The Little Art Collection - Designs in Context

The Little Art Collection - Evaluation

Stamp Collecting

Star Gazing

Jam Making

What went well?

• Texture - I really like the effect texture has had on my images. I was trying to develop on the style I used for the Harrison advent calendar competition and I feel like it has progressed. I do like this method of making work but I understand it wouldn't be appropriate for all briefs. I am thinking ahead to briefs for next semester and I am wondering whether this process might be appropriate for the Adrian Mole book cover. 
• Sketchbook - I wasn't precious about my sketchbook! Finally, I used it for what it is meant to be used for, thinking, testing, experimenting and drawing over and over.
• Progress - I can see a progression just within the three designs I submitted. I feel like the jam making image is a lot better than the previous two. I think I learned from the process of making the other two images and was making decisions about what worked and what didn't. I think the designs work better in a limited colour palette which you can see I leaned towards after completing the stamp image which had a few too many colours in my opinion. 
• Colour - Using Adobe Kuler is becoming park of my image making process now and I feel comfortable using it. It gives me a lot more confidence to use colour within my work which is something I have avoided for a long time. It still allows me to work in monochrome with my analogue media and add colour afterwards. I think I will always prefer working in black and white but I understand that this wouldn't be appropriate for a lot of briefs. 

What didn't go well?

• Time management - I admit my time management for this brief has been terrible. Due to focussing on other modules, I left this brief to one day before the deadline. I really need to get my act together with my time management and planning, it is obvious that my time plan was too optimistic and I had not fully considered the scale of my workload across all modules. In the time that I did spend on this brief, I feel like I got a lot done! Pressure definitely drives me to be productive which is annoying because I always seem to put myself in this position. Maybe setting my own mini-deadlines next semester will help me to not leave things to the last minute. 
• Development - This was mainly down to my time management too but I don't feel like I have much development work. Once I selected the theme and imagery I kind of went for it when I should have reflected on whether the components made the theme clear and what could be altered. I could have done this if I has left myself enough time. 
• Presentation - In terms of answering the submission requirements of the brief, I have done what they asked as they just wanted low resolution jpegs. However, I don't feel like this is the best way to present my work because you can't really see what I had in mind from just individual images, I think it needs to be mocked up into patterns and onto products for this to be clear. 

The Little Art Collection - Image Making

The image making process was pretty straight forward thanks to all the preparation I had done for it. It was a case of drawing and selecting the best imagery, applying my colour scheme and making relevant alterations, and then arranging the components into one jpeg. I didn't think too much about layout because they would be worked into a pattern anyway and therefore the layout is irrelevant. I did still want them to look presentable though so tried to keep some order.

[The colours of the imagery seem to have changed on issuu so I will blog my final imagery separately too.]

I did manage to submit these three designs on time. However, I don't feel like this brief is finished yet for me. I really want to finalise the imagery that I didn't finish, get it up to standard and present it in a way that looks professional. I feel like I've only done half a job so far because the proposal I am making isn't very well represented in just single images. 

The Little Art Collection - Colour Palettes

I used adobe kuler again to figure out my colour schemes. This process is really working for me because I don't have much confidence with colour. I think using this process over and over is helping em to understand more about which colours work together in a scheme, but the main thing is that I can use colour with more confidence now! Progress! 

After playing around with the colour schemes for each theme, I select two for each and put them into this photoshop file I made where I could test out the colours at lower opacities and with a textured overlay just to make sure they still looked okay after I have taken them through the full process. I feel like I am figuring out a structured way of working and it is resulting in me being really efficient with my time... if only I hadn't left it this late to begin with maybe these designs could have been so much better. Anyway, I am focussing on now and what I can do with the time I have. 

I am not going to use all ten colours for each design so I have ticked underneath the ones I feel would work best.

The Little Art Collection - Content

Sketchbook work helping my to decide on the individual components that will be included in the design. The jam idea and the origami animals are my favourites although I am keen to see how the stamps turn out. I have gone off the idea of balloon animal after sketching some out, but I will try and work on this if I have time. It might be a struggle to find a strong colour palette for this that still makes the animals easily identifiable. 

