Oops, spelt it wrong!

Coffee and brief explanation with TCT

Today I met up with Daniel who works at the City Talking and TONE and Tom Joy who are also working on the brief with me. We met up as we were all struggling a bit with the brief, we met on the Southbank of Leeds (in fitting with the project).

Daniel went through a presentation of the past and present of the Southbank, we all chatted and tried to understand the brief more. The main points that I got from the meeting:

- High speed railway development
- Show the rich past
- Future buildings- how can i show them
- Could be good to show the park
- The southbank and the other side of the canal- how can i show it?
- Personally I feel my work should be less conceptual after this meeting

I will get back to work and see what ideas i come up with!

Nineteen eighty-four

This is probably my least favourite of my book covers. Red is not a colour that I favour however it is fitting with the book and completes the set well. I struggled with this book as I didn't want to create something that was cliche (as documented in my rationale). So i made the black bread and the cage different to the current covers but I put the iconic eye on there. Nevertheless, the cover works well as a set when amongst the other covers.

the war of the worlds

I really struggled with creating this cover. I had to do a lot of research into the book, I have seen the film before however I knew that things would of been changed for cinematic effect. I did not have time to read this book so I had to rely mostly on summaries online. I did not want to put any people or aliens on the cover, nor anything gruesome. So this is the best that I could do. I feel like maybe the black and the purple are too close in colour. When printed this could look completely different so it is good to check this out. 

One flew over the cookoo's nest

This cover was probably my most enjoyable one. Creating all the different motifs to be included with the gradients was really fun. I also love how the yellow works with the red and the white, it sums up the book and the journey the book takes. The yellow symbolises the sickness yet the fun that they have.

Frankenstein

I enjoyed making this cover. I wrote in my rationale that I didn't want my work to look cliche- i wonder if this design is bending that statement? That said, I wonder if people would be able to guess the book if the title was removed. I really love how the test tube looks on this piece- the gradient combined with the strong highlight, bold shapes and colours works really well. I am very pleased with it. The bolt could of maybe had more work on it- I was going for a certain aesthetic there but I'm not sure i pulled it off. I also think that maybe the layout on the back cover is a little unbalanced.

Hunger Games products - Wrapping paper

I made some wrapping paper for the hunger games books that I illustrated the covers for.  

I have also created some other examples of the promotional material that could be created. The motifs can be transferred across many different products depending on the budget of the client. The target market of the hunger games is those who are 12-18 however studies have shown that over half of those who read/watch hunger games are over 18. So these products are directly aimed at that age range. 

Books to do for my other 4 penguin book covers

In my tutorial with Fred we discussed the prospect of continuing on with one of my briefs so it is a larger body of work and also so it works really well as a set. My penguin book cover response for the Clockwork Orange worked really well and we decided that it could be really nice to illustrate some other penguin classics.

Frankenstein : or The Modern Prometheus
One Flew the Cookoo's Nest
1984
War of the Worlds

I have been looking at all different types of penguin classics however these were the 4 that stuck out to me most. I picked these ones because they work as a set, they aren't your average story and they are all a bit quirky in some way. I liked that. Also in my opinion they aren't so popular that the existing covers have absolutely rinsed all the ideas.

To keep the body of work coherent in some way, am going to try keeping a block colour for the background and probably 3 symbols on the cover. I have created a pinterest board on book covers to help inspire me and inform me.


Follow Olivia's board Illustrated Book Covers on Pinterest.

First digital images sent

These are a few bits of progress on my work. I am quite liking how they are going however I feel like the colours probably aren't going that well. In the second image I feel like the work is too line heavy and needs to contain more shapes. The reason that I chose to work like this is because they really liked my city piece which was line heavy. I am a bit annoyed with myself that I started to design work to the way that I thought the client wanted it instead of creating something brand new. What I will do is keep working on this piece and change a lot of it to suit my current process. This will also mean that whoever sees the newspaper will not be seeing an almost outdated illustration but will be seeing who i am and what my practice is at this moment.

Initial sketches

curiosity 

generosity 

pause & learn

These are my initial sketches for the brief, I tried to focus on the 5 values that were detailed in the Culture Strategy. I quite like them so far, I really struggled to get some ideas down onto paper due to the very conceptual nature of the brief. 

