Hopes, Fears, and Opportunities Part 2

My first aim from my Hopes, Fears, and Opportunities post last December was about discovering and pinning down a definite working method and style for my work and me. I think I have achieved this goal and am sure of how I tackle a brief, however I'm not sure if I am done experimenting, which in my opinion is a good thing. 

Before December I played with different types of drawing and the tools to do this, and found the way I loved to create pictures. I then explored, from the advice of my tutors different ways to add depth to these drawings, which I am still doing now. In this term I have tackled screen-printing, t-shirt painting, sewing, photoshop, illustrator, and collage to find different ways of taking my work further than just pen on paper. Although some things have worked, and some things haven’t I feel I have been learning the whole time.

I have found all the different contacts with industry really valuable, and a lot of the information will be applicable in a variety of fields after I leave university.

I have not found the time to explore animation any further this term which I am disappointed about, but I firmly believe that just because I’m graduating it doesn’t mean I’m done with education, and have been researching different courses I can do to gain new skills.

I have got back in to using Adobe Illustrator in my most recent Wanderlust project, creating simplified abstract maps using the program, and I have found it somewhat time-consuming, but extremely rewarding, as with this tool what you imagine in your head is usually how it turns out, which is not always the case when doing work by hand. I am really happy with the way these have turned out and am excited to start making more detailed imagery in this way. However I do not want to lose the handmade feel in my work as I find it a lot more pleasing aesthetically, and so have begun to combine the illustrator work with my drawings and textures.

Creating a website has also been a new step for me, as although I have selected templates and chosen fonts for blogs etc before, there is a lot more freedom with the cargo design feature, and I am really happy with the way this has turned out.

I am glad I have quite closely stuck to the themes that I planned in my last post for FMP. I explained my choice of the word Wanderlust as my inspiration, and I have also explored making work relating to music which is one of my passions and something I’d love to continue doing after I leave university.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way it is going at the moment, and my only real problem is that it has gone too fast and I wish I’d had more time to explore the subjects deeper. I am glad that I chose to take on two projects over the FMP as I worry if I focused on one for the whole time I would of lost momentum.

Major Project 2 - Wanderlust Development

I have been working on a series of posters on illustrator, conveying abstract flat colour maps of cities that I chose based on research of top tourist spots. I found simple maps of each place to inform the shapes and photoshopped them to give a more textural, muted feel. I am really happy with the outcomes and plan to keep developing them by adding drawn objects on photoshop.

Business Cards

Today I have been finalising my business card designs and have just sent them off to be printed. I didn't realise how much work it would take to get everything to the right size and arrange the layout to comply with the printing site. Hopefully they should be here by the end of the week so I shall post again when they come!

Portfolio Feedback 6 - Alan Dalby

After receiving advice on my PDF portfolio from Alan in December, as well as others, I redid the whole thing and have ended up with, in my opinion, a much better result. I emailed it to Alan again recently and his feedback is once again really helpful and to the point. Below I have included parts of his email response and my opinions of them.

That looks much cleaner and much stronger than your earlier portfolio.

Seeing it like this, I see a few more changes that could be made.

The logo on each page seems a bit over the top now, and I’d stick with it on the cover only.

This is an interesting point, however it contradicts other advice I have been given and so I will have a look and get advice from my peers to see what works better aesthetically as in my opinion the logo on each page enhances the portfolio.

Some of the type still jumps around a little bit as i flick through the images.

I have looked at the pdf and on one page the type at the bottom is in a different place which can be easily fixed.

The black key line around the images lowers the overall aesthetic of the portfolio.

I placed a thin line around the images with a white background upon the advice of Gary from a portfolio feedback session in December, but i shall see if editing the line to make it even thinner, or removing it completely would be more appropriate.

You’ve got some really strong work, but it feels a bit inconsistent at times.

Personally, I think your stronger stuff is the hand-drawn elements, (the wavy hair is particularly charming).

This has always been a problem for me as it took a long time to get my working method to a more finalised state, so the work from earlier projects looks a lot different to my work now. I have tried to remove the less appealing work from the portfolio and make it more consistent, and I've tried to organise the portfolio into similar methods and palettes. I think the only thing I can do for this issue is keep making work and updating my portfolio until it inevitably ends up the way it should.

