The World's Fair: Virtual Future

I recently submitted a piece of work to a group exhibition hosted by Ben Kither and Sarah Stapleton of OWT Creative, at Vault/Cord Bar in Manchester.

The name of the exhibition was Manchester World's Fair 2012, and creatives were invited to submit a piece of work, in any form, on the theme of "the distant future of our planet".

I've posted the piece of work I submitted below, along with my initial drawing.

The idea behind my image was about how our lives are becoming more and more intertwined with digital technology, so my idea for the theme was that we'd be experiencing the world through digital means rather than physically. 

I also wanted to throw in a few retro elements such as an old fashioned paper ECG machine and a slightly battered bed, as I like the idea that people would be creating their own illegal virtual reality set ups at home with whatever medical equipment they could get their hands on..

Here is a photo of my piece at the exhibition, next to a stunner by Mr Kris Sale.

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Unleashed: The Best in the North

So a while back, some of our illustration class, including myself, submitted work to the Unleashed: Best in the North Illustration competition. The competition is looking for the best student illustration in the North, and accepted work from 11 universities (ranging from Birmingham to Edinburgh), with a total of 138 submissions in all.


The competition shortlisted 24 works to be sold at auction, and also puts all pieces in a catalogue to be sold to raise money for the Northwest Air Ambulance charity, as well as the students themselves, with the money raised from selling a piece of work being split 50/50 between the student and the charity; smiles all round!


All work submitted is currently in the exhibition at Mr Thomas's Chop House in Manchester, so get over there and have a look! All pieces are for sale also!

I was really excited to find out that 2 of my pieces of work had been shortlisted and are to be sold in the upcoming auction on Thursday 19th July, and are also in the running to win bronze, silver or gold. Work by fellow Stockport students (now graduates) Kris Sale, Holly McLoughlin and Laura Gilbert was also shortlisted, and loads more from Stockport are in the exhibition and for sale in the catalogue.


My pieces:

Anyway, I think us shortlisted folk will be heading down to the auction/award night, which is really exciting, and hopefully lots of money will be raised for charity (..and ourselves)!

Check out the Facebook page here for more info on this years competition and exhibition!

D&AD New Blood: Stockport College

So last week, a few of us recent graduates headed down to London for the D&AD New Blood exhibition in Old Spitalfields Market. The exhibition ran for 3 days (Tuesday eve - Thursday) and on our stand we had work from illustration, graphic design and moving image students graduates.


Lots of people from the creative industries came around to see the work which was really great, and there was a of of interest in our stand from various agencies and magazines. (My work was featured on the Digital Arts blog here!) I also took the opportunity to visit DDB advertising agency which was really useful and gave me a better understanding of how illustration is used in advertising specifically.


D&AD were also running festival events, going out to visit various design studios, agencies and collectives. Whilst we were there I took the opportunity to go to 3 of the festival events with fellow Foursightians Kris, Jordan and Matt. 

The first place event we went on was 'Meets the Agents at the Artworks', where we went on a walk into Shoreditch to meet agents at the Artworks illustration agency. The ladies there talked us through what they did and why, how they chose and worked with illustrators, and fielded questions from the group, giving us all a good insight into how the illustrator-agent relationship works.

We also went to a talk by Jelly London, who are also an agency that represents illustrators, as well as animators and directors. They gave us a presentation on what Jelly are all about and how it all worked, and then had a bit of fun practising what to say on the phone to clients, with various members of the group.

Finally, on the last day there we went to a talk by a collective of illustrators and artists called Many Hands, who have joined up mainly to sell their own work online and collaborate. They gave a great talk at a bar in Shoreditch (was nice to get out of the sun!), and then we split off into groups and could question various members of the collective to our hearts content about anything we wanted. This was really useful and they gave lots of great advice and information. We also managed to have a quick chat with them about our project Foursight, and they helped us out with some names of places we might be able to sell future publications. 


