Beyond The Book; On the Wall.

'Turning Point' Lino print, hand mounted and framed.

Toward the end of Beyond the Book we were given the opportunity to prepare our work as a semi-professional show, taking into consideration selection, presentation and limitations of space. Personally I think this was a great idea and should be done for every project assessment. It allows you to see you work from another angle and consider elements of the development prior to the final result, more critically. Presentation is everything and I found choosing suitable frames to reflect my work and myself, much more difficult than I thought possible. Even after deciding on frames, mounts, wall fixtures and additional shelving there was the wall plan, the summary, mounted name plaque and then actually deciding which work was good enough to exhibit, far more than I originally planned for. And of course you have to account for everything than will inevitably go wrong. Which in this case, was almost all of it.

'Four Sharp Knocks: A Visual Interpretation of The Outsider.' by Charlie Heselton.

Close up image of supporting material, shelved underneath frames.

Entitled, Four Sharp Knocks (based around the line; 'And it was like giving four sharp knocks at the door or unhappiness.' right at the end of chapter 6, part 1.), I decided to use a series of lino prints as the main focus of the show that reflected this chapter. My sketchbook, supporting material and film negatives are shelved just underneath (as shown in the photograph above) and the laser-cut key-rings relative to the theme are pinned just to the right of the central image to restore balance from the shelf.

In The Outsider, Mersualt acknowledges that the action of shooting the arab will cause him to feel unhappiness yet the clinical symbolism of attaching his emotions to a solid object like a door, instead of describing them. Throughout the entire scene he focuses on tangible, physically felt senses e.g what he can feel, see, rather than emotion. For example, he can describe the murder weapon in surprising detail but cannot portray remorse or regret at the fact that he has killed another human being.

Mersualt also eludes to his weakness to the weather and unpredictable surroundings, and remarks that if the sun hadn't been so hot, maybe the murder wouldn't have happened. The way that the beach is described in this chapter is extremely vivid which is why the series of four lino cuts are printed in yellow, orange, red and black, the portray the blinding hot sun.

In accordance with moral nihilism; killing someone, for whatever reason, is not inherently right or wrong. My focus on the beach scene illustrates how the 'turning point of the book' is only central in relation to human morality. I wanted to portray my work in a sequence; linear and almost repetitive, to reflect the regimented mentality of Mersault (focal character) and project his descent through the subtle variations of a singular symbol.

My opinion of my 'miniature exhibition' has changed drastically over the course of the last week. To begin with I was happy with what I had produced and how it was hung, in hindsight feeling proud was a confidence boost and although after receiving feedback and looking at my work through much more critical eyes changed my feelings on this body of work, I've tried to not let it affect my confidence. Looking at your own work through rose-tinted glasses can be dangerous and even though I remain pleased at the presentation and framing of my pieces I realise that the work presented was subsequently not as high quality as it should be, especially as the focus. Not only that but I didn't consider variation when selecting pieces, I wanted the series to be shown as a repetition but the central image looked far too similar and the surrounding material lacked aesthetic 'oomph'.

Another important lesson I learned the hard way was to do with hand-cutting your own window mounts. I learnt this lesson about an hour before the show was meant to be complete, I was lying on the studio floor brandishing a craft knife and a mounting tool, I was not smiling. There's a knack to it that I just do not have, one to be left to the professionals. It was an eye-opening experience however and in my defense it could have gone a lot worse.

Clients From Hell.

This post is literally about, Clients From Hell. I stumbled across this website whilst seeking some advice on editorials and the development process in any work dictated from a clientel basis.

Poster courtesy of Ireland's creative community; http://sharpsuits.net/.

A Creative Catharsis; http://sharpsuits.net/

It would seem that the battle between designer and client is as of yet, never ending. I've learnt some very important lessons, the easy way really, through speaking to professionals with hands on experience and research via resourceful blogs. Broken down into a couple of main points, here's what i've gathered regarding what to avoid and what to go for;

