Studio Brief 1 : Competition Brief - Ohh Deer & Studio Brief 2 : Competition Brief - Talenthouse

SB1 : Ohh Deer

I have decided to take on a competition brief to see if I stand a chance of my work being submitted 

Uploads close Friday midnight 6th of November. I want to go with the November theme of Autumn and Fall. I've decided I'm going for an autumn leaf theme as I think this would look lovely on some cushions and would be bang on trend with upholstery at the minute, cosy!

When I initially had the idea in mind I was going more for the curved leaf on the bottom left : 

Using the colour picker on Photoshop I picked out the colour range of these leaves to use on my own design and created a colour palette to work with

Playing with brushes :

Extended deadline :

They got approved ! I shared the link on Facebook asking my friends to like it as well

I done some quick his and hers cushions too to experiment with text further 

I played around with some of the brushes on photoshop to create a background and then decided it looked kind of magical so I added the quote ' this could be magic '

I am not particularly pleased with these outcomes despite them being accepted I think they don't really represent my practise. I think this magic cushion in particular does not really work because the text fades into the background too much.

Another design

I think something that would be current in terms of design would be looking at vintage lightbulbs. I really like them and I think this would look good on a cushion. 

Here are some images I have used for inspiration :

Experimenting with different compositions :

Final outcomes :

I decided on the second image because I think it makes for a more unique and interesting cushion :

Overall I am quite pleased with this design because it looks quirky and playful. My strengths usually lie with character and people so getting my head around homeware and furniture is quite a challenge, but I think somehow this still represents me. Playing with colour, composition and taking something that is usually quite a dull lifeless subject and giving it some life I think represents what I am about too.

Context beyond Threadless

I have mocked up my designs being sold for Laura Ashley to show how the cushions can exist beyond Threadless.

SB2

Talenthouse - Ugly Christmas Jumper

I love this idea and it allows me to explore some character design. I think that this would become a substantial brief if I explore further where these designs could be used such as creating my own range of ugly christmas jumpers, put the designs onto christmas cards or submit them to threadless.

I also think this brief suits me better than the Borns album cover work, so it may replace it, I am not sure yet.

This is the kind of funny vibe I'm going for, I've took a spin on 'ugly' sweater and turned it into perhaps an ugly, naked/drunk santa?? :

Contextual Research:

Designs out there at the moment

My design

Mocked up on a jumper

Talenthouse - Borns Visual Artwork

Contextual research

As I've never listened to Borns before, I wasn't sure if this would be a good or bad idea but I think on the positive side I am open minded about it and I am taking from it the feeling I initially get just from songs on the album and not based on the band themselves.
I listened to some of their tracks on Youtube and some of their videos proved to be quite cosmic and vibrant.
I took some screenshots of scenes that I felt I could take certain aspects from to translate within my art work

Poems/general observations

HOME

Home.
The kettle's on but I don't belong
Home.
Throw a ball, bring it back
Home.
Smell of bacon in the air
Home.
Dogs tongue licks my chops
Home.
Chase the kids, hide and seek
Home.
Tomorrow it will all be over.

THE BEACH

This aint no Leonardo DiCaprio
I hate the sand in my toes
A voluntary unnecessary exfoliator
Irritates my skin and makes it sore
But I have to pretend I like it
Because this is the beach
And beaches make you happy
A great day out for all
Everybody loves the beach

BEACH PT 2

Seaweed we dare not to stand on
Shells that everyone has touched
With their toes of sand
Germs washed away by the sea
Full of piss from kids
That their bathers lost a grip of
Is it so bad
That I want to stand on their sand castle?
Put my toes in the moats
Swish them around
The car will be full of sand
I will have to hoover it
And you always get that one bit
Behind your ears
From holding up a shell
To listen to the sea
That happens to be right infront of you


HEIDI TURNS 5

It's Heidi's special day
for the fifth time today
They bought her a horse
A pony of course
And a hot tub where she soaked
Laughed played and joked
A bouncy castle
With little hassle
The kids left to their own devices

Clutching her rollerblades
Hoping when this all fades
She remembers all that I do
The dreams I have taught her to pursue
When material possessions pass
I hope she's the best in class
Becoming the teacher she wants to be
And finally looks up to me
For everything that I do to keep her grounded

HARD KNOCK HANDS

When asked why my hands are so wrinkly
I simply reply
Ask about my life instead
It will make you cry

HUMAN

What defines who we are?
The depth of our brains or the size of our bra?
Most of the time, I like to wear black
Will that not lure you into the sack?