The Little Art Collection - Photoshop Tests

Using scanned textures from my sketchbook I played around with the layer styles on Photoshop to try and find a combination that worked. 

Potential layer styles for texture layer

• Screen (low opacity)
• Lighter colour
• Soft light
• Divide

These all gave quite a similar effect and they all had one thing in common - they made the colour pale and soft. The brief specified that they don't want too much black so part-way through I decided to colour my outlines and use paler colours as fills. This instantly made the designs more 'baby friendly'. 

The last two slides show the style I am going for. A coloured outline partially filled with a paler colour with an overplayed texture (screen layer). It's a simple process that will be easily repeatable. 

The Little Art Collection - Process

If I can nail the process with one design then I can use the same process for the other subject matter and it will speed up the process a bit. 

Nail the process with one design - use the same for other themes. 

Not so much testing. Just making work. 

Line/tools testing

drawing style and simplicity

Texture for colour

Test on small scale for pattern purposes

Line Testing
The brief did specify a clear outline is important and my imagery is going to be line based so I tested out some tools. 
Pencil - too grainy, 
Fineliners, felt tips and markers - fine liners were too thin especially if the images will be scaled down. The thicker marker pens are a possibility although they do bleed a bit and don't leave a crisp edge. 
Brushpen - I am going off this as a drawing tool and prefer using a brush with a pot of ink. The flow of the ink isn't consistent which results in having to go over the lines which affects the fluidity of the line work. 
Ink and brush - this is what I used for my advent calendar design so I want to try something a little different. 
Ink and end of paintbrush - this was the tool I used for my octopus tentacles image and I really like the line quality of it. Its quite playful and I think it is appropriate for this brief. It is not too polished and provides something different to the traditional watercolour imagery they gave as examples. From the ones I trialled I am going to stick to the thinner paintbrush ends because the chunkier ones are a little unpredictable. This might be something to explore in my weekly brief which focusses on ink as a medium. 

Drawing Tests
I have been drawing from reference found online and trying to figure out the line quality as I go. I am also learning how to draw these items - the binoculars was an interesting one to figure out. I worked from reference for the first page then from my mind for the second. I realise some of the textural detail (on the bird feeders) probably would not be visible on a small scale so this is something to bear in mind. 

Colour Application Tests
I photocopied some pages and added colours in pencil crayon, felt tip, wax crayon and gouache. I think the grainy texture of the wax is working and I like the sketchiness of the pencil crayon. The gouache paint wasn't working for me but it made me think about ink grey washes. It will be time consuming to add colour to these individually - think about digital methods. 

Grey Wash Tests
Again, I photocopied some pages and added grey washes to the ink drawings. It didn't have the effect I had hoped for and the image becomes more about the detail instead of the line and shape. It's best to keep it simple I think. 

Decisions Made

• Medium - ink
• Tool - end of a paintbrush
• Drawing method - draw over and over then select most effective image
• Colour application - use pencil and wax crayon textures to layer over digitally applied colour. 

Now I have my process figured out I feel like I can just get on with it for the remaining time available. 

The Little Art Collection - Making Decisions

Typical. I have left this brief to the last minute. Cop has been taking up so much of my time recently that I have put this off for way too long. I was so close to just abandoning it seeing as I had hardly done any work on it so far, but its better to submit something rather than nothing! I want to push myself and see what I am capable of in this short time. 

I literally have 24 hours to submit some work. The maximum submissions per person is ten which is unrealistic for this timescale so I am going to aim for three or four. I feel like this is manageable because the imagery needs to be simple anyway. If it is going to be adapted into a pattern then each component will be very small so there is no need for a great level of detail. 

I am very very aware that my time management is all over the place at the moment and this is something I really need to get under control for next semester if I want to make the most of my time and do a project that is not totally rushed. 

