Roald Dahl

I have been working on illustrations for the Roald Dahl brief for Responsive. I want to make sure the characters and are appropriate for Roald Dahl's stories. The books are based around bold characters and amazing creatures. The witches are quite horrible and disgusting but at the same time need to be appropriate for the age range of the target audience. I have been illustrating quite simplistic shape based characters recently and have been struggling to analyse how well they communicate emotion. Given the narrative of the stories the emotion and expressions of the characters will be all important.

Working on these competition briefs have been a bit nerve wrecking, there is an extra pressure knowing your work will be judged alongside other students work. I have tried to research the Roald Dahl Literary Estate and the judges of the competition to get an idea of what they would want from the brief as it is quite open. This is a good opportunity to get some experience and possibly some feedback in a more professional setting.

Anna Billson

Anna Billson Interview

Anna Billson is art director for penguin Random House Children's. In this interview she talks about what she looks for in a book cover.

"What do you look for in a cover design?

A connection. Something that sparks an emotion – powerfully and appropriately.
A clear vision that communicates the meaning of the book in an instant.
Beauty and originality.
Attention to detail and skill in execution.

How do you feel a design can impact a reader – either in a good or bad way?

The moment you see anything you make a snap judgement – whether you realise it or not. You can’t escape the impact that physical appearance has. However visual or not you think you are you will have a gut reaction to what you see. A cover design is no different to anything else you see in the impact it can have. A good cover design is all about kick-starting the imagination of the reader. A good cover will intrigue and inspire, tap into memories or ignite new passions. A good cover will make the words inside the book speak more powerfully. A bad cover will just stop you picking up the book!"

Anna Billson highlights the importance of book covers and talks about how much we are affected by our first impressions. A book cover needs to have an instant impact because it may only be seen in passing. It has to be able to grab your attention and encourage you to stop and look. In a book shop a cover will be surrounded by hundreds of other books competing for the attention of the customers, a cover needs to stand out for the right reasons. She talks about the cover having "A clear vision that communicates the meaning of the book in an instant." I think this is where the real difficulties begin with cover design the cover has to be appropriate to the book, it might be easy to make a cover that stands out but it needs to appeal to the same people that the book will, it needs to communicate with them and provide an insight into the narrative and tone of the book.

when creating a cover you need to demonstrate "Attention to detail and skill in execution." The cover is the first point of contact and a badly designed cover will have an impact on peoples view of the books narrative. It is the same as selling anything, I some has made a nice product but has photographed it really badly or their website is terrible it makes you start to question the quality of the products. if they haven't taken time and care with one part of their business why would I assume they have with everything else. It is the same with covers it is a representation of the book contents, it needs to create a connection instantly, be appropriate to the book and show skill and quality.

Children's Books

I have been focussing my practice more and more towards illustrating children's books. This years competition briefs are providing me with insight into the industry. So far I have been working on a book cover for 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4'. The process has helped me to learn how to work with constraints set by 'clients'. When I first started roughing out what I wanted to do with the cover I didn't realise how much text I would need to incorporate into the design. The amount of text on the front and back cover meant that it would have to be more than a consideration, it would need to be one of the main elements of the composition. I have made two book covers before but only for myself where I had full control and had very limited constraints in terms of what I needed to include. As well as researching and roughing at the start of a project I need to get used to considering product specific criteria such as who the target audience is and whether the content is appropriate. I wasted a lot of time in this project working towards ideas that were never going to work, it wasn't a problem as I have plenty of time to finish the brief but if I was on a limited time scale working for a client I would have wasted valuable time I could have used more productively. I think it is important to streamline my practice so that I can not only fully understand the brief, the product and the target audience but also be able to do all this quickly and efficiently.

I have been reading interviews with the judges for the Penguin Books student award brief. This has helped me to understand what it is that publishers are looking for in a book cover. I think it is tempting to try and tell too much of a story through the cover. During this brief I found that I was wanting to keep the illustration very simple but don't feel confident enough to do it. As this cover is for a children's book I wanted to make it a fun designs with bold colours that draw the eye and make you want to pick it up. The book as been published a number of times and has fans of all ages so the cover would also need to appeal to adults that have fond memories of reading it as a teenager, I decided to include a number of the characters from the book that hopefully capture the imagination of the people are already fans and want to read the book again. I think in a lot of occasions it is important to appeal to both children and adults when illustrating children's books, both through illustration and the content of the book itself. The parents are your customers at least as much as the children if not more. There has been a trend in books and films in the last few years that appeal to both children and adults. Neil Gaimans work is mad up of simple shapes and bold colours making up interesting compositions and funny/cute characters that I think children love but the compositions and colours are refined way beyond most children's books and appeal to adults as well.