What defines our sense of self?
The size of our heels, arse like a shelf?
Or could it be our dignity
To wear a skirt gone past the knee

What defines a feminist?
That uptight girl who will resist
The constant urge to drop her pants
For any lad that says it's 'bants'

What defines a real woman then?
One that caters to all men?
A sexual being dressed accordingly
Who squats then sends a great selfie

Or is it one that knows her worth?
With a need for equality here on Earth
To be herself in every way
Whether black, white, straight or gay

What defines a real man?
The 9-5er in the worky van
Getting that coin to take home to his lass
Tied to the sink with the tea on the gas

Or the one that holds his boyfriend's hand
Down the street for the world to brand
A 'bender' where they laugh and stare
He dies inside, pretends not to care

Head held high, he clutches tight
With the hope that one day they might
View it as the norm and stop the stares
Be non judgemental, kind and fair

For what truly defines who are are within
Is standing up for what you believe in
Having an opinion, watching the news
Not worrying about which clothes to chose

So what defines a human being?
One that is all loving, and for me all seeing
Not one forced into a category
Because were just the same, you and me

Be true to who you are, true to how you feel
Cause in this life one thing is real
One day it will be over, and God forbid
When you look back at life at all that you did

You wasted it pretending to be something you're not
So here's a reminder, incase you forgot
You are human, and I believe that means
You can be whoever you want to be, so follow your dreams

Summer briefing

General

• 15th Aug - 1st September Estudio changes to Level 6 so may have difficulty accessing estudio
• Estudio and noticeboards will have competitions and opportunities on them.
• Any emails CC Fred, Eleanor Tom and Joanne
• Thursday 24th September induction and registration
• Formal teaching starts monday 28th Sep
• Anything to do with your progression, opportunities etc will be flexible for getting the time off. Working for publishers, in exhibitions etc. 
• Extended practice 60 marks, PPP 20 and Cop 20

PPP Planning : Blog us your summer

• Post your experiences observations activities and reflections to your PPP blog labelled OUIL602prep
• You should be researching and contacting agencies, studios, practitioners, and collectives that interesting you
• Research into further study, MAs, PGCEs, Training and development opportunities. What do you want to be?
• List the professional skills and knowledge you wish to further develop over the next 12 months and research into how you will develop them
• Write list, action plans and timetable your activities, and stick to them. 

A summary presentation of your creative strategy saying this is what I'm about this is what I want to do and what I want to find out about

• Summary of your personal and professional aims
• evidence of research into professional practice and progression opportunities undertaken over the summer
• a summary of further professional research activities to be undertaken as part of level 6

Context of Practice 3 - 9,000 words. 

• Post your experiences observations activities and reflections to your cop blog labeled OUIL601research
• Gathering and critically evaluating texts articles images quotes
• read - identify refine and investigate the questions that arise from research
• make work relating to research - draw lines make images record people use media go back to playing and thinking through drawing, collaging, photography. Come back with sketchbooks of drawings ideas and observations
• Wrist list action plan and timetable of your activities
• Do little and often for dissertation

10 min presentation outlining your research project for OUIL601 COP. 

- summary of original proposal

- evidence of progress in your research and development over summer

- summary of further research

- proposal of what you intend to produce in response to your research

- outline dissertation plan including short section summaries, key quotes and specific images.

- Write as much of your dissertation as possible. A clear structure, context, images.

