Guru Meeting

Last night the tutors invited some graduates from the Illustration course at Stockport College to come in to college and act as "Gurus" for the third year students in small groups.
I was assigned to Alan Dalby, who graduated 2 years ago. It was really interesting and inspiring speaking to someone who was recently in my position but has begun to make it in the industry. He went through his portfolio with us and the main difference I noticed between his work and my own was how professional his looked compared to my own sketchy work. It really set in how unfinished a lot of my work looks.

The main advice Alan gave us was,

It's important to take time and effort finding a style that works well for you, especially after you graduate.

Using social media to promote yourself is essential in this day and age, and it gets you known by word of mouth.

Making or getting interesting promotional material is a really good way of making people remember you. Think about portfolios, business cards, making things, websites.

Learning a broad range of skills to make you easily accessible, the more you can do the more likely you are to get work.

Making friends and contacts in the industry makes your work better and allows for interesting collaborations.

Overall it was a very insightful evening, and Alan gave us all his email address so we can contact him for advice which I really appreciated.

Back To Uni!

Very glad to be back at uni this week, being back in a routine will be nice. However, I did have a fantastic summer, visiting a friend in Florida and going to festivals.
Anyway, looking forward to getting on with the new project!