The next two competition briefs I have chosen are both based on children's books, one based on Roald Dahl's work and the other is illustrating a book for a new author. All three briefs are based on children's books but concentrate on different elements that I want to learn more about. The first brief is concentrated on book covers the second is character development and composition and then the third is to illustrate the whole book. I have chosen this order so that I can learn along the way. I want to be as informed as possible by the time I start the final brief which I believe will be the biggest and most complete challenge. I need to do more research on the industry to find out how illustrators work with their clients and target audiences.

SWOT and PEST analysis

After the last task where we completed a Sot analysis of ourselves today we looked at Mcdonalds. I found it a lot easier to complete this analysis and be objective as the subject wasn't me and I have no personal investment in the company. I want to have a look at the official SWOT analysis that was carried out on Mcdonalds in 2013. We completed a SWOT analysis with 3 points for each of the criteria.

mcdonalds is a worldwide established brand with branding that is instantly recognisable to a huge percentage of the world population. Most people know that Mcdonalds is unhealthy and quite possibly unethical in their practcices but choose to ignore these factors and still eat at their restaurants. There have been a number of documentaries and studies about the food at Mcdonalds that could easily have destroyed smaller companies. Mcdonalds has tried in recent years to make their food more healthy or at least appear as though it is. i think there has been a swing in trend towards healthy food in the last couple of years as there has been with exercise and Mcdonalds could do more to try and match this trend through their products. Mcdonalds has stores all over the world which provides income and promotes their brand, however a big change in political or economic structures could turn this expansion into a problem for them. This leads me on to the PEST analysis.

PEST analysis looks at current events and uses them to plan for the future. PEST stands for political, economic, technological and social. Political changes can have huge implications for business. We are currently in the middle of a huge change in government regulations with the recent Brexit vote. Trade negotiations could have a huge impact on businesses that import and export goods. I work for a small shop that mainly sells imported goods, so far we have had 3 price rises before and after the vote due to economic uncertainty. The PEST analysis is more complex than the SWOT analysis because the 4 criteria overlap a lot more. Political changes can have an impact on the economy, social factors and to a possibly lesser extent technology.
Social changes can have a huge impact on a business  and it is important to understand not only the society we exist in but also how we are viewed by it to make the most of our position within it. We have to take account a huge number of aspects such as population size, religion, age ranges, lifestyle trends and consumer needs.
For many companies and practitioners it is important to keep up with technology. I work quite a lot digitally and have to keep up with the latest software and have to have equipment that can operate it. For practitioners that use more expensive equipment making the wrong choice could have huge implications. A company will have to try and  forecast the lifecycle of a technology to know whether it will be profitable in the long run.

SWOT

SWOT analysis of myself

Strengths

• I have broad range of skills including digital illustration, spray paint murals and logo design.
• I am technically proficient using digital media commonly used in the industry such as Adobe illustrator and Photoshop.
• I think my main strength is finding new ways to interpret subject matter, approaching ideas from a different perspective.

Weaknesses

• Lack of experience using traditional media such as painting and printing.
• Lack of confidence.
• I am not confident in my ability to step back and critically evaluate my work effectively, once I get wrapped up in a piece I find it hard to view it from an outside perspective to see if I have communicated the subject matter clearly/intriguingly.
• Managing to maintain the movement from my original sketches through to my finished pieces.
• Creating tone in my images that is appropriate for set briefs.

Opportunities

• Collaborating with children's book authors.
• Widening my range of skills designing clothing and other merchandise to go alongside my illustrations.
• Trying to get work experience with publishers or illustrators.
• Enter competitions and take part in live events such as thought bubble to raise awareness of my work.
• Approach creative professionals for feedback and advice.

Threats

• Not being able to break into a competitive market competing with established illustrators.
• Not having the confidence to pitch ideas successfully.
• Struggling to communicate/collaborate successfully with other industry professionals and clients.
• Not being able to tailor my work to fit a clients needs.
• failing to be responsive to ever changing trends and processes.
• Not adapting to cultural differences and expectations is a global market.
• taking professional criticism personally.

