Applied Illustration: Image Development

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- Process quite easy + rewarding / authentic textures and hand crafted element gives work more aesthetic value, something i appreciate in effective illustration.
- Chose to add details digitally
- Conscious of audience - using men and women. 

Applied Illustration: Image Development / Collage Process

Applied Illustration: Visual References

Screencaps from "Bryce Canyon National Park - Sunrise to Sunset Point hike through Hoodoos"

I wanted to attempt to create some mainly original imagery based on my own references, however as I don't have the means to travel to the places I'm drawing, I found youtube videos to be the next best thing. This video was really useful in giving me a sense of Bryce Canyon and small details I can add to my artwork to help it seem more realistic and well researched. When watching the video I looked for the most diverse angles and best landscapes. I think this was a really good idea, because although the majority of images on google images are similar, none will be the same as what I have captured from the video. 

Applied Illustration: Collage

In my last module submission, I was told that collage is always a great place to start in terms of generating imagery. I started exploring collage by looking into the products that Fjall Raven sell, that I intend to use throughout my book, featured in the landscapes. I found the loose, more expressive process a bit easier to get things down on paper and found that the textures and shapes look really interesting. In this project I'm really making an effort to make physical work as opposed to digitally creating it to begin with. I think that some of my collage is really effective and I'm so happy that I gave it a try, I think it could really start to drive my work.

My main inspiration for starting with collage was artist Belinda Rodriguez, mainly because I think her images are stunningly crafted and I love the effect that although her images exist as 2D they have a really authentic quality. It's inspired me to look into creating images on paper and photographing them, and then perhaps manipulating them in photoshop (as seen in the last page). I really like the technique i've used in this image, because although the majority of it is digitally painted, the use of collage adds a tiny amount of authenticity to it which I think it would be lacking otherwise. I really need to look into photography and how I can make higher quality images, as opposed to just scanning (or get better at scanning). I think that things like paper quality will also have a huge effect on my images though aswell, so that's something I need to experiment with. 

I intend to keep using collage for sure, and maybe look into paper engineering a bit more (although I am a bit concerned about time). 

Applied Illustration: Research Ideas + Plan

To start preparing for my book, I looked into various places around the world that I would be interested in using in my Illustrated Guide to nature expeditions. Because my publication will be illustrated, I had a huge focus on aesthetic qualities of each place, that would benefit the overall aesthetic of my book. Choosing places based on shape/colour/weather/climate. 

I decided that colour would and different climates went hand in hand. For a starting point, I starting looking online into the best rated nature walks/trails around the world. Each article I looked at had used photography so it was easy to judge which places I would like to start exploring. I found these 2 websites/articles particularly useful because of how they assessed each place on different aspects like temperature and climate, aswell as using really beautiful landscape photographs. 

national geographic.com & roughguides.com

Chosen Places

After looking through hundreds of articles, I found these places to be the most diverse visually (Hadrians wall + Kingsleden are quite similar) and also very highly rated as nature walks. I had a focus on the diversity of climate so that I am able to show a range of products from Fjall Raven in my publication. I also made colour swatches of each image so that I knew how diverse they would look when put together in my book. 

Proposed places for to research:

Bryce Canyon / Utah

Fitzroy Massif / Patagonia

Milford Track / New Zealand

Hadrian's Wall / UK

Kingsleden / Sweden

Responsive: End Of Module Evaluation

Responsive has been a challenging module for me. I've had gained valuable experience, creating responses within professionally realistic deadlines, ensuring that my audience and purpose have been carefully considered. My main substantial brief, the Secret7 brief was certainly a challenge, in terms of wrestling with concepts and having the confidence to say 'This is how I interpret this track'. With this brief, I found the subjective nature of it to be quite vague, leading me to base my concepts on my personal experience with the tracks, which felt a bit meaningless. Despite saying that, I really enjoyed using music as inspiration. In light of the module, I found the timing of this competition to be slightly poor, forcing me to analyse other competitions in the sessions, thus effecting my organisation in the study tasks. I'm glad I took part however, because despite any of my designs being chosen, it introduced me to album cover designing which I've never had a real opportunity to do. I think I've developed some interesting pieces for my portfolio also, which is always beneficial.