1. Freelance doesn't mean free...people happy to be paid in exposure or peanuts will most likely make a mockery of you, base designs on your, the client, personal taste and completely ignore the intended target market. Invest in a caring, professional graphic designer and you're much more likely to get careful research, resourceful ideas and bundles of energy to go with it. Someone run ragged with no incentive will not want to play ball and smile about it.
2. C'mon, be realistic...in relation to time scale, quality, quantity and relevance you really do get what you pay for with design. Realistically you can't have everything and even if you find an Illustrator with superpowers who doesn't need to leave their desk for a week one of two things is bound to happen. It's either going to be produced in record timing and be complete codswallop OR in compliance with ticking all said boxes, cost an absolute fortune.
3. Utilise your designer...in short, client and designer alike should never, even accidentally, take the other party as stupid (unless you've got hard evidence). Clients often fall into the trap of telling their designer exactly what to do instead of exactly what they want, forgetting that they're paying a person to make something wonderful of their idea, not a monkey to sling it on photoshop. Patronising someone who probably has much more knowledge and experience in a field you're asking for help in, isn't smart. You'll end up burning money and getting tied up in circles...although on the other, our lovely manner designer will of course understand that said client won't always know exactly what he wants in the first place, and be happy to work through the kinks.

The line is fine but not one to be overstepped often or misunderstood.

Fish Are Friends, Not Food.

  
Fishtank: 'Music' Brief Submission.

'Fishtank Cover Design' Biro, 2012.

So briefly, last year me and a recent Stockport College graduate Jadine collaborated when the opportunity arose to submit a design to the Fishtank installation, ran by a collaborative group called Music. Agreeing on a piece of music, Brand New's 'The Quiet Thing's That No-One Ever Knows' we began to formulate designs, delegate the workload and focus on suitable materials.

Brand New Fishtank: Alternative designs.

One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome was the mock up of potential designs. As the end result would be so large, proportion and detail were two big considerations. To visualise the positive and negative space appropriately we painted the chosen design (photograph above, top split) onto a window with glass-friendly watercolour paint.

Fishtank Design on our living room window. Complete with miniature installation props.

Love letter origami crane.

Unfortunately after submitting our design (and ruining our living room window) we didn't hear back from Music as they were in the process of moving their house-sized glass tank between buildings. I'm not one for holding grudges, so maybe next year?

One year later...

Me and my companion Daniel have decided to have a go this time around. Deciding on a feline theme, we chose Love Cats by The Cure. It's incredibly catchy and will no doubt allow us to anthropomorphisise a whole cast of catty characters. After some rough sketches have been expanded on, the next step will be figuring out how to project a rolling narrative across the glass.

Website Research and Review.

Having just purchased my very own domain I realised I hadn't the foggiest what I wanted my website to look like. So...website envy commences! This was probably one of the easiest areas of PDP for me as ninety nine percent of my bookmarked pages online are artists websites or design pages. Websites are very easy to judge by sight and of course how easily you can navigate round them, but now I needed to look at them through a designers eyes, review elements I would carry onto my own site.

First port of call was to take a peek at some of my favourite illustrators and creative makers websites to see how they saw fit to execute them, I'll start with a front-runner; Dennis McNett, creator of Wolfbat and holder of wolfbat.com.

Wooden Carving by Dennis McNett of Wolfbat.

His love for narrative work has been translated into various different techniques, be it print, products, sculptures, intricate wood carvings or exuberant events, which means that his website must be equally as flexible without being over-complicated.

Screenshot of wolfbat.com homepage

His website does his work justice complimented by the excellent photography and organised sections. The homepage is broken into a triptych that flashes between two sets of images, each image a preview of the three main fields his work is devoted to, print, sculpture and installation. So straight of the bat you're getting a summary of the website and a taste for whats inside. The logo in the top left corner is beautiful up close; black and white inverted drawing of a wolf head with bat wings, it's just a shame it's so small. It has all the staples, contact page with a touch of 'about the artist' (maybe a little self-indulgent but interesting non-the less), an almost endless gallery of wonderfully presented work split over five sections (great organisation and for work of this caliber the sub-categories are a must), and link to well managed blog on tumblr. But the little extra that sets Wolfbat's site apart from others is the 'Happenings' link. Thanks to the nature of his Installation work and weird and wonderful mask making abilities, McNett and his dedicated team stage larger than life performances, parades and sculptural scenes that are filmed with accompanying annotations. These are found under the Happenings section and are outstanding to watch. In conclusion, Wolfbat.com is very well organised, straight to the point and really very simple which accentuates the work more in my opinion, his pieces speak for themselves and this site really lets them breathe.

.............................................................................................................................

Moving on to another personal favourite, Caitlin Hackett. Her website was more disappointing as it isn't really a website at all. The homepage of caitlinhackett.com looks like it's barely been touched with just one image, no banner or even change of font and each link leading to different sites.