After sending these designs to Daniel I got this response:

"These are lovely, I like 'curiosity', and anyone generous enough to give me a pineapple is a-okay with me. One thing that's missing so far is the South Bank part; we need to think how those values apply to a part of the city where a whole new community might develop over the next fifteen years, and somehow make that part of the images. 

To help with that I'm attaching the South Bank Prospectus, which is a very development-focused salesy brochure that you definitely do not have to read! But it might help you get familiar with the area and the plans."

He then went on to suggest we all meet up for coffee to explain the brief more as we were all struggling a bit. This will really help.

The City Talking Brief

"====

Leeds is currently making a Cultural Strategy, to guide culture in Leeds from 2017-2030. 

The Culture Strategy website is here: http://leedsculturestrategy.org/

That's the 'client' for this. Leanne Buchan is running it, and has asked us to commission some artists for a special issue of TCT to do 'something cool' that 1) creates awareness that the Culture Strategy is being developed 2) contributes to the Culture Strategy 3) is really good.

In the same period, the South Bank — south of the River Aire, from Holbeck to Hunslet — will be entirely redeveloped with new homes, offices, shops, leisure, schools, colleges and a new city park. The Council's South Bank page is here: http://southbankleeds.co.uk

We would like you to produce artwork for The City Talking newspaper that explores how a Cultural Strategy can guide the future development of the South Bank. One of the reasons for having a Cultural Strategy is to ensure developers will consider Leeds' culture as part of new developments.

What does culture mean to you, and what might it mean on the South Bank in the future?

Leanne Buchan of Leeds City Council is guiding the city towards its new Cultural Strategy, and has proposed five values that will guide the cultural course of the city that we would like you to consider in your work. 

Bravery: how can the city be culturally confident? How can Leeds be radical, independent, ferocious?

Resilience: what creative riches can we rely on in Leeds, other than money?

Tolerance: how can we be proud, grateful and supportive of each other's creativity?

Generosity: how can we share resources, learning and opportunities?

Curiosity: trying and learning; how can we make sure excitement overcomes nerves?

====

Hopefully that makes enough sense to get you thinking good thoughts. The real basic version is: 

1. think about those cultural strategy values

2. look at the South Bank area

3. do whatever you want

4. talk with me and Tone about it

Me and Shang-Ting will be on hand to help. The three other things to know are: 

1. the deadline is tight! 8th April

2. we will be paying for your work — £xxx

3. the council are organising a launch event around the time the paper comes out, so that should be fun too

I hope this is of interest? Let me know if there are any questions, and if you're up for it!

Thanks,

Daniel."



This brief sounds really good, i will  accept it and get started to work on it. It sounds a brief that is fairly open and less restricted, I am happy about this. I will email him back to accept it and check with size and format of the work/ other minor details.

Darts Project final submission

After going to Romania to inform myself more about Corvin Castle (see post http://o-newsome1316ppp.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/trip-to-transylvania-for-darts.html ) I have made some changed to my submission, notably the motif in the corner which is the symbol of the Corvin family- the raven with the ring in its mouth. I have also used my own image instead of basing my image off the ones that I have seen on google image. This means I don't have to worry about copyright and it also means that I can get much more detail in my work than before.

I am fairly pleased with my submission and I am hoping that I will do well in the competition. I will find out in the next week or so. If I win I get to go to the awards ceremony in Italy, can choose to be an artist in residence for a while, I get 500euros and also my work gets installed at the site. So we shall see!

Final editorial piece

So far I have done spot illustrations, a letterbox shape, a square, a half page text wrap around and finally I have done a double page spread. 

Doing this double page spread was actually really fun. Coming up with the illustration was done with  having the text in mind. My decisions were directly informed by the text and the illustration together. I found this problem quite exciting to tackle. I feel that my illustration does take into account the text and presents it well but at the same time it works as a stand along illustration  due to its bold colours, rule of thirds and mix of flat colour and texture. I am pleased with it. 

