Palm Tree Development

Palm tree experiment. One of the leaves is an arrow, and I'd like to incorporate the words "Alternative route", which is the title of the article. I did the arrow in pink to add a bold spot but as it is meant to be an arrow leaf, I'm not sure if it should blend in more, though I guess it could show the difference between other countries and Malaysia. I'm not sure how I should add the text yet.

Camera Final Image

This is just about the final image of the camera. I think it definitely needs something over the top of it though I have not decided yet whether that will be text or an image. I am quite pleased with the results, especially as I have used a water colour pattern, which I have never used before but I do like the effect it achieves. I also like that it isn't neat and the pattern that I achieved was random, as it takes the control out of my hands, which I think gives a more natural and organic look.

Camera Development

I was wondering if the colour of the flowers were too harsh against the paleness of the water colour pattern. I think this blends in a little better but I'm still not entirely sure.

Camera Development

This is a slight variation to the previous image, in that I have faded some of the water colour pattern out and moved the larger painted section to the left. I really like this image but it is definitely missing something. I was thinking of tracing a map of Malaysia to put in the lense but I'm not sure if such a defined image would spoil the look of the piece. I was also thinking of text but it would be difficult to choose a font that would blend with the serene look of the image.

Camera Development

I am trying to make the water colour pattern look a little more natural which is why I haven't confined it to a rectangular shape. I do prefer this as it looks more organic but I feel that it is now missing something underneath. I am wondering whether or not to put the entire image within a square bounding box, to define the image.

Camera Development

Further development of the camera idea. This one uses a water colour pattern which I did. This is a rough version containing this pattern but I definitely want to use it somehow and I like the idea of having a block shape in the background so that the image doesn't look likes it floating.

Camera Development

Another camera development. I much prefer the flowers getting larger, like on this image, as opposed to the previous image, as I think it looks more lively. I added the transparent flower to add depth, I think that I like it. As the main body of the camera is quite plain, I was considering adding text saying something like "Welcome to Malaysia" but we'll see how that goes.

Camera Development

This is for the Nylon article. I am keeping the same colour scheme throughout to in keep with the theme. I want the camera to be quite subdued and the burst of colour will come from the flowers, I'm just not too sure where to put the flowers.

Teacup Final Image

This is the final teacup image or at least very close to it. I have split the pink leaves up by using a blue colour and I have added a shadow-kind of layer behind the blue teacup. I like this image though I may need to work a little bit more on the grey shadow.

Teacup Development

I liked the original teacup idea that I came up with but I feel it looked a but flat, so I am experimenting with ways for the image to look more mature and finished. I like the paint drops that I have used in the background as it adds a bit more depth.

Lucia Gaggiotti

A couple of years ago, I bought a pack of Artisan Biscuits from Selfridges because of the beautiful packaging. I emailed the company to find out who illustrated it and they were no help at all but I have finally found the illustrator after seeing one of her illustrations in Elle Decoration magazine. These images are for Artisan Biscuits. I really love the textures within her work and the colours, which remind me of older illustrations from the 1970's, possibly.

Visit her website: LUCIA GAGGIOTTI

Big Orange: Andrew Pavitt

Big Orange is a studio is Shoreditch, London, which is partially shared with the Association of Illustrators which is useful to share the rent and to gain valuable advice, where illustrators pay £200 for shared use of equipment, set-up, cleaning and the phones. This environment is useful to the illustrators as you are able to feed ideas off of each other and get advice and working freelance can often be lonely and make you quite insecure.

Big Orange was set up 15 or 16 years ago with illustrators, such as Darryl Rees, who now runs the Heart Agency, Dan Williams, who now teaches in Glasgow, and Tom Morrison, from the Royal College of Art. Andrew Pavitt joined about 6 years ago. When setting up a studio, location is important though it is not everything. There are now good studios within the Manchester area. An important part of being an illustrator is self-promotion. You need to make people aware of who you are on a regular basis to ensure commissions.

Peepshow is a similar studio set-up. The advantage of joining a studio such as Peepshow or Big Orange is that it is already established and you are able to share contacts with each other, though you should also make an effort to gain your own contacts.

