Presentation Research

Monster

Monster are a London based collective of illustrators that formed in 1994. The collective was originally made up of graduates from a single institution so is a good example of how we could create a collective brand within the group. Monster have since expanded with new members from a number of institutions joining as the collective grew. The collective has worked for very high profile clients that are listed on their site. The site encourages potential clients to contact members directly if they wish to commission them, I think this helps to maintain the individual identity of each practitioner and allow potential clients to find the practitioner that suits their needs without complication or the disconnect of a middleman. Alternatively clients are offered the option to commission the entire collective meaning they can handle a job as virtually any size and timescale.

The Website showcases the members illustrations and displays contact information for each. This way they make it easy for potential clients to find practitioners even if they did not know exactly what they were looking for. The site also has a section with links to shops where members of the groups work is for sale, this provides advertising for the members and helps create a network with other businesses that can benefit the collective and all its members. Another way the website promotes a creative network is by providing links to other practitioners. I would think that this is quite bold as it could potentially lose the collective some commissions but if the other artists do the same then the work should spread between the two, this way clients can find exactly what they want and the network becomes stronger making sure all members get as much advertising and reach as possible. Lastly the site also has a blog where the members keep visitors to the site up to date with recent work and new illustrators to the collective.

As well as the site the collective promote themselves through exhibitions and products.

Venue

We have decided on The Hyde Park Book club to be the venue for our exhibition. The venue is free so we would not have to spend a large amount of money and add pressure to sell our work at this stage. It would be good to create a relaxed atmosphere to promote each member of the groups work in a relaxed appealing environment without the event being centred around selling work. The Hyde Park Book Club describes itself as a "space to come, hang out, read, write, perform, have coffee, food, wine, beers, enjoy", this makes the venue a popular part of the local create community and means it has the facilities to provide additional entertainment and food and drink. The venue often hosts bands and we could think about expanding the event to make it more appealing to a wider audience and increase the exposure to our work.

I think the most important thing we can do for our first exhibition is to create an event that does not cost a lot of money and creates a relaxed appealing atmosphere that will appeal to the general public as well as members of the creative community. That way we can aim to introduce ourselves to a wider range of possible clients and make our selves known in the creative networks. We should aim to create a fun positive event that represents us and showcases our value within the creative community.

Bread Collective

Bread Collective are a group of creatives from a variety of disciplines based in London. This 'About Us' page has a description of the collective, a summary of their history including previous work and awards and also short bios on each of the members. I like how they have shown the strengths of their practice both individually and as a collective, they have managed to include a lot of information concisely and the page is given a person touch with gifs of each of the members included with their bios. The site is kept quite simple, they have a page listing their awards, previous clients and a selection of testimonials. The combination of the three give an indication of the quality of their work and range of different skills they possess as a group. The testimonials describe them as creative, efficient, practical and a pleasure to work with. I have spoken to a few practitioners through the course of this module and they told me that word of mouth is a crucial way  for them to get more work and that your reputation is all important. Including these testimonials on the website is a way to publicise their reputation and work ethic to a wider audience. The website also includes a gallery of their work for possible clients to look through and a 'News' page covering recent work and upcoming events.

Ed Emberly

I watched an interview with Ed Emberly talking about his life and work. he talks about the importance of changing up the media and processes he uses in his books to keep him motivated and to keep learning throughout his practice. His work varies from book to book and he talks about intentionally setting out to make books that look like they are made by different artists. Doing this means that he is able to tailor his work to different subjects and find new creative ways to tackle the subject matter, this is particularly important for his books that are aimed to educational. he has made books that encourage children to create their own artwork so changing his way of working like using finger prints of simple geometric shapes. By doing this he made books that encourage creative thinking for both himself and the children learning from them. He talks about not being able to please everyone and that if you try to you will please nobody, saying that if you like his books them you will have something in common with him. I think he is right, you have to try and make illustrations understandable to the widest possible audience and make visual metaphors that are as close to universal as possible but in terms of the narrative and composition you need to have a target audience and stay true to what you think and what you like. there is a freedom and variation in Ed Emberly's work that I don't often see in practitioners work, especially those with such a long successful career, he has published around 100 children's books and I think his eagerness to continue to experiment and challenge himself has aided the longevity of his career. I often think that once you get too comfortable with a process the work becomes stale as you start to go through the motions and follow a set pattern rather than looking for new ways to work. I would like to try and find out more about Ed Emberly and I am going to try and find more interviews with him about his work and how he goes about getting his books published.

