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