Another advantage of the Big Orange studio is that its working hours are 24 hours. This is extremely useful as you are able to get work done at anytime in order to meet short deadlines. This is also relevant when working with contacts outside of the UK. If you get a commission for the US, they will not take into account the time difference, which means you may need to work through the night to get work done. An advantage of working with US contacts is that the pay is often double that of what you would get in the UK.

A disadvantage of working within a studio with other people is the dynamic can often be too much and if personalities clash, this can cause tension for everybody else.

Book Cover Image

I saw this image on the Inspiration Resource blog, which I follow, and though it is not normally an image that I would like, this really stands out to me. I think it is because it is so simple yet well thought out. The hand-printed text is beautiful and it just really stands out to me (though I do find the face a bit freaky!).

Debbie Greenaway Response

Dated: 21.04.09

Hello Leanne,

Sorry for the delay in replying to your questions. I have completed the first draft and will return to finish it after work tomorrow. I will tidy it up and correct my mistakes and will then email it to you. Hope this is ok? I am sorry I have been late once again in answering your questions.

debbie x.

Elle: Couple & Ribbon Idea

This is an idea that I have had for the Elle article from a quote within it: "Tied together the whole way." I initially did the ribbon by hand so that it was quicker but I like how it looks compared to the block shapes. I think I would like the develop this idea further.

Elle: Rosette Idea

This is a little idea I came up with for the Elle article: Mourning the death of my first love. The rosette idea is meant to represent the "1st love" idea but I think it might be too inappropriate to put a rosette, often representing achievement, to an article about cancer and death.

Person Idea

I have never really illustrated people, as I find the shape difficult, so I am trying to simplify the image using block shapes for my work. I hope to eventually combine the person with layers, Illustrator lines and texture.

Debbie Greenaway Response

This is the response that I got from Debbie:

Hello Leanne,

Thank you for your email and your questions. I am ok, thank you for asking. I have just finished working at the cafe and have some prep-work to do for tomorrow in the printroom so I will answer your questions tomorrow evening. Is that ok?

Hope everything is going well. I keep popping by your blog as and when I can.

Take care.

debbie

I responded:

Hi Debbie,

Tomorrow would be great. Thank you so much, Leanne x

True Blood Opening Titles

This is the opening sequence to an American TV series called True Blood, about the integration of vampires into the public. I think the titles are really cool, the photography reminds me of that from Lula Mag as it has an older, nostalgic appearance. There are also a lot of religious references in it. I also think the type is really cool, as it is not generic, and looks as though it has been created for the purpose of this series. The lettering has a handmade appearance, as not all of the letters look the same.

Debbie Greenaway

I have sent the following email to Debbie Greenaway. Debbie is someone that I have been in contact with since I saw her work at the New Blood exhibition in London and she's a really lovely person.

Hi Debbie,

How are you? I'm sorry that I haven't emailed in so long but I have been so busy with my major project. Anyway, I hope that it is still okay to ask you some questions regarding you and your work, and I apologize if I have already asked any of these questions in the past! So...

1) What made you want to be an illustrator?
2) Who are your main style influences?
3) What outside interests do you have?
4) How have you found getting work as an illustrator since leaving university and what ways do you promote yourself in order to gain commissions?
5) How would you like your work to progress in the future?
6) If you were not an illustrator, what would you want to be?
7) Do you think that you will always be an illustrator or do you have another career path in mind?
8) What context do you think best suits your work? (i.e. editorial, children's books, book covers, etc.)

...And I think that is all I can think of at the moment. Some of those questions, such as "do you always want to be an illustrator" are currently on my mind as, even though I am so close to having a degree in illustration, I am not even sure if that is what I want to do anymore. I'm not sure if I have what it takes to work freelance and I am thinking about trying to get experience as a graphic designer, but who knows?!

Anyway, I hope you are well and hope to hear from you soon,
Leanne x

Cheryl Taylor

I have sent the following email to Cheryl Taylor:

Hi Cheryl,

My name is Leanne and I am in the final year of the Illustration course at Stockport College.

As you were a student at Stockport College, your work and career is of great interest to me and I understand that, not only are you an illustrator, but that you work full time as a graphic designer. I would also like to say that I really enjoy your work and that it is fantastic to see that you are enjoying success.

Currently, my interests are lying more within the area of graphic design as well. I was hoping that as part of my research, you could please tell me a bit more about yourself and your creative process. Also, I would like to know how you distinguish your graphic design work from your illustration work and how do you find the time to do both?

