Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION OUIL505 ILLUSTRATION 2: Applied Illustration
Level
05
Credits 30
Module Brief Title: Product, Range & Distribution
STUDIO BRIEF 1: Project Proposal
Project Rationale What do you intend to do and why? I intend to produce a book to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the English Premier League. The book will be based around 25 premier league legends, and notable events. I want to produce a children’s book, and will make the aesthetic and language fit with this, but I hope that adults will appreciate the humour, history and illustrations as well. My idea is to play on the pun of premier league legends, and make each player or story into a legend or fairy-tale, with a few lines accompanying each illustration. I want to include humour in the text and illustrations to make the book less boring, and more enjoyable for people who maybe aren’t the biggest football fans. I want to base my work around football because it’s something I’m passionate about, and I want to set myself a challenge, because I know I work better when I’m busy. I intend to use the illustrations from the book to create mock-ups for a potential shop front promoting the book, as well as postcards and prints.
THEMES / SUBJECTS What Themes/Subjects will form the content of your work for this module? This should include theoretical and non-creative based content and concerns. This section should identify your consideration of the social, cultural, ethical and creative concerns of contemporary Illustration practice. GENERAL THEMES: The main theme of the book will be football, but I will also look at fantasy fairy-tales and legends for the basis of the characters. SPECIFIC SUBJECTS: The premier league and the players and teams that played in it over the last 25 years. I think it’s an interesting challenge to try and combine sports with illustration, because in my experience people who are artistic tend not to be that interested in sport, but people who are interested in sport seem to like seeing it depicted in interesting and entertaining ways. The finished book could also help to get children who like football more excited about reading. The other subject I’ll be looking at is fairytales and fantastical stories, to help add humour to the characters in the book. I’ll be looking at the Brothers Grimm stories and Hans Christian Anderson.
PRACTICAL & CONCEPTUAL APPLICATION What areas of Illustration do you intend to investigate in relation to the practical and conceptual, production/ distribution of work in response to selected briefs?
SPECIFIC DISCIPLINARY AREA: I’m going to look at children’s book illustration, I felt the last module the work I made was very serious and dark, so I want to do something a bit more fun and exciting. I’ll be looking at developing the aesthetic of my illustrations to make them colourful and engaging Developing character will be a key part of this project, also looking at bringing humour into my work. AUDIENCE/CONTEXTS: Football fans and people who appreciate illustration. The audience would mainly be children, so advertising would probably be targeted at parents, or family members to buy as a gift. But I think that adults would enjoy the book as well. PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION METHODS: Posters and prints to promote the book and a shop front design to entice people to buy the book. There could also be short animation to promote the book. Book binding and digital printing to make the book. I haven’t done a book binding workshop yet so I don’t know if would be feasible yet, I could potentially get the book printed professionally.
CONTEXTUAL REFERENCES Identify areas of professional/creative practices that will inform the contextualization of the work that you produce. This should include specific illustrators, studios, practitioners and products as well as broader creative disciplines and methods of Production /Distribution. ILLUSTRATORS / DESIGNERS / STUDIOS: I need to do more research into children’s book illustration. Two of my favourite practitioners have made a transition into children’s book illustration, Robert. F Hunter, and Keith Negley. I’ll be looking at their work for inspiration and also looking at how they approach potentially more emotionally mature subject matters, but make them suitable for children. I’ll also be looking at illustrators who have done sports based work like Dan Leydon, Dave Flanagan and Chris Moran. Especially Dan Leydon who incorporates humour in his work.
CREATIVE SKILLS What practical skills do you intend to further develop and apply during your project? What do you intend to use the skills for? Consider extending the use of skills that you already have in order to deliver work of a higher standard as well as identifying new skills that you will need to develop.
I will be learning how to book-bind during the book binding induction later in this module. I will develop my character drawing skills, which is something I’ve explored a bit in my personal work, but not yet during a module at university. It will be a different challenge creating a book for children and I will have to think about the different considerations for this. Also thinking about how a product is produced and advertised and considering all the merchandise that could go with a book.
KEY TEXTS List a selected number of books, articles and texts that are central to your proposed area of practice. These should include a combination of design and non-practice based books, theoretical texts as well as visual publications. You should include a list of relevant websites.
Keith Negley - My Dad Used to Be So Cool Keith Negley – Tough Guys have Feelings Too Robert F. Hunter – The Jungle Book http://flyingeyebooks.com
http://robertfrankhunter.com http://keithnegley.tumblr.com http://keithnegley.com http://daveflanaganillustration.squarespace.com http://danleydon.tumblr.com http://chrismoran.tumblr.com https://uk.pinterest.com/benfarr94/sports-illustration/
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
OUIL 505 - Project Planner
1 31/01
2 16/02
Module Briefing Studio Brief 1 Research & Proposal Proposal Planning & Research
3 17/02
Proposal Submission/Studio Development week
Hand in proposal
4 20/02
Studio Brief 2 Development & Production
Research, start roughing, try different media, develop ideas
5 27/02
6 06/03
Begin finalising character ideas, more roughs, Studio Development week Progress Tutorials
Feedback on work so far, explore printing methods/ how I’m going to make the end product
7
Group Feedback
Plan out pages of the book, try some pages out as final images
8
9
Studio Brief - 3 Presentation & Evaluation Interim Crit
10
EASTER BREAK
11
EASTER BREAK
12
EASTER BREAK
13
Group Feedback
14
Assessment Briefing & Final Crit
15
Module Submission 09/05/2017