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.