Evaluation

PPP EVALUATION

My Personal and Professional Practice module this year has been really useful but a bit of a struggle. I found it really hard to pin down a brand or visual identity that I was happy with. This came down to finally creating an illustration which I could use throughout my branding, which I felt really reflected my illustration practice and what it is all about. The key elements I focused on for this were colour, pattern, detail and nature, well specifically wasps. I also wanted to reflect the analogue led nature of my practice. I really noticed during Level 6 that I found working by hand makes me work more expressively and experimentally, it allows me to get to grips with colour and line work more instinctively.

Photoshop and digital media’s work best in my practice to adjust an already existing image and get it resolved to a professional standard, which is what I have done with all of my branding and other work. For my online presence this professionalism has been crucial. At first I uploaded pictures from Instagram or just used phone photographs but I learnt throughout this module the importance of keeping all your work up to a certain level. I still have some work to do on my website reflecting this.

Being around other creatives and constant sources of inspiration in the studio has really encouraged the idea in my mind that I want to work as part of a team for a creative company or business. I am not someone who thrives on being alone, I like doing my own thing which I can easily do when I take time out to do commissions, but my ideal situation would be to work in a creative environment perhaps for a commercial purpose such as Liberties Ltd or Anthropologie. Concerning this I have connected and made contact with some of the individuals which work in the creative sectors in these companies such as; Lauren Wallace, design studio manager at Liberty Ltd, and other creatives like Suzanne Dean the creative director at Penguin Random House Group.

I have found social media a good way to promote my practice, publicise my work and engage with other practitioners and clients. Facebook and Instagram have been good for sharing artwork and it has shown me the importance of collaborating with others as this always widens the audience to the post or artwork dramatically. I enjoy keeping a blog on Tumblr, because there is less pressure for finished work, as it is more focused on inspirations, ideas and processes. This is something I plan to continue after university as a way of keeping up to date with current artwork and exhibitions, as well as motivating me to keep creating my own.

My website is a more selective and professional online presence. Making a website functional and visually attractive was a lot harder than it looked and I still have a lot more planned for it.

Throughout this year I have found the ‘Start Up Wednesday’ and ‘Career Track Tuesday’ sessions at college really helpful and they have inspired me to register my illustration as a business so that I can get into the habit of producing and selling work professionally. To begin with I see it as being something I prioritise during my days off. The lecture from AOI also inspired me to think about registering with them, as although I have learnt a lot on my degree, I will definitely need extra guidance once I leave.

This module has forced us to plan after university. I want to focus on my portfolio, in particular my Travel Diaries’ section on my website. If I create a good portfolio of quality reportage work, it can be used to show how I would tackle a similar brief to prospective clients and it could lead to projects incorporating travelling and illustrating which would be really interesting. I have also planned travelling around Asia after Christmas and I have contacted people that I think may have advice for, or be interested in a project like this. Similar to my plans for my India Brief, which I plan to enter into an exhibition in Oxford, which is focused on the theme of a ‘journey’.

I have contacted a lot of illustrators that have produced work for companies I love, such as Anthropologie and Liberties. I am looking forward to sending off some promotional material, that I have explored and created within this module to companies I would love to work for. My main focuses are creative companies which really care about design and quality products over supporting a throw away culture.

While I am applying for jobs and internships, volunteering in a creative role will be crucial for keeping up a structured and directly involved interest in the arts. I have been researching this a lot to try to find one which is most appropriate for me and I am in the process of applying to some.