Any information that you can provide me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time,
Leanne.

Lula Mag

I have sent the following email to Lula Mag:

Hello,

My name is Leanne Hughes and I am about to finish a degree in Illustration at Stockport College in Manchester.

The brief for my major project is to illustrate magazine articles and during my research, whilst looking at unusual and well-designed magazines, I came across Lula.

I was hoping that, to aid my research, you could please provide me with any information about the creative approach that you took in order to position yourself within the magazine industry and make you stand out, and how difficult was it to set up a new magazine, especially given the current economic climate? Also, how do you see the magazine progressing in the future?

Any information you can provide me about your magazine and the design aspects of it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for your time,
Leanne.

Issues and Practices Essay

Lone wolf or gang warfare?

The tradition of the illustrator working along seems to be changing, increasingly illustrators are forming collectives and working together in studios, give examples of set up and compare and contrast. What are the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each method of working? Which approach do you feel would be most desirable for you?
“The notion of groups of illustrators collaborating on one commission and forming a collective is a growing trend. There are obvious advantages to working collectively: increased thinking power; support from other members’ camaraderie. But are there any benefits to clients in commissioning a collective? And can a team with a multiplicity of voices communicate as effectively as a solo illustrator?” This is a quote from an issue of Varoom, a magazine that specialises in issues within illustration and design. One of these issues was about the growing trend of illustration collectives. Nous Vous, Rinzen, Elvis Studio, Peepshow are just a few of the emerging illustration and design collectives that are featured within the article and that are also finding success within the design industry.What are the advantages of belonging to a collective and how can this improve your chances of getting commissions? It is easy to understand why working with other people is appealing. You are able to think of more ideas, offer advice, improve upon work; you can leave your comfort zone and create work that otherwise you would never be able to create. I think that this would be appealing to potential clients as being part of a collective is a way to create work that is always changing and that is totally different to what has been seen before. I also think that it could possibly be seen as a novelty to commission work from a collective as this is still a fairly new trend within design. Personally, I could imagine myself working with another person to create illustrations, but I think that I could only work in a group with a maximum of three people. I feel that a collective such as Peepshow, which has 10 members, is just too many people and it would be at that point where I feel that the disadvantages would become apparent.Headaches, disagreements, arguments, falling out with your friends, differences of opinion, balancing the amount of work, criticism. These are just a few of the disadvantages of working with other people. This is the reason that I couldn’t work with a large group of people, as it would be too stressful to meet everyone needs, but if you are not fully comfortable with a person, this can result in a personality clash, which could be devastating to the business. I also do not like the idea of your voice going unheard and when there are so many people working together, it only takes one person to take aggressive control and the whole objective of creating unique work within a group is gone. In terms of how this could effect a client, the problem with a collective is that each person could interpret a brief differently and the message could become unclear.Due to our advanced communication technology, it is easy to correspond with people all over the world, and this is also something that crosses over into illustration collectives. A collective such as Nous Vous all live and work in Leeds, whereas Rinzen are based all over the world in Berlin, Brisbane, Melbourne and New York. Though at first this may seem like a hard way to work as there is no human contact, everything must be done either over the phone or the internet, I think that it allows a certain freedom from the people you are working with and the images you are creating, allowing you to think more clearly about the work as you are not distracted by personal issues. But it is easier to communicate an idea in person, so I think that there are benefits to working together and being able to work together over a great distance. Personally, after comparing the advantages and disadvantages of working within an illustration collective, I can imagine myself working with one other person as I like the idea of creating totally unique work through a combination of styles but I would still want to continue creating work by myself as I would not want my identity and my style to become lost through the process of a different working technique. Though illustration collectives are still fairly new, I think that they are a good way of working as they can produce innovative and distinctive work and it is something that I am definitely thinking of experimenting with in the future.

Word Count: 782 words

Practitioners Essay

Compare and contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners, to what extents are they defined by the external rigours of the market place/industry they operate in? Upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice?

The two practitioners that I have chosen to compare in response to the question above are the illustrator Gillian Blease and graphic designer Darren Scott, from Truth design consultancy. I feel that choosing these two very different people who practice within different areas of design is very relevant to me personally as, though I do have an interest in illustration and will have soon have completed a degree in the subject, I feel that my future interests lie within graphic design.

