Throughout the course of this module, I have identified who I am becoming as a professional, how I can navigate the creative industries and how to shape my practice into something that can be commercially viable and still be something that I'm happy with and enjoy creating work for.
Creative Presence has forced me to look at myself in a professional aspect, something that I struggle with doing as I dont take myself very seriously. Its made me consider how I present myself and my work online, how to promote my work online and how to curate all these different aspects into one cohesive 'brand' as such. My website has been under development for the past few months and when published, will act as the central hub to my creative presence, containg links to other social media platforms and methods of contact.
The blog has always acted as a way for me to document my thoughts and interpretations of the world around me and how I fit into that as a professional, and thats how I've been documenting this module this year. PP3 has allowed me to evaluate my own creative strategies and how i'm going to progress into the next year and eventually into the Creative Industry. For the imediate future, I have recognised that I need to take a step back from Illustration and allow myself some room to breathe and figure out how to be a real person outside of university. When I feel the time is right, I am definitley going to come back to my practice and continue exploring and expanding it but for now, I feel I desperatley need the time away from it all.
My apsirations for the near future include being able to print and create products self-sufficiently, either investing in equipment I'd need or gaining membership at somewhere like Leeds Print Workshop. I then want to expand from my online store and see if I can get any local businesses interested and involved in stocking my work. Print and Zine fairs are definitley something I will be continuing to attend and hold stalls at, starting locally and then pushing myself further afield.
Monday, 21 May 2018
Presentation Slides
Slide 1 - Introduction
Slide 2 - Who Am I? Personally and Professionally? Explain how the two work together
Slide 3 - Aims For Uni - Expand and Explore Practice - Understand the Industry - Networking - Professional Presentation - Develop New Skills
Slide 4 - Reflection on past three years - Developed practice - Recognised what I enjoy working with - experimented with industry sectors and process - made mistakes - grown more confident - identified goals
Slide 5 - Level 6 - external events - collaboration with professionals - set and managed own briefs - explored areas of personal interest - recognised goals for future
Slide 6 - COP - Responding to current topics - responding to personal experience - responding to the experience of others - produces more heartfelt work that has more of a voice
Slide 7 - Music and Image - exploration of the relationship between music and image - personal interest and influence - specific format and set of constraints. - personal project that has led to first comission
Slide 8 - Comission - Positive experience - email contact - weekly deadlines and progression - payment - exposure - networking
Slide 9 - Personal projects - more successful - bulk of my practice - tailor practice - personal and professiona interests - briefs i work best with - carry to post grad practice
Slide 10 - Failures - competition briefs - restriction of process - time management - inconsistent style - burning out - staying comfortable
Slide 11 - After uni - Climb into the hole - drawing has lost its fun - take a step back - figure out who i am and what i’m about - find my feet - find a better job - support myself etc
Slide 12 - after uni 2 - DIY press - gathering supplies - approaching local businesses - print and zine fairs - make it fun again
Slide 13 - Produce stock/product - local businesses - expanding practice - print and zine fairs - hope and pray that things happen - pay rent - buy food - etc
Slide 14 - Thankyou, good luck, questions - its over
Slide 2 - Who Am I? Personally and Professionally? Explain how the two work together
Slide 3 - Aims For Uni - Expand and Explore Practice - Understand the Industry - Networking - Professional Presentation - Develop New Skills
Slide 4 - Reflection on past three years - Developed practice - Recognised what I enjoy working with - experimented with industry sectors and process - made mistakes - grown more confident - identified goals
Slide 5 - Level 6 - external events - collaboration with professionals - set and managed own briefs - explored areas of personal interest - recognised goals for future
Slide 6 - COP - Responding to current topics - responding to personal experience - responding to the experience of others - produces more heartfelt work that has more of a voice
Slide 7 - Music and Image - exploration of the relationship between music and image - personal interest and influence - specific format and set of constraints. - personal project that has led to first comission
Slide 8 - Comission - Positive experience - email contact - weekly deadlines and progression - payment - exposure - networking
Slide 9 - Personal projects - more successful - bulk of my practice - tailor practice - personal and professiona interests - briefs i work best with - carry to post grad practice
Slide 10 - Failures - competition briefs - restriction of process - time management - inconsistent style - burning out - staying comfortable
Slide 11 - After uni - Climb into the hole - drawing has lost its fun - take a step back - figure out who i am and what i’m about - find my feet - find a better job - support myself etc
Slide 12 - after uni 2 - DIY press - gathering supplies - approaching local businesses - print and zine fairs - make it fun again
Slide 13 - Produce stock/product - local businesses - expanding practice - print and zine fairs - hope and pray that things happen - pay rent - buy food - etc
Slide 14 - Thankyou, good luck, questions - its over
Saturday, 19 May 2018
Importance of Personal Projects
This year, the majority of my studio practice has been based around personal projects. I've found it a lot easier to work in this way, as I'm often more passionate about what I'm creating, more invested in the brief and the outcome, and usually happier with the direction the work takes.