Creative Industries

I want to review my practice to see where it fits within the creative industries:

Publishing and Book Design

I think this is the sector of the industry that that I am most suited to at this time and the one I am most interested in. I would like to write and illustrate children's books. I am currently working on competition briefs based in publishing and want to develop my knowledge of it. I have been working on simplifying my work, concentrating on narrative and communication which I think make my work more suited to this sector of the industry.

Editorial & Reportage

As I said in the previous section I have been concentrating on communication and narrative which I think would make my work suitable for this sector. I need to further refine my work as I still struggle to find ways to communicate information in a single image without it becoming overcomplicated. I think finding interesting and intriguing ways to present information and engage with the viewer is very important.

Character & Narrative

Character and narrative are extremely important to my practice. I have spent quite a few years drawing characters with little to no thought about the emotion they are conveying or the narrative they are part of. for the last year and a half I have been learning to use characters to tell a story. I have struggled at times trying to match characters and my style of illustration with subject matter. I think its important that the illustration is appropriate to the subject matter and helps communicate the tone and emotion of the piece.

Product & Packaging

I think it is important to have a good understanding of this sector as it is a part of lots of different avenues I want to explore. if I illustrate books it is possible I will also be working on products and packaging to go with them. Packaging is not something I have worked on before and I would like to learn how create interesting packaging that is clear and easy to understand while also being appealing. I have made small clothing runs in the past designing screen printed items, printed fabrics, labels and some basic packaging and advertising. My experience is very limited but I did gain some understanding of how to create images for advertising purposes and some of the processes involved in producing clothing.

Mega task

Today we took part in the mega task with students from the animation and graphic design courses. We were paired up with students from the other courses and had to pitch ideas we came up with. I m not a fan of pitching ideas or public speaking in general. I am not too bad once I start but can really wind myself up while waiting to speak. It is something I need to get into the habit of doing on a regular basis even though my gut reaction is to avoid it at all costs. Having to pitch ideas does push me as I want to be as comfortable as possible with the idea and confident in it to be able to speak about it. I think today was a good exercise that introduced me people I have never spoken to before but may be working with in the future and working with people that come from different creative backgrounds with contrasting skill sets. Working in groups was challenging at times and some of the original ideas we had seemed to get lost along the way, however it was useful to get new perspectives from each individuals interpretation of the original pitch. Working in a huge group of 38 for the final video pitch highlighted the importance of communication and organisation in group work. After today I am excited and apprehensive about PPP and responsive this year but I think that is a good thing, if I wasn't being pushed out of my comfort zone I wouldn't feel I was making progress.

Study task 1

5 things I have learned so far in the programme

-The importance of communication

-Clarity in illustrations, not overcomplicating compositions to try and make them look 'good'

-To try and start a dialogue between my work and the audience

-Creating large amounts of roughs to help generate ideas.

- How to manage my time, and generate ideas more quickly

5 things I want to know more about

-How to create a business from my work

- Analogue processes that will help develop my work

- Character design- emotion

- Line quality

- Compositional tools like scale and negative space.