Gillian Blease is a freelance illustrator who most notably creates work for the Guardian. Within the three years she has worked with the newspaper, she has created approximately 150 illustrations for recipe, health and relationship columns. Gillian began her career when she completed a foundation year at Manchester Metropolitan University and progressed onto a four-year Fine Art degree at Newcastle University. At the beginning of her career, due to a 6-week trip to Japan, she was influenced by Japanese culture, such as the use of colour, design and symbolism. She doesn’t have any formal illustration training but instead completed a crash course in Illustration through the Association of Illustrators and began to build up her portfolio by setting herself briefs. Her design influences include Paul Rand, Claus Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Julian Opie and due to her interest in producing patterns, her pattern influences include Paul Rand’s “Abacus”, Joseph Frank and Norman McLaren. Within her own work she likes empty space as imagery “sits better if it has some space”.

I like the work of Gillian Blease, due to its simplistic nature and ability to send a clear message but I think sometimes her work can verge on being too simple, which I think can look boring. I think that it is fantastic that she enjoys success as an illustrator, especially as she is self-taught and I find it fascinating that a lot of her current work, that can be found in newspapers, gains her new clients so that she doesn’t really have to promote herself.

Darren Scott of Truth design consultancy began his career by studying a Design Practice degree at Salford University. He had an interest in typography and when he left university he set up Darren Scott Typographics, a type foundry. At this time he created such fonts as Circuit, Sodium, Bad Angel and Rub-On. His influences at this time were David Carson and Eric Speakerman. Darren eventually began working for McCann Erickson, the biggest ad agency in the world, and he began to create corporate design for big international brands. He helped to create the famous All:Sports logo and the photographic styling. He also helped to create the Christie’s “Embrace” logo, his last brief for McCann Erickson.

Darren set up his own design studio, Truth, with the former account director at McCann Erickson, who runs the business, whereas Darren is the designer. The first brief at Truth design studio was for The Authentic Food Company. The final design reflected world food and travel, and as it was a global brand, he created pictograms that could easily represent the company.Through Truth, Darren redesigned the brand “Fat Hog”, which sells painting supplies. As this brand could possibly expand in the future, Darren created a very simple logo that could be used on clothing, as well as packaging. He created something that was very striking, as he wanted it to stand out amongst the other brands out there.I went to this lecture as I have an interest in type but I found it fascinating, as I have never had the opportunity to meet someone prominent in the advertising industry. It was interesting to see how his passion for typography has bled into commercial work, to the point where he might create a full typeface for a campaign. I also felt that Darren was very wise in the advice that he was giving, and though he fell into the industry quite quickly, he knows what it’s like to struggle to find yourself after leaving university. One important piece of advice he gave was that when you meet someone in the industry; always ask for six more names that could be helpful. If those six names each gave six more names, you could quite easily get yourself known to the people who matter in design, and this would hopefully result in work. I really enjoyed this lecture, as Darren not only spoke about design work, but about how him and his work fit into the industry, and gave advice and how to promote yourself.

Gillian Blease and Darren Scott are truly individual people and successful within their area of design but due to my ever-expanding interest in graphic design and my confusion as to whether I wish to have a career within illustration a few questions are raised. I wonder if graphic design, as a career option, is the best decision. When you create a brand, you create an image, a feeling, a memory. It can stay with people for years and can bring about a feeling of nostalgia. Advertisements are there to be remembered. They are motivational tools to embed a message into the mind of the audience. And then I compare this to illustration, or at least to editorial illustration, which would be the career path I would choose if I wanted to be an illustrator. They are small images to break up the text and possibly make it clearer. A newspaper isn’t a precious item. It is thrown away almost immediately. It is disposable. Do readers even notice these illustrations? Darren Scott, within his lecture, said that he doesn’t think it is good to have one particular style, as if you learn all your crafts, such as type, illustration and photography, it gives you more room to experiment and the ability the learn to understand it. It is clear to see this expanse of techniques within his work, whereas the work of Gillian Blease contains no variety. It all looks the same. The main thing that I have learnt from the lectures was from the Darren Scott lecture: “Have passion, enthusiasm and confidence about your work.” It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, but the most important thing is that you are passionate about what you do.

Word Count: 1083 words