Homepage of Caitlinhackett.com

To view her work, you have to enter carbonmade site where her initial page is a lot more inviting and better thought out. In my opinion, the whole set up is an easy answer to a professionals problem. As a practicing designer you're expected to own and manage your own domain, site and email. Some agencies or directors just won't take you seriously without it, but in the real world not everybody is a technological genius or has the money to pay somebody who is, to do it for them. I think in Caitlin's case she recognises the need for her own URL but was happy with the carbonmade portfolio so didn't feel it was necessary to duplicate.

Homepage of Caitlin Hackett's Carbonmade Portfolio

..................................................................................................................

Next up is Jason Holley. Even though I haven't' looked at Holley in depth or known about him for a great deal of time, I find his work and process fascinating and his videos on vimeo incredibly witty.

'Slings and Arrows' by Jason Holley,

His website is very professional and although I'm not a huge fan of the homepage the links have an odd little twist. If you hover over them, the headings are transformed into quirky little anagrams, not really a great deal of function there but since the page isn't cluttered with logos or text it makes for a nice touch.

Homepage for jasonholley.com

In short, the best part of Holley's website isn't really the way it's presented (although in Archive and Illustration the neat square thumbnails are attractive) but the unusual amount of information you get about each piece. He comments on the intent and purpose of the piece, method used to create it and even a short evaluation containing his opinion. It's a window you don't usually get with artist's and especially not with their public displays of work.

Throughout my research I came across good and bad websites, as with everything and without being cruel and naming/shaming the bad ones I just took note of what to avoid. One of the most irritating traits a site can have is an automatic music player, I genuinely don't know why you would even do that, especially if you've got questionable taste in music. Another niggle is websites that are overloaded with flash files that take ten minutes to load, don't work properly and then crash your computer. It's true that less is usually more. The only other thing that really gets my goat is having the website mostly about the person rather than the work. It's fine to have 'working process' images and a little bit about yourself, even a self indulgent resume to fluff yourself up for all the world to see but there's nothing worse than the homepage or contact page being an essay of the artists life and interest. Nobody really cares that you've got three dogs and like a lie in on a Sunday.

Portfolio Visit; Numero Uno.

I'm pleased to announce that today I met with Chris Knowles, Graphic Designer for The Media Octopus.
The Media Octopus is a digital marketing agency based in Manchester using creativity, experience and a strong team to help clients bring their products to market.

Specialists in both inbound and outbound marketing, Chris and the team use social media, PPC, SEO, content marketing, direct marketing and most importantly for me, design.
As written above, Chris is their main Graphic designer and learned almost all his knowledge on the job. This is one of the reasons I wanted to contact him, to find out how easy and rewarding it is picking up experience and building a career from scratch. I met him at Common bar for a beer with my portfolio and an open mind.

Even though my portfolio was in it's early stages, Chris was very positive when looking through everything I'd put together, he ended up asking me more questions than I had prepared to ask him! The conversation was focused more around my intentions and plans for the future, ideas as an illustrator and thoughts on different techniques rather than my actual portfolio or quality of the pieces I had arranged. Personally I found this very beneficial. Although I do need pointing in the right direction when it comes to presentation I found it refreshing to talk about what matters to me and the direction that I want my work to progress in.

I asked Chris how his team work together and how they all found their way into the industry and he confirmed some of my existing thoughts that it's sometimes not what you know but who you know, and asking the right question at the right time is sometimes all it takes. It's not necessarily about luck or being pushy but having confidence and practicing self-promotion at every opportunity will pay off.

First screenshot of homepage for themediaoctopus.com

Second screenshot of homepage for themediaoctopus.com

Age UK

Historical Buildings: Whitehill Day Care Centre

Age UK Stockport is a registered charity focusing their funds and efforts of local staff for the benefit of people within the Borough of Stockport. Helping older people to have more control over their lives, realise their value within a community and become more involved in activities are just a few of Age UK’s aims.

All the people I’ve met in conjunction with Age UK Stockport have been incredibly caring, responsive and positive people with a passion for equality. The strive to level the gap between the young and the old, educating the general public of both mental and physical health problems that can arise as we get older and how to deal with it. We were lucky enough to visit Whitehill Daycare centre to meet some of the weekly visitors and a handful of the carers who helped to introduce us to all the wonderful people who attend the sessions there. The atmosphere was so relaxed in the centre and the majority of the ladies and gents were more than happy to speak to us, even if they just wanted us to read the paper with them! The people we spoke to all had different levels of Dementia which was a real eye-opener to me. I spoke to a lady called Norma who struggled badly with her short term memory but could tell me far flung memories about her first house and her love for Cheadle.