Planning out for the article "How the jump shot brought individualism to basketball"

I am just planning out the article and the forms for the piece. I have to bear in mind the text and leave room for in to fit the title in and the text for the article.

The text and image have to be synthesised in this stage in order to create an image that works. 

Hunger Games shop front stickers

I have begun to act on my thoughts that I have had a few weeks ago. I wondered where would this book cover be seen? How would it be promoted? Therefore I have come up with some vinyl stickers, these stickers will be printed onto transparent vinyl so that parts of the design appear translucent. They would also have their individual logo's underneath to promote recognition.

From here I want to make further promotional material here are some ideas that I have:
- Photo Booth - simple pop up photo booth with logos printed on them.
- Pens
- Limited edition prints
- Notebooks
- Giveaway tote bags with the book
- T-shirts
- Book stand
- Stickers

Research into spacial design

I have been looking into using objects in spaces and how you can do this creatively. Fred gave me a few references in my tutorial which opened up possibilities in my mind on how i could showcase my project in a way that goes beyond a piece of paper that fits in my hands. What would happen if my illustrations were blown up to the size of a wall? Thinking out of the box is key for me in this project.

Trip to tropical world

I took a research trip to tropical world and loved it! It was so nice to see some of the plants and animals that I had been drawing- especially the poison dart frog. These are just a few of my many photographs. I will use these images as reference; it was too busy and way too warm to stop and draw in there. This is probably the closest thing i'm going to get without actually visiting a rainforest first hand. It has helped me to understand the climate more and the range of plants and animals that exist in this climate. I am looking forward to creating more work for this brief. 

yann Kebbi

I have looked at a lot of illustrators who use shape in their editorial illustrations, I thought that it would be good to take note of this one as it is an example of illustration that works very well, has a clear concept but also is completely different in its process. I do like the aesthetic, its not really in line with my practice however I have been wanting to introduce some sort of hand made textures into my work. Whether its on this brief or just in the future it has been good to take note of.

Engineering colouring book launch

Here are a few photos from the launch of the engineering colouring book. It was a really fun day with lots of people interacting with the work. There were 10,000 copies of the book to give away! There was lots of good feedback from all types of people, young and old. Kerry has been a great leader in this project which I feel has contributed massively to the success of the project. 

The remainder of these books are going to be given out to schools all across the north. Many teachers visited the event and spoke about their interest in it, they wanted to have a massive colouring page of their own and they wanted to have some books for their classes.

Kerry has been a great leader in this and her passion to see it move forward has given us massive opportunities, opportunities that we wouldn't be able to achieve ourself. Working as a team proved a task at times but the majority was very easy and straightforward. The minor difficulties that we experienced were towards the start where we had to decide on a format for the work that would be used consistently by all of us. We also had to try make sure our 'styles' look consistent- we did this by deciding on a similar line weight. This drew all the pieces together.

Something that I learnt whilst doing this project is that each client it different and has a ranging level of knowledge in art/design. With Kerry, she had little knowledge in this which made creating work that she liked easy. However it also meant that the vocabulary that we used needed to be tailored to her- for example we couldn't just speak about a line weight or reference a font by name. The art/design lingo was kept to minimum to ensure that Kerry understood all that was being said.

Kerry is hoping to take the book to more shopping centres due to the success of the launch at Trinity. Meadowhall is the next hopefully according to Kerry. I would be pleased with this as it just creates more and more exposure for us as illustrators and also more awareness of the purpose of the book - to make children understand what engineering is more.

I was also the photographer for the day and will continue to do photography for them throughout Leeds Festival of Science. 

Feedback and Action plan from group crit

Action plan:
-Research rainforest animals and plants more.
-Think bigger- look into large scale work. - in particular large vinyl stickers
-Think about infographics.- research 'graphic thought facility'
-Look into the retail side of museums.
-It could be good to visit the national history museum
-Visit tropical world

Strengths:
"Great initial ideas produced. I particularly like the potential screen print ideas of the leaves. Strong scope and scale of the work. Varied Visual imagery, detailed pieces with time clearly invested in them. I like the idea for the book."