Extended practice prep

Negotiating your own briefs and presenting them to your peers

• identify 6 briefs projects and/or  contexts you want to explore as part of level 6 studio practice blog. Include at least 3 live briefs or projects
• identify a range of briefs that will allow you to develop a focused practice with a breadth of possible outcomes
• use existing competition briefs as a starting point and work out how you could develop a more comprehensive response
• consider these subjects content formats and processes that you want to explore
• generate initial ideas concepts research and thumbnails that will help you identify what you could do with a brief and why
• write a short 100 word summary for each brief explaining why you have chosen it and what you intend to do with it
• write list action plans and timetable your activities

Zine

After summer be looking at the sketchbook reviewing it and making a zine based on that for thought bubble november 9th. Deadline 1st November

• One drawing everyday
• Fun
• Sketchbook
• writing 
• poetry
• jokes - dog with tin legs, the milkybars are on me
• warwick-johnson cadwell
• write reflect collect
• draw what you just drew but draw it again better
• draw the best thing or worst thing you did that day
• draw whatever is in front of you at that moment
• wrist a list of what's on your mind and then draw that list
• study the form of an animal/building/plant or vehicle then draw it from memory
• get a new drawing media and figure out how it works
• clear your mind of all thoughts and let the pen decide
• fenton pub life drawing
• stephan marx
• evolve the drawings into a sequence of 16 images for zines
• keep it in the book for the summer, after summer you can put them into the zine
• movie, writer, music, poetry, writing, typology
• donald urquhart

Deliverables : 5 copies of each

16 pages 

A5

monochrome

5 pieces of A4 paper folded

thread binding

colour of paper optional

edition of 5 books produced on a photocopier

zine must include your name and contact details

MY SUMMER

My summer is not going to be one where I find myself, decide what I want to be when I am older, but more of a do nothing kind of summer. I need it. I need to sit and look at the walls for hours on end thinking about nothing at all, clearing my mind. I want to lay naked on my bed all day covered in food because I CAN! I'm gonna do nothing, and I'm gonna love it.

Greece

After a stressful second year I decided that I needed a break, as did my doctor when she diagnosed me with exhaustion. I booked up to Corfu with two girls I live with. We all decided it was going to be a chill holiday and not the usual girly 18-30 holiday where we would be skinny dipping and balancing shots on our heads. I actually wanted to sight see, and totally chill. And that I did..

Greece is a pretty beautiful place if you go to the right places. We took a boat trip to Paxos which had some gorgeous buildings, and guess what Fred, it was on A BOAT! Which I hate by the way. I have a real phobia of water, and it was really choppy I was getting thrown all over, as was my stomach, I was hot, surrounded by germans trodding on me, I was chlostrophobic. I felt like Karl Pilkington.
However, off the boat, the views were spectacular from what I could see. We rode through some caves too!

We stayed in the cutest little hut which I loved, at a family run hotel, whose family were really lovely. It was just what I needed. I even got in the sea! Which I never do. The weather was perfect temperature not too hot where I was going to sizzle to death, with a nice breeze. I tanned like a dream.
On one of the nights we decided to get down with the Greeks and smash some plates! It was such a laugh, we danced the traditional greek dances around in circles kicking our legs in the air and they even got me up on a chair to do some belly dancing! There was fire on the floor and plates everywhere, really great experience!

Home

When I got back it was about family time. Family are my everything. I don't like to go home much because home was a bad place for me before University, and the reason I moved away. Not my actual home, but the people in the town, I have some bad memories there. There is not much reason for me to go back other than my friends that I like to see now and again. But my family, I cannot fault. I try to see my nieces and nephews as much as possible. Anyone who talks to me will know I pretty much bring up my neice Heidi. My brother and his girlfriend have their difficulties and issues so I have made sure that my main focus is on Heidi and ensuring she has a good up bringing regardless of their situations. So it was about Heidi, but also my nephews and my brother had another niece for me, baby Violet! Who is gorgeous. Being off over the summer has allowed me to see her after the birth and spend time with her. Heidi wrote her a letter, telling her she was her big sister. It melted my heart.