The left white stripes poster is a lot stronger than the other two, but it gets a bit over powered when next to them.

Some full page landscape spreads might work really well in there.

When editing the portfolio I did think that I should perhaps spread the images out, however I was worried it would end up being too big. I do agree that The White Stripes main image should have it's own page, and value this kind of advice as it is just the small details that make a massive difference.

I know this can’t be done now, but in future I think you could benefit from spending time working on personal work, and getting rid of some of the pieces you don’t feel belong with the portfolio.

Make it into a more solid body of work. Just getting your style down to what you want to do.

This is a really good point, made quite regularly by a variety of people, as I think my method is often lead by briefs, and so spending time working on the kind of topics that I want to work with will lead to, as Alan says, a solid body of work. 

Website Development 2

I have pretty much completed my website on the cargo collective site, and when looking in to linking it with my domain name found that you have to upgrade by paying a monthly fee. For now I do not have the means to do this, so for now my website shall stay under the url I have with cargo. I have uploaded only a few pieces as I feel I should only show my best on the website, and have written a simple "about" and "contact" section. Rick also showed me how to link my blog so it is pretty much completed. Take a look!

cargocollective.com/jadehindley

Major Project 2 - Wanderlust

I have recently been working on my second project of this module, which I have entitled Wanderlust. I chose to focus on travel and exploration as, with graduation coming up, I am entering a new chapter, and this topic is all I'm really thinking about.

Wanderlust : the strong desire to travel,   adventure.

So far, I have been concentrating on places that I have been to, but looking at them from a hypothetical tourists perspective rather than what it's actually like when you're there as I feel this way has more functionality and links to the project title more. I have been creating travel journals on 6 places that I have been to that I plan to turn into travel guides once completed.

I plan to go on to focus on some places that I want to go to, as it is this type of emotional response when dreaming of a perfect, idyllic place that I plan to convey. I plan to do this through the use of maps and illustration.

I will update with images soon!

Major Project 2 - Wanderlust Influences

PINTEREST WANDERLUST PINBOARD

Portfolio Feedback 5 - Dayjob

http://day-job.org

Whilst in London we visited Dayjob, an illustration collaborative who work from a studio in Peckham. Their work has a beautiful handmade feel to it, and the studio had a really fun friendly atmosphere. Some of the girls had a look at our portfolios and gave us some great advice.

One point they made was that there was a little too much work in my portfolio, and I should select maybe 15 pieces that I feel are my best work. They pointed out a few that they recommended I keep and a couple that I should remove.

Another piece of advice was that it is best to include work that you want to keep doing, and so some of my pieces that are things that I wouldn't want to do again shouldn't be in the portfolio. They recommended making personal work in the style, and using subjects, that I would like to take into my career and include them in the portfolio.

There was also still one slightly blurry/pixelated image which they made a strong point about, as having something like that in your portfolio tells a client that you cannot work basic computer skills so I will redo that image to ensure it doesn't happen again.

They agreed with Fig Taylor, in that my work has quite a conceptual feel to it that would be best suited to editorial work, which is great for me as that is what I would prefer to be doing.

Some other pieces of advice that the girls gave us as a group were:

• to constantly enter into as many competitions as you can as it provides you with a brief to work with when you don't have paid work (to keep the creative juices flowing!) and works as a kind of practice of your craft, as well as providing you with great exposure and gets your work out there at the very least.
• to get a studio! All the dayjob girls agreed that having a studio has a really positive effect on your work. As well as motivating them to do work, rather than procrastinating or getting distracted at home, it allows them to bounce ideas off each other.
• they also recommended working a collaborative way (obviously!) as having people with different skill sets around you really enhances your own and other peoples work. Also it makes you more functional as an employee as there is a lot more you can offer to clients

London

This week some students from my class travelled to London with tutors Jo and Ian to make contacts with industry and explore possibilities for after we leave university.

We started the first day with a trip to Adam and Eve DDB Ad Agency, to meet with Daniel Moorey who is head of print, and the art buyer there. He discussed the way the industry works and the methods he uses to go about finding illustrators appropriate for each job by showing us his book marks and the way he categorises different work. He also talked about illustrators websites, and reiterated a lot of the points that I found when doing my own website research including simplicity , and ease of navigation, as well as having small or medium sized thumbnails of work to allow the viewer to select images that they want to look at closer whilst still being able to see the whole body of work at one time. He also pointed out that if you have two different ways of working you should have them obviously separated within your site, or even create a separate one for each.

