Portfolio Visit-- Thoughtful

Today I headed down to design company “Thoughtful” to show off my portfolio for the first time ever! After giving us a helpful and portfolio-inspiring talk the previous week, Stuart, who is part of the company agreed to let me come visit.

Before my appointment I have to admit I was really nervous. It was my first time showing this portfolio to anybody outside the classroom; in fact, after I’d made quite a few changes in the morning concerning the layout and presentation, Stuart was the first to see this version. So for me this meeting was a kind of personal test of how well I’d accomplished so far in the year.

After brief introductions, I put the nerves to the back of my mind and presented, keeping in mind all of the advice Stuart mentioned in his talk. He made some great comments about my work, both on what aspects he liked and what he’d like to see more of. I was happy to hear that he was a fan of my developing style and would like to see what the future holds as he could tell I was still growing. He also mentioned that he could see a commercial aspect to my work, was fantastic to hear! We looked through each piece and I talked him through each piece, which I found was a lot easier than I thought it would have been for some reason.

On a portfolio-inspecting level, he liked that I’d kept it simple. He liked that I’d cropped my work and added it to the bottom of each page with a small description, to which I could then elaborate. Advice he gave me (which I have avidly taken on board) was to maybe make an introduction page instead of sticking an image there, and that it would be good to see more of my work in context; spread it out more to give it all room and let it speak for itself!

Thanks Stuart!

Creative Review-- The Hunger Games

I hadn’t read a fictional book in a very long time, until recently that is. I’d noticed a lot of hype about a film coming out next year called “The Hunger Games” and it seems to have attracted a pretty big fan-base already. So I did a little research, found out that it was the first in a series of books, and began reading.

One negative before I get to the good stuff: this was the first time I’d ever read a book on my mac, and not held it physically. I didn’t like that aspect, and maybe it needs a little getting used to but I think it might have dampened my reading experience a bit.

Now, the good points. This is a very interesting story. There is a love story told over the series that you see the beginnings of in the first book (the only one I’ve read) but that part didn’t interest me too much. It was the world it was set in. Kind of like 1984 where everyone is controlled by government, they live in separate districts depending on profession, and every year to keep control of the districts the government introduces “The Hunger Games” where two teenagers from each of the 12 districts must fight in the arena, until there is one winner.

The storytelling is great; as I read it I can see the events unfold, I feel the main protagonists emotion, whether it be anger, confusion or love. There is a balance between action and interaction, a great cast with interesting personalities, and the underlying political messages that The Hunger Games is more than just a year long event in the arena is spread throughout the whole book.

Now I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series and can’t wait for the film!

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!

Tutorial with Gary and Ian

Last Monday I had a meeting with both of my tutors, Gary and Ian, so we could steer forward in the right direction for the negotiated project. I was actually pretty nervous for this crit (seems to be a running theme there) because my lack of attendance/ workload was sure to have them a little ticked off! However, once again I was second-guessing people and getting it all wrong!

So I took in what I had so far for my competition projects and my museum project to see what they had to say.

I started with a lone picture I had thrown together for my competition project, a portrait of Black Swan for the Little White Lies competition. It was quickly dismissed, and quite rightly, because after they pointed a few things out I realized it looked terrible! So instead I told them that I was already in talks with Richard from the moving image pathway where we were working on the Heinz brief. I didn’t have much to show them though because we’d only had initial talks.

Ian and Gary’s advice was (because there wasn’t much time left) to focus on one project, which was the museum project. I’d showed them a quick draft of the comic I I’m planning on making, which tells the story of how Anansi the trickster God got his storytelling abilities. However, they actually preferred my quick sketching to my final mock-up ideas, noticing that I’d refined the work far too much for the finished product. It helped me realize that while I was so focused on linear aspects, I’d not thought about shape much, which, they say, is a strength I should be working on.

Also, thinking of comics as a way forward was suggested, because my best work comes from narrative elements and I think I have a good eye for composition. In conclusion, the tutors helped me out loads and I’m glad I turned up for the meeting!

Creative Review-- Film

I want to share a film with people that might be a little more obscure than usual. I’ve not been to any of the creative review sessions yet but I think a lot of the films would have been heard of, whereas this might be less recognized.

Chung-King Express is a film made by Wong Kar Wai in 1994. This film was the beginning of the Chinese New Wave period. This basically means that before this film, the studios were all about creating the same generic films, and for China, this was Martial Arts films. This film explores Hong Kong in a different way. It was an art piece made by Wai while he was taking a break from filming the “generic” stuff, and turned out to be one of his best pieces.

The film is split in two, set around the same take-out joint in Hong Kong. The first story is about a cop who gets dumped by his girlfriend, only to fall in love with a woman at a bar. Unbeknown to him, she is a drug-dealer, and he never see’s her again after that night. The next is about a cop who has a secret love interest; the worker at the take-out accidentally ends up with his house keys and she sneaks in when he’s working and cleans for him.

These are stories with no stories. They just are. That’s kind of the cool quality that I like about them. There are no questions that need answering, it’s just life at that time. Wai films it with a great soundtrack and some colourful camera experimentation, and maybe there are some little hidden messages in there, but it’s entirely for the audience to interoperate it as to how they see fit!

Creative Review-- Books

I’ve read a couple of books recently that have given me some great advice, motivation and steps to aid my illustration work. These books are great tools to go into my final major project with, as they are simple and pretty obvious at times!

The first book is “A Technique for Producing Idea’s” by William Bernbach. This book has been around for nearly 50 years, but the same principles apply now just as they did back then. The key points from the book are that there are five stages to producing ideas, and I’m definitely going to follow these through in my next projects:

• ·      Gather new materials—research
• ·      Work over the materials. Sketch. Doodle. Think.
• ·      Leave it for a while for your unconscious to mull over
• ·      THE IDEA ARRIVES
• ·      Develop the idea to fit your needs.

See, simple! The other point I got from this book is about the fundamentals of simply having an idea. It has two general principles—that an idea is simply a new combination of two or more things and that the ability to make new ideas is heightened by an ability to see new relationships.

Then I read Paul Arden’s “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be.” I’m sure this is a book I’ve been encouraged to read for years, but only just got round to it recently. It’s pretty amazing, it gets across simple ideas, and has helped unclutter my mind recently. I’ll just share some of my favourite points from the book as there are so many I could talk about:

• ·      Do it! Then fix it as you go
• ·      If you get stuck, draw with a different pen
• ·      Have a goal!
• ·      Find inspiration from everywhere
• ·      Don’t aim to win awards—that’s following the fashion!