     

My other responses from studio brief 1, saw me designing patterns for wallpaper design competition, Feathr, and designing business cards for a Painter and decorator on Briefbox. Once again I was drawn to these competition s as they were processes I was new to, and wanted to try, purely out of personal interest. I find myself maintaining an interest in product design, and packaging etc, so these briefs seemed ideal. The nature of the Feathr brief was also quite vague, which at first I really struggled with. I wanted my images to convey my interests, and my tone of voice, so I felt there was alot of pressure when choosing my subject matter, which in the end was random and meaningless. There were elements of this brief that I didn't really understand fully also, despite analysing it, especially the prompt to make 'Art' and not just a decorative wallpaper design. My response for the Briefbox brief in my opinion was really effective and professional, demonstrating an ability to assimilate information from the brief and create an effective outcome. 

     

The collaborative element of this module, I found to be quite challenging - not in terms of work load, but having to communicate effectively with a creative partner, in order to make work that appeals to a range of different peoples interests. I understand that everyone has different tastes and interests, however, when choosing my partner I felt it would be beneficial to share similar ones, which in this brief, was not the case. Due to only a small percentage of the course wanting to take part in the D&AD Desperados brief, my group was brought together by default without having seen each others individual way of working, denying us the luxury of a willful creative partnership, which in the end effected our outcome. This brief certainly taught me alot about the importance of communicating effectively, and also demonstrating a level of maturity in order to get things done successfully. I think our outcomes were successful in some way as our concept was well executed and well presented, however I just feel in some aspects our submission was lacking in professionalism, completely down to poor communication. 

I have learnt alot of new processes during this module, including technical aspects like creating a repeat pattern, and using design boards. I found the idea of presentation boards to be a really effective way of delivering my journey, and making it look well rounded and professional. I feel I demonstrated a certain level of professionalism in my boards and reports, giving me confidence in using them to respond to clients. I was really happy with my groups submission boards for The Desperados brief, and think that aswell as our use of images, our choice of language used to explain and market our idea was really professional and effective. 

This module has highlighted that I need to gain alot more confidence in my work, when responding to live briefs and clients. I'm glad that I am very conscious of my audience when creating work, but sometimes I feel that I overthink my choices and become doubtful. I also need to gain confidence in my decision making, for example, when choosing briefs and ensuring that I stick to them, which I think would improve with more research and brief analysis, something I hope to improve on for future briefs.

Overall I've learnt alot, and now understand the importance and usefulness of competitions, and practice briefs. It's helped me to discover what briefs appeal to me more than others. I'm confident that I have an interest in product design and packaging, and the commercial side of illustration, which is something I intend to explore more in the near future. 

Responsive: Project Report

Responsive: Feathr - Presentation Boards

Responsive: Briefbox - Presentation Boards

Presentation boards for this project:

Responsive: Secret 7" - Evaluation + Presentation Boards

Evaluation

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this brief, as it is something that i'd be willing to explore further in my career. I found the challenge of designing album sleeves to be something that was really appealing to me and the type of work I like to make, and I really enjoyed the freedom and the interpretative nature of the competition. When designing the images, I really went off the images in my head that were popping up as I listened to the songs, so my responses are quite abstract and personal (which may be why I didn't get chosen). 

I feel that most of my responses are really effective pieces of illustration, and I think that the mixture of colour schemes, compositions (some similar), and the use of patterns look really nice as a set, which was not my intention. I wanted to take this competition as an opportunity to establish the type of work I make, my 'Style', which from looking at my submissions, I like to draw skies. I admit that I need to step away from using digital media in my artwork, however I felt this competition was the time to capitalise on what I do best and what I enjoy. I found myself tackling this project in a professional manner, actually taking the time to make schedules, and plan my days etc, in order to meet the deadline, which I am really happy about, even though, honestly, I didn't feel particularly challenged by this brief. Despite saying that, I feel that my designs are well executed and developed, which is all I could have hoped for.

If I were to take part in this competition again, there are a few things I would have changed. Throughout the duration of the project, I didn't receive alot of constructive criticism on my designs. I feel this may have effected the success of my designs because of how I was basing them on my own personal experience of the songs, and remained unaware of how my audience would view them. Truthfully, I don't think I fully understood the competition aswell. I knew the basic idea was to design 7 album sleeves, inspired by the given tracks, however I wasn't clear on a few aspects. I found designing the sleeves quite easy because of how vague the instruction of 'be inspired by this track and draw' was, as it is completely down to personal experience. I was also unsure of aspects the judges would be looking for in my designs, or if it was just objective. 

