Module evaluation

It was fantastic to finally be able to bring everything together. This was a practical module interspersed with constructive and useful workshops and seminars. The tutors were knowledgable and provided excellent support throughout.

I feel as though I have achieved what I set out to do on this course and here is the evidence to support that. I still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, and am really looking forward to getting out there and making some real contacts and sharing my work with the world. An ongoing process, promoting ones own work should evolve and develop the more people you meet and the clients you acquire. I will continue to listen and evaluate my working processes and ultimately enjoy every second of my working practice.

Goodie two shoes by Kitty Skye 2014

Lecture Notes - Dolores Phelps & George Hounsome

Check iPad for more notes

3 Nov 2015 - Dolores

RGB FOR WEB IMAGES

CMYK FOR PRINTED IMAGES

Web Presence

Having own website is becoming obsolete

Google searches ought to bring up a homepage/site that shows your illustrations

Dolores is setting herself up as an illustrator at the moment so paralleling with us.

Scribing - visualising for business, illustrators (Dan roam.com) taking meeting minutes in pictures.

By visualising things is an aid to learning.

Domain name is yours forever as long as you keep up the payments.

grundini.com Peter Grundi illustrator.

ravenphelps.com Dolores' web address.

The "cloud" visual metaphor for the Internet, we don't think about the warehouses around the world full of servers and hard drives...

A domain is a name/signpost, points to where your data is kept, the hosting, they are linked.

When you upload a file, they are stored somewhere in a cloud on a server.

Some of these hosting sites cost £££, some don't.

D recommends paying for two years so you don't forget to renew it.

Free portfolio with your name + hosting company name.com

iwantmyname.com

Tumblr is a great way to have a website and you can use your domain name, cheap and reliable. Can point my domain name to any of my social networking pages from GoDaddy.

Links will be on moodle.

Online portfolio services: Portfoliobox, carbonmade, weebly. - look for reviews of ease of user interface. Portfoliobox has excellent reviews, mostly photographers, but illustrators do use it. Cargo, you have to be invited to use it, very prestigious as you have to be selected to be on it. Indexhibit, Tom Gould uses this one, clean and simple. CMS - content management system. Can synchronise all your stuff, Facebook, tumblr, website etc. Look at Adobe Behance on Creative Cloud...Foliodrop has free domain pointing. Creative cloud has Behance Pro for free.

Coroflot - people looking to hire illustrators look here, illustration cupboard - Helen Ward uses this one. krop.com. patrion.com? kickstarter.com

Olio cover competition can be submitted for this module.

And need to do a little button self portrait for contents page of Olio.

300dpi cmyk convert to RGB for web images.

Web address & email address

Task : Research into different hosting /portfolio site /domain name  configurations.

Getting a domain name - needed for Olio - make it businesslike, simple, name-based

Pros and cons of the “bespoke domain” – as opposed to a free one

Pro : have your own transferable identity

EG if you change your host the domain address doesn’t change, the SEO all still works, etc

(What is SEO? Search Engine Optimisation)

Con: you often can’t apply your domain name to a portfolio site without paying

Hosting: the cloud

Domain name: the signpost – points to the hosting, but can point to somewhere else as you change your websites

The domain can only point to one site at any one time!

Domain registration services:

https://iwantmyname.com

123reg.com . Easier to buy the two together at first.

Portfolio sites :

Portfoliobox – Free domain?

Foliodrop – free domain??

Carbonmade

Cargo collective

Squarespace

Wix

Weebly

Virb

Networkng websites:

Behance ProSite – Linked to Behance network.

Krop

Coroflot

Dribble

DeviantArt

Social media is becoming larger in terms of P&P than your site; however you should have a good, clean portfolio site as a “base camp” and somewhere that will be trawled by search engines.

Portfolio review sites: (look for more reviews)

http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/website-builder/portfolio

Crowdfunding websites

Patreon.com

Kickstarter.com

9 Nov 2015

Branding and business cards 

Packaging analysis

Waitrose Cup Soup

Slimline label design gives illusion of slimness, large lettering for calorie count. Basic Waitrose own brand colour scheme/fonts "LoveLife" healthy option impression. Font suggests quick to prepare, hand written.

Ainsley Harriot Cup Soup

Strongly branded busy composition. Strong logo, photo of Ainsley with his signature. Black background looks slick/classy. 19x name appears. Male audience, colour palette similar to Linx. Calories appear on front, photo of vegetables. 

Business card seminar. An interesting session looking at the enormous variety of designs and card formats and materials available. It was particularly interesting to see previous students business cards.
We also discussed the importance of a business card and production and looked at some samples and websites. I definitely prefer the cards with illustrations samples on them, and have decided that this is what I would like to do with mine.

17 Nov 2015 Dolores

Online printers. This was an interesting workshop, sadly I completely miss the point of the exercise and approached the task from the wrong angle! We world in groups and had to compare the pros and cons between a supplied list of printing services, from mugs, to tea towels and mobile phone covers. Our group was assigned t-shirts. I thought that we would be able to find cheaper alternative company to use for mass production, but alas, this was not the point. It was meant to be assessing them as suitable platforms for promoting your illustration work.