Focusing on music mainly and dabbling in editorial has led me to develop and interest in layout and narrative within illustration as well as how image and audio can accompany and compliment each other. Through the development of personal projects, I've also managed to gain my first commission, which I don't think would've been as possible if I hadn't created the work I have this year.
I feel that after uni, my practice will mostly consist of personal projects that I can balance alongside other things that may be going on in my life, such as a job etc. These are some things that I'm planning on working on in the near future as a way to continue my practice and develop as a professional.
Future Projects:
Zines - Although production may be slightly more difficult, I want to embrace the full DIY nature of zines and begin to explore this as a process and a way of storytelling. I'm particularly interested in perzines and the concept of diary zines and feel that this will allow me to be honest within my practice, whilst providing a cathartic outlet for me in the coming months
Home - This project has been dancing around my head for a few months, but I've not really had the confidence to bring it to fruition. Home would be a print based project, focusing on the concept and interpretation of home, whether that be for me or for other people.
Research Led Project - Whilst working on a zine earlier this year based around the collection of items at The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, I rediscovered my passion for learning alongside creating and this is something I want to bring more of into my practice. I'm interested in mildly morbid and unusual history and feel bringing this into my work in form of print series or small publications could be something I benefit from
Products - Once I've found a steady way to be able to print goods, I will be looking into expanding my practice onto a range of products. I made some totebags this year and got a lot of satisfaction seeing my work on an actual thing rather than just a piece of paper. I want to expand on this by adding more fabric goods to my catalogue of stock and also look at producing fabric wall hanging pennants with screenprinted designs.
Folklore/Mythology - Following on from the cryptid brief I'm currently finishing off for 603, I'd like to expand this series into a few different sections, looking at other weird and wacky folk stories or mythological beings. This is something I've thoroughly enjoyed learning about and have produced interesting imagery for.
Focusing on music mainly and dabbling in editorial has led me to develop and interest in layout and narrative within illustration as well as how image and audio can accompany and compliment each other. Through the development of personal projects, I've also managed to gain my first commission, which I don't think would've been as possible if I hadn't created the work I have this year.
I feel that after uni, my practice will mostly consist of personal projects that I can balance alongside other things that may be going on in my life, such as a job etc. These are some things that I'm planning on working on in the near future as a way to continue my practice and develop as a professional.
Future Projects:
Zines - Although production may be slightly more difficult, I want to embrace the full DIY nature of zines and begin to explore this as a process and a way of storytelling. I'm particularly interested in perzines and the concept of diary zines and feel that this will allow me to be honest within my practice, whilst providing a cathartic outlet for me in the coming months
Home - This project has been dancing around my head for a few months, but I've not really had the confidence to bring it to fruition. Home would be a print based project, focusing on the concept and interpretation of home, whether that be for me or for other people.
Research Led Project - Whilst working on a zine earlier this year based around the collection of items at The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, I rediscovered my passion for learning alongside creating and this is something I want to bring more of into my practice. I'm interested in mildly morbid and unusual history and feel bringing this into my work in form of print series or small publications could be something I benefit from
Products - Once I've found a steady way to be able to print goods, I will be looking into expanding my practice onto a range of products. I made some totebags this year and got a lot of satisfaction seeing my work on an actual thing rather than just a piece of paper. I want to expand on this by adding more fabric goods to my catalogue of stock and also look at producing fabric wall hanging pennants with screenprinted designs.
Folklore/Mythology - Following on from the cryptid brief I'm currently finishing off for 603, I'd like to expand this series into a few different sections, looking at other weird and wacky folk stories or mythological beings. This is something I've thoroughly enjoyed learning about and have produced interesting imagery for.
DIY Press
For a while I've been considering how I'll continue creating work/products once uni has ended and print resources aren't as readily available. I've got two solid options in mind in regards still being able to screenprint my own stock.
