D&AD Education Day : Preston

(photo courtesy of Steve Wilkin)

Last Wednesday a group of us from uni attended the D&AD Education day at UCLAN in Preston. The day was set up as a chance for students to go and learn about D&AD and to get advice about the upcoming competitions, as well as an opportunity to get involved in some workshops and to meet people that worked in the creative industry.
We attended the morning lecture, where Rhiannon James (Education Director) from D&AD spoke about the history of D&AD, as well as how to approach the student competitions and how it was judged, as well as showing some work that had won awards at D&AD. 


She firstly spoke about the history D&AD and how it was set up in 1962 by a group of designers including Alan Fletcher, David Bailey and Terence Donavon, as a charity aiming to look for the best in design, and to reward those responsible. It's ran as a charity, as all the money they receive they try and give back to the designers by providing monetary prizes, and funding workshops, education days and providing links with industry to both graduates and students. 

Then she talked a bit about the D&AD awards and gave examples of some of the winners and the reasons that they had won. 

There's the yellow pencil award for - 'Work that is outstanding, rather than merely brilliant...'

and the black pencil award for - 'The best of the best, the ultimate award, for work that is truly groundbreaking.'

They have also introduced the new white pencil award introduced this year which is -  'awarded to a creative idea that changes the world for the better; an idea that demonstrates the ability to influence real and positive change in the world.'

She also spoke about how entries are judged, and showed a video of various professionals describing what they look for in a D&AD winner. These are the criteria: (as stated on the website also)

' - the work must be a highly original and inspiring idea. 
 - it must be exceptionally well executed.
 - it must be relevant to its context.

(In craft categories, such as Editing or Illustration, work is judged primarily on the strength of the specific craft, and then on how it contributes to the success of the idea.) '

There was also a small video showing how the judging was done, and how the work was displayed for judging in a huge hall down in London.

This first talk was overall really interesting, and it was helpful to learn a bit more about D&AD as a whole, as well as what they are looking for when it comes to the awards.

I'll post about the next talk by creative director and designer Jack Renwick soon, keep your peepers peeled...... 

Creative Review - Film

I'm going back a little bit now, but at the start of October, we had our first 'Creative Review' at uni, where we each had to talk about and recommend; a film, an exhibition, an article and a book. These could be about anything and didn't have to directly relate to our work, and was a means to introduce each other to our different interests and influences outside of illustration.

Firstly, the film I recommended was 'A Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', made in 2004 starring Bill Murray (as well as a tonne of other a-listers) and directed by Wes Anderson. The film centres around Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau influenced oceanographer who makes documentary films of his adventures looking for new marine life. After his friend is killed by the illusive 'Jaguar Shark', Zissou sets out on a revenge mission along with an eclectic crew, whilst also filming it for his next movie.

I only ever seen one of Wes Anderson's other films (Fantastic Mr Fox), but he definitely has a unique style. The film mixes live action with a few moments involving surreal stop-motion animated marine life such as multicoloured sea horses, dolphins and the 'tiger shark' itself. 
It's definitely a comedy, played completely dead pan throughout, but breaks it up with some nice action moments. Not to spoil it, but a gun fight and a mission-impossible style rescue are ones to look out for.

The look of the film is very rich and colourful, and the use of the onscreen writing for the change of locations, and the interesting use of a cross section of the boat (practical set) that the characters walk through, I thought were really cool and definitely made it stand out from anything else I've seen. It also has a really quirky soundtrack/score mixed with on film performances of Bowie covers in Portuguese....., yes that's right.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I would definitely recommend watching it. It's not only really funny, but it's definitely visually interesting and has a unique feel to it. I hoping to watch some more Anderson films soon, which I'm definitely looking forward to. 


Check out the trailer above guys! then go watch the film......

Address Is Approximate

Cool animated short by Tom Jenkins from The Theory films. Great combo of visuals and music (from The Cinematic Orchestra).

Taylor O'Brien : Portfolio Visit #1

So, the other week when I went into Taylor O'Brien to see how the children's book I had illustrated was going, and I also took my portfolio with me to show to Helen Taylor (the creative director), who had kindly spared a bit of time for me.

Helen definitely made me feel relaxed, so I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be about talking through my own work! As she went through the portfolio I just explained a little bit about the brief and what we had to do, and then why I chose to create the piece of work I did.

I kind of wondered what she was going to think about the work in my portfolio as it is a bit different to the images I did for the 'Christmas in Uganda' book. I always wonder if people can see the links between any of my pieces of work, never mind between my kids book work and the more graphic pieces I have in my portfolio, mostly because I find it hard to see myself sometimes (usually because I've made it differently and wonder if it has the same feel about it!).
But it was encouraging that she could see a link between my portfolio work and the kids books images, mainly through the use of colours and textures. She mentioned that they had the same feel about them, but the children's book images were just softer and more organic feeling. I think this was partly due to the fact that I didn't use computer generated geometric shapes like I often have, and chose to do all the kids books stuff with cut paper so it had a more hand-made feel. Definitely more time consuming though!