5 skills that you think I think are my strengths

-Digital processes

-Cartoons

-Humour

-Fine liner

- Shape based illustration

5 Things that I want to improve

-My analysis of my work, making the right choices

-Working with narrative

-Making the illustration match the tone of the subject

-Maintaining the movement from my roughs to a final image that I am happy with

-Experimenting with new media and techniques

5 practitioners that demonstrate my interest in illustration

-Jay Ryan

-Chris Haughton

- Jared Muralt

- Sven Waschk

- Brett Parsons

5 websites that demonstrate your areas of interest within creative industries

- Nobrow

- Instagram

-The Backyard Shop

-Artsper.com

-chrishaughton.com

Mega Crit

I really like this piece however the picture does not do it justice, in this photo the composition looks cluttered but the piece at the size it was designed and printed managed to maintain clarity even with the large amount of visual information it contains. The subtle variation in tones and textures is well crafted. I especially like the use of solid white on the badgers face that makes it stand out from the off white background. I think the text could play a larger role in the design, I mean it could be larger in scale and have more of an impact, having said that I like the way it has been incorporated into the composition. I like the font that has been used to write "THE TALE OF MR TOD", I often hand draw block type in my own designs as it adds a feeling of crafting to the lettering making it seem more solid or 'real'. I work with vectors quite a lot and the designs always look better when I add texture or print them out onto textured paper, it seems bizarre to choose to work digitally then add textures associated with analogue media but I think you can achieve some appealing results using these methods. its tough looking back at this image now trying to analyse it because the more I look at it the more I think the composition should be simplified and some components should be removed but I think this could well be due to the fact I'm looking at it on a small scale on a screen. I think this highlights the importance of knowing how to work within set dimensions. A composition that will work on a large scale could lose its effectiveness when scaled down. I think the furnace or the fine specifically could be made more of a centrepiece of the image, the fox and badger heads point in and draw attention to the furnace however the dark tone of the furnace makes it fade into the background. One of the problems working with a limited palette is managing to differentiate between all the components in the piece. I think the colour of the furnace itself works well but more could have been done with the flames. it is difficult to balance lots of detail in a composition like this and making a change like this could be detrimental to other areas of the composition.

Self Evalution

Presentation Slides

J R

I watched a TED talks video with an artist called JR, he used to be a graffiti artist in paris but one day found a camera and started to experiment with photography. he combined the two and started to paste the photos on walls around the city. he has gone one to post pictures up all around the world tackling difficult subjects in places that most outsiders would not dare to go. He pasted up pictures in Favelas in Rio of the mothers of people who had died in conflict with rival gangs and police. He covered buildings in photos of the women and when he finished he left without releasing any information to the press. He said this was to force the press to go to the favelas and talk to the women about their story. His Photos represented the women who suffer because of the violence in Rio but as well as creating a connection between his work and his audience he also made a connection between the media and the women in his photos. This created a dialogue where their story could be heard!

 This is a link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAy1zBtTbw

Eject

I have been looking at the work of a friend of mine that I used to spray paint with a few years ago. He works in a number of disciplines and media and has managed to create a successful market for himself decorating clubs, bars and restaurants around the country.

He has managed to create a market for graffiti artwork that provides him with a steady income and allows him to showcase his work to a large audience. he also has a clothing line and sells original art prints through his website. He uses humour and popular culture references in his work which i think make them more appealing and accessible to his audience. he works in digital media, spray paint, makes clothing and customises trainers. He has managed to apply his work to a large range of processes enabling him to increase his market and become a more effective illustrator.

Talking to him gave me a good understanding of working to deadlines and needing to be organised. He also highlighted the importance of communication when dealing with clients, you need to be able to clearly convey your ideas and be able to present your work through roughs. I need to become more comfortable talking about my work in a professional context.

Jay Ryan

Because I work all the times that I'm not in college I have really struggled to to make it to any exhibitions or events this year so have been looking through books of illustrators that I like. I bought a book by jay Ryan a couple of years ago that is still a strong influence on my work. he started out screen printing as a way to make posters to advertise his band. After a while more people started asking him to make posters for them and he became well known for his screen printed designs. I like the fact that he carved out his own niche market almost by accident through doing something he enjoyed. He now has work displayed at exhibitions and has published books of his work.

I really like his use of colour that is limited because of the process he uses. His colour palette is obviously carefully considered to highlight important areas of the composition. his use of borders and text is interesting, his text is hand dawn and loose but regimented enough to be clear and appear as a font. His borders are often made up of blocks of colour or elements of the composition and usually only frame part of the piece. By doing this he gives a feeling of a poster layout without the image feeling too generic. 

 

I think I could learn a lot about the use of texture in printing and how i can simplify my designs  From Jay Ryan's work. He works in a format that has a purpose to grab attention but also communicate a set criteria of information and he manages to do this and still make his designs appear charming, crafted and almost innocent.

Map 6

This is my final poster, I have named all the colours after areas of my practice I think are important. I tried to make the portrait section look like a Pantone colour swatch.

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to colour the image so that it was balanced and all the colour were easy to tell apart. I used codes similar to Pantone colour codes to act as a key for the painting by number. The first image I made is too complete, I was concentrating on making the image look complete rather than basing it around how I feel about my practice. As well as filling in the spaces will the things I have discovered this year I need to shrink the negative aspects that affect my work. I think the poster clearly communicates the information I want and is still interesting visually and making this has helped me prepare my presentation.

 

Map 5

This is my first mock up of my poster. I used the Pantone logo and the Crylon spraypaint logo to make it look like an official paint chart.I don't really like the black outline around the portrait and might remove it so that the portrait looks like its on a Pantone colour swatch. I think I need to use a more complex design to be able to apply enough colours without it making the image look too uncoordinated. I need tofind a way to add the colour chart in a way that looks official and is clear enough to easily understand.