I made Violet a frame with her name and date of birth and a little message on it. Kind of like a keep sake, so she can look back and see what a cool aunty she has! It gave me the idea of a new little side line business of doing frames like this with typography on it for other people's births, or birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, new homes etc. Something I will definitely bare in mind.

I spent time with my dog, Buddy. Playing in the garden and taking him for walks in the woods. Me and my boyfriend also took him to the beach which he loves so he was going wild. It started to rain but it didn't phase him he was in the sea, in the lakes, getting us pitted. I am not a fan of beaches really so I made a poem about that.

It was my dads birthday so we went out for a meal and I surprised him by taking all of the kids too which he loved so that was a nice day. It's nice to have the time to do these things I feel like when I am at University I don't get enough time for this. Especially seeing the kids growing up, I feel like a stranger when I'm away from them. This is exactly what I want my summer to be about, just surrounded by the people that I love and doing normal things. I am not interested in going to bizarre places and seeing crazy things, I just want to do nothing with the people that matter.

Moving house

I decided to stay in Leeds over the summer for the majority. Working at TGI fridays I can transfer back home if I want to to their store and work there but it is far too stressful there it's always really busy. Plus, my mam has now moved house and downsized so I don't actually have a bedroom there anymore! There's becoming less and less reason for me to go home now and I want to make my life in Leeds. I have lots of friends here, a job, and my boyfriend here so I'm pretty set up.

We got our new house in Headingley on a really nice road called The Turnways which I have loved since I moved here and one of my friends used to live on it. It's a really quiet, residential area with no trouble and few students. The neighbours are all really nice, they invite us to street parties and look out for us. Our house is really cute inside too and I'm living with girls I work with and get along with brilliantly so it's all good! Moving has been stressful though! I have been driving a white van around like a weirdo. I love looking at a bare room though and thinking up how I can decorate it. It's been nice to put my touch on the place.

Hospital Visits

I had to go home for a couple of days to visit my sister in hospital as she had a throat infection that took a turn for the worst. Her face swelled up like something out of The Klumps! At this I decided to take all of the kids out and off her hands too, so I was like a single parent for the day. I drove a family car with three kids in the back all screaming and playing and my life flashed forward ten years. To be honest, they were no bother, but it scared me to think that would be me soon. Give me a career over that any day! It's hard work!

I also went to visit my friend from school who is suffering with throat cancer which just totally broke my heart. He looked horrendous and I was not expecting to see him in such a bad way. Things aren't going too well for him at the minute but he was in such high spirits. He has not been able to eat any solid foods for two months and has had internal bleeding which needs to stop before he can have any chemotherapy. It just made me appreciate life again and how short it is. I tried my best to cheer him up, and took him some fishing magazines and books to read. What do you buy someone with cancer? It's terrible.. nothing is going to make things better. It really made me want to do more. In general, about life occurrences, if I can do more through my work and have something to say, I want to do it.
How ironic that in my summer I want to do nothing, but seeing him, I want to do more.


Drag nights & Gay Pride

My best friend is home from Dubai and visiting Leeds so it's apparently my job to show her the ropes on the 'gay scene' to which I am no stranger. We went for tapas and myself and Aaron took her out to the gay bars and drag shows. Drag queens are very intriguing, I stood in awe all night. I think they are amazing. What I don't like though, is the girls that come up to you and say, " are you straight or gay? " And I ask why, and they say, "you're straight aren't you" and walk off in a huff. I don't like this, because what does it matter what my sexuality is. Because I am straight does that mean that I should not be there, and why do I have to define myself. Furthermore, why do I have to explain myself, to someone I have never met, does this mean we can't have a conversation? Apparently so..
Gay pride was brilliant. As it is clear in my work I am passionate about equality so to celebrate pride with my friends was an honour. I had a great day surrounded by possitive people just having a good time, with what I have to say was also great music!

