OUIL502 end of module evaluation

I have found this module quite difficult because it has been so different to all the others, although I feel I have gained a lot from it. I think I have taken a lot more from the practitioners I’ve been looking at compared to last year, I haven’t been looking at as many but they have definitely influenced my work more for example, Marc Martin’s busy, hand painted botanical scenes, Laura Carlin’s mix of mediums within her illustrations, Matisse’s simplicity to his cut outs. I feel when I have researched into these practitioners it has been to help develop my work further rather than just filling up my blog, which I felt I did a bit last year.

The group work we did for ‘Life’s a Pitch’ was a new experience, I’ve never tried to come up with a business plan to that extent, and I found it quite difficult. It was a lot of information to take in, a lot of it I had never thought about before so it was definitely useful. We worked well as a group, all contributing equally but our actual idea wasn’t very strong, we liked the concept but we could have developed it a lot further, and dropped unnecessary elements like the shipping container, which was more of a novelty aspect. Our actual presentation went well, the competition element was recognised as something we should think about more, as it is always a good idea to try promoting and encouraging up and coming creatives. I had never considered setting up a business/company but I feel like I know more about what needs to be considered if I was to try and make one.

Having to design a promotional pack for myself was also a whole new concept, the idea of branding myself as something is a bit scary as I don’t really know what it would be or what I want it to be. I’ve been feeling like if I do brand myself as something then it limits me to only doing that, and I still love experimenting with processes and ideas at the moment, so I’ve been a bit tentative with the project. However I do feel like my work is heading is a much more steady direction this year, compared to last year where my work was barely recognisable as being by the same person, I feel this year there is something linking most of it together. I think it might be my exploration into shape and texture; it’s played a big part in a lot of the modules, which is why I included it in my promotional pack. I had done quite a lot of visual investigation into making my pack in a sketchbook but unfortunately I lost it a week before submission before I had scanned in any of the pages. I do quite like my promotional pack, there isn’t too much to it as I had planned for other products like an illustrated plant pot and matchboxes, but it is a representation of my work. I feel like adding loads of products isn’t that necessary, doing that is good for initially grabbing a clients attention and being a bit more memorable, but what should be the thing that is remembered is the practitioners actual work – as that is the thing they will be paid for. I did have some errors with my pack; I was tired when I made it because I had run out of time so I made some typos and made the net for the envelope slightly wrong and the text on my business card is way too small. But the general concept of the pack works well, I spent a lot of time on the actual design of the pack which shows, it is bright, colourful with a lot going on which makes it quite a nice little package to receive I think.

I feel I could have done more for the networking side of the module, I did set up a lot of online presences and plan to use the ones like ‘Behance’ and ‘LinkedIn’ a lot more as they are good for talking to other creatives, but I didn’t get round to sending any emails to illustrators. I think if I were to, it would be to Marc Martin and Laura Carlin because their practice has influenced and interests me a lot so I would like to know more about it. Having to make this pack has forced me to think more about where my practice is going, and I feel I am still leaning towards narrative work, book design and generally working from text but after doing my ‘Lord of the Flies’ work I feel my process of using lots of shapes and textures could mix with children’s book illustration quite well which I hadn’t considered before, so I might look into that side of illustration more next year.

PPP presentation

final product

Images of my final promotional pack, includes a creative CV, postcards and business cards:

I'm surprised I managed to get it all finished in time, I'm happy with what I produced, it isn't exactly what I had planned but it still is an effective showcase of my work, and it's still a nice little pack to receive in the post. If I had more time/when I next make a promotional pack:

- I still like the plant pot idea, the pot would have had a similar design the outside of the envelope but all hand painted onto the pot, without any cut outs. It would also be held in a box also with this design, maybe with more going on; more of a narrative

- I wanted to make a set of stickers, one to hold the pack together and the rest to go into the pack

- John said including some sort of image of yourself is a good idea, but I'm no good at drawing people so I could of incorporated a photo of myself in some way, not sure how it would have fitted though

- the pack gives a sense of the kind of work I make but not really much about me, I could have given more detail to the 'profile' and 'interests' section of the CV to give an idea of what I like e.g. the genre of films/directors or what particular books/music I like, rather than being so general. 

online presence

I've create accounts on a range of different social networks where I can share my work. I mainly use tumblr, pinterest and instagram to research and showcase finished work but I see the more professional side with behance, also linkedin, where you can join forums and actually talk with other creatives so I plan to make more use of these sites.

my tumblr http://astridweguelin.tumblr.com/

my pinterest https://uk.pinterest.com/astridweguelin/

my instagram https://instagram.com/astridmia/

my behance https://www.behance.net/astridweguelin

my vimeo https://vimeo.com/user34019041

printing

Managed to get everything printed in time, there were a few mistakes but nothing too noticeable:

a couple of the postcards were a bit misaligned so I accidentally chopped half my email off, not on all of them though

I was really tired when I was finishing off the design before I had to print the next morning, so made some silly mistakes when writing the CV, the text is a bit disjointed under 'profile' and I seem to have stopped writing mid-sentence under 'skills'. The type came out bigger than I thought, I think it would have looked cleaner if I had done it a bit smaller. 

I also forgot to take into account that the envelope is different sizes each side so i needed to make sure the big flap is at opposite sides when making the front and back design, instead I had to cut it to fit the outside design. It didn't make too much difference though. I should have printed it all out on cheap paper before to make sure everything was right, but I am still happy with how it turned out. 