Despite not being chosen, I'm confident that I've created some interesting pieces for my portfolio and social medias, in order to start getting myself out there. 

The design boards for this brief:

Responsive: Collaborative - Desperados Brief Evaluation + Presentation Boards

Evaluation

This project has been a definite eye opener for me, especially as it was the first time I have collaborated with other artists, in a professional manner. It has taught me about a lot of things; communication, and how good communication is essential for success; maturity and the importance of being truthful and constructive with each other; and time management, an important aspect always. 

On this project, I was working with graphic designer Amelia Bramwell, and animator Gavin Rae. My role in the group was to create an image for our product, including bottle, packaging and type design, which I feel I did quite successfully. However I also had an input in the other aspects of the project during the group meetings, of which I attended every one. There were alot of meetings where there were only 2 members, which was a bit annoying, but this is mainly down to scheduling issues with the graphic design department, and couldn't be helped. 

The brief at first did seem quite vague, but the more we spoke about it, the more we got our heads around what we needed to do. We decided to create a glow in the dark campaign for Desperados including bottles, posters, promotional material like glow sticks and pingpong balls. Our idea of glow in the dark bottles was really effective, and our concept was well rounded, and linked harmoniously with the desperado's brand. I think it is an effective outcome for what the brief was asking, as from researching into colour theory and asking peers, neon colours link to the party scene so well because they are the brightest, and create a sense of excitement and energy.  Our final submission to D&AD, consisting of a 6 slide presentation and a sting, was in my opinion successful because of how we effectively presented a campaign that ultimately answered the brief. However, there were some slight issues throughout the project that I feel could've been improved by better communication. For example, the image of a Desperados bottle used in the sting, did not match the product that we had designed, which unfortunately ended up looking slightly unprofessional. I cannot fault the execution of the animation though, and think it communicated our idea really effectively. 

I don't think that the collaborative element of this project appealed to me that much, because of the added obstacle of having to communicate more effectively, as opposed to working by yourself and knowing what's going on. Although me and my team worked really hard, i do not feel that we achieved anything spectacular. However, this could be down to the nature of the brief and how in my opinion there wasn't much opportunity for creativity. 

If I were to do this brief again, I think I would like to work with more than one animator because I feel a longer and more advanced animation would have made this project stand out. 

My presentation boards for this project, based on my Individual efforts:

Responsive: Feathr - Final Design + Submission

 

These are the final images from my Feathr submission. My intention was to create a striking wallpaper that embodied elements of pop art, whilst using a carefully considered colour scheme. In terms of colour, I think the images are a bit more bold than what I first wanted, however, relating back to the brief, It maintains a bold aesthetic, and hopefully is viewed as 'Art', and not just decoration. 

my submission on the Feathr website

Responsive: Feathr - Making a repeat pattern

A video I used to learn how to create the tile for my repeat pattern

 

I started out with my initial image and divided in half, using the flip tools to position each aspect achieving perfect symmetry. 

 

I then used the pieces of the image I had already arranged, in order to eliminate what I needed so that the pattern was seamless. I didn't find this method particularly difficult, which I feel was one of the benefits of creating it in photoshop. I did find however, that when my tile was repeated, there was alot more negative space than what I wanted, so I added some small textural decoration in-between just to occupy the space a bit more and improve the pattern hopefully. I really happy with the use of texture and colour and once again feel that an authentic feel has been created. The warming colour scheme I have created reminds me of the wallpaper designs in Hollister, which In my opinion are really effective. 

I found it really interesting to see how scaling and repeating my images made such a difference, something to consider for future.

Responsive: Feathr - Digital Experimentation

At first I struggled with idea generation, as I really didn't know where to start. I understood that a motif of some sort would be a good starting point to repeat and build around. I didn't really know what kind of imagery would work best so I tried a variety of images. With some of my digital experiments, I chose a colour scheme first, and tried to draw inspiration from that. I think that the geometric shapes worked well, but didn't really have enough depth for my tastes, and they just seemed a bit random. I think the images I have created, link closely with the theme of Pop Art, which was my intention.

Practice tiles I created to get a feel for shape and texture.