So all in all, I think the trip to London was really good and gave us lots of opportunities to go and talk to other creatives and people in the industry that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to do. 


I've posted some phots of our New Blood stand below (borrowed from the Stockport Illustration blog Picture Box) Thanks!

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Grow: Into Town

On Friday the 15th of June we took the degree show on a day trip into the centre of Manchester, so we could invite the local creative industry to see our work if they weren't able to make it out to Stockport. In a 180 minute makeover, the blank space of the Kraak studio in Stevenson Square (Northern Quarter) was transformed into a temporary grow-themed degree show complete with a wheelbarrow full of beer. 


Despite the rain, a good few people came out from local studios and agencies to see the work and chat to us which was really great. There's a couple of photos below of the place and us with our work. Many thanks go to the Grow degree team who arranged it all (including the 2nd years who got soaked for us!), and the tutors for driving it all there!


Also check out the Grow degree site for all the students work...


Photos borrowed from the Picture Box blog here

Grow: Degree Show Preview Night

On Friday we had the preview night of our degree show at Stockport College, showing the work of all the design pathways; Illustration, Graphic Design, Moving Image, Surface Design, Photography etc., and it was a great success! It was incredibly busy and really exciting to have everyone together and showcase the culmination of 3 years work. 


For the show I put up 6 A2 size prints of some of my images from my FMP on space and underwater exploration. Here are the images:

In a surprising turn of events, I'm very proud to have won 'Best in Show' for my illustration work! With so much incredible work on show (seriously...the show looked amazing..) I'm really proud and happy to have my name chiselled onto the shield this year to represent our illustration group.


I've posted some pics below of the goings on, and will blog again soon as the show will be going into Manchester next Friday for a one-day exhibition spectacular in the northern quarter.

For now, the show is still on at college, Mon-Thurs  10am - 7.30pm, so come check it out!
See the degree show website for more details/directions - Grow Degree Show

Draw North West Poster

I recently had the chance to design a poster for the next Draw North West meeting in May, and its now up on the site, so I though I'd do a quick post about it.

Mr Alan Dalby was my AD for the week, and we had a quick chat about the sort of stuff that could go on it, and I settled on doing an biplane design as it's loosley related to navigation and direction and links with it being in the North West. Also I thought it would be fun to do aeroplanes as its not something I've tried before! Anywho, I've poster the poster below, and also my rough.

Cheers to DNW and Alan for asking me to do it!

Jill Calder

Illustrator Jill Calder recently paid a visit to college to talk to us about her work and experiences as illustrator. She was really fantastic to listen to and went through a lot of aspects of working as a professional illustrator.

For instance, she spoke about what it was like being represented by an agency (or two) and how that has helped with the business side of things as well as providing interesting projects to work on. She gave really good advice on the money issue, and as most of us leaving uni at the moment probably won't be represented by an agency when starting out, it was good to hear how a working illustrator deals with getting paid. The main point she made was to not let people mess you around with money, and that illustrators are providing a service and deserve to be paid for it, so I think it probably gave us all a bit more confidence when we might have to chase payments in the future.

She also spoke about how it can be a positive to have a more interesting looking portfolio to show prospective clients. She had had a couple hand made in bright colours and decorated to get people's attention. This isn't really something I'd thought about with my portfolio, as I generally didn't think I'd be showing many people a physical portfolio hat often, so mine is just a standard looking one. It could be something to think about in the future, especially if you have to leave it with someone to look at; I suppose a personalised folio could make the work stand out if you're not there to talk about it yourself.

 Jill went on to show u some of her work and how she worked on a project start to finish. She stressed the importance of drawing, and spoke about drawing anywhere, and on anything. Whether it be a sketch book, scrap of paper, or even an ipad, it all has its uses and doing a quick sketch of something when you're out and about, could then help inform or be part of a new piece of work. I though this was really interesting to see, especially as I have done much drawing or sketching from life very recently. My own work is quite precise I suppose and I use a lot of straight lines and grids to make shapes etc., so seeing Jill's sketches actually made me want to do a bit more drawing, and not worry to much about how it looks, as its just another way of gathering information.

