business cards

Some mock ups of business card ideas:

and some ideas for the back

plant pot

I'm quite drawn to the idea of illustrating a plant pot for part of my promotional pack, I think the product is relevant to my work as I have been doing a lot of nature illustrations recently, it is what I really enjoy drawing and seems to be the basis of the design for this pack at the moment. Also, John mentioned a good product for the pack is something the client can keep, and plant pots can be re-used many times, and I think a beautifully decorated one is a nice thing to just have in the home. 

I'm not really sure how I going to go about decorating a plant pot, or what type of pot it will be (terracotta, plastic, metal etc. ) I might look into possibilities of getting them printed.

In the meantime I've been doing some research into other ways of decorating them:

I saw these hand painted pots that are really simple, single colour, but really nice to look at. I think I could do a similar thing with my style of water-colour painting. 

I really liked the look of these quite roughly designed pots with mosaic, again it could fit in with my texture/shape work, I could come up with some nice nature patterns with odd bits of mosaic.

These are wrapped with fabric which is quite a nice idea, I could try and print my illustrations onto fabric and then wrap around the pots which could work well. 

And I thought along with the plant pot I could have a packet of plant seeds, with the type of flower illustrated by me on the packet along with the name then on the other side I could have my contact details. I just need to find what kind of flower seeds work well in small, indoor pots.

creative cv

I want to include a CV in my promotional pack as it will give information of my interests and relevant past experience. But as CVs are often quite dull I want to present the information in a creative way. 

I like the layout of the business card idea I had, I think it would work better on a slightly larger scale and with CV information on it. Here's a mock up I made

Each layer will have information written on the back relating to education, work experience, interests, creative skills, attributes, my profile and my contact details. 

If I was to do this layout, obviously it would be a lot cleaner; the layers would have been digitally printed and it would be a bit bigger so that the text is eligible and I would have to consider type and composition more than I have. But I like the basic idea of it. I think the interactive element of having to turn the pages to know more makes it a more interesting experience when reading, but it also demonstrates my interest in collage and textures and the hands-on/handmade aesthetic of my illustration. 

business card idea

I want to convey my interest in shapes and textures on my business card, also my interest in depicting nature and landscapes. So I made a mock up business card which would have multiple layers with a different cut out shape on each layer, making up a scene while also adding depth. 

It's only a rough idea, but I think it has some potential to develop. 

old posters

This article on itsnicethat http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/atelier-mourlot showing old posters by picasso, miro, matisse etc. to promote their exhibitions

I love the looseness of them and the bold colours, its nice seeing such simple and playful work from such big artists. I really like the 'miro' poster, the lack of composition, scrawly text and bright colours and textures make it exciting and fun to look at. I ant to do more work where I'm just playing with colour and line, not actually trying to make anything in particular - I find it loosens me up more when I'm not thinking about composition or tone of voice, I find they happen accidentally a lot of the time. 

tumblr

I've set up my tumblr to start collecting all my finished work in one place, as my uni blog has a lot of writing to do with development rather than just final artwork. I like it as it gives a more professional feel to my work.

http://astridweguelin.tumblr.com/

promotional ideas

I started a Pinterest board to collect ideas for this promotional pack:

https://uk.pinterest.com/astridweguelin/ppp-promotional-pack/

I really like the promotional elements that are placed on useful products - things that will be used and seen in everyday life. 

Here are some initial ideas I've had:

Because my work has ben quite broad over the past 2 years, I want to be able to provide an insight into all the type of work I do. Or it might be clearer to make it more consistent focusing on one process/style, and the rest can be seen on my blog. 

Here's a quick rough mock up of some potential coaster ideas, they would have my designs on the front and my contact details on the back.

task 1

1. What should your identity convey about you?

I think your identity should convey who you are as an illustrator, you should be able to tell the process in which you work, to see what is consistent within your work whether its the materials or the themes you work in. Your identity should show what you are interested in visually and what illustrative processes you enjoy, but also give a sense of your interests outside of your profession and convey how they influence your work. I don't think it should just be random information about you, but should have some connection with your illustration.  

professional skills:

- book covers

- narrative illustration/working from texts

- observational drawing

- love illustrating nature and architecture

style/creative process:

- analogue 

- work a lot with textures and shapes

- watercolour and paint

- combining digital with analogue
- like working with collage

difference from other illustrators:

- work predominantly in analogue

- push to have a good understanding of subject before working on it

- enjoy visual and contextual research
- very hands on with materials

2. Is it actually important to have an identity as an illustrator?

I think it is definitely important to have some sort of identity as an illustrator because that is how clients find out how you work and what your work looks like - that is how they decided whether they want you to work for them or not. It is especially important if you work freelance, as that is the only way you will get your name out there. Some may promote themselves more than others, and I don't think it is all that necessary but I think its important to make people know about the person behind the illustrations. 

3. What could be included in your pack and why?

I think the most effective promotional items would be things that are useful to have in everyday life, so people who have them are always using them and so constantly being reminded of you and your work. Or maybe having something that is just really unique and memorable but not necessarily that useful. Some ideas:

- business card

- coasters

- matches

- packet of plant seeds

- plant pot

- calendar

- t-shirt

- napkins

- usb

- notepad

- book mark

- pencils
- playing cards

4. What are you wanting to achieve by producing promotional items?

I want to give potential clients a sense of who I am and what my work is like. I also want to prove to myself that I can create a professional identity and can identify what stands out about my work and makes it different as I have gone through a lot of different processes over the past years and have just started settling on a way of working that I really enjoy. 

botanical

I've recently become very interested in botanical themed drawing/image making. I find nature and plants so fun to study as they are all so different. I always find nature to be quite inspiring  especially when exploring materials and finding out what textures/shapes can be made. Here are some practitioners I've found interesting:

Marc Martin:

He primarily uses gauche and pencil, I like how it is basically all done my hand and then just touched up on photoshop. I think it is really impressive to do such detailed scenes all in one go. He also uses great textures, which I want to do more of. 

Monica Ramos

I love her incredibly detailed images, there is so much going on - and again all by hand. It's almost like a pattern but with a story going on within it which I really like. 

Matisse

Matisse's cut outs are my favourite, I just love the simplicity to them. They manage to capture the subject matter in such a cut back way - so striking and pleasing to look at. I love detailed work but I think being able to completely cut away all the unnecessary elements to an image really impressive - and often more difficult.