"Good topic with all scope needed for big kahuna. Good to be open minded up until now. Wonderful use of sketchbook. It is informing your work well. Strong body of work developing. Extra detail in drawings is working well for you- all very positive. Brilliant exploration of creatures on photoshop, the gecko is fantastic, keep developing black and white drawings with bursts of colour and texture. Response is on its way to achieving the problem"

Suggestions:
"Varied visual language evidences so far, but have you settled on a specific style to follow on with? Now seems like a good time to do so. Could you propose a huge wall of different rainforest layers and the animals that live within the layers. Perhaps discuss more on your blog about your intended audience"

"Some really lovely use of on your work, you could scan this in and use as textures. Key drawing and finding textures to use are you are excellent with textures. This will help artwork always improve and be informed."

Working from some of my sketchbook drawings

 

I have been working with another one of my drawings and have been turning it into a shape drawing. I feel as though it misses something. I created this one so that it could easily be tuned into a screen print. I feel as though it loses what was there before (see :here ). I feel as though it could be a good idea to try one of the Kyle T Webster brushes that I have on photoshop to bridge that gap between the hand-drawn and the digital. 

Working from sketchbook drawings

I have scanned in one of my sketchbook drawings, made them into shapes and formed them into an aesthetically pleasing design. I'm really happy with how it has turned out. I think it needs a lot more to it to be a final piece and I am also wanting to do a screeprint too so it doesn't fit (too many colours/difficult textures to print). It does however show me a lot about layout and colour and how the image just 'works'.

I need to make more work like this i feel.

This is the original drawing that it came from:

Brazil nut trees

I received a lot of good feedback for this piece in the crit however in hindsight i feel that it looks so forced and way too graphic. Its like a hipster of illustration. I need to steer away from things that do not embody my practice but instead look to create things that are more intuitive. This also means that I will enjoy commissions more upon leaving college as my portfolio will be all work that I love doing.

Progression on Darts project brief- almost finished

I am almost there. I just need to add the finishing touches to set it apart. I have a few gradients to put on and also i want to create a little logo for the work to give almost a stamp of the castle. I think I will make a logo that comes from its existing coat of arms (see below). 

Trying out digital drawing for insects

I have done this drawing of a dragonfly. I really like it, i feel like it works well as an image and embodies my practice. I feel like singular objects/animals are what really works for me and also what is really working on this brief. 

I will continue to explore this idea. 

Submission to the Penguin book competition

Here is the work that I submitted for the Penguin Book Design award. I am very happy with how it has turned out, I feel that its success came from trying out different options, figuring out what works and what doesn't and eventually landing on an idea. This most likely makes up the reason why the Emil and The Detectives cover didn't work out! 

Doing just 1 (successful) cover for this brief is not going to be enough, I need to think about how I can expand this brief so that it is substantial enough to hold its own. 

Submission to the Penguin book competition- Emil and the detectives

Here is my submission to the penguin book competition. I don't think that I quite got the colours right, I don't know what happened here but it just didn't go as I wanted. I didn't give myself enough time to really think of all the ideas and colour schemes really. I am quite happy with the layout I just don't think I have executed it with a high quality. The hand drawn type is terrible along with the colour palette. I did this brief within a short amount of time before the deadline and you can definitely tell! I feel that I almost did this to test to see if I could work under pressure...the result is not really! Nevertheless it was a good learning exercise and i can just brush off this off and keep moving forward.

I have already submitted it now in time for the deadline so there isn't any time to change anything. I also don't think that there is any more point changing it as I should focus on other briefs.

Market research

I have done some market research for my book Emil and the Detectives. I feel that a book that is bright and eye-catching will work the best. 

Potential screen print idea from sketchbook page

I have used one of my drawings in my sketchbook to figure out this screen print. Overall it is 4 colours including the black. I like how it has turned out however I don't feel like it embodies my practice like other pieces that I have done. My practice is more about shape and texture and i don't think that this contains that - even though I did it myself. It does show me however that I need to simplify things down and get back to the purpose of the project - to inform. Doing this as a 4 colour screen print would be not worth the time or the effort- I will continue exploring the idea of screen print as print is something that I am interested in.

I have also coloured it normally but I don't like the palette. Its too much of the same colour!