This is the list:

Portfolio box vs Foliodrop

London book fair - publishers portfolio workshop

Social media and digital platforms

Network: Behance vs DeviantArt

Print on demand: society6 vs

Ecommerce shop bigcartel vs shopify

Print 2 :

Skreened vs spreadshirt

DaWanda vs Storenvy

about.me vs see.me

Http:tanyadraws.blogspot.co.uk

http://thehellolovely.com

9 Dec 2015 George

A fun workshop today with a Christmas theme no less!

As groups we had to design a Christmas Card, A Christmas GIF and a branded loyalty card from a brief supplied by George who posed as a new client with a new company. Our was a new, modern coffee bar with minimalist decor, organic coffee and cakes. We discussed and brainstormed all three ideas as a group then dived into 3 pairs to produce the 3 jobs, meeting at intervals to feedback and discuss further. These were the outcomes. It was great working as a team, ideas grew quickly and dynamically, we were constructive and well balanced. 

Storyboard for the GIF

Christmas Card

Coffee shop loyalty card

16 Dec 2015 Dolores & George

Christmas homework: to work through the little handbook lovingly produced and supplied by George to assist with this module. A very informative comprehensive document, thanks George ;0)

Olio Cover Competition

Think about design ideas and complete by 4th Jan.

Olio 11 - The Eleventh Hour Cover Design - final submission Kitty Skye 2016

17th Feb 2016 - Dolores & George

Portfolio

Physical Portfolio

I was feeling excited and anxious in equal measures at the prospect of putting my portfolio together.

Excited to actually collating my best achievements into one thing for all to see.

Anxious because I wondered if there would be enough work quality enough to put in, or too much and how would I choose, and what if there is not a distinctive and unique style in my illustrations, what if none likes it etc. etc. You get the idea, and I expect I was not alone with these thoughts.

The great thing about his module is that it is practical. In as far as all you actually have to do is compile and format illustrations you have already completed. Fortunately I am vaguely anally retentive in my digital and physical filing systems, so laying my hands on my works wasn't fairly easy. Digging out work from the first year being the most challenging because it lives in the folders underneath the other two years work, and there is rather a lot! I did actually reorganise my studio considerably when I realised that access to these folders just wasn't functioning as it ought to, but its done now and so much easier. I set up folders on my computer desktop, "Portfolio FINALE" and another within this, "FOR WEB RGB".

Planning the flow and order of my illustrations

My end of year project from the first year and everything else thereafter was already in a digital format, so there was a bit of scanning in to start off with. Its great to have it all digitally now, I might scan in the other pieces at some point, as its an ideal way to back everything up, and later on I can chuck out the less exciting work and still have copies.

I did find that a couple of files were too small, and did a little dance of panic, but on further investigation found that backups of my old dongle folders (always worth keeping these, even if the work is duplicated, so glad I did!!) had earlier versions.

I then systematically opened, checked, reformatted, tweaked, resized and saved every file. Remembering to save RGB for web and CMYK for printing. After printing out a whole set I took them to show my tutor George, who advised me on what to keep/throw out and an order to display them in.

I bought some half decent paper; wanted acid free archive type printer paper, but it was not available at three different shops, and I think I will have to buy it online. That said, the prints will suffice for the purpose of presentation on 9th March.

Fun, games, and a few expletives whilst printing for real, but I wouldn't expect any less drama when printing, it always takes 4 times longer than expected and something always goes wrong. But knowing this in advance, I had allowed an entire day and was feeling pretty chilled out about it, even plonking a chair beside the printer when I had neglected to select the bypass tray and had to watch the entire contents of my portfolio print out (at my expense) on the wrong paper! Yawn.

Planning the flow and order of my illustrations

In the end it took 3/4 of the day with a quick dash to school at lunchtime to rescue a poorly child being sent home for the day. Except I had to bring her to college to finish the printing, she wasn't especially impressed, she did get lots of hugs though and has forgiven me since.

Dan Crawford, fellow illustration student, and highly repeated, by me, was enlisted to assist me with the order and flow of my illustrations. It always helps to have at least one other pair of eyes looking; particularly when you have spent several weeks staring at the same images. I knew what I wanted to achieve and it was a challenge because I have a range of styles. Each style is consistent and they are all fundamentally the same. My preference is to work with pencil, charcoal and chalk or pen and ink. I then colour these by gum arabic printing and digitally editing. The outcomes appear to me so varied. However Dan said he could see a very strong and consistent identity.

I decided to opt for an A4 sized traditional portfolio with the heavy plastic ring bound inserts. A significant change from my A1 for my foundation interview and A2 for the interview for this degree. Remembering years of carting about heavy and cumbersome folders, it was a liberating decision.

Also, considering that the majority of printed and published illustrations will be reproduced this size and smaller, it was an interesting experiment to see which illustrations still look good and which didn't.