Wedding Tree

A girl at work asked me to design her a wedding tree as a gift for her friends wedding which was just a tree trunk, with their initials carved in. She would then get the guests to put a finger print on the branches to make leaves, as a guestbook.
I made her the tree and she was over the moon, as were her friends who tagged me in the photograph on Facebook. This opens up more ideas for me and where my creativity can take me. It's not the type of thing I want to be doing but it shows where you can make quick easy money.

York Races

For my friends birthday me and the girls (ten of us) went to York races for the day. I didn't win any of my bets, my tips were terrible. However the weather was really nice and we had a great day. It was nice to catch up with them all.

Heidi draws me

Spending some quality time with Heidi I've been teaching her to draw and paint. This is her drawing of me.. Apparently she included my spots, cheers..

Sister's heartbreak

My sister split with her childhood sweetheart after he cheated on her and I was able to be there for her to advise her. This is where I felt her sadness, I have had my heart broken many a time and to see your sister going though the same thing kills you. She has lost a lot of weight and my heart just bleeds for her. Quite a dark side to my summer, but being there for her has brought us closer together.

Barbecues

I had a lot of barbecues back home, I seem to have spent more time at home than I expected to. Catching up with everyone has been brilliant. I caught up with four friends I used to work with in my old job as a restaurant manager. We had a great laugh and some drinks out in the garden and that's what being home is all about. It's shown me how far I have come in such a small space of time. A few years back I was working 13/14 hour shifts running, opening and closing a restaurant thinking I would be in that industry for the rest of my life, and now, I am actually being me.

I got drunk, a lot

This holiday I spent a lot of time with my friends acting up being stupid getting drunk. This is something I definitely missed out on in second year. I really didn't make the time to just get drunk with my friends and be an idiot. I need to do this in third year at least once a month just take one night to let loose. I was so scared coming to uni that that's what I would get sucked into that I guess I've gone the other way and rarely gone out. Drinking doesn't really bother me, I'd rather have a nice glass of wine with a meal, but the whole going out thing isn't for me. Now and again though, I do enjoy it. Bad thing about never drinking though, when I do I end up in a state.

My friend smashed a load of shaving foam in my face

I worked a lot

So I guess I didn't become that do nothing bitch I wanted to be. I worked quite a fair bit, some would say full time! Who'da thought it! And I've got nothing to show for it, blew all my money but hey ho!
Work has been horrendous over the holidays it's just became poorly organised so we have had some of the worst shifts there this year. Extremely busy, horrible guests, lots of complaints, and I've been close to walking out. Oh the joys! I've explained to them that this year is going to be really testing so I have cut my shifts to just the weekend now. Then I will see how it goes, I noticed from last year the people doing best in our class were those that did not work and just applied all their time and efforts into the course which is something I may need to do.

Painting commission

Someone messaged me asking what kind of portraits I could do. Seen as I am most comfortable with my digital skills I told him I preferred digital portraits and I thought they looked best. He asked me to send examples of my work which he liked. He said however, that he felt painting by hand had more value and was more personal. He wanted me to paint a picture of a girl for her as a gift to boost her confidence as she does not have any. I said to him that I have not painted by hand for a while, but I would give it a try. I had actually threw my watercolour paints out and had to get some more. Watercolour is the bane of my life! I do not enjoy it at all. I used to love painting by hand, now I hate it i find I don't have the patience and I can't blend the colours well anymore. I don't know what's happened to me, but I am just not that strong at painting. Perhaps I need more practice.

This is the commission but I am not happy with it, he is though which is all that counts I guess! Plus my boyfriend brought me cups of tea and biscuits on tap while I was doing it - result!

Digging up old pictures

Since my mam has moved house she decided to sort out all of our family photos that were in the loft, as well as all of my old work. I came to the realisation I used to be so brainy! I've literally lost all of my knowledge because my memory is so terrible, but reading through my old work books I was genius. My art work however, was embarrassing. Things I thought at the time I was really proud of and wanted to show off, was actually terrible looking back. It's funny to see how far you come in terms of drawing skills. I know there's no wrong answer, but I'm genuinely embarrassed of my old work. I get embarrassed of my work after six months, which shows I'm constantly improving.

