PPP Presentation

ISSUU link to power point presentation slides:

My Presentation:

SLIDE 2 Summer and Starting Third Year!

Last summer I was lucky enough to visit New York for the first time where I visited the Met and other galleries back in London and Oxford. The amazing art there helped to inspire me again. When I came back I had an operation and spent a few months unable to walk so I decided to make the most of this boring time with a self run project I named ‘Art for Arthritis Research UK’. I managed to raise £300 for the charity by starting a justgiving page which offered a drawing or painting in return for a donation. They ranged from a portrait of a girl and her friends as the Sex in the City characters to a portrait of another girl as princess leia surrounded by ewoks. This project emphasised what I enjoy most about illustration; creating personal work with an emphasis on portraiture and working towards a good cause that kept me motivated to finish work to a good quality, quickly.

SLIDE 3 Collaborations!

One of the projects I really enjoyed working on last year was a collaboration with Fashion Communication student Robyn Shaw. This brief inspired me get involved in more collaborations this year. One project which has been an ongoing collaborative brief throughout the year is the Q&A section on my blog. Because the brief is mutually beneficial, it has shown me the benefits of professionally connecting with others. For example, fashion blogging duo Today we Wore, shared my illustration on their Instagram and blog so it received a lot more attention than usual. I also worked on some illustrations for Feminist Sci-fi and fashion zine Vagina Dentata and I’m working on another 2 collaborations at the moment. I really enjoy working collaboratively because I am always motivated by their passion for the project and its really exciting to contribute to it!

SLIDE 4 Struggling with Context

For me art has been a really personal and therapeutic thing. In some ways this has been really good for my practice because it means I will always create work, not just specifically for a brief. But I have also found it means I am happy to produce work that might appear just ‘pretty’ without having any other meaning behind it. Which of course isn’t really the definition of illustration. So I have probably found this one of the hardest things in my three years because creating something of meaning conflicts with making something which is just pleasant to look at.

SLIDE 5 Writing my Dissertation

At the same time I love the historical, societal, and theoretical contexts that drive illustrations. I have really enjoyed the essays throughout the three years, and I love the research that goes into it. For my dissertation I learnt loads about a subject I am fascinated in and I think my written work really reflected this. However I found the practical side harder to prioritise. I should have allowed more time for making the final pieces. From this I learnt that you really need to time manage effectively - so with my Final Major Project I have started creating potential pieces already, in preparation for them taking a while to produce.

SLIDE 6 FMP – India Brief

At the start of the year the key elements I identified in my practice were an interest in colour, pattern, detail and people, and I found that an India based project is perfect for creating a portfolio that reflects these. This reportage project is based on my memories, primary sketches and primary photographs. It was fantastic to be amerced in the everyday life there, but as a westerner it is also hard to separate yourself from the worry of waterborne diseases when you see a child brushing his teeth in the kerala backwaters. This project is a view of India through the eyes of a visitor rather than a local. Although I think this can be good as it has drawn my attention to things a local may ignore. Such as a man carrying hundreds of eggs on his head.

SLIDE 7 – Printing!
Gods and Yoga prints will form another smaller piece of my project. I see them as more commercial as they have a specific target audience. Keeping commercialism in mind is key for me when I create work after uni, because as well as making work that I enjoy, it also needs to be art that people want to hang on their walls. Lino cut is my favourite method because I love the mark making involved. For printing after uni, lino cutting is the simpler option over screen printing, and I have visited some local print studios in my area which will be really useful.  

SLIDE 8 – Media

My practice is led by analogue media, something I have really noticed this year. I find working by hand makes me much more expressive and experimental, and I get to grips with colour and line work more instinctively this way. Photoshop and digital media’s work best in my practice to adjust an already existing image and get it to a professional standard.

My SunDIY project has pushed me to experiment with media and it has produced some random and quite useless things, such as a pink penguin out of a used gas canister for my penguin obsessed flatmate.  Not only have my housemates loved this project but it has given me a good insight into a commercial view of how illustration can be entwined with other products.

SLIDE 9 - Studio Peers & Tutors

My time at uni has been made really enjoyable by being around other creatives and constant sources of inspiration. Being part of a specialist Arts college has allowed me to see the industry as a combination of separate disciplines, which although I have not studied myself, I have learnt a lot about through peers and COP lectures. Being able to express ideas with other creatives is something I have loved but taken for granted here which is why I would love to work as part of a creative team or company after uni.

