PROJECT REPORT

During this module I have tried to make sure i've completed a range of briefs, including commissions lives briefs and self directed briefs to best explore my practise. After struggling a lot last year in my personal life, I found it really difficult to put my all into my work; this year I have been able to manage my mental well-being much better, which has meant I have been able to focus more on producing work which I love. This has been a breath of fresh air to me, and for me this year has definitely been the best yet. My aims at the start of 603 were to try and experiment with a range of different processes and ways of image making to explore how my work fits into the illustration industry. I wanted to create imagery that I felt best represented me as a practitioner, and I wanted to produce work I felt proud of. I found that shape, colour and composition are probably the three most important aspects of my practise. I started off the year quite slowly, testing out some coloured pencil drawings, and found it did take me a bit longer to properly get stuck back into my practise, and I also found it quite difficult to manage my time when I was completing the COP module; though after this was handed in, this is where I really tried to run away with my practise.

Something I have become a lot more familiar with over this module has been screen printing, which is something I never thought I'd say. After having so many unsuccessful attempts and producing screen prints I wasn't happy with in the past seemed to really put me off; but I was determined to give it another go and now I feel it's one of the most important aspects of my practise. I have been exhausting my sketchbook and filling it with ideas and roughs while planning for screen prints, to make sure i'm completely happy with how it looks before attempting to print. I also made sure I gave myself enough time to carefully familiarise myself with the process to reduce the chance of something going wrong. I've learnt that to produce a good quality screen print you have to spend time on each and every part; cleaning the screen, mixing colours well and registering each layer, but it has certainly become one of my favourite ways of image making. Some of the work i'm most proud of from this module have been screen prints, one of them being my Batsford prints, so I'm hoping I am able to carry this on into my professional career after uni.

Another quite large chunk of my module was a collaboration I took part in with a third year graphic designer, Beth Ewens. The brief was to re-brand a small coffee shop in Leeds called Pump N Grind; and this was probably my favourite brief I worked on. From this I gained valuable experience collaborating and communicating with another designer, and we worked efficiently together to meet the deadlines we both set for ourselves. I explored processes such as vinyl cutting and mural painting which I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to do otherwise. I found myself fully invested in this project from start to finish, and seeing my work in the real world has given me a massive confidence boost.

Another set of smaller briefs I really enjoyed were some commissions I did for Banger Magazine; again, I learnt to manage my time well within these briefs as I had to work to quite tight deadlines. This has also been an opportunity to practise my digital skills and to see how my work fits into the real world, and seeing my work alongside other illustrators and beautiful graphic design in the magazine has been really pleasing. A brief I didn't enjoy was the Renewi brief, I didn't enjoy the ideas process nor did I like my final outcomes which put a bit of a downer on me briefly. I have learnt from this not to partake in live briefs which I don't think suit my practise, as I felt like I wasted time which could have been spent creating or experimenting with something beneficial to my practise.

Every piece of work I have produced, every mistake and every success, has led up to how I feel as a practitioner now. This is probably the first time since beginning uni that I have felt like an illustrator. Currently I'm in the process of exploring 3D wooden figurines which I'm feeling very positive about and is definitely going to be something I'm going to move forward with, and hopefully exhibiting in the end of year show. I feel confident in the fact I've explored composition, shape and colour within my work through this module, which is something I set out to do from the beginning. I also have some exciting commissions coming up which have materialised from other work I have created in this module, and I am hoping to carry on selling my screen prints.

DIGITAL PRINTS DESIGN BOARDS

SELF PORTRAIT DESIGN BOARD

WOODEN FIGURES DESIGN BOARDS

PUMP N GRIND DESIGN BOARDS

BATSFORD CRAVING COLOUR DESIGN BOARDS

COUPLES SCREEN PRINT DESIGN BOARDS

SQUARE BOYS DESIGN BOARD

RENEWI DESIGN BOARD

BANGER MAGAZINE DESIGN BOARDS

FINAL MEGA CRIT

• I'm feeling really pleased about all the lovely comments I have got in my final crit. I like that people noticed the colours, shapes and playful nature of my work; this is what I'm aiming for in my work
• It was really nice having a look at everyone else work and being surrounded by so many amazing things! everyones work looked so professional
• It was nice to get a few comments about my wooden figures i've been working on recently. I'll definitely be carrying on producing them, and someone mentioned making them on a larger scale which is something i'm going to experiment with