- One off large cost and then top up costs of additional inks, replacement medium, paper etc
- Maybe slightly more expensive to start with but allows me full access whenever I need
Going down either of these routes would be beneficial to me and my practice. After a discussion during a one-to-one tutorial about plans for after uni, I've really started to think about how I could make small printed goods and approach local buisnesses in terms of stocking and selling my products. As well as this, I'd still easily be able to create stock to sell online and at print fairs etc.
Leeds Print Workshop:
- Offer facilities for intaglio processes, relief printing and screen printing for fabric and paper
- £45 a year membership and an additional £3 an hour when using the facilities (induction included)
- Inks and paper are available to purchase although you can take your own
- Option to rent a planchest drawer at a small cost
- Good way to keep involved with the local creative community/meet new people
Screenprint Kit:
- £70 to buy a tabletop kit including screen, squegee, inks, paper and fabric medium, screen block and drawing emulsion
- Can work from that comfort of home and be self-sufficient in this way- One off large cost and then top up costs of additional inks, replacement medium, paper etc
- Maybe slightly more expensive to start with but allows me full access whenever I need
Going down either of these routes would be beneficial to me and my practice. After a discussion during a one-to-one tutorial about plans for after uni, I've really started to think about how I could make small printed goods and approach local buisnesses in terms of stocking and selling my products. As well as this, I'd still easily be able to create stock to sell online and at print fairs etc.
Thursday, 17 May 2018
Portfolio Considerations
Portfolio is a scary word. Especially when considering my work, I don't feel that any of it sits particularly well together and worry that my 'style' is too inconsistent to have work sit next to each other page after page. I've not really given much consideration to how my portfolio could be layed out, and wory that I dont have enough good pieces of work to put something substantial together.
Tips I've Gathered:
Show A Breadth of Work - goes without saying but variation is good, and maybe the fact that my work can vary in style/process/production, isn't neccesarily a bad thing, it just shows that I can work on a range of different things I guess.
Less is More - my portfolio could probably benefit from a little minamilism in terms of layout and organization. Keeping the layout clean and allowing the work room to breath and speak for itself is probably beneficial. As well as this, the amount of content in the actual portfolio is probably best being kept to a minimum. Uni have given us an estimation of 15 - 20 pages but I think I'm going to stick more to the 15 page end of things.
Importance of Personal Projects - being fresh out of uni means for me that I dont have much comissioned or client led work. Personal projects have become increasingly important to my practice and expanding how and what I work with other the past few months at uni. I think it's important to make sure I include a range of these projects and show how they've benefitted my practice.
Skill - if I'm not 100% happy with the piece of work I'm considering putting in my portfolio, it probably shouldn't be in there. I need to be confident and able to sell the work that I'm putting forward when constructing this, so making sure I'm happy with everything is important to me. I also dont want to include weaker pieces of work in general as I'm sure this would show up to prospective clients. I also need to remember that the portfolio isn't finalised just because I've handed in my work, I can still (and definitley should) keep my portfolio fresh and updated, its not an end point at all.
Tips I've Gathered:
Show A Breadth of Work - goes without saying but variation is good, and maybe the fact that my work can vary in style/process/production, isn't neccesarily a bad thing, it just shows that I can work on a range of different things I guess.
Less is More - my portfolio could probably benefit from a little minamilism in terms of layout and organization. Keeping the layout clean and allowing the work room to breath and speak for itself is probably beneficial. As well as this, the amount of content in the actual portfolio is probably best being kept to a minimum. Uni have given us an estimation of 15 - 20 pages but I think I'm going to stick more to the 15 page end of things.
Importance of Personal Projects - being fresh out of uni means for me that I dont have much comissioned or client led work. Personal projects have become increasingly important to my practice and expanding how and what I work with other the past few months at uni. I think it's important to make sure I include a range of these projects and show how they've benefitted my practice.
Skill - if I'm not 100% happy with the piece of work I'm considering putting in my portfolio, it probably shouldn't be in there. I need to be confident and able to sell the work that I'm putting forward when constructing this, so making sure I'm happy with everything is important to me. I also dont want to include weaker pieces of work in general as I'm sure this would show up to prospective clients. I also need to remember that the portfolio isn't finalised just because I've handed in my work, I can still (and definitley should) keep my portfolio fresh and updated, its not an end point at all.
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