I am most happy with the business cards, they all came out perfectly aligned, the only issue is that the type is a bit too small, it is still eligible though which is all that matters. An added bonus, which I didn't plan, is that the front and back designs can all match up to create one long river! 

designing pack

I wanted to carry on a similar design to the back of the pack onto my business card, I used the same process to make these:

I wanted the main focus to be the illustration, John said that being illustrators, the business card should be an excuse to draw all over it, which I have done. I felt hand drawn type would be most appropriate as most of the pack has been handdrawn, although the font is quite small and a bit too scrawly. I think it is an exciting card though, with so much going on and bright colours it stands out quite a bit. 

For the inside of the pack I re-used the pattern I used for OUIL505 but made it green instead of red:

I like this pattern, I think the muted tones is a nice break from the busyness of the outside of the pack and business cards. Also I like my ink drawn name in white, it stands out well. I wasn't too sure of what to write on my CV so I just gave a brief explanation of the type of illustration I do and give an idea of the aesthetic. 

I did the same pattern in two more shades of green for the bit of card in the back and the sleeve which hold the cards:

I wanted to include postcards with selections of my work so to show the breadth in the mediums I can work in:

I felt the lord of the flies prints are most relevant to how I've been working recently, the mono print shows my interest in printing, the fish show my skill with watercolour and then the collage work. I have had a broad range of styles throughout the past two years so it's a good idea to show what else I can do. 

I then also but my name and email/tumblr on the back in small:

new design

I really enjoyed the process of making my OUIL505 submission, the use of cut out shapes and textures next to loose watercolour worked really nicely. I want my pack to be centred around a nature theme as that is what I am interested in drawing at the moment so I thought my pack could have a similar aesthetic to the cover and map I did for Lord of the Flies. Here's a design I did for the back of the envelope:

I got really into making this, I like making things this detailed because there is something different happening everywhere you look, as if there is a narrative running through it. 

change in idea

I've decided to not go through with the plant pot, I really liked the idea as it was quite original and is a good product to have for the promotional pack because it is something that clients can keep for a while - especially as I was planning to fill it with a mini cactus which would last for ages. But I have left it too late to start it as I would have to make and design the box as well as actually buy and then paint a plant pot, OUIL505 took much longer than I expected so I had to leave my PPP work and am slightly rushing it now. I'm annoyed that I am having to rush PPP because I was excited about the products I had planned to make. 

I've thought of a new design now which will be much quicker to make; it is a fold out envelope which will have my CV written on the inside and holds my business card and some postcards with selections of my work on it. It won't be that unique as everyone will have a business card and CV but I do have enough time to at least craft it well.

A mock up of the layout:

marcus oakley

We had a big heads with Marcus Oakley which I found really inspiring. I really like his more unfinished, sketchbook work - it's so playful and experimental, it is clear that he uses his sketchbook as a tool, he needs to do all these fun, weird sketches to then have inspiration for compositions with real work. 

I like that he doesn't limit himself to just being an illustrator, he is also an artist and surface pattern/t-shirt designer. His work is all quite different especially throughout the different mediums, but he said what links them altogether is the line work, he loves lines and they direct his process, which I find really interesting, I like the idea of having one element of your process leading how you make illustrations and being the thing that you recognise your work as. 

design idea for pack

a quick mock up of my plant designs going around the box and plant pot:

I think if I made this, the box would be digitally printed from one of my hand painted designs, but the pot would have to be painted white and then hand painted with watercolour/acrylic. 

box idea

I want to make a box that holds the plant pot, business card and maybe some postcards with my work on it. I had an idea to have my CV actually on the box. I could have fold out flaps with artwork on one side and my info on the other. 

I think I want to have the theme of jungle plant life for the pack, and then having similar imagery spread across all the products. 

I saw this book page by Laura Carlin:

I love the silhouette of the figure with other imagery inside - I think a similar idea for the top of my box could work really nicely. Maybe if I had a silhouette of one of the figures I often draw with all the botanical imagery underneath:

Then on the other side of the figure page could be my CV, it would be a lot less fiddly than my other ideas, I think it would work much better as a compact, simple pack. I keep having lots of ideas and starting on one then thinking of something else, but we are reaching the end of the module soon so I think I should just stick to this idea and get on with it, as I think the actual production of all these products might be quite time consuming.

development

I've done a more developed mock up for a cv:

I wanted it to be less fiddly and easily tearable, so I made it with bigger elements that just fold out rather than multiple layers. I still think it might be too convoluted so I need to refine it more and come up with a clear concept/theme for the pack.

We had a talk with John and he said to only make things for the pack if you have a reason for them, or if they are relevant to you in some way. So I might re-think the matchbox idea; I don't really have any reason for making it other than it would look nice. I think the plant pot is still a good idea though as I want it to represent my interest and inspiration I get from nature and botanical drawings. 

He also suggested that the pack have some sort of running narrative through it, so it's not just random designs, I want to come up with some sort of story to go on the outside of my box and plant pot. Another good bit of advice was to seal the box with a sticker, so that the person it is sent to can then know they are the first one to open the box - it becomes more engaging and personal if they think it is exclusive to them.

matchbox initial designs

Here are some quick ideas I had for the matchboxes:

I'm not sure yet if it should be a scene or repeated pattern, I think they would look better in a limited colour palette. I don't think any of these have worked very well, I need more of a concept for it.