Date nights

For the majority of the last year my boyfriend has lived and worked away in Australia so having him home was about us two spending quality time together too, which meant we had to catch up on all of the occasions we had missed out on. The birthdays, the valentines, the Christmases. We had our little dates which could be anything from going out for a really nice slap up meal and cocktails to a simple walk in the park. I love nothing more than walking the dog with him and taking photos of the scenery along the way; I'm getting so old! We have planned to go to France for New Year so this summer for us was just about day trips out rather than any weekends away. We went really nice places like York for the day, chesterfield, countrysides, weston super mare.

Garden Party

We had a house warming party with our nearest and dearests which included inflatable animals, balloons, face painting, karaoke, beer pong and lots of booze! I had my family up on the morning with one of my old friends who is a chef. Her and my mam cooked us all a sunday dinner which was lovely, and heidi helped me set up for the party. She also painted my face like a rabbit, which looked more like I'd dipped my face in acid. Later on when I was drunk I took it one step too far and drew a full on beard on myself, and sang Backstreet Boys on the karaoke.
We also had a frequent visitor, a cat, which I have decided I've now adopted.
I made cheesecake, which was demolished at 3 in the morning along with the left over sunday roast.

More time with Heidi

I went home for the weekend and looked after Heidi as things got a little bit heated with her parents. We decided to help my mam out at her job. She is an exams officer in a school but has recently been promoted to the librarian too. She wanted me to help her re design the library. She wants something fun where the kids want to hang out, make reading cool. Me and heidi went in and between the three of us we blitzed it. Totally stripped the walls and re arranged all of the bookshelves and furniture. I designed the new layout for the library with different sections such as the games section, cinema corner, chill zone. Heidi took lots of books home with us and we read them in bed. I think reading is so important and try read to Heidi every time I see her. As much as she is a film buff and loves disney, she loves reading too. We also baked cakes and played around the house. I taught her how to tidy up after herself including washing the dishes. We played shops where she was the shopkeeper and I bought items for the change I had in my purse, this was to teach her to count, add and takeaway.

She decided she wanted to come stay up in Leeds which is a huge leap for me and something I was so proud of her for doing. She came up and spent a couple of days with me here and we had the best time. We went to tropical world, which she loved the meerkats in! We baked cakes, we went to roundhay park and fed the ducks, and we made a kite and I taught her how to fly it. She didn't want to leave, and it killed me taking her back. I love having her. My mam calls us Matilda & Miss Honey.



Dismaland

As soon as I seen it advertised I sent it to my boyfriend saying we HAVE to go. I was determined. This is everything I am all about, my interests, the reality. I absolutely love the idea of taking art from off a piece of paper, onto the streets, and further still into something like a theme park but a fake one. I just think its genius.
I tried to get tickets but the website kept crashing and I gave up hope. However, my boyfriend surprised me with tickets! I was over the moon! I said to him this is exactly what I'm about and potentially could help my dissertation too. I didnt realise how far away it was in Weston Super Mare but we could make a day of it.

Going there was the best thing I think I've done all summer, even more than Greece. I recommended that everyone go, because it opened my eyes. I left just honestly feeling inspired. I kept saying to my boyfriend my heads full of ideas I just want to get them all down, I was writing them in my notes on my phone. I didn't expect there to be so much art work there as silly as it sounds, I knew it was an exhibition but I didnt expect them to have exhibition spaces like they did. They had two galleries with incredible artists involved.

I loved the whole vibe, the whole depressing dismal staff, I'd love to work there! I was looking around thinking anyone could be Banksy. Most of all I was intrigued to see what kind of people were going here. What kind of people know its an exhibition and not just a theme park? What kind of people like Banksy? What kind of people like art. In the queue I was looking around and everyone looked really normal. It was in the middle of nowhere, Weston super mare is quite a rough seaside town it reminded me of Blackpool a little bit. It was obviously the best thing that had happened to the town in a while.