She seemed to like the work in my portfolio, particularly my 'lie detector' editorial piece, and was also interested in my newsletter/origami image. It just so happened that they had been working on a project with a similar idea of using birds to show transformation and flying off to something new, so that was quite cool.

I also took along a pieces of work that were in print (8x8, newsletter, album cover, wellspring paper) and showed these to her alongside the images in my portfolio. From what I've gathered it seems important to show your work in context (I've tried to do this actually in my portfolio through putting things in Indesign layouts, or through photographs) as it just gives them an example of how your images could work in the real world, as well as it looking quite good if you've had something in print. However on the flip side to that, it seems that people sometimes don't like seeing your work with type all over it, particularly if it hasn't been done by you or it's just plain bad. They seems to just want to see the images in those cases....which makes sense as the image is the only bit you're generally going to be doing.

The one piece I have type on in my portfolio is my 'James and the Giant Peach' book cover. This is because that was actually part of our job to sort out (and I hope it's not completely awful!). Helen commented on the interesting way I had designed the type for 'Roald Dahl', and also the fact that I'd made a feature out of his name rather than the title of the book. I mentioned that I thought that Roald Dahl was kind of the brand, and was the selling point and the thing you would first look out for in a shop.

We also talked about the fact that I'd made the cover so dark, and she mentioned that one way that could be remedied to make it more appealing to children would have been to just change the background colour. I think that was a really good suggestion which probably would have improved it, I think I was just too set on making it night time and trying to get the glowy effect from inside the peach!

Overall, it was a positive visit, and she didn't really have anything negative to say about my portfolio (unless I've conveniently blocked it from my memory), and it was definitely helpful to have someone reactions to your work as a whole. However, it's times like this I wish I had my business cards printed (even though I'd already been in contact with Helen and she knew my work through the children's book) but I still definitely need to get cards sorted for future meetings.

And finally, because the 'Christmas in Uganda' book was just about to go to print, I also had the chance to talk to Graham Bartle (the studio/production manager) about how he prepares things for print, and the different types of printing methods they used. This was really interesting as it's not something I know very much about.
He talked about sourcing different materials to print onto, and how they went through the layouts in Indesign. He also spoke about the differences between digital printing and offset litho printing, and the different cost and quality benefits from both depending on the volume to be printed.
I was able to look over a couple of examples of booklets printed in both ways, and there was definitely a bigger difference than I thought there would be. Some of the litho printed stuff I saw definitely seemed a nicer quality than the digital printed, but it often depends on which is most cost effective, with lithographic being better for large runs due to the cost and amount of paper used in just setting up to print.

All things to keep in mind for the future....... 


   

HUGS Book Update

So, over the past 3-4 weeks I've been working none stop to complete the children's book I have been designing and illustrating for the charity Helping Uganda Schools. The book is called 'Christmas in Uganda' and does exactly what it says on the tin! It tells the story of some animals in Uganda that learn about Christmas and the story behind it, and all profits from the sale of the book will be going to charity.

I was kindly invited in last Wednesday to see the designers involved with getting to book to print; TaylorO'brien. The book was going to print that day, and they talked me through any changes that had made, in the typesetting in particular (I'm thinking orphans and widows here!), and also learnt a bit about how projects are prepared for print and the different kind of print methods used. I definitely learnt a lot and appreciated the opportunity to go in and see how they worked!

I've posted a couple of preview pics of some of the artwork from the book below for you to see (there will be slight changes to the type on the final cover), and I'll post some more pics of the book in print when I get my hands on a copy!

Finally, and importantly, there is going to be a launch for the book on Wednesday 23rd November, at 7pm at the Britannia Hotel, Dialstone Lane in Stockport, so you are all invited to come down! The book will be on sale for £7 I believe, with all profits going to the charity, but even if you don't want to purchase a book, come down anyway and say hi! Would definitely appreciate the support! I'll post about it again closer to the time, but for now, take a butchers below, and spread the word!

 

Craig Oldham Talk

Yesterday, Craig Oldham a designer from Music design agency in Manchester, came into college to give the students a talk on his experiences working with illustrators entitled 'But isn't that your job?'. He took us through 6 collaborations with different illustrators, 4 of them for the same project, and 2 for separate projects. For the first 4 he spoke about the design of the posters posted below, as part of a campaign for Manchester City FC...