WOODEN BOYS

• This is a pair of wooden figures I created on a slightly larger scale than my previous one. I found it a lot easier to paint the bigger spaces although it still did take quite a long time to complete it
• I made this to match one of my screen prints so I can present them together at the end of year show. I'm hoping to make a few more wooden figures for the show as well as the two i've already made
• I love giving my characters life and turning them into real 3D objects! It's so exciting to see how they translate 
• Hopefully in the future I can make enough of these so I can potentially start selling them

MY FIRST WOODEN FIGURE

• YAY !! I have finished my first wooden figurine all painted and everything. I made sure to paint both sides so it looked the same from any angle. it's so nice to hold something psychical in my hands that i've put so much thought and time into
• it actually stands up on its own but it's still a bit wobbly so i'm thinking about making a little stand for it as well and glue it on top
• I used tester pots of wall paints to paint this as I did have a go at painting them with acrylic paint and it didn't sit nicely on the wood at all. I don't know whether this was the quality of the paints I used or just the fact the wood was quite textured. but the wall paints work perfectly and they're £1 from wilko and the colours come out so vibrantly
• I made it quite small but I think I could develop this into a bigger figurine!
• I think these will be perfect for the end of year showing so i'm planning on making a few of them to match some of my prints to sit alongside side them at the exhibition 

SELF PORTRAIT

STRENGTHS:

• I developed my self portrait from a coloured pencil drawing I did at the beginning of the year. It was an image I really liked but sort of neglected it until now, so I thought it would be perfect to use it for my self portrait as I feel like it represents my practise well
• I wanted to almost match it to my other work as I thought this is the way I could best represent everything. I stuck to quite a simple colour scheme but used some colours which I frequently use
• I wanted to make it slightly quirky to make for a more interesting image which is why I included the long twisty arms
• I used a couple of different colours of stock to see how it would look. I do think the white stock is probably the strongest image so this is what I have used for my final, although I think the coloured ones will make quite nice mini prints which I could think about selling

WEAKNESSES:

• Although I think it reflects my practise well, it's not really a great 'self portrait' as it doesn't look anything like me; which I'm not sure is really a weakness as the task was more about producing something to represent my work

Pump N Grind: FINAL IMAGES & EVALUATION

view from the front door of the shop

front of the shop. door & window vinyls

window vinyl & shadows with a flat white

close up of window vinyls from the outside with my instagram name

menu vinyl on the back wall

re-deisgned chalk board & logo/opening times vinyl

EVALUATION

Strengths:

For this project I collaborated with a third year graphic designer, Beth Ewens. The brief started off with re-designed Pump N Grinds coffee bags, and ended up with a re-design of their coffee shop, which is based in Hyde Park, Leeds. For me this has probably been my favourite project I have worked on to date, and being able to work alongside Beth has been such a pleasure. She is driven, organised & hard-working and together we were extremely efficient trying to complete this project while we had other deadlines going on. Communication with Beth throughout the entire project was easy, and we talked through everything to make sure we were on the same page about things. Making decisions between the two of us was also something that seemed to come quite naturally, for example we spoke briefly about the possibility of drawing my illustration onto the front window with a paint pen, but after a quick chat we realised how much more efficient it would be to use vinyls. Overall we are both super happy with how the cafe looks, and personally I feel really proud. It's so nice to see my work in the real world and I think I have gained some valuable skills from working on this, especially my confidence in my work after getting some positives feedback from Pump N Grind. Also, after the Pump N Grind instagram account posted a picture of my work in the window and tagged me, I received an email from a similar cafe asking about a commission, which is really positive. Time management wise it took us about 2 weeks to complete everything; we originally thought the installation process would only take a day, but it ended up taking 3 so I think from this we've both got a better understanding of how long these type of things take. I'm really glad Beth was happy to help me paint the mural as I can imagine it would have taken much longer without her. This project has completely changed my opinion on collaborative working, I am definitely a lot more open to it in future projects after such a positive experience. 