Promotional Materials

Work and presence

Ideas - to promote my editorial illustration

promo for now

Bookmarks
Postcards
Business Cards
Mini Rome Zine
Badges
Mini newspaper

promo for later/online shop

Greetings Cards
A4 Prints:

• Woodcuts
• Risoprints
• Digital Prints

Bags
T-Shirts
Aprons
T-Towels
Mugs
Keyrings

Events

True Believers
Pop up shop/exhibition

True Believers

I would have liked to have had some A4 digital prints, woodcuts and risoprints ready for this event, but ran out of time. However, I will be building up a stock of these items to sell elsewhere in the near future. There is a feature on my website where I can build in a shop. I will calculate the postage and packing and add this on over the summer.

But to start with here are my bits and bobs, wrapped and priced and ready for Dan's True Believers Comicon stall. He very kindly offered me a space on his table for a minimal 10% sales fee, very reasonable. It felt good to see my illustrations in production. I am really looking forward to adding more items.

Blank greetings cards and business cards all ready to go.

Realistically I have to consider originality, simplicity, class and, ultimately, cost when considering items to give away for free to promote myself. Lovely objects such as T-towels and mugs are simply not cost effective at this early stage in my career, although I may produce some to sell from my online shop via my website. That said, I have just rearranged the list above into "promo for now" and "promo for later/online shop"

Children's book promotion

Hanging mobile with characters from my books - glow in the dark. I am also considering adding this as a page in the back of the published book to, "make at home".
Character badges
Mini bunting (with map pins ready to stick on the notice board in a prospective art directors office)
Bookmarks - with new words/glossary

Mini Newspaper

I am about to assemble a little newspaper using InDesign. I have done a little research online into layout and found some good tips. It could also be an interesting alternative way to present a children's dummy book. I think I will print one from the PDF I made for the MacMillan competition last year.

The layout below is an extravagant layout because the cost of print space is so high these days. But it is practical because the reader has somewhere to hold on to the publication with our obscuring the text/images. The white space serves several purposes, a rest for the eyes, and to stop the text and images "falling off the page" (1).

Update

Ran out of time for this module. However I am going to do this, as I have seen a couple produced by agencies and love the look, feel and smell of them.

From Magazine Designing

Setting up an Online shop

Wix.com has a template that I will be able to add to my existing website (already with them), to sell items adorned with my illustrations. I intend to set this up after I have handed in my final BA module in May 2016.

Wix.com online shop instructions 

Business Cards

I like the idea of producing these myself, so I had a go. Mainly because when I made enquiries about the cost of having several different designs it started to get really pricey. But hey, think I may opt for this after all. The self production of business cards was a bit of a nightmare. Double sided printing not lining up. Couldn't figure out how to print the guidelines, ticked the crop marks box, but they didn't print. Then when I cut them out they were all different sizes, aaaargh! I took them along to my presentation and, of course, the tutor was a bit surprised...not my usual standard of work...?! 

So I did them again, and fiddled around until I got them right. In the end I did get some guidelines to print but there were too many, so I popped it on the light-box with the non-guideline print outs and marked out with pencil before cutting. It worked, but I think I will pay the professionals to do this job, off to the Moo printing website now! 

Making my own business cards

Pop-up Shop & Exhibition

I popped a post on Facebook yesterday:

Facebook post

There was a fantastic response and the pop-up shop & exhibition will be certain to go ahead. I'm very excited about the prospect of this event, and of future possibilities, like taking it on a little tour, maybe Bristol, London, who knows, maybe even New York...We'll see how the Cheltenham event goes and then I'll get in touch with my contacts elsewhere to see what I can arrange...so excited (said that already, but I am!).

Ordered Mug and sent off for tea towel quote 23rd Feb 2016

Mug shot (with my daughter)

Mug shot

Mug order confirmation/invoice

Tea towels

Sat 5th March

Here is my quote from Clever Baggers. Too expensive for low numbers, but I would like to consider making these. Perhaps I will screen print some myself. I use a lot of tea towels regularly myself, so it is an object that is particularly useful and of interest to me, and it is something that you will find in almost every home.

Tea towel quote

Badges and bookmarks

These were fun to make. My little girl has a badge maker, so I borrowed this and bribed her with the purchase of further blank badge refills if I could use it.

Bookmarks are always useful. In our house there are generally at least 20 books in the midst of being read, and so we are always in need of bookmarks, and very pleased when free ones appear with a delivery of a new book or as a give-away somewhere else. We also buy them from time to time as souvenirs. That said, it was essential that I have some as promotional material. I made them slightly longer than usual, because they felt good to handle and because we have a lot of large books and I'm thinking that other people do too.

Promotional goodies made by me

Prints and greetings cards

Useful items greetings cards. I have a stock of them at home (not mine, other ones I buy when I see ones I like), so that if I have to write a note to my daughters teacher or send a last minute birthday card, there is a selection in the cupboard. I prefer beautiful and unusual ones.

Lots of friends have been asking me if I will be selling prints of my work. And yes I will. I will also be giving some away to promote myself. There are risoprints, which I love due to their ecologically derived soya inks. Woodcut prints of a shrine lion, soon to be followed by a sarcophagus lion from a Ancient Roman History museum in Rome. 

Footnotes

1. Nikola. Magazine Designing (2013)