Michael Gillette

Chris White

Todd Slater

Shephard Fairey

The talk was really informative, as he spoke about how he finds the illustrators (sometimes just from a single book!), how the designers negotiate the money side of it, both directly with illustrators and with their representing agencies, and a little bit about how to approach people with your work. He also spoke about how they pitched for the different projects, and why they came up with certain ideas. 
It was interesting to hear about how they really think about what the client needs and not just what they want, for example, creating a whole typeface that can be used throughout a company for all printed material, rather than just a logo or a couple of finished items using the type.
 Overall I think I definitely learnt a lot about how the process works, and also that it's going to be very hard work!


We were all also set a brief to create a poster for the event, so I've posted my design below. It had to be two colour, and include all the necessary written information. I went for a kind of twisted, intertwined image of an illustrator and an art director to represent them working together. I was quite pleased with it given how quickly it was put together, although I can't say I was too happy with the type, wasn't the most imaginative! oh well....

Draw North West

Last Tuesday was the first Draw North West meeting, and was a successful evening!

Draw North West acts as a chance for north-west based illustrators and creatives to meet up for a chat, a few drinks, and general networking and business card comparison like happenings. (oh my god it even has a watermark...)

Heres a photo taken on the night, in Cord bar in the Northern Quarter. (Thats me in the white tshirt, I am ofcourse doing some serious networking.....perhaps...)

(photo donated by Megan!)

It was really good to meet some new faces, as well as having a chat with some familiar ones and finding out what people are up to. There was a good turnout of people, and I can only imagine that as word spreads more and more people will come along in the future!

I definitely recommend getting involved, so here's a link to the Draw North West facebook page, and also the Draw North West twitter! See you at the next one!

Manchester and Salford Illustrated: Exhibition

(photo borrowed from FriendsofWoodSt flickr here!)

On Thursday, the first exhibition of the work submitted for the Manchester and Salford Illustrated project was held in Manchester.I managed to go a long for a little bit and check out the work that was on display.There were 30 different professional illustrators on display, and there had been 30 prints of each piece made, that were being sold to raise money for the Wood St Mission, a Manchester based charity, and I think that prints will also be for sale on the MASI website at some point if you want to purchase one. The exhibition is on now, Mon - Fri 9.30 - 5, so go down and check it out, and maybe purchase a print!

I also heard on Wednesday that my tram submission was also selected as a runner-up for the student competition, which was cool! So I've posted a few examples of work that was on display below, along with my piece...again...

Chris Howker

Mark Mottershead

 

Alan Dalby

Chris Madden

Barney Ibbotson

and my student submission again....

Manchester and Salford Illustrated

Recently I submitted an illustration for the Manchester and Salford Illustrated competition. The brief was to submit an illustration of something to do with Manchester, answering the question, 'What does Manchester mean to you?', so for example, it could be a building, a person, a place or anything to do with Manchester.

The competition was organised by Wood Street's Creative Friends, a group of creatives who have banded together to help and raise money for the Wood St. Mission, a Manchester based charity that works to help local people and families in poverty. Earlier in the year I went to visit the mission, along with organisers of the event and some other illustrators, and we were given a tour round and were able to see first hand the work that they did, so it was definitely something I wanted to be involved in.

There will be a MASI exhibition at the end of this month, where work from local professional illustrators will be exhibited and sold, and there was also a student category for the competition, to which I entered my piece. Check it out below, as well as a little rationale about my design.....

I decided to illustrate something that you can never escape when visiting the city centre; the trams. Manchester has such fantastic transport links, but trams are a form that you just don’t find in every city. I think that it fits the brief because it shows something that I would call an icon of Manchester. The style of tram with the black, white and turquoise colour scheme always represents Manchester to me, and you can’t visit the city centre without seeing one! You almost forget they are there until you hear the loud BEEP! ‘s. They are as much a part of the city as the buildings and people.

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Graphic Guru Event

So yesterday afternoon, our Stockport College 'Graphic Guru' event took place, where some successful illustrators that had graduated from Stockport in the past few years, returned to visit the 3rd years to have a chat, give some advice and talk to us about their experiences as working illustrators. The illustrators involved are Liam Bardsley, Chris Madden, Ben Jones, Rose Lloyd, Natalie Wood and Pete Adlington.
I really enjoyed having the opportunity to go around and have a chat with each of them and have a look at their work. Even in just the short amount of time we had with each illustrator, they were able to give us some really good tips and tell us about some of their experiences when it comes to art directors, portfolio visits, etc. We have also been put into groups of around 5 students and allocated an illustrator who will act as a kind of mentor for us throughout the year. After meeting them all and seeing their work I would have been happy to be placed with any one of them, and I've been given the talented Natalie Wood, which is really cool. The idea is that we'll be able to contact them throughout the year for advice or to chat about work; here's hoping we don't annoy them too much with questions!

I have shamelessly stolen the event poster image above from off the Stockport Illustration blog. Cheers Ian. The poster looked ace in print and was designed by Natalie Wood!