DP. POSTER - 'VOGUE'

Well It's now two days before the deadline for the votes and I've only just got to scan in my wallpaper from being in the illustration exhibition at college. I scanned the two seprate bits and put them into photoshop, i then had to work with blurring the background because there's creases in the paper anyway from where I put it in the heat press for the foils, but also piecing it together and covering the joins.

Those are the pieces I used, heres the finished piece...

Although once I had sumbit'd this piece I suddenly saw that it wasn't very high in contrast and the black wasnt as strong as I wanted it to be, so I went into photoshop and adapted it. Then to be extremly pissed off and wish that I hadn't rushed into submitting it to the website.

Below is the darker, more vibrant piece, it picks up the foils' more which I was diss-apointed with. I also posted a comment saying that the work was actually screen-printed and then had heat pressed foils onto it to form the mirror/frames. Through submitting work like this through websites I feel that they really loose personality as it's hard to pick up how someone has created an image. I also had to piss about for ages with the size of the image and it wouldnt let me submit it for ages.

Overall I don't think I did too bad in getting 12 votes, I got onto the second page of posters as well, which felt like an achievement and got nice comments. It was also nice to just to see your work in amongst others creatives. The quote I used underneath my poster was "...the world's most influential fashion magazine" which was said by Caroline Weber. I think I could have definitely thought about it more. I guess it stuck out because it was just a statement and from looking at don't panic posters and voting over the last couple of years, I always prefer it when people describe their work through a bold statement.

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designtheposter/vogue/entry/264

From doing this I have learnt a lot -

- Make sure the file is small enough.

- Make sure I'm totally happy with the image before submitting it.

- Always create poster well in advanced of voting to allow more votes.

- Think carefully about what I write in the caption below the work.

Don't Panic Poster.

Don't Panic is a site I have registered with and visit weekly, lots of friends enter the poster competitions and I also pick up the free Don't Panic Pack where ever and whenever I can. It's been something I've wanted to enter for a while and so this brief is a good chance for me to fully concentrate on it as part of this project.

ENTRY GUIDELINES

How it works (please read carefully!)

Step 1.
Create a poster based on one of the themes. Your interpretation of the theme can be rendered using graphic design, illustration, photography, type, mixed media or any medium you can think of which we can print.

The winning poster will be printed A2 size (594x420mm), either portrait or landscape, at 300dpi. Please don't submit any designs that we can't print in an A2 format!

For the purposes of voting and previewing on this website, poster entries uploaded should be:

• File Format: JPG or PNG
• Resolution: 72dpi
• Max Filesize: 2mb
• Your poster entry will be auto-resized proportionately by us to fit our website. If your poster is chosen as the winner, you will be contacted again to send over a high-res version of it.

Step 2.
Upload your poster to face the public vote.

Step 3.
The top 10 entries with the most votes will be submitted to our judges who will choose their overall winner. Our judges will also select one 'wildcard' from the remaining entries to make up the shortlist. The winning poster will be printed and distributed in the Don't Panic Pack!

THEME: 'Vogue'.

DEADLINE FOR VOTES: 28/02/2010

Judged by Nicole Jacek, part of karrisonwilker inc, who was recently awarded as one of 20 Print's New Visual Artists 2009 - designs rising stars under age 30.

The first thing that came to mind when I looked at this brief was my wallpapers that I did on pattern and how this was all based on clothing from over periods of history. This goes well with vogue as it's based as a fashion and lifestyle magazine. Published in 18 different countries, the magazine not only addresses fashion and lifestyle but design also.

With the deadline in four days as well, I didn't know what else I could pull together in that sort of time frame. This wallpaper design fitted perfectly but I was unsure that it would be fair to submit it for my first competition brief as its work I did for the project before last.

I spoke to Nick about it and he said to go for it. I believe that adapting this image slightly on photoshop and entering it as my first competition brief will get me started and I will learn from it a lot. The thought of entering a piece of work that I have already done also takes a lot of pressure off and means that as a first go it's a time to learn and work out how competition briefs work. I feel that it will teach me a lot as my first brief.

I can then look forward to doing a piece for the 2nd poster brief which should be given a couple of days after the voting stops for this VOGUE poster.

Pocketful Magazine.

http://www.pocketfulmag.com/submissions/submissions.html

Pocketful is an illustration magazine, curated and edited by Selin Yurdakul. It is issued two times a year and is printed on demand.

The website describes the idea for it as simple, there are a great number of illustrations out there on the internet, people from all corners of the world put their work online, just to share with others, but those works don't usually appear that often in illustration magazines we usually read.

