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