As much as I loved it, I did get the feeling it had been slightly dulled down to suit the audience if that makes sense? I feel like knowing how ellaborate and out there Banksy is with his work and his concepts, he played it a little safe with Dismaland. I feel he could have been even more extreme and certain pieces of work or factors were a little dull and too normal, or had no real purpose.
However I came away having learnt a lot about the reality of society today and current issues. One thing that felt very current was the migrant boat rides where you get the reigns of the steering wheel to steer around boats filled with migrants that rode over dead bodies in the water that didn't make it. This tied in perfectly with the news recently about immigration and I got the feeling everyone around watching that was thinking of the news of the little boy washed up on the shore.
That gave me the idea for my zine. I wanted to make something based on immigration too, as it is still raw.

End of year show

Tuesday 2nd briefing
Paint team 3rd and 4th june at 9:30

A4 piece of paper with 6 images on :

3 images hung on wall hung at A5
3 images u have existing at A2

Proposal form

SB3 End of module evaluation

Adele Pierce

OUIl505 Applied Illustration

End of module Evaluation

I started off looking into character and narrative as my field; but this progressed across into product and packaging due to my drive to want to produce finished final outcomes, which I have not previously explored in other modules. I wanted to get my head around creating products ready to sell, as this is something I wish to carry on after university. I decided to home in on the card industry after speaking about how easy it is to make money off of greetings cards in PPP. Cards are such a great avenue to explore because you can take one design and put it across multiple formats or events; or take one occasion and explore it with multiple designs, in multiple sizes. I chose greetings cards because usually they are rather mundane and stereotypical and I wanted to turn this on its head; create a range of cards that you would not expect to buy.

I began my contextual research by looking online at cards that could not be sold in store because they are too offensive or explicit. This really influenced me to start thinking outside of the box in terms of my concept. I came across some great companies such as Brainbox Candy and Jolly Awesome that feature their cards on distribution sites such as Paperchase and Scribbler as well as selling in stores such as Urban Outfitters. This was the avenue I wanted to go down. I looked into distribution and costs and thought about perhaps giving my designs to an online distributor that would print the cards for me and ship them to save me doing it myself. They give you a base price to which you add your profit on top of. However, I felt I was not ready to submit any designs at this stage and perhaps this will be something I will explore next year when I feel more confident in my drawing skills.

I decided to propose myself as an online business, a website that sold the greetings cards amongst other products. My initial ideas were quite offensive, I got too carried away with the notion of cards that you would not expect and cards that you would not sell with influence from Mr. Bingo and Chris Simpson’s Artist. However, there is a fine line between being funny and being offensive and I had to figure out how I could draw funny. How I could make my characters and the line work speak for itself rather than adding text and putting across the wrong message. I looked at illustrators such as Paul Davis that influenced me to be more sensitive with my approach. I decided to re-evaluate my audience and to focus on the elderly. I watched programmes such as ‘Off their rockers’ and YouTube clips of older generation acting youthful to inspire me. I came up with the concept of a card range that would be sold to youngsters to give to the elderly as a confidence boost to assure them they were still young.

In order to design my characters for this I looked at extreme sports and situations that youngsters are in; but replaced their bodies with that of the elderly. This deemed pretty frustrating at times when it was hard to imagine the older person in a certain pose. I got to grips with how their skin might fold, sag, or wrinkle but sometimes had a mental block of their proportions. To overcome this I would take my drawing with a light box and re draw it until it was correct. Some designs did not work, the facial expressions were not right they did not seem like they were having fun but rather grimacing. Eventually I had ten designs which I took to a group crit. The group told me to narrow it down to six, as that is usually the standard for greetings cards. This worked well for me because there were certain designs still that were not summing up my concept well enough. I had also experimented with colour previously, which the group felt was too dark and needed to be more vibrant. I then took my designs and re worked them until they were correct, deleting the backgrounds to just have one stand alone image. I coloured them with a pastel colour palette to give it more of a fun aesthetic.