I personally agree and think it's a brilliant chance for young creatives to get a little recognition.

The magazine is the way of putting all these illustrations together and print them.

Each issue has a sentence/theme that you can respond to, you can also find some of the issues sold on amazon.

THEME: 'I did it my way!'

DEADLINE: April 15th 2010

This live brief is really exciting, not only because it's live, but because you are guaranteed a place in the magazine, which gives me even more drive to get a good piece of work to enter. It also strikes me as the type of magazine which is good for showing other creatives who you are and you're work, as when you submit a piece of work, the opposite page kind of advertises you, which is good in getting people to see more of your work.

Perhaps this is something I should put togther as well? Putting peoples work together from all over the world into a little magazine?

Here are a couple of pages by artists in previous editions:

Competition Briefs.

In the last few days I've been searching high and low for any kind of competition briefs that get me excited. I think it's important for me to just get on with it all and get what I can.

I began with the obvious and most talked about projects, here's a list of sites I've visited and live briefs I've considered. Although some of them I will not investigate and produce work for. I just really wanted to get a feel for how diverse the available work/briefs were on the internet.

D&AD - http://studentawards.dandad.org/2010/html/dontpanic_34.html

'Create an Image for Don't Panic, that captures the theme of Resistance'

Pocketful Illustration Magazine - http://www.pocketfulmag.com/submissions/submissions.html

'Create an illustration that depicts the theme of, 'I did it my way!'

Don't Panic - http://www.dontpaniconline.com/designtheposter/

'Create a poster based on the theme of VOGUE'

Briefing.

Well today we actually had the briefing for the Live Project brief. It clarrified things I'd expected from the Brief, and also suprised. I was concerned that 'Client briefs' would be the live briefs which were expected. However it gives us the chance to dip into three areas of live work:

- 1. Working for Client/External Organisations

- 2. Entering Competition Briefs

- 3. Concentrating on your Practice, writing your own brief.

Something which stuck out when approaching this, was simply the fact that whatever you intend do to, is a real or 'live' project which meets actual needs and will be viewed by a specific audience.

I was pretty afraid of this brief from the beginning of the second year, and although send and receive has prepared me a little for this, also the start of PPD2, I'm still nervous to do work that will be judged. I guess it's always scary for the first time, but I'm pleased that this brief gives me the chance to just get stuck in and have the failures along with hopefully some successful work.

Before my tutorial, I filled in the sheet of what I wanted to and intended to achieve throughout this brief. I guess I ended up with a rough plan.

I know that I want to do each area of work, but try and link them. I plan to start with Competition briefs, this will start me off slowly.

But this is also a brilliant chance to develop my practice and get work together for a portfolio, possibly a chance for me to do a quick jewelry project as in the last project it was pretty unsuccessful and I was very inspired after visiting Handmade 2.

This Is how my work planned is looking:

1. CLIENT - Working with The Big Issue In the North on a project. Furthering relationships with the vendors. Starting with photography?

- Taking work to 'On The Wall', to possibly sell?

- Doing work for bands? Possibly setting my own brief for poster/flyer layout for Those Dancing Days. http://www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays

2. COMPETITION - Don't Panic Poster each month.

- Pocketful Illustration Magazine.

- FIND MORE.

3. PRACTICE - Looking into how to get exhibition space/possibly looking into hot you go about getting grants and exhibition space.

- Getting work done to put together a strong portfolio.

- Putting together a few online portfolios.

- A jewelry project.

- Generating work which has a 'my style', identify this.

Rationale.

For this project I want to try and incorporate all 3 live ways of working. A major part of this module for me, is developing a solid style/personality for my work and bringing together a strong portfolio. This will be good preparation for any work experience and the future.

Competition and Client briefs to build my confidence in the 'real' world. Working in my general practice in general to get a good portfolio together also putting my work out there, so making lots of online portfolios and talking to people. I also hope to learn about getting a space to exhibit work in, this process will teach me how to go about this in the future and also get work seen.

I've been given a brief by The Big Issue In The North, to put on an exhibition for the public and the vendors also, taking my work with this group further and being in a real life situation, working with people who have particular needs.

Reading. Confidence Building.

Im not the most confident person ever and so Paul leant me this book he had, it's described as being a pocket 'bible' for the talented and timid, to make the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible possible. The author Paul Arden, offers up his wisdom on issues such as diverse problem solving, responding to a brief, communicating with clients and playing your card right. Also making mistakes and creativity.