What do they actually want? As I discovered before when I analysed the brief, it is very vague. Including the example images in the brief suggests that this is the kind of work they like, but then it says they are open to any technique. I'm struggling to make sense of what they actually want so I'm going to interpret it to fit with my way of working and see what happens. I got really good feedback in the mega crit on the style used in my advent calendar design which was simple ink drawings coloured digitally. I think this would be a good way of working for this brief because it is relatively quick, I know what I'm doing with it and the digital element means changes can be made quite easily. 

I need to be decisive to be efficient with my time. 
I had started some bee keeping related drawings but I realised after some research that bee keeping isn’t as pretty as I thought. The bee houses aren’t that nice and they don't look like traditional bee hives. For this to represent a hobby rather than a naturally occurring thing I feel the subject matter should be accurate so I'm going to move away from this idea. 

I have used my lists from a while ago and taken on board Patrick's advice to consider a 'hipster market'.

Bird watching

Avoid the obvious - No actual birds. No time for bird anatomy.

Bird houses, feeders, feathers and binoculars. 

Astronomy
Telescopes, constellations, stars. 
Question: does the background of the image need to be white? Astronomy might work better on a coloured background. All examples given show white backgrounds... something to bear in mind. 

Kite flying

Do something colourful, maybe three or four different kites with different colours. Think about texture. 

What else is in the sky? Birds? Hot air balloons?

Stamp Collecting 

Range of stamps, maybe put drawing pins in them or another fastening to make it look like a collection rather than just a pattern of stamps. 

Jam making

I like drawing fruit and veg - a mixture of fruits and jars. 

Gingham fabric lids… traditional idea. 

Sugar spoon? Saucepan?

Too feminine?

CHUTNEY. What even goes in chutney? I don’t know. 
OR make sure the jam isn't too pink... include blueberry jam to avoid a too 'feminine' colour palette. 

If I have time….

Origami / Balloon modelling

A pattern of animals. 

Marbles 

I remember thinking when drawing marbles for an older brief that they would be nice for children’s products. Does this count as a hobby? Is it just a game? 

Circus Arts

Bright and colourful. Playful, maybe overdone already in childrens-wear.

Outdoors/camping 
Maybe a typology of knots?

Pottery

Seems like an old person hobby.. maybe make it more playful, wonky pots?

Mega Crit

Response to Feedback. 

I was really pleased with the comment that said my work looks finished because this is something I really wanted to work on this year - making professional looking, finished products. I think the process of doing a brief and then seeing it through right into a finished item (christmas cards and virgin media box) is what really satisfies me. If something just sits in my sketchbook then I feel like its never really finished. 

The style of the advent calendar/christmas card design seemed really popular. I want to try and push this stye. The Little Art Collection brief I am doing is due tomorrow and I was so close to sacking it off but I am going to use this evening and tomorrow to use that style to produce some designs to enter. I always seem to work better under pressure and this way of working is quick an efficient so I think it might work out okay. 

All the comments about quality and professionally are obviously really nice to hear. I think I might have been putting myself down a bit with this module because I am behind my time plan and I generally feel like I haven't done enough work yet. Because of this I might have been failing to see the merit in what I have already done. I need to rewrite my time plan (again) and this time I'll try and make it realistic! 

The idea to make other seasons for the winter christmas card is a nice idea. This could maybe form a set of postcards or something similar. This could be a little passion project to squeeze in somewhere if I have time - it would be a good way of developing that style of work. 

I agree that I need to find a big brief to work on. I had planned to do the To Kill A Mockingbird book cover brief this semester but my bad time management and overly ambitious time plan has meant that I have pushed this back to after christmas. I went to the D&AD talk today so there are some options there for big live briefs, and I need to look at YCN too. Even if I don't decide to do any of these it might provide me with inspiration to write my own brief more tailored to me. This is definitely something to think about!

I know I should be doing more extended practice work now that the cop draft has been submitted. However, my cop practical work is still a priority for me because I want to get enough done to get some good feedback before the christmas break. I really don't want to be having a cop related breakdown over my christmas dinner. 