Weaknesses:

Although I am completely happy with the interior of the cafe and the view from the outside when the shutters are up, it's a shame we weren't able to re-paint the shutter to tie everything in. We did decide together that this would have been far too much work for both of us to take on before deadlines, which is a shame because I think it spoils it a bit when the shutter is down. We have said though that this is something we could potentially do after we have handed in and have more free time. I also would have liked to have a bit more time to think more about the stickers; we did make a couple of stickers but it would have been nice to be able to make some that differed from the logo and an illustration already seen in the cafe. The quality of the paint we used for the mural was also something I thought was a bit of a struggle, as it was quite thin and the colours came out a bit darker than expected; this can be take into consideration for future projects though where there will hopefully be a bigger budget for resources. 

Banger Magazine Issue 2

• got sent the digital mock-ups for the second issue of Banger today which I did two illustrations for and I am sooo pleased! I think they look amazing and I'm so happy to be a part of such a beautifully well designed magazine. The colours that have been chosen by the designer are so vibrant and the contrast makes everything stand out so well
• it's also so exciting to see my illustration as a part of it. I think they fit in so nicely and have been placed really well. it's also great to see my work alongside other brilliant illustrations!
• I'm happy I persevered with my Frankie Cosmos illustration as it actually fits in really well, especially the colours which match perfectly.
• i've also been told the magazine is going to be in a few shops, including Rough Trade on brick lane in London which is fun. i'm really excited about the potential of working with Banger Magazine again in the future as I've thoroughly enjoyed working on these briefs

DAY 3 AT PUMP N GRIND

Our third and final day working at Pump N Grind was just a case of finishing off the mural and a few other little bits. We spent the majority of the day finishing off the big colour blocks, and then went back and cleaned up some of the edges that were a bit messy. I was kind of sad when we finished as i have thoroughly enjoyed working on it, all I want to do now is paint murals! it was such a good feeling once it was done though.

me with the finished mural

there was a couple of other things we finished before we left. Beth re-wrote one of the chalkboards below after we had re-painted it with chalk paint. We wanted to complete little things like this to make sure everything ties in with the new look. It definitely feels a lot more contemporary 

something else we did was print out a bunch of stickers for them. we used the illustration I did for the menu, and the type & the bear from the logo we created. We stuck a couple of these around the shop on the the coffee machines, and left the rest there for them to use. We mentioned it might be nice to give them out to customers who donate £2 to the suspended coffee board. 

DAY 2 AT PUMP N GRIND

Our second day at Pump N Grind. Our main task was to get the mural done so we got started as soon as we got there. As a lot of the shapes on my illustration included straight lines, we used masking tape around each area of the colour we were using. We also quickly realised it would be super helpful to have a mini paint roller, so I quickly popped to the mini hardware shop down the road and picked one up; this ended up being a life-saver and sped up the process a lot!

We were pretty rapid at filling in the bits between the masking tape, though it was slightly more difficult getting the curved lines as neat as we wanted them. Again, we definitely underestimated how long this was going to take, and as the day was coming to an end we realised we'd need to spend another day completing it; even though we're both pretty busy with deadlines coming up, I think we were both secretly happy to have another day painting, it's not really something you get to do everyday and it's quite relaxing. Also the cafe has a really laid-back vibe so it's a nice place to spend time; plus free drinks!

DAY 1 AT PUMP N GRIND

This will be a quick run through of mine & Beth's first day installing our work in Pump N Grind. I knew it was going to be quite a hands-on day which I was quite excited about, as it's not the kind of thing i've ever really done before!

I met Beth in the morning just after the cafe opened to give ourselves the entire day there. We sat down and had a coffee before we started, and actually watched a couple of youtube videos on how to put vinyls up as neither of us had done it before. Though it seemed straightforward, we were conscious about messing up as we wanted it to look as professional as possible. We started to start off with the door vinyls, which were the opening times and the logo. We had to get these super straight so we downloaded a spirit level app (who knew) and spent ages making sure it was level. Eventually we got there and it seemed to go pretty smoothly!

