reply

I got a reply from the publishing department at the Natural History museum, I asked about what age group I should be focusing on and how in-depth the information should be:

She was very clear about how it needs to be scientifically correct - if I am to convey the book as educational it needs to be giving the right information, so I need to make sure my research is from reliable sources and that my drawings aren't too abstract. I might email the scientific department once I've done my research to check my facts.

a reply!

Very quickly after I sent out my emails I got a really nice reply from Owen Davey!

His reply was really useful - he said to just focus on the interesting stuff, don't get too caught up with bone structures etc. put in what I find interesting and cool, and kids will probably feel the same. But he also made a good point about being careful with research - if I am making the book to be educational, I have to get the facts right and so not to trust everything on the internet. He said he didn't have an age group in mind when making the book, it was classed later as 7-11 which is interesting, and sort of makes the books accessible to all ages which is kind of what I want to do. In his second email he said he would be interested in seeing the outcome so I might send him some finalised work down the line - possibly get some feedback? It has made me more confident to send emails out now that I got a reply - and so quickly as well! 

emails

I sent out a few emails out asking questions relating to my big project and general questions about leaving uni:

I couldn't find who I should be contacting within the natural history museum to ask about the books sold in the shop - so I thought maybe the publishing department, but I don't know how likely it is that they will reply so I might contact the actual library instead:

I sent very similar emails to NoBrow and Flying Eye Books asking about age groups for educational books as I didn't know who would be more likely to reply:

I follow illustrator Lizzie Lomax on tumblr and instagram and like her work, I saw that she is recently graduated and working at Heart so I emailed asking what her initial steps were after leaving uni. I figured the closer they are to having eft uni the more sympathetic they will be to students:

I thought I should probably email Owen Davey as his Mad About Monkeys book is one of the main inspirations for my dinosaur book - I just wanted to know about how he altered the book to be for children in terms of language and content - and how to not make it patronising:

presentation - ben jones

Ben had a talk with us about his practice, having 'Heart' as an agent and being a professional illustrator, these are the main points I got:

• having an agent like Heart is good because they can get you jobs with places which wouldn't normally consider you, or would be really hard to get in contact with
• it is worth sending work to places where you don't think it will fit because if they don't like it, they might know someone else who will - good to make contacts
• he managed to get the big clockwork orange job for folio society after being shortlisted for their competition for the bloody chamber
• important to do personal projects - try and cater them to places you want to work e.g. if I want to work with publishing and book design, do lots of book covers as personal projects, make fake commissions for myself
• important to go back to handmade work - practice can get quite samey if always digital
• read up on theory I am interested in, stay educated e.g. he reads up on surrealism and semiotics 
• Penguin books don't actually commission illustrators anymore for book covers, but Penguin Essentials does - research into publishers which have illustrated book covers and get in contact with them
• he works for some underground presses like Rotland Press - makes publications about black humour. It is free work - but only do free work if you think it will benefit you and your practice in some way
• books don't sell as well as they used to because of e-books so it is important to make covers which really stand out and are interesting - publishers need the important info to be big (hierarchy in type)
• to look for contacts, use linkedin - just type in a job name like 'children's book publisher' or art director for…' and you will get a person with an email address for that job
• research into what publishers, magazines, newspapers etc. commission illustrators and see what type of work they use - whether yours could fit there
• buy the AOI contact list
• be wary of sending emails as some people have trigger words which send emails directly into the bin like - portfolio, new work etc.
• when sending emails to art directors say you'd love to bring your work down, and that you are a student from leeds - sound enthusiastic and committed. Always email rather than call with art directors
• put an image of my work actually in the email - catch their attention
• gather a list of 50 people I want to work for and send work out to all of them - but be original with the work; screen print, lino cut, mono etc. also, keep it small so that they can pin it up on their desk
• difference between image maker and illustrator: illustrators have a set 'style' and process, but image makers have a variety of styles and processes, their work is more about their ideas which can be executed in a variety of ways

tutorial

We had a tutorial with Patrick about the synergy that should be happening between PPP and extended practice - mainly our big brief. 
My plan for the big brief is to illustrate and produce an educational book about dinosaurs for children, possibly 5-7. The tutorial was useful as it made clear how much more contextual and real-life the brief needs to be - it isn't just a uni project, its about actually trying to get the product out there. Some suggestions he gave were:

• with a 5-7-age group, having more of a narrative might be more appropriate as a book full of facts and figures can be quite daunting. It will be more appealing if a story is told through the eyes of someone/something within the book e.g. an egg/fossil/dinosaur that is present throughout all the changes 
• tone of voice is very important, especially for children's books - maybe try and find a writer?
• where will the book exist? in schools, museums, charities? will it be something quite expensive or cheap? 
• there is a forum at the natural history museum linking writers to books
• get in contact with natural history museum or educators and find out what they want from a book for that age group - what is appropriate?
• think about promoting the book - could do readings in schools/museums or possibly animate it with a voice over? (like the book 'the gruffalo')
• will there be more books - a whole series? where can this idea be taken
• point of sale - promotional material, event (a reading?), posters, stands
• start contacting people - publishers, editors, writers etc. will be more useful than other illustrators in terms of getting work, they are the kind of people you want to be inviting to the end of year show

I got lots of useful advice, I now need to think more about this big brief - what age I want to aim it at, the type of book it will be, who I should be contacting etc. 

promo pack research

I've been doing a bit of research into promo pack designs as I want to re-do my one from last year as it isn't as relevant to my work from this year
https://uk.pinterest.com/astridweguelin/ppp3/

website development

I tried out the letterheads on my website

I quite like how they all look, but I think I still prefer the last design as it is the most reflective of my practice 

letterheads

I had a go playing around with bits of previous work of mine with my name underneath:

I do like the flamingos but the colour of the text doesn't really work - maybe black would be better

With no white space and the big block of colour it looks a bit complicated and heavy for a letterhead 

I think the lemon works well as it is quite playful and bright - the black text is better than the yellow as it stands out more

I don't think the tomatoes work very well as they aren't as striking as the lemon 

I do quite like this one - the shape of the image goes up to give the logo an interesting composition, I don't know how well it will work of the top of a website but it would look good as a letterhead

My favourites are the flamingos, lemon and last design. I want to give an idea of the kind of work I do which tends to be colourful, playful, nature based and using cut outs and textures. I have been trying out the photoshop fonts but I think my cut out lettering works better as it is more of a reflection of the work I do which is handmade and often quite rough and jagged. I will them out on the website and then  develop my favourite further. 

letterheads

I thought I should have a letterhead of some sort for my website and sending emails. So I had a look at websites of illustrators I like to see how they have gone about it:

A lot of the websites I looked at were very simple with a plain font for the name, or with a handwritten font - not many had an image alongside it. I really like the look of Tatiana Boyko's, the simple image is effective as it is an indication of the kind of work she does. 

A couple websites I looked at didn't have a logo but had a really nice opening page of their website:

I really like the look of these - it's a nice way to enter the page, with an impressive, full sized illustration. I might look into whether its possible to do that on Cargo