Map 4

I wanted to test out some compositions for my poster. i think I should stick to the paint by numbers theme instead of using symbols and a key. I need to make sure the numbers don't overpower the line work of the portrait. I want the instructions to be clear as if it is a a real paint by numbers picture. 

Map 3

 I started working on portraits that would work as paint by numbers illustrations. I started out drawing quite loose portraits with felt tips and gradually fine tuned by designs into more detailed versions, I had to take into account how many colours I needed to make up my practice to decide how complex to make the portrait itself. I am thinking of adding branding from paint companies or colour charts such as Pantone to my poster to make it look like an official colour range based on me.

this final image is more complex and should allow me to use more colours to illustrate myself. I would like to be able to use some of the colours multiple times so that I can colour some sections of a particular colour code and leave others blank to show that i have begun to add a theory or methodology to my practice but feel I have more to add.

Map 2

These are a few of my ideas for my poster. I want to include all the things that make up my practice, my influences and my aspirations for the future. I tried come up with ideas that would allow me to iclude a large amount of information and illustrate how it applies to my practice in an interesting way. I think the crossword design is too plain, it could be interesting to use clues and not fill in all of the crossword answers as a way to engage the viewer but I think the image itself needs to be more thought provoking. The blueprint idea of a car or spaceship is a bit basic and obvious and has no real basis in my practice. The strand of DNA is a good way to show that the information in the image makes up myself as a person and as a practitioner. The idea I chose to explore further is the colour chart where the colours make up my influences, aspirations and things to avoid. I would like to combine the colour chart with a paint by numbers portrait of my self that is only coloured in in the sections i think are part of me at this point in time.

Map 1

This the map of myself that I made to help me create my illustrated self poster. I tried to find links between my personal life and my work. This year has been mainly about changing my perspective on illustration. I have been drawing for years outside of education and have become set in my ways. This year has taught me to take inspiration from a wider range of influences and to find inspiration in my life in places i would never have thought to look. i think that shared experiences can be a really powerful tool in communication and these can only be discovered by linking our own personal lives to our work.

Logos

for the visual Journal part of my COP module I looked at company logos and how they are used to signify a set of values. Once companies have built a reputation they can use these logos to communicate their brand and values to the public without the need for any other information. I started to to experiment with their logs to see if i could alter the message to my own while still maintaining the brand identity. By doing this i can use their preexisting set of values and brand identity to communicate my message.

The first image I experimented with was the KFC logo that features colonel sanders. I have used religious imagery to compare him to an angel. i think its interesting that that they share characteristics. By this i mean that both logos and religious icons communicate a set of beliefs or values using the viewers previous experiences. this taught me that i can use these same shared experiences in my work to communicate more complicated scenarios without a complex and possibly confusing composition.

These two images are both based on McDonalds logos and aimed to make people aware of the health risks of fast food. I think the bottom of the two images works well as the health risks are more clearly and graphically illustrated and the overall image maintains the brands identity. It seems to me that the logos work more effectively if they still look, even just at first glance, as though they are representing the company.

Pinterest Pictures 6

One of the Illustrators whose work i have been looking at a lot recently is Brett Parsons, he is best known for his work on '21st Century Tank Girl'. I find his work interesting because he work predominantly digitally but overlays textures that give his illustrations a hand crafted feel that is much more appealing flat vectored image. I read an interview with him where he was talking about the fact he used to work with vectors but stopped a few years ago. he said he realised there was no need for perfect sharp edges to his line work and that it was in fact detrimental to the aesthetic he wanted to create. I enjoy his work because he manages to create what appears slick and finished but does so with loose lines, I don't see many digital illustrators that manage this. The addition of texture to his work makes each layer of colour appear as if it has been applied by hand giving a feeling of depth and quality. This work particularly well because he takes inspiration from old posters for many of his illustrations which the textures combine with perfectly.

I have tried to work like this but I am struggling to work in such a loose way. I need to have more confidence and experiment more. over summer when I have more time I want to try and push the boundaries of how I work more. His choice of iconic films adds to the appeal of his work, I think his work would transfer well to clothing designs. Having produced a few clothing ranges myself I know how effective it can be to have your product associated with something. I know two designers who have done very well for themselves simple by creating an association between their brand and elements of popular culture.