I did alot of experimentation with different effects and brushes to see if it would inspire an idea and I really enjoyed this expressive quality. I think although created digitally, the use of textures gives the image bit of authenticity which is a quality I always try to incorporate into my work. On this basis, using the textural brushes, I decided to start illustrating from my reference images, and found this image to turn out quite successfully. I really like the idea of a Crab because it maintains a feel of pop art, and that sense of 'unusual objects', and it's quite an alternative image to have on wallpaper. I think the symmetry of the crab will make a really nice pattern though, and I really like the colours, which I created using the colour scheme maker. They give me a sense of warmth, which may be a positive factor, especially when considering how wallpaper changes the atmosphere of the room. 

Responsive: Feathr - Colour Research

To start this brief for wallpaper design, despite being told to make 'art', I still wanted to keep a focus on designing something that people will actually use in their homes. I felt like colour research would play a massive role in the effectiveness of my design.

I like the idea of using colour that would make someone feel comfortable in their home, so I would like to use relaxing, or warm colours.

Responsive: Feathr - Research + Initial Ideas

To get some inspiration for the brief, I looked into existing wallpapers to see how I could push my designs to the next level. When researching, I found that the wallpapers that used actual illustrations, as opposed to abstract shapes, were most effective and eye catching, and probably more like what the judges for Feathr want to see. I'm sure a pattern could be really striking, given the right colour scheme etc, however I think i'm just going to focus on making pictures which are then repeated. 

A selection of repeat patterns from Pinterest; 

by Rhona Garvin, James Tolich, Naomi Wilkinson.

I admire the contemporary aesthetic of these wallpapers the most, and love how bold the colour schemes are. I really want to explore the idea of 'unusual objects', as recommended in the pop art inspiration in the brief. I intend to take inspiration from Andy Warhol and photographer, Martin Parr, who each use motifs of pop culture in their work. Right now I think I'm going to focus on things that just have an aesthetic quality, and use them develop my images to convey a deeper meaning.

Other themes I'd be interested in exploring are space, sea creatures, plants, strange foods. My current intentions for the brief are to create a bold, carefully coloured patterns using drawings that I will probably create digitally, with a focus on creating a contemporary feel. Here I have identified some reference imagery that I think would effectively convey a Pop Art feel. I have also tried to think outside the box, hopefully so that I am able to create something quite original. I feel as though my subject matter has been chosen a bit by random though?

Inspirational images for my designs

Responsive: Feathr - Brief Analysis

I'm so glad that I found out about this brief as it looks like an amazing opportunity to get my work out there, and an exciting way to hopefully win money! The brief is very open, based on my own interests and intentions as an artist. I'm really excited about the focus on my individual ideas, as opposed to following trends.

The brief asks for a repeat pattern design that can be made into a roll of wallpaper, 50cm x 100m. I don't have much experience with pattern design, however there are alot of tips and information about creating a repeat pattern which is definitely something worth knowing for future reference.

What problem(s) are identified by the brief?

The brief asks to create a repeat pattern wallpaper design, that is art, not just for decoration. The idea is to create a pattern that people will want to use in their homes, yet still be proud of it's bold and creative flare. 

What is the brief asking you to do about it/them?

 The brief is asking me to design a tile for a repeat pattern, inspired by a range of themes, including Pop Art, Romance, Nature and Figures; a huge spectrum of inspiration that are very open for interpretation. These are not compulsory however, but I feel that they are effective starting points for my research into wallpaper designs. 

What is the brief trying to achieve?

There is a huge emphasis on creating ART and not just pointless decoration. I get the impression that the judges are looking for something that is bold, including elements that are perhaps controversial or unusual. From looking at Pop Art, unusual objects are a recurring element, which is something I intend to look into. I think it will be difficult to find a balance between powerful art and something people will use in their home interior decoration.  

Who is the audience?

I think the main audience for the outcome of this competition is most likely home owners who take pride in their homes, or use interior decoration as a way of expressing themselves. In terms of age group, I would say anyone over 20, but people who like quirky and fresh designs.

Can you foresee any problems in responding to the brief?

My only major concern is once again finding the balance between art and something people will want to have in their homes. When designing my pattern I want to stay focused on creating something that people would actually want to buy and put over their walls. Wallpaper is a strong, defining element to any interior decor, so the design must be nicely executed, with colour schemes and spacial awareness carefully considered. I am also unsure about what is meant by 'make art'  - Does 'Art' imply having a deeper meaning? creating an image that is more graphic than just a pattern? Communicates a message?