On the second day we visited Naomi Games' house, where she keeps the archive of her father Abram Games. We had the privilege of looking through his working drawings, colour ideas processes and final poster designs with Naomi talking us through the different projects and his thinking within them. We also were lucky enough to watch her make coffee in Games' iconic Cona coffee maker which he designed by modifying the original structure. It was incredible to see the amount of work and many variations of each design that he went through, and the huge amount of skill and talent that he had when using his airbrush (which we were also allowed to examine). It was an absolute pleasure and thank you to Naomi for having us!

After the wonderful experiences we had here, the thing I enjoyed the most was getting to have one final trip away with my class before we graduate. I'm really going to miss being in this environment and seeing all these wonderful people everyday, and am very aware of how lucky I am to have had such a positive and fulfilling university experience.

Fees and Invoicing Workshop

Ian put on a really helpful fees workshop in uni recently covering the following topics. It will be a useful tool as it is not often discussed how much illustrators should be paid, and there aren't really any published set amounts for what to charge for different work. This is because the price of a piece is dependent on a range of variables. 

Money

 Either:

• the client tells you what the budget is and you have the ability to accept, negotiate, or decline the amount

OR

• the client asks what you will charge and you have to come up with an amount

We then discussed the different questions you should as to educate your price in the event of the second occurring.

How will it be used?

This is in regards to print run, territory and exposure, copyright, and time scale.

Expenses?

Will you need to purchase any supplies in order to complete the work?

How long will the work take?

For this you should decide on an hourly rate, which was a bit confusing to me, as I was unsure as to whether this would then cover breaks etc. 

Clients profile?

If the client is a well known company it would ensure you would receive exposure which in turn could mean you should demand a high price. Alternatively, bigger companies may be able to afford to pay more and should you then demand more money. 

Do you want to do the job?

This is important as something you'll enjoy doing might mean you accept less money than doing work for a brief that you dislike. 

What is the going industry rate?

Editorial

• Front cover £350-£500
• Full page (inside) £250-£400
• DPS (inside) £350-£500
• Half page £200-£300
• Quarter page £150-£250

Publishing 

• Front cover £450-£800
• Reprint/New territory usage 50% original fee

Design

• Brochure cover £600-£800
• Insides £150-£300
• Spots £50-£100
• In house poster for PLC £600-£800

Children's Books

-Usually based on page/image rate

• just illustrating £2500-£3000
• educational = less v story = more

Advertising

-Fees vary dramatically based on client

-Style not ideas

-Usually work from their sketches

-Above the line = mass media v Below the line = individual bespoke

• Press ads local/In house £500-£700
• Press ads national £1500+
• 48 sheet poster (billboard) £6000+

We also discussed should you ever and when it is worth it to work for free. 

One example is when it is for a pitch or speculative work that has been suggested by an Ad Agency, as this could lead to a potentially huge job. Another is for charities, or companies such as the V&A as it is providing you with exposure and filling out your portfolio with live briefs. It is also a great way of gaining experience and could lead to other opportunities. Ian did point out that you should try to charge for expenses as there is working for free, and then there's paying to work. He also made the point that we need to be careful to avoid being exploited, as recent graduates are particularly vulnerable to this, and to not let it lead to the erosion of fees and undermining of the profession. 

Invoices

Another topic we went over was the matter of invoices. He gave us some tips by showing us an example which I have detailed below.

Include:

• your logo should be personal, be professional, stand out, brand you, and identify it
• invoice number from your own numbering system
• a date and keep a record for assistance
• customer reference through a number or who you have worked with
• bill to name and address (call to check who this should be)
• quantity/job description/amount to justify why you are being paid
• commissioned by.../issue no./date of use
• your account details to be paid into (possibly an international bank number)
• address/email/phone number

Tips:

• Keep a copy of all invoices
• Keep records of payments/outstanding balance
• Only send an invoice after work has been accepted and wait a couple of days
• Call accounts department after 1/2 months

Overall this workshop gave me a lot of information that I feel is necessary knowledge for anyone hoping to work in this industry and I would of had a very hard time trying to work with a client if I did not attend. Thanks Ian!