Next we decided to put up the vinyls in the window. This was more difficult than we anticipated as it was tricky to get them straight because they were a lot bigger. We worked out the best way was for one of us to hold it while the other stood back to see if it was straight. We decided to place them just above where the table was, which was handy as we could kind of use this as a guide. Once we had got one on it was a lot easier to do the other!

After we had installed the window vinyls, as it was a sunny day we immediately noticed the shadows it made on the table inside! This was something we didn't even think about, but I think it really adds to it and makes it much more interesting. The placement of the vinyls was perfect as well, they almost look like they're dancing on the tables!

we then put up the menu vinyl. This was also pretty difficult as we didn't really have anything to line it up with to make sure it was straight apart from the top of the letters. As well as this, the size of it and the fact it was being put up in a pretty awkward place didn't help. 

Once it was up though it was worth the struggle!

neither of us really thought how long any of these bits would take, and it turned out they took a lot longer than we realised; they shut at five so at this point we were a bit pushed for time. We were planning on starting the mural that day but we quickly realised that wasn't going to happen. I did get it all drawn out on the wall while Beth re-wrote some of the chalk boards in the cafe. I found it so difficult to draw the mural onto the wall freehand, but we worked out this was the only was it could really be done with the time constraints. 

 one of the signs Beth re-wrote:

At this point the day was coming to an end, and we agreed we'd come back in a couple of days when it was next open and get started on the mural. I actually had a really nice day and had so much fun working alongside Beth, we definitely have a really good collaborative dynamic going which I'm so pleased about, I find her so easy to work with. We celebrated with a nice cold drink. 

Pump N Grind: CREATING A MURAL

For the mural part of my Pump N Grind brief I wanted to create something bold, simple and eye-catching. I also wanted it to tie in with other bits of the cafe I had re-designed, so I took three of the figures from the window display and stitched them together to make something I could trace over in Illustrator. I knew I wanted to come up with something bright and colourful, so I went with using block shapes instead of the line drawings. The wall was 2 metres high by 120cm across, so I knew I had to make something more portrait. 

I came up with the design below, but couldn't really decide on a colour scheme. I had used the colours of Pump N Grind to keep some of their original branding, but I think i'll just show both of these to Beth and hopefully we can decide on one between us.

I took a quick trip to wilko to pick up some paints and luckily they seemed to have the exact colours I needed. I'm not sure how good the quality of these will be but i'm sure they'll be fine after a couple of coats. 

LASER CUTTING

Before easter I decided to book myself on to a laser cutting induction as it's something i've been wanting to do for ages. Annoyingly it got cancelled a couple of days before and it was the last one before the holidays which is a shame, but I made sure I was booked onto the first one back. I had it a couple of days ago and I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner. The induction itself showed us briefly how to use the laser cutter and ran through the do's and don't's and what sort of materials it could cut. We also got a leaflet explaining the process and were told any of the staff would happily help if we got stuck. Today I booked myself in to one of the laser cutters for a couple of hours to have a go at cutting some of my figures out.

I picked out a few different figures I already had drawings of as I was using this as more of a test run than anything just to try and get used to the process. The laser cutter can do a few different things, but as I wanted them simply cut out of wood I had to used a thin line to outline the shapes and make sure the line was in black, as this is the colour linked with the laser cutter to make sure it knows to cut them out. I was originally planning on cutting these two documents out on 2 A4 pieces of wood, but when I got down to the woodwork room I realised they only had the thicker type of wood, so I thought it was best to upsize and make each of them A3 so the figures were a little bigger. 

When I went to use it the laser cutter seemed to be having a few problems which was typical really, so I ended up having to try a couple of times before it actually worked. I think because of the thicker wood it had to go round a couple of times before it managed to cut through the wood. 

The problems with the laser cutter did mean that I got a couple of duplicated figures which was good! These are what I ended up with and i'm so pleased. The edges are so clean and i'm so excited to get a bit of colour on them!