SLIDE 10 – Portfolio & Online Presence

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 but I’ve found it hard to get an increase in followers or likes unless I work collaboratively on a project. I enjoy keeping a blog, because I feel like there is not as much pressure for finished work, as it is more focused on inspirations, ideas and processes. This is something I will continue after uni 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. I was totally clueless at this and although I have it up and running I still have lots of improvements to make on it.

SLIDE 11 – Visual Identity

I am currently working on my branding because I think it is crucial that it reflects the colourful handmade elements of my work and at the moment I don’t think it does. I have found it hard to pin down a visual aesthetic. I wanted to incorporate the themes of colour, a handmade quality and nature, as well as wasps. I have chosen champagne and limousines as my type face at the moment because I like its clarity and simplicity and I think it sets a friendly yet professional tone.

SLIDE 12 - Life After Uni: Own Business

I have found ‘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. I also think it is a good idea to register with Association of Illustrators, as although I have learnt a lot on my degree, I will definitely need extra guidance once I leave.

SLIDE 13 – Travel Past and Future

This summer I want to work on my portfolio and in particular the ‘Travel Diaries’ section of my website. I was lucky to do loads of travelling last year and if I create lots of quality reportage work, I can use it to show how I would tackle a similar brief to prospective clients. I will be travelling around Asia after Christmas and for this trip it would be really good if I can get people interested in the illustrations I will create from it. 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’.

SLIDE 14 Job

I have contacted a lot of illustrators that have produced work for companies I love, such as Anthropologie and Liberties. But as soon as I have finished my branding, I will contact the companies directly. The companies I would love to work for are places which really care about design and quality products over supporting a throw away culture. I would love to work in any part of the creative industry to start with as I think there are hundreds of jobs I may love but don’t know about yet.

While I am applying for internships and jobs in the creative sector, I will be working at my current job in events. This job actually has quite a lot of creativity involved and my boss has an amazing eye for detail and manages to execute events that run smoothly no matter how drunk the clients get. Although I do not see it as my career, the beautiful houses and land, down to the carefully positioned coloured ribbons on chairs to subtly signal a vegetarian, are aspects that appeal to my creative side.

SLIDE 15 Volunteering

While I am applying for jobs and internships I think it is crucial I keep up a st ructured and directly involved interest in the arts, so alongside working on my portfolio and working I will continue to get involved with volunteering with arts in the community. During my time travelling in Asia I will also be volunteering and keeping my eyes peeled for any potential arts opportunities to get involved with while I am there!

How I thought it went:
Speaking from a script... After watching everyone else's presentation I don't think it was a good idea to read from a script, I did this because I wanted to ensure I said everything I wanted to and I was worried that I would go blank. I was really nervous when I was up there but I think if I had a lot more practice actually speaking in front of that many people I would soon find it much easier. By the end of the two days of presentations I felt that I would be able to stand up and deliver my presentation without the need for a script. I am happy to speak about something I know a lot about, and I would be able to talk about my work, but what I found really daunting about this presentation was having to stand up and talk about my future, which is something I am not confident or sure about at al1!
Technical Errors... Also although I had spent a while ensuring my presentation worked, I somehow missed that because I had used a different variation of powerpoint, the font on the uni computers program had moved so that half of the font was hanging off the line into the images or hidden behind them. This was a rookie error. I also think now that I have all my branding completed I could make my slides visually cleaner and more attractive with an ongoing theme throughout as I have done with my CV etc.
Future... from listening to the other presentations I was actually really surprised that there was only a very small amount of people planning to go travelling. I am going to push the boat out to try to gain internships and other work experience now that I have completed my branding and my CVs and Cover Letters are at the ready. However I think travelling is essential! I am really not sure where I will be living this time next year because I am tempted to apply to some internships and work in Brisbane. I have so many decisions to make that I have still not made which is why I found it a struggle to organise my presentation and why I have been putting off applying to things. But there is nothing better than having options so as this module draws to a close I am applying and researching a range of different roles along with different locations. Linkedin was another thing that was bought to my attention in the presentations because I have been using it for a while but I've been googling creative directors etc and then trying to find them on there, I didn't realise that you could directly search for the role or the company on Linkedin. I have now been doing this and connecting with people in the creative roles from loads of the companies that inspire me. This provides such a good client list and contact information.