She made a couple of suggestions for a good way to work, and these were both 'be silly' and 'be serious'. This made me think of what must be a quote I'd heard someone say once, which was about the best people to work with are people who take their work seriously, but not themselves. And I think that it's similar to what Jill was saying about illustration, which was to take the job seriously and always try and do a good job, but also don't be afraid to have fun and be silly and playful with your work, when appropriate of course. Inject a bit of your own personality and sense of humour into the work, whilst still doing a good, professional job. I thought that was really good advice, because it not only makes the work more interesting to look at, but I suppose it would also make the work more enjoyable and fun to create. I think I could really do with taking this bit of advice on board and being a bit looser and more playful in my work. Although last time I added a sense of humour to my work *cough* mother Teresa card *cough*, people did not get it....oh well!

Over all the lecture was really interesting and funny, I could have listened to her for hours! She made some really good points and gave me some stuff to think about in relation to my own work. And it's always good to her another persons experiences and advice, as it helps answer some questions and give you more confidence in your own ideas. 

And I also have a collection of envelope inside patterns scanned in. Go team. 

Cheers Jill!

 

London: Pick Me Up

Whilst in London the other week, we went to the Pick Me Up graphic arts fair at Somerset House on the Thames, and this was the first exhibition I'd been to that most of the work seemed to be close to the sort of work we are all looking to produce as illustrators at the moment...if that makes sense. 

There was work on show by lots of different people, some exhibiting as individuals and some as collectives, and a lot of the work was for sale. I saw some great work there, including stuff by Fernando Volken Togni, Matthew Dent, Dominic Owen, Tom Frost and Zim and Zou, and there was also a cool exhibition by the Pick Me Up artists in residence; Peepshow Collective. Their exhibition was titled 'The Museum of Objects and Origins' and featured all sorts of work, from wallpaper and prints on the walls, to objects and textiles in cabinets. Peepshow describe it as...

" Exhibiting items from an invented past, the collection is also a living, growing display as themed workshops create new works to fill the final few cabinets."

I've posted some images below of some of the artist's work, and also Peepshow Collective's exhibition (photo creds to their sites).

I have to say, some of my favourite pieces of work their were the stamps set by Tom Frost, and looking through some more of his work, I'm definitely a fan, so check out his blog to see what I'm on about, and I've also posted some pieces of his work that weren't at Pick Me Up below,... just because.

Dominic Owen

Tim McDonagh

 

Peepshow Collective

Tom Frost's work...

The hand made, screen prinited toy and 3D work of some of the best things I've seen in a while....seriously want one of those cars!

The Teenage Market

Recently a group of us uni students went down to 'The Teenage Market' in Stockport to sell prints, cards, jewellery, crafts, etc. that we'd made, to raise money to go to D&AD New Blood in June.

The market seemed pretty successful overall, with lots of people turning up and all sorts of stalls and performances happening. I wouldn't say we made that much money, but it was definitely worth going and seeing what we could sell. We sold more of the craft/handmade items than we did of the cards and prints, but i think with a bit more prep time we could have done better on that front, with maybe a wider range and less specific images. My own at least was probably too specific and not the sort of thing people would put on their wall perhaps. And the cards were mother's day cards. The market was on the 1st of April. Enough said.

Overall, the market was a good experience and definitely worth a shot to make some money for D&AD, which we did. It was also good research for if we ever go to any fairs or markets etc. to try and sell work in the future, as to what sort of things sell and which don't.

'Christmas in Uganda' Childrens Book

So last November, there was a small book launch for the childrens book I illustrated called 'Christmas in Uganda'. I've been really busy (and forgetful), so this is a veryyyy late post with some photos of the book in print and some pics from the launch. It was a good eve and a good few books were sold to raise money for the charity. Cool.

This is the book, and a few of the spreads...

 

And here are a few photos from the launch.....