PLAN FOR THIS WEEK

Tuesday

Evening - The Little Art Collection Brief

Wednesday

Morning - The Little Art Collection Brief

Afternoon - The Little Art Collection Brief (DEADLINE 5PM)

Evening - Extended Practice Blogging

Thursday 

Morning - COP Practical

Afternoon - COP Practical

Evening - Weekly Illustrated Fact

Friday 

Morning - COP Practical

Afternoon - COP Practical

Evening - Weekly Illustrated Fact

The Little Art Collection - Research Moodboard

 

Peer Review

Peer Review Sheet

Response to Feedback 

I agree that my projects so far have not been research based and therefore I am not hitting the requirements for ILO 6A3. I need to spend time researching before I start drawing, this could be researching the topic I am working on, subject matter, context, audience, client, etc... 

I think the reason that research is not evident in the two small projects I have completed so far is that they were both 'decorative' briefs and very open. As well, because I was working to a tight deadline, I prioritised the practical side of the work. I don't think this has been a massive downfall but I understand that as I start working on more involved briefs that I will need to take the research process more seriously. 

This peer review has also helped me to realise that the focus of my weekly brief has slipped onto composition from originally wanting to explore ink processes. Within the coming weeks I am going to make sure the development of my ink work is the main thing I am focussing on. Composition is still important so I do intend to make more roughs than I have been doing as well. 

Chat with Patrick 
Little Art Collection brief - challenge it, subvert it, do something unusual, it is a really open brief. 
Move away from traditional ideas, they are overdone. 
List the imagery/themes I want to work with and make them fit the brief. Don't just work from my list of conventional hobbies and interests. 
Look at junior and junior vogue.

Talking to Patrick about this brief made me realise I had been quite narrow-minded with my approach. The audience for the brief is 'affluent parents' which I interpreted as traditionally middle class. I didn't really think about the 'hipster' community who have more obscure and quirky interests but would still fit inside the category of 'affluent'. I watched a documentary for my cop module about hipster culture (Peter York's Hipster Handbook) and it is clear that there is an element of luxury to this lifestyle. I am going to use the list I have already made as a starting point but think about more obscure themes to work with that might appeal to this alternative market. The brief itself sounds like it has been written by a non-creative, it is vague and some comments contradict each other. The visual examples given are not to my taste either. I am going to use this brief to explore what and how I like drawing within the restraints of this audience - hopefully the outcomes will be something refreshing for this brand. 

Chat with Ben 
I'm picking the right briefs for my practice and interests. 
Little Art Collection brief - I need to set myself aside from pattern designers and show why my knowledge of illustration sets me apart from them. Could there be an element of narrative in my work? Make it more than just an image repeated on a surface.
Penguin brief (To Kill a Mockingbird) - my style would fit well with the book. It would be interesting to see how my work would adapt to children's fiction (Adrian Mole). Think about hand drawn type for the book covers, look at some books in the library about this. 
Using Adobe Kuler is not cheating! It would be a good route to take for a colour palette for book design. 
Weekly illustrated facts brief - don't worry that I have fallen behind, maybe cut down the total number of weeks. Keep experimenting with tools - line quality is key for me. 

Talking to Ben about what makes me different from pattern designers was a bit of a moment for me when I realised that I am actually an illustrator. I'm not trying to be a surface pattern designer, I just like that my images can be applied to products through repeating them into a pattern. I think it is important for me to do briefs like the Penguin book brief because it will show how my practice is adaptable and my illustrations work across numerous platforms. I am keen to get to grips with type because I have not had good experiences with it in the past. I had planned to speak to a graphic designer about the type for my book covers but if I take the hand drawn route this might not be necessary. I will have to see how the project goes when I eventually get started on it.  

The Little Art Collection - Brief analysis and ideas

Brief Analysis

I felt quite confused reading this brief, it is very open but at the same time a little contradictory and vague in some places. The theme is hobbies and interests which is very open for subject matter. 

