Back to Denmark

I got a phone call from my dad the other day saying that my Grandmother has been submitted into hospital. He is a bit unclear on the details, but conveyed to me that I should get back as soon as possible. I am leaving tomorrow morning. I can only imagine that something very bad has happened to my grandmother, as he would know I am in the middle of my FMP... as selfish as it sounds, this could not have come up at a much worse time.

Easter

Our week ended quite peacefully as we had nothing planned for the last few days... and in true student fashion I decided to take a day or two off. Now that those 3 days have gone, I have begun getting all the research together for the first few posters. The first two being war and science.

It has mainly involved me spending quite a lot of time on the internet and looking through some of my old A-level text books, in order to try and get an idea of what best represents these two topics. For example for War it would be using old classics, such as flag raising at Iwo Jima and for work it would probably be some sort of soviet poster and industry cogs. I have begun sketching down the ideas I am going to use as well as stick photographs into a sketchbook for later use. In a few days time I will begin creating the actual posters. Since I have 3 weeks all to myself, now that my flat mates will give me peace a quiet (since they are all off to Germany) I can truly get cracking on my Final Major Project... especially now that all the side projects are out of the way.

Self Promotion Project Response

Today I got some very exciting news. Johann Chan the art editor for Digital Arts magazine. He sent me an email asking if I would be interested in sending them some more of my work to be part of a showcase coming up in one of their new issues. I was ecstatic to receive this news, as I did not expect to get a response for my Self Promo boxes. He also directed me to his twitter account where he had made a post of my box and its content.

I am now rushing to put together some work to send off, it would be fantastic to see my work published in such a large magazine. They have asked for 3 images, a picture of myself and a brief description of who I am and what tools I use. I managed to send this off at about 10 in the evening.

Screenshot of Johann Chan's twitter account frontpage

Guest Speaker - Fig Taylor

Today we had Fig Taylor, a portfolio consultant for the Association of Illustrators come down to visit us.

Fig Taylor (theaoi.com)

Who on a side note looks very similar to British comedian Joe Brand.

Joe Brand (thenorthernecho.co.uk)

This is not entirely relevant, but it struck me as rather comical, especially considering Fig Taylor had a delightful habit of telling funny stories and veering off into colourful French (in other words saying fuck and other such words). More than once during the talk I expected her to begin a comedy routine.

 scans from my notebook

Fig Taylor's talk was very informative, and hilarious, filled with amusing stories and swearing. Giving a lot of insight into the illustration industry, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in the US, EU and Australia. For example that the US and UK markets are a lot more competitive and specialized than the Australia. Subsequently the overall quality seems to be higher in the UK/US than down under. Her main message seemed to be that art directors have gotten lazy these days as the internet has allowed them to pretty much pick and choose any illustrator and style that they want. She also emphasized that the industry is getting tougher and more competitive. This was slightly depressing to hear as she did not exactly paint a pretty picture of what we can expect. She did give us some very good tips on what to do and not do when putting together a portfolio (all of which can be found above in the notebook scans). This is not only relevant to us as we have to use it after uni to get work, but also because as part of our FMP we need to have a portfolio as part of the evaluation.

After Lunch we sat down as a small group to talk with Fig Taylor (it surprised me we were so few, as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity). Below is the range of Images I showed her:

my (at the time) current portfolio

1. A series of commisioned images for a website

2. DVD covers done for SMILE Entertaintment Aps.

3. Sequential Narrative Project (midway here)

4. Illustrations done in 2011

5. Poster done for our 2011 Christmas fundraiser

Fig Taylor's comments when she came to mine was, that the illustration style seemed very modern and that the images were to a high quality. However she did say that the portfolio was a bit too disorganized. For example she said that it was a bit pointless adding in the DVD covers, as they seemed out of place compared to the rest of the work. Overall it has been a good day, and given us the point that for our FMP everything that we put into our degree show needs to be relevant... more or less. But to definitely avoid throwing in random things for absolutely no reason. 

Feedback - Self Promotion

 scan of the week schedule

I feel more or less recovered today and went into uni, and upon getting into the studios I was delighted to hear that my Self Promotional Project had been received by the tutors. I was worried for a second that mine was the mystery package that the tutors were asked to pay delivery for, as mine had not arrived and the package description matched mine. Derek was able to give me some feedback, his main criticism being that the box seemed to be lacking in content. To explain he did enjoy its contents, but the box was deceptively big for its content and might leave the receiver disappointed upon opening it. He did comment that he really enjoyed the design of the box itself, and liked the idea of the badges, as an extra freebie. I will have to keep that in mind next time I make some or if I do any for the degree show.

My tutor Ceri told me that Fig Taylor from the AOI (association of illustrators) would be visiting tomorrow and give a talk to us about going into the industry after graduation. She also told us that there would be signup sessions in which Fig Taylor would look at our work/portfolios and render judgment. Needless to say that this is a golden opportunity, and I spent the night preparing what I have to show her. Mainly cleaning it up a bit in photoshop and making a selection of images.