It really reflects the kind of work and people I will be speaking to throughout this project and has helped me in being more positive and have more confidence in myself.

I think for me, building my own confidence within myself and in my work and also developing a solid style is really important to me as part of this module and so in reading this book, I've also begun my journey in completing my own personal aims for this module. Below are a few pages from the book.

Article. Working as a Freelancer.

I feel as though the PPD2 module links really well with the Life Briefs module we've just been given. I guess for me, the confidence thing is a major part in both of them, although the send and receive project was also a great set up for my confidence.

One thing that comes to my mind with the work load that is now being apparent is, how do you keep yourself motivated and make it as a freelancer, because in a way this is how I will be working throughout this Live Project brief. It's something that I have been scared about doing also and so I thought I would search the internet a little bit and look into advice given around the world about, being a successful freelancer, it was also nice as it coincided with Business Enterprise a bit and I could understand a lot of it from doing that module.

Below are some websites that I've looked at - they're all a bit business'y (if thats even a word), and a little to definition based, but all the same, they give you the idea of why it's a good thing and also what the bad things about it are. It also states that if you're successful in freelancing, then they tend to earn more money per hour than permanent employees - there's a constant turn over of people, working enviroments, etc.

- http://www.cvcl.co.uk/going-freelance-work.html - Going freelance and the Pros and cons.

- http://www.projectsandpeople.co.uk/working-freelance-c13.html - Questions you should ask yourslef when considering going freelance.

- http://www.train4publishing.co.uk/distance/freelance - Top Ten Tips.

- http://www.freelancewell.com/working-as-a-freelancer.php - Being a freelancer in general and Partners.

I've also been looking at inspirational blogs a lot recently for inspiration and to keep me motivated:

http://www.sharesomecandy.com/

A blog started by a guy called Reuben Miler, who started a blog featuring mainly design and culture. He wanted something that would be built by a group of design conscious people in a gallery like format, and so created this site.

Below are some links to:

Sophie Henson.

http://sophiehenson.blogspot.com/

This girl whos blog this is get lots of client briefs, and her illustration work is really cute and fun. I think the fact that she's doing lots client briefs, is quite inspiring and shows me what there is to get involved in or get work from.

Ivo Kircheis.

http://ivosketchblog.blogspot.com/

An illustrator, His sketchbooks of ideas and just doodles are really inspirationsal.

Looking for...Live BRIEFS.

Well it seems that I've come to a stand still with all work. Or the 'putting off' of Business Enter Prise. So I have begun thinking about my next briefing, which is next week, looking into and properly brainstorming possible live briefs and ideas for any live work-based projects.

I guess I could go a few different ways, I personally do not feel confident enough to put myself forward to getting live work right away. So to build this confidence barrier and style I've initially been thinking of the stage before this, such as live competition briefs, live work, producing my own work and trying to sell it in shops or could go with trying to start up my monthly live drawing event?

I was lucky enough to be able to ask a friend who was around to help me sus things out, it was nice to get someone elses perspective on what work would be best for me.

It's sometimes hard to criticise or think about how your work would 'suit' a particular brief, when sometimes you just need to get on with it and it's easier hearing someone else telling you to just have a go at it, then deciding yourself.

Also, it's sometimes easy to take a brief that you would find 'easy' as to something that would challenge me. It was important to see what I wanted to do get out of this brief as well.

Here's what I came up with:

TheBigIssueIn THE NORTH Magazine.

Yesterday we got a call from the office and they said they had been given a two page spread to fill, by the editorial office in Manchester.

They'd thought about it and wanted to write about the OutReach program, about what Amber and I do and how we find volunteering within our community.

Today we met with Claire at the office at 11, then went out to do a mini-outreach, with Claire taking photos of us interacting with the vendors and signing the sheet as we usually do when we're out.

Of course the vendors were asked if they minded having their photo taken first, but they also had to sign a form declaring their consent to have the photo taken and printed.

We finally gave Claire some quotes about how we feel about volunteering and how much of a positive activity it is. 'Interacting with people you wouldn't normally, giving something back to the community in which you live'.

The magazine gets published every week and so the OutReach page spread should be published and ready to print by next Tuesday.

OutReach - Being a Volunteer. Problems.

We're really enjoying being part of the OutReach programme/team. Every week we do a couple of hours on tuesday and a couple on friday, walking the city to socialize with the vendors and check that they're selling correctly.

We've been doing it since the beginning of December and have just got to know most of the everyday vendors. There's been a couple of OutReaches that we've done when somebody else from the team has already done one, only an hour earlier.

