being confused with what I was doing, and then settling down on this idea, I am fairly happy with what I have achieved!

I like the fact that I have created a set of posters that represent my sub-conscious and still carry a narrative quality to them, yet seem so random. I’m hoping that my audience will get a kick out of the stories, whether they feel the fun in them or see the sadness in them (there’s a mix of both) and I’m hoping that my personality will show through.

I know that they could all do with some touching up, and a bit more care, and I was hoping to have a few more posters. However, I finally feel a lot more comfortable and confident creating images. I had a lot of fun coming up with the concept, and composing all of the elements, and I think that they’ve turned out ok.

In the future I’m gong to refine my type skills, because I loved learning about this and realize how much more there is to explore. I’m also going to add more elements to my work and focus on making sure my line drawings are better.

Drawing Techniques

During the course of the final major project one thing that I have been having trouble with is my drawing skills. I just don’t know where I’ve been going with my drawing lately and it’s one of the factors that have dampened my confidence, so I’ve been avoiding doing drawing.

This was ok for a little while because it meant I could focus on printing, but there came to a time where obviously just printing wasn’t going to be enough. I needed to draw to give my images more detail, and there needed to be more elements, otherwise I wouldn’t be showing any narrative.

Ian and Gary have both said that they can see something in my more sketchy drawings, that they have some kind of raw quality to them that I need to bring out, but when I try I seem to be hitting a brick wall. I try clean up my drawings for the final pieces, which makes them lose their quality.

To overcome this problem I’ve left the pan alone when doing some of my drawing and moved back to some kind of drawing I did in my first year, and that’s working with ink. It makes me a lot loosed and fluid, and it helps me vary my lines a bit, and I think that this is starting to show in my final work. However, I know that this is only the beginning of my improvements.

When I carry on with work, I think that something I need to take into consideration is that working with different media when I draw can give surprising and fun results, and I should start projects by just draw draw drawing more to see what I can come up with!

Final Major Project- Practical Part 1

The practical part of my dreams project hasn’t had much progress in the past 7 weeks. All I’ve managed to get done so far is establish a few sketches from the dreams I’ve had recently, and I even found that part difficult!

I think the main reasoning for this might be that I’m still uncomfortable with the fact that everyone around me has settled on their own techniques and styles and I’m still not ready to make that step. It’s put me off the main part of the project—the “doing” part.

I started off with some sketches from various dreams and put them together to see if there were any stories that looked more interesting than others. Then I set out a few of these stories in rough compositions, making them a little more like comic book stories. I also tried adding bits of texture in them, just to see if they looked any more pleasing at this stage. It was just experimenting really, which was pretty fun and gave me some interesting results.

When I reviewed the work with the tutors, they helped me to realize that just making them into comics would be pulling the dream idea away from itself; dreams are stories in non-linear format, they don’t always make sense, and they blur together to make new dreams.

I feel like what I have so far is a decent starting point but it should have been the starting point for work from about four weeks ago so now I have quite a bit of catching up to do. However, after a week of feeling confused and demotivated, I feel like I can get on top of this quite easily by looking at it from another standpoint. I’m trying out a style I used a long time ago with my James and the Giant Peach book cover, as people always seem more drawn to that than other pieces in my portfolio. There will be a lot more shape than line, added textures, and it will have a more playful and jointed feel about it.

Graphic Guru- Portfolio and FMP

On Tuesday I had a quick meeting with Ben, my Graphic Guru, because I’d not seen him in quite a while. I showed him my portfolio; he’d seen most of the work before but not seen it in a portfolio style so thought it would be good to get his opinion on it’s presentation.

Overall I think he was quite positive about he layout of the portfolio. The main points he had to make that I should change were factors that I’d heard before in portfolio visits, so I’ll definitely take them on board. He liked the work that was presented in context and said he’d like to see a little more of that, and general layout was fine. A couple of other point’s he picked up on was that I should be careful when presenting landscape/ portrait mixes, because the presentation has to flow, and make sure that it’s clear what the project was for.

Then we moved on to my current work, for my final major project. I told him the idea of interpreting my own dreams and that I was a little confused with where I should go next with my work, and he cleared the air a bit. Ben agreed with the tutors in creating something that isn’t just a comic, but mixes elements, shapes and textures together, so some images might fade and others might stand out more. He liked the concept of some of the stories I’d come up with but thought that by keeping to a more non-linear path the book would look a lot more sophisticated.

I think I agree with this way of thinking and did from the start, but Ben managed to put the idea across a little clearer than the tutors for me (not that thy were explaining it wrong, more that it simply wasn’t sinking in for me). Next time I speak to him will be more fun because I’ll have a lot more work to be showing him.

Bookbinding

Last Tuesday we had Lucy Wilson come in to give us a fun little workshop on bookbinding! I have done book binding before and enjoyed it so was excited for this, especially since the last time I did it was about three years ago and I knew I’d have forgotten most of the basics.