Audience: affluent men and women aged 25-35 years old and affluent women aged 55-65.
Context: baby clothing, online shop.  
Tone of voice - very open yet obviously needs to be appropriate for young children. No offensive themes. 
Technical requirements: they just want imagery which can later be worked into a repeat pattern, so I will need to submit single images (low resolution jpegs). Any technique. Not too much black. A well defined outline is important. The designs need to be unisex. Up to 10 designs can be submitted. 

The example imagery provided is all very varied yet I don't feel any of them are styles I particularly like to work in. I am going to have to use this brief to do what I want to do which I think will be okay because it is not very specific at all. 

Initial Ideas - Interests and Hobbies

I am trying to think with the audience in mind, trying not to stereotype too much!
Camping, dancing, swimming, smiling, knitting, gardening, sewing, birdwatching, woodwork, croquet, baking, classic cars, travelling, motorbikes, trains, extreme sports, hill climbing, fishing, photography, painting, rambling, crafts, pottery, picnics, yoga, reading, tennis, bowls, bingo, board games, cooking, flower arranging, circus arts, music, animal care, scrapbooking, astronomy, beekeeping, kite flying, coin/stamp collecting, record collecting, vintage cars, fossilling, chess, marbles, train spotting, whale watching. 

Virgin Media Communication Box Success

My design was picked to be painted on to one of the twenty Virgin Media communication boxes available in the Ash Road area of Headingley. I have been blogging the process of me painting my design onto the box on my PPP blog as it felt most relevant there but I wanted to show here how the final outcome turned out. 

Action Plan Revision

I have had to make some changes to my action plan for this semester. After being chosen to actually paint my design for the Virgin Media communication boxes brief, I have spent four days doing this which has almost eaten up two week's worth of time I could have been spending on my extended practice briefs. I should have been finishing off a set of Christmas cards by this point in time but all I have is sketchbook work and some roughs. I have decided to abandon this self directed brief and set the work I have already done aside as sketchbook work that I can continue with to develop my drawing practice. The imagery is heavily based around animals so I could even use some if it to link into my weekly brief based around facts on the natural world. 

Instead I am replacing this with another competition brief. The deadline for this is the 30th of November and there is actually a cash prize as well as exposure online and a mention not he packaging. 

I am really excited about this brief! I have a lot of context of practice work to be getting on with but this will be a nice break from that. There is a maximum of 10 entries per person, I will have to see how this brief goes before I commit to a certain number. 

Updated Action Plan from SOI

This change has meant that the Penguin book brief has spread out into Christmas. I was planning on keeping this relatively clear because I wanted to focus on COP at this point. However, it might be nice to have another project to be working on alongside this especially at the point where I have already made most of the decisions and I can just get on with producing the final image. 

InDesign for Publishing Workshop

File -> New -> Document
Preset page sizes are restricted in choice, can also use custom sizes. 
We work at actual size, it can't be changed in scale for printing. 

Columns - guides on each page to help position content. The gutter is the space between the columns.

Margins - a border around the page also to help position content. 

Bleed - compensates for any inaccuracies in the trimming of the book. Standard bleed amount is 3mm. Trim marks will be included so you know where to trim. 

Slug - another area that sits outside the page. Generally 2cm. Slug area enlarges the print area and allows you to add printers marks - crop marks, registration marks, fold marks, etc. 

If you choose a book size that is slightly smaller than a standardised size, it is easier to fit onto a normal page size for printing. 

Saddle stitch binding means the amount of pages needs to be a multiple of four. 
Tick 'facing pages' if the outcome is going to be a book.

Readers spreads - how the book will appear after the book is printed and bound. They are in the order that they will be read in. 

Printer spreads - how the pages are reordered for printing. InDesign rearranges reader spreads into printer spreads for us. Printers spread page numbers always add up to total pages +1. 