You do tend to then think, is it constructive me doing another one only an hour later, will much be different? Or are we reducing the vendors selling time by getting them to sign the sheet again only an hour later?

When we went round on tuesday, it just happened that a girl called Frankie had head out about 30 mins before us, so we were practically following her. The first two vendors we saw got a bit pissed off about us being out again, they are used to 2 outreaches a day am/pm at the most maybe none somedays. and so felt that it was wrong for us to be out again.

Some vendors told us we were surely wasting our time. Obviously we really enjoying doing the work and helping in the community so we just shook that comment off. It was easy to kind of see their point though. One talked of how they used to have people they can talk to back at the office but not anymore, couldnt we be doing something that.

With a bad start, we rang the office and relayed the situaiton, Pat just said to try and get them to sign, but I think she could tell we felt a little uncomfortable with the situation, she then told us to just walk round and observe all the vendors. Also she told us about specific things to look out for and specific vendors.

We began to observe and write about what we were seeing. It was pretty horrible though, it was hard to observe without feeling like we were spying and snitching, it just didn't feel right, hiding ourselves. It also made us think about or position and how we see ourselves with-in the group. It's not about trying to be their friend as such.

But when we arrived back at the office we had good talk-meeting with pat and another outreach worker called Frankie. It's good to be able to have little meetings now and then, this keeps us all in good communication with one another, helps put into play vendors worries/frustrations and we get to know the vendors better.

Pat said that it was good we went out again, you gain an awful lot, because the vendors don't expect you too be out. We did gain a lot from the observations, but at the same time it didn't feel right. Maybe this is something we just have to get used to?

It's taught me a lot about volunteering and how sometimes you can't be yourself in situations, this has been a massive lesson in any volunteering I do in the near or distant future.

I know how important it is to understand your group fully and this will hopefully fare me well for the future.

Interviewing.

Today I got the chance to be on the interview panel, for the up-coming first years to be on our course.

It was a very long afternoon but such a good experience! The college had, had too many people scheduled for interviews, so this meant a BIG afternoon ahead of us. We gave a tour of the building and also got some parents coming along too, this actually gave me the chance to see If I had been missing out on any facilities I might have been unaware of as well!

My interviewing panel consisted of David, Paul and I, we made a pretty good team I think. While the applicants were filling in their quiz sheets, we got the chance to look through all the portfolios and mark them accordingly. It was so interesting to look through the portfolios, for many different reasons as well, amazing drawings and paintings really reminded me of doing my BTEC and I found the work inspirational, it's made me want to start drawing and painting again.

Other portfolios really made me reflect on my interview into the college and whilst marking them I began to think about how I need to prepare for my interview with the tutors at the end of second year. It was interesting to see what got you the marks for a good portfolio. Which will obviously be different for my interview later this year.

Over all this had made me want to already start thinking about techniques and ways of thinking and speaking in preparation for my second year interview at the end of this academic year.

As well as a very successful and fulfilling experience, it's also something to put on a creative CV. I look forward to possibly being asked to do it next year!

Handmade 2.

Today a few of us took a trip to Handmade 2, following the success of 'Handmade' craft fair. Unfortunately I managed to miss the first one, which I was disapointed about. On sale were, print, cards, knitted things, badges, jewelry, posters, photos, cushions and much more!

It was interesting to see all the work and effort people had put in. It really motivates you.

One stall which really interested me having just tried to put some jewelry together, was a girl called Cassandra who runs her own little jewelry company named 'Pink Gin' I asked her for a business card, this is a link to her website. I was really into the whole 'wood' - paint thing. The pieces were just beautiful. She also does a lot of tattoo design and is training at the moment to be a tattoo artist - http://pink-gin.blogspot.com/

Here are a couple of pieces the jewelry on her blog page:

Handmade was also a good insight into how I could possibly make money and spend my time during uni and throughout, getting more involved and doing more of my own work in my own time to sell and show people. Somebody in this country's gotta like my work right?!

It's made me think about producing lots more work and given me great ideas, as well as make me think about best ways to advertise myself as a creative.

Such as, my own website, business cards - advertising my blog and website. Possibly coming together with others 'collective' to put on a week long exhibition, selling, promoting ourselves and exhibiting our work.

From all of these ideas and ambitions, I've set myself a goals for the summer and over these next few months. They are to try and put all these ideas into play and start designing website ideas and other webpages.

I do still feel as though I need some more solid projects to put on a website to give a clear idea of my work to an audience.