Once mocked up and printed for the final crit I had further feedback to change the format to square in order for the cards to work better as a set. I was also told to expand my range with wrapping paper and gift tags. I had previously explored products such as iPhone cases and t-shirts but the gift ideas seemed more relevant to the cards so I was pleased with this advice.

I mocked up wrapping paper, which if I had more time I would have printed properly and priced appropriately. I printed gift tags on a glossy card stock with string and priced. I created a website mock up of where my products would be sold alongside an expansion on the concept. I decided to take my idea further by adding two more concepts to the ‘You’ve still got it’ range. My company was to be called Bow Down which would sell this card range amongst others, and products to support them. I got quite passionate about this because this is something that I would like to achieve when I leave university. I mocked the idea up on Photoshop but if I had more time I would create the website for real. Next year I am hoping to achieve this; I hope by the time I leave University that I fully understand printing my illustrations onto products ready to sell. I would like to further explore marketing my products on websites and social media.

Overall, I am pleased with this module because I finally have created finished products that could possibly sell and this is something I am proud of. I have moved away from being offensive, and used my character, line work and choice of colour to portray humour rather than word. I initially had text on my images which I later discovered was unnecessary and I should let the images speak for themselves. In terms of time management, I feel that I have used every day wisely with this module and I don’t feel that there are any areas I have missed a great deal out of, I feel that my whole process has been consistent throughout. Unlike other modules, sometimes my work is too research heavy and the final outcomes are left until last minute. I feel the difference here is that I knew from the onset I wanted to create greetings cards and they were to be the final outcome, so everything leading up to that was a process thoroughly explored. I wanted to become an expert at greetings cards, and I must say I feel I am now and understand the industry pretty well. It has influenced me to consider speaking to these companies and perhaps look at an internship in the summer. I feel like my digital skills have come a long way in this module, which has been commented on in peer feedback sessions. I do feel that in terms of experimentation I have perhaps been limited with my play and could have explored texture and collage further within the clothing of the characters and patterns. However, I spent too much time drawing and re-drawing that in the end I got fixated on colour palettes rather than texture.

The cards push the boundaries in comparison to the stereotypical occasion cards; they are left blank to be open for any occasion. They are sensitive enough for the elderly to receive them, but funny enough to be sold to a younger audience too, which I feel quite proud of achieving as a balance. I was constantly aware of creating cards that could also be sold in store as they are not too explicit or offensive; often having to change my designs to suit this. An example of this was an elderly lady doing the splits with saggy breasts, I had to reign that in by covering up her cleavage as this could be seen as offensive. Finally, I feel my final products are well presented and executed, but I perhaps could have photographed them more professionally for my blog and featured those photographs on a mock up of the website if I had more time. I have really enjoyed the module and stayed interested in it and I feel this is due to using a humorous concept that has allowed me to be playful with my character designs.

SB3 Presentation boards

SB3 Project Report

SB2 Final outcomes

PACKAGING

Cards

I had to buy envelopes for the final cards as my strengths don't really lie in net making and glueing things together, I'd of ended up glueing my fingers together and it would have all got very messy!
Square format was much easier for purchasing envelopes too.

Gift Tags

I placed the cards in a plastic wallet for the submission but if I had more time I would mock them up as part of the website for sale with a price of £0.75 each or a pack of all 6 for £3.00. Based on research into other card stores prices I think this would be reasonable.

SB2 Wrapping paper and gift tags

ADDITIONAL MOCK UPS - gift tags

I am not happy with the string for this one but as it was a rough mock up I just wanted to get a general idea. Obviously I would print these onto card and use a better string.

Wrapping paper

I would price these wrapping papers at £1.75 a sheet based on research into card companies pricing.

I really like how these came out they have still kept their detail as well as working well as a pattern. Not all of the designs would tessellate as successfully as these as they are stand alone images whereas some of the others fit the page. This would be something to consider within the brand and the range of cards; creating all of the designs with the idea in mind that they need to be taken across onto other products. I am not sure if these images on wrapping paper make much sense; but they support the greetings cards.
I guess what I mean is I can't really see an audience buying these designs as wrapping paper alone.