Using more than 8 sheets of paper in a saddle stitch book is too many and it will affect the outcome. The pages will creep. If you make a mockup with actual stock and measure how much the pages are sticking out - add this measurement (negative) into the 'creep' box on setup menu (print booklet). It will shift to content towards the binding edge the closer it is to the centre to compensate for creep. This is only really relevant when using margins instead of full bleed images. 
Printing the booklet in sections would give more than one section which can then be bound together.

Single sheets of paper printed front and back - perfect binding. Good for heavy stock and allows the book to open flat. 

It's best to consider binding method right at the start of the designing process so that the InDesign process is a lot simpler because you know what you're aiming for. 

Photoshop image preparation

1. 300dpi.

2. Actual size. 

3. CMYK or greyscale. 

4. Save as .tif or .psd, not .jpeg.

File -> Place -> Find and select image -> Single click on page to place. 

OR

Rectangle Frame Tool -> Draw box (with diagonal lines) -> Have box selected and then File -> Place -> Find and select image. 

Fit frame proportionally - image fills frame. 

Fit content proportionally - full mage will fit inside the frame. 

When an image is enlarged or reduced, the resolution changes and it needs to be at 300dpi. 

Go to links panel - this should be the last thing to do before printing so no more changes are going to be made. 

Actual dpi - resolution set in photoshop. 

Effective dpi - the resolution working in indesign after resizing. 

Scale% - the change that has happened. 

Select image -> right click -> Edit with Photoshop -> Image -> Image size. 

Untick 'resample' for changing resolution, keep it ticked for changing dimensions. 

Change dimensions to percentage and enter the percentage from InDesign. Save image. Check resolution has been updated on links palette. 

Save InDesign document in the same folder as separate images and take the whole folder to print. 

File -> Package -> Package -> Continue...

Press quality is the highest quality.

Using an external online printer. 

Blurb, newspaper club, etc...

Use their spec to set up an InDesign document.

Tutorial Feedback

Tutorial with Teresa

In response to illustrated facts weekly brief...

Maybe spend a bit longer on each one, especially with the roughing and drawing stage. Think about adding an element of character to my animal imagery, it doesn’t have to become ‘cartoony’ but adding some character might make the images more appropriate for other applications too like greetings cards. It may be how I get my personality into the images. 

Think about using this as preliminary work for the Batsford Prize, the theme this year is ‘interpreting nature’ which fits with my subject matter. 

Whats sets my work apart from other people?

In relation to christmas card brief…

Think about ranges throughout the year. You would normally be making christmas cards a lot earlier in the year than this, or even the year before. I could even make different ranges of cards for this year following different themes, using a motif as a starting point for each set. 

Teresa pointed out some websites and practitioners that might be of interest to me. 

Kerry Lemon

Jennifer Nelson

smartcreativewomen.com - podcasts.

Spoon flower and citrus rain for fabric printing. 

The Design Trust.

Afterwards I had a quick chat with Ben about my work. He really liked how I was using colour and saw an improvement from my work last year. I did think that using adobe kuler as my way of bringing a solid colour scheme together was maybe a bit of a cop out but he assured me that there is nothing wrong with doing this and it seems to be working! Maybe colour is what's missing from my illustrated facts series. I had included in the brief that I should only be using black media, specifically ink. However, maybe when I take these into screen print eventually, I will be more inclined to play around with colour rather than stick to a monochrome palette. 

Ben also told me about U Studio (previously urban graphic) which is a really good reference to have. Not only can I use this to find illustrators with similar practices to my own but it will also be good for looking at trends and seeing what sells. They ming to be good to get in contact with to ask for advice or even showing them some of my work, they seem to have a very open approach. 

Overall today has been really good as I have managed to get some good feedback on my work and some pointers of what I can be looking at online. I think the Batsford Prize is a no brainer as I will already have a body of work to tweak to make it appropriate for submission to this. I am also looking forward to listening to some of the podcasts on smartcreativewomen.com, it will be good to hear about individual experiences and opinions of the industry.