Empathy and compassion together, are the key to making a difference and all in all I found the experience extremely rewarding and can see exactly why people want to be involved with this charity.

'Stockport's Shire' Mixed media and digital editing. 21 x 29.7cm.

 

I had an insightful conversation with one of the elderly ladies, Norma. She appeared very reserved, and was cautious of opening up to me at first so we read the local newspaper together and talked about the theatre and her home-town Cheadle. As she was born in Manchester and had lived her whole life in Cheadle she didn’t know a great deal about Stockport’s heritage or the buildings but she had such a strong passion for Cheadle and the general Borough of Stockport. She claimed all the citizens of Manchester to be ‘the pick of the bunch with a cracking sense of humour’ and confessed to me that she’s never had any desire to leave Manchester, if she had to move now she wouldn’t be able to do it. 

The conversation then moved on to where I came from, and as I told her ‘born and bred in Yorkshire’ a smile spread across her face as she replied with ‘What are you doing so far from The Shire!’. This was elating yet saddened me as we’d previously read a section of the paper about Sir Ian McKellen and his role as Gandalf (which lead to a short discussion about The Lord of the Rings) which she had promptly forgotten as her Dementia was in an advanced stage. 

But I wanted to hold onto this comment, so showed her the article once more, to which she laughed and said ‘Me and you are like the Hobbits, never wanting to stray from the Shire’. Cheadle is the safest place she knows, and she has no intention of leaving. 

The image above was ultimately inspired by my conversation with Norma, named 'Stockport's Shire' and incorporating all of the places, buildings and landmark. I used photography, paint, pen and digital editing to create a portrayal of Stockport as a Historical visual with all the iconic modern establishments that have been rejuvinated throughout the years.

'Stockport's Shire' In Progress.

Historical Buildings: Stockport Market

“Stockport has a rich and varied collection of heritage assets of local, regional and national importance which make a significant contribution to the current and future quality of life in the Borough.”

During our Historical walk around Stockport city centre we got to view some of the remaining listed buildings in the area and learnt about important structures such as Stockport Castle and lost tales about the Mersey. The experience was helpful in many ways; it allowed us to visualise the surroundings areas these buildings stood in, a greater feel of Stockport’s Heritage and first hand information from a knowledgeable guide.

Many of the ‘Locally Listed’ buildings in Stockport remain a fantastic source of local historical, architectural and special character interest, such as Stockport’s Central Library and Stockport Market.

'Stockport Market Place' Acrylic and Biro on Corregated Cardboard.

 Stockport Market is a iconic building visually and symbolically and although I wanted to represent that with bold colours and perspective I didn't want the repetitive panes to be overly geometric and precise. Personally I really enjoyed creating this piece, I felt more comfortable working with the pattern and repetition of the building not to mention the media. The previous piece was unusual for my working style and although the outcome was interesting I was completely out of my comfort zone working with collage. However, with both pieces I did test myself much more when it came to digitally editing them.


Stockport Canal: Marple Bridge

For the third image I was given a brief to create an image in the style of the Stockport Market painting based around refrence of Stockport Canal. I've always been interested in Canals and Canal Boats (I learnt how to drive and moor a Barge at a fairly young age) so thought this would be ideal. At first I struggled to find a decent quantity of reference for the canal in the heart of Stockport other than traditional photographs based around the viaduct, so I decided to search a little bit further afield in Compstall. Still within the metropolitan borough of Stockport, Compstall is home to Marple Bridge, a very idyllic little town hosting a particularly picturesque section of Stockport Canal.

'Marple Bridge Canal' Acrylic and Watercolour and Biro on Corregated Card.

As of now, all images have been submitted, accepted and potentially used early 2014 in an Age UK launch hosting all imagery in relation to Historical Buildings, Wartime and Sense of Place. I am proud to represent such a beneficial company and hope to volunteer my skills for their use in the future.

So You Want To Be An Illustrator Huh?

Interview from jason holley on Vimeo.  
 

Vimeo isn't the most productive site on the planet, usually one more for procrastination in my opinion but then I came across Jason Holley's channel. Created for the Icon 6 conference, the video above named 'The Interview' along with several other videos are a collection of short, true stories replicating the life of a working illustrator. Not only are they a joy to watch but with such wit staining a very 'close-to-the-bone' topic for many aspiring illustrators and graphic designers alike, this series is a reassuring visual projection. You're not the only one terrified of the future, technology and art directors.