victo ngai

Victo Ngai came to talk to us! She gave loads of useful, interesting information about how the industry works, how to go about doing editorial, narrative, design, advertising etc. and she did have different approaches to each.
There were some pieces she spoke about that stood out to me, like:

This was an editorial about breast cancer, she said in New York they won't print anything with obvious nudity which is difficult when dealing with breasts, so she had to find a way around that, and used a maze of trees to map out the shape. Also, dealing with cancer is very sensitive as most of the readers could be patients, so she made the 'cancer creature' quite cute and non threatening because patients ant to feel that it is something they can overcome and treat. These are both things I wouldn't have considered, but make the piece so much more interesting.

Another editorial about the Egypt revolution, also called the lotus revolution which is why the main shape is a lotus flower, but what was interesting was the way the text and image works together. I thought with editorial, they give you the article and you work to their space but there was more communication with this between editor and illustrator which I liked. 






Also, you can tell a piece of work is good if it still looks good in black and white, that way it isn't all about colour; the composition and highlighting has to be good as well. 

editorial:
- business sections of papers tend to prefer more straightforward illustrations, not too conceptual

stories:
- its all about picking the right moment to depict for book covers and inner illustrations, it can be simple but still meaningful to the story
- foreshadow the ending without giving it away

which is what she did here beautifully; the story was apparently about a couple who go on lots of trips but eventually drift apart and break up which is a shock to the reader, but here she foreshadows that ending. The line of the boat splits the page, the swallows symbolising the freedom, which she is leaning towards while he is locked away, being grumpy in the car.







- she uses a lot of vertical perspectives which is often used in Asian art, where things that are far away are further at the top. It creates quite a surreal aesthetic but is interesting to possibly explore

advertising:
- the more money a job is, the less freedom you will have
- big companies have complete creative control over what you draw even if they don;t have any creative experience
- when working with big corporate companies it is important to have a small job on the side or keep a sketchbook to release creativity
- when working with editorial, they usually buy one print right and if they want to print in their russian version of the paper for example, they will have to pay you again. But with advertising, they usually pay for a time period of unlimited print run, e.g. three months, where they will get everything they can out of that design, and they can do anything they like with it for that period of time