Day Job.

All images taken from Dayjob.org including logo.

Dayjob is a cleverly named collective comprised of 10 graduates with very different working styles but a mutual love for illustration. Based in London, the group have all sprung fresh from Camberwell College of Arts situated in Peckham and now spend as much time outside of their day jobs as possible, collaborating on bigger projects and installations. They work with a huge range of media as each member has preference over materials which brings depth and variation to large quantities of work generated interdependently. Personally I felt the playful characteristics of the members we met will be a real help for the longevity of the collective and a great asset when running events.

Their studio was tucked away in a far-flung industrial estate amidst Elephant and Castle, isolated but spacious. The top floor of the building was dedicated to a whole raft of various artists tucked into their allocated booths or spilling out across the hallway. Seeing the walls lined with work, homely belongings, decorations and found furniture scattered around Dayjobs' studio pushed pangs of jealousy into my heart, it was like their second home, their peaceful getaway crammed with inspiration and helping hands. To me, this seems like the most logical step after university and after to speaking to Charlotte and Grace I feel extremely motivated to find a place with a few friends to set-up camp while we find our feet.

 

A nice little bonus at the end of the day, after being pumped full of inspiration, was a little confidence boost in the form of a very constructive portfolio review. I felt more nervous showing my work to the girls than I had been previously, even with established Illustrators. I think the fact that they were at such a similar age to us whilst being indoctrinated into the industry in such a viciously competitive place as London intimidated me at first, but the friendliness and laid-back attitudes they all adopted acted as comfort rather than confrontation. Two of the girls spent a good fifteen minutes looking through my work stopping to ask questions or pose comments every so often, very reassuring that they didn't rush through it like a flick-book and yet another pointer as to the kind ethos they uphold. I was especially pleased with the response my personalised portfolio received as I spent such a long time getting it how I'd envisioned it. The main comments I took away in regards of constructive criticism were mostly related to attention to detail; print every page on good quality paper, clean the plastic sleeves regularly, tidy up the text and descriptions so they appear on the same line on each page but justified to the edge of each separate image. Seemingly standard prompts but things that had obviously slipped my judgement. All comments in respect to my work were again positive, the pieces they picked above the rest were all line drawings, for a reason slightly different to the usual. They mentioned that the control I had shading with lines could lend itself to anatomical drawings of educational posters, the thought of which had never crossed my mind. They echoed the idea of adding more balance into the portfolio or refining it down to one specialism which I feel will become more apparent over the next few weeks.

All in all a really brilliant and insightful day, I hope to keep in contact with the team and hopefully see them at our end of year show!