In true classic fashion, I was late, so had to play catch up a bit, so it was a good job I knew a little bit of information beforehand. The technique she taught us was a nice basic one, that can be applied to any size really, as long as you get the measurements right!

I made an A6 sized book with a card front and back cover, and folded paper inside, giving me about 40 sides to write or draw through. The basic principal of this technique was to fold each sheet in half, put measured holes in each piece, and then sew them together, before finally gluing the spine together and pressing for good measure. The trickiest part of the process was remembering to go back on yourself, to the page below to bind those two sheets together, and then trying the loop at the end, but once you get into the rhythm of things it was quite soothing.

Lucy herself was a great help in the workshop; you can obviously tell she has a passion for binding her own books and she brought some great ones with her. She also gave us a quick demonstration on hardback bookbinding (which takes a bit longer and is a bit more complicated) that I might try out myself.

I’m quite proud of that little book so I’m definitely going to make more of them in the near future and experiment with the paper, cover etc. I’m going to use the ne I just made to jot down all my thought’s, because I’ve been told to stop bottling things up, so it will be my catalyst for release!

Christmas Card Design

Our group has been beginning to think of ways that we can raise money so that we can have a stall at D&AD in London next year. Two great ideas came to mind at the meeting; since it was Christmas time, we could have a bake sale, and we could produce a set of Christmas cards to sell! So we split into two groups and set out to work.

Obviously, at this time of year though, we were all very busy and had deadlines approaching. So I got thinking, what might the audience want to see that would be easy for me to make, that they haven’t seen before (to generate a little more interest) and that I could do in a limited amount of colours so it could be screen printed?

I thought that my “Turk the Turtle” was quite a cute character that I’d used before in a previous project, so set about recycling him! I thought that there might be an audience for him, as animals are quite popular, and it’s not the typical animal you’d associate with Christmas. I “christmassed” it up by drawing a scene of him giving a present to a child turtle, and thought that to add colour, green would be perfect (relating to both of the themes) as a background so I could highlight the drawing.

Unfortunately, there were problems on the day of printing. We were supposed to start at ten, but we couldn’t get hold of the cards we were supposed to be printing on until half 12, by which time I was getting ready to go to a lecture! Then I had another prior arranged meeting, and work the next day, so there was no time for my idea to be produced! However, the other cards in my class did get made to a really high standard and they managed to get some sold, so our dreams of making it to D&AD aren’t over yet!

Heinz Salad Cream Collaboration

Recently the third year students have been set competition briefs. We each get to choose one that we feel would be best suited to us, depending on our pathway, visual language and personal interests, from a wide variety of briefs. I've been struggling to settle on one myself, but then a glimmer of hope came in the form of Richard Purbrick, a moving image student from my course.

Richard chose to work on the Heinz Salad Cream brief, which is actually one I was considering doing myself. The idea is that they want ideas for ways to make their salad cream fun again, so make something promotional aimed at the young adult generation.

This is the second time I’ve ended up collaborating with a moving image guru recently, and like with my work with Kirsty, Richard gave me storyboards to work to. The basic idea sounds really good, experimental and fun, and I really cannot wait to see the finished product!

Richard, who is controlling everything that moves, naturally, is filming the advert on blue screen. He has an actor playing out all of the scenes, and then will edit the actor’s movements so that he fits in with our more experimental style. My job is to create all the background pieces for the advert. I showed Richard previous work before we started and he like the style, but wanted a style that looked more like the opening credits of “Juno” so I decided that I would use a thinner pen. I added little gimmicks in the pictures, like salad cream fridge magnets, and kept to a creamy-greeny colour scheme, reminiscent of the salad cream bottles! Also, adding to my developing style, I’ve started to drop in subtle textures to the frames, which I think enhances the look slightly.

Here are some still frames i've created, and you'll see the finished product quite soon!

Advert with Kirsty

Kirsty Newman is on the moving image pathway at Stockport College, and she has asked me if I’d contribute some work to one of her projects. Always excited at the prospect of collaboration, I said I would. So she showed me a part of the project, the one that she wants me to illustrate. The idea is that she is making some adverts for a local radio show while they are off-air over Christmas, so Kirsty will turn the images I will be making into moving images. This was an exciting prospect for me because quite a lot of the time I lean my idea’s in the moving image direction so it would be good for me to see what my illustrations look like on the screen, as it were.

So Kirsty showed me the thirty-second clip that I was going to be illustrating, and then the following week gave me some notes and storyboards of how she wanted to pull this thing off. It was a good job I had the storyboards just then because I’d already started thinking of my own storyboards, but then realized that it wasn’t collaboration in that sense. This made the project feel more like real life in a was like I was working for her, and she kept the pressure on to make sure I was getting my plans and work to her on time!

Audio Clip:

http://.ia700808.us.archive.org/0/items/RobBoughtAPlane/robs_bought_a_plane.mov

Roughs:

I’m really excited to see this when it’s finished, because although I’ve dabbled in stop-motion in the past, I’ve never done any other type of moving image, and this is a really exciting opportunity to see my work in a different media.