Colours may vary

I went to 'Colours May Vary' to day to talk to Andy about the book I made for 504. He gave me some advice about changes I should make if I was going to try and publish it. The first thing he mentioned was the size of the book, I had already thought that if I was to reprint the design I would make it slightly smaller. Andy pointed out to me the concertina's made by Nobrow that are smaller and printed on both sides, they have a separate wrap around cover so that the books can be infolded and used as a poster. As my book has not lettering apart from the quote at the beginning and the illustration is continuous over all the pages it could work as a single illustration to be hung on a wall if it was scaled down. Doing this would make the book multi functional and add to the appeal for potential customers. Andy thought that the grey board I used for the cover was a bit too cumbersome and unbalanced the book, it would also make it more likely for the pages of the book to be ripped while viewing it. Using a wrap around cover would make the boom multifunctional, less cumbersome and still allow me to include the key hole cover used in the original version. Andy also pointed out that due to the continuous landscape it is not entirely clear that the character is the same person throughout, I need to find a way to make it clearer that it is the same person without effecting the continuity of the narrative or overcomplicating the composition. Andy mentioned that I should state where the Neil Gaiman quote the book is based on was taken from either next to the quote or at the back of the book with other information like author, edition and other publishing information. Andy also gave me some practitioners to either contact or research that have experience in self publishing that could give me an insight into the process and possible problems I could encounter. I am going to try and contact Dan Saul Pilgrim who is a graphic designer who recently published a book using kickstarter and research the work and interviews of Ed Emberly.

Ejectos

I have been trying to get in touch with various illustrators and think I might have been aiming too high, not that that is a bad thing but I would like to try and get an interview with someone so I have started to look closer to home. I have decided to contact Eject who is a graffiti artist, illustrator and clothing designer from Leeds. We have some mutual friends and I think it could well be possible for me to arrange a face to face interview. A face to face interview will make it easier for me to ask follow up questions and steer the interview towards information that will be beneficial to my practice. Eject does a lot of work for bars and restaurants creating spray paint murals, He will have a great insight into dealing with clients and pricing. He also has a site that sells digital and screen printed artwork as well as clothing, he has managed to find a range of products that make his practice profitable. I would like to ask him about how he markets himself and what he feels makes his work stand out in fairly saturated markets.

Sanna Annukka

I have sent a letter and a copy of the book I made for 504 to Sanna Annukka. She makes shape based illustrations using both digital and print processes and applies her illustrations to a range of products. Like a lot of illustrators her work is split into two areas, Creating ranges for the textile brand Marimekko and working on her own range of prints and products. Lots of the illustrators I have been researching seem to work for a company to provide them with regular work and allow them to have the financial means to support their own practice. I would like to ask her how she finds balancing the two, and which one makes up the majority of her work. I like how she has applied her work to a range of products that suit her illustrations. I would like to ask how import she feels it is to diversify you practice and how she manages to balance this without compromising her work.

I sent a copy of my book and a letter asking politely for an interview or feedback.

Presentation Lecture

We had a lecture today teaching us how to improve our presentation skills. This is something that really worries me. I struggle with presentations and manage to wind myself up days or weeks before I know I have to do one. The lecture was very useful, Not that I'm cured of my fear of them but I now have a greater understanding of how to go about creating a presentation and what I should and shouldn't do when presenting it. Rick Ferguson made a good point that we can come up with reasons why we don't want to do presentations or learn about them, what we need to do is come up with better reasons as to why we should. I want to illustrate children's books and will have to pitch my ideas and work to publishers. I want to be able to do my work justice. if I spend all my time and effort making work that I believe in I want to be able to communicate my ideas clearly and effectively otherwise my work could go to waste.

Rick Ferguson mentioned studies that suggest the words we use in a presentation are the least important part of how we present. The most important things are our body language and the way we talk. We need to take into account the speed, volume and pitch at which we talk. He got us all to take part in an exercise where we thought of the speed and volume of how we talk as a scale ranging from one to ten. If we can understand that range and put a number on it, it becomes easier to judge what we are doing (if you know what too fast is and what too slow is you can understand how to find a mid point). We talked about replacing crutch words like "erm", "okay" and "ye" with pauses. I know from experience that it is easy to feel like you can't pause, that all pauses are signs you don't know what to say and you end up talking very quickly and the presentation becomes confusing. I think it is to do with being nervous and not being able to judge how long to pause or leave gaps between sentences.

We talked about eye contact, that it is important to maintain eye contact with the entire audience and not focus on one section of it. If the audience is a large amount of people we can separate it into sections and make sure we make eye contact with each section regularly. It is common when presenting to a small group of people to single out one or two that for some reason you are more comfortable with. It is important to make and maintain eye contact with all the people or sections regularly throughout the entire presentation.

When structuring a presentation it is a good idea to 'bookend'. Introduce a piece of information at the beginning and return to it at the end and use it to help tie up what you are trying to say. Use the 'power of three', introduce information in threes, more than that becomes confusing and hard to take in and less is less interesting and involving. Explain what you are going to cover in your presentation during your intro, that way the audience will find it easier to follow what you are saying.