Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION OUIL603 Extended Practice
Level
06
Credits 60
STUDIO PRACTICE Statement of Intent Name Blog Address Emanuel Santos e-santos-gandhi1316.blogspot.co.uk th Date 17 May 2016 Rationale I wanted to develop and increase my abilities to produce work to a higher standard in a shorter amount of time, because I felt as though I wasn’t producing enough finished work that was portfolio-‐worthy often enough. This has made me better at working to the tight deadlines encountered in industry. As a result I am now better equipped to deal with live briefs in the future. I have tried to be more consistent with my output of quality work this year so I can have a greater amount of choice in terms of what I can put in my portfolio. I also wanted to develop my skills in screen-‐printing as it is a medium I have enjoyed using throughout my degree and wish to carry on with independently post-‐graduation. Themes / Subjects -‐Book illustration and design -‐Music and events -‐Poster design -‐Screen-‐print -‐Education – Astronomy A lot of these overlap into each other, such as “book design” and “education – astronomy”, or “screen-‐print” and “poster design”. Products / Methods of Distribution -‐A series of posters that will make up the music/events brief. These could potentially be distributed on the street, but the craft behind and nature of screen-‐printed illustration may mean that these images are better suited as collectible posters. -‐A series of book illustrations/covers that may well be worth printing out on nice stock down at reprographics in order to get a better idea of what my products could look like when printed professionally. -‐An educational book about the solar system that I will illustrate and write. This will be part of a series of illustrated goods, including a series of screen-‐printed posters about the solar system which will be a companion series to the book.
Practical Skills / Media / Formats
-‐Screen-‐print -‐Brush and Ink -‐Technical drawing skill -‐Compositional image-‐making -‐Use of colour within compositions -‐Conceptual image-‐making (particularly for books) -‐Working faster I wanted to stop relying on digital so much for producing work and work on my traditional skills, as I find that it makes the process feel a lot more rewarding and has only helped to strengthen my technical skills as an illustrator.
Brief 1:
Deadline Bi-‐weekly deadline Events Posters Rationale: I wanted to make a series of screen-‐printed gigs/events posters every two weeks because I enjoy poster design and music. This pushed my abilities to design and create finished pieces of illustration within a fixed time span, and as a result made me better equipped to handle deadlines and produce portfolio-‐worthy work more quickly. Each poster was at least A2 in size and produced as a screen-‐print. 5 posters were produced over a 10-‐week period leading up to Christmas. Brief 2: Deadline 19th May Solar System Book Rationale: I wanted to make a screen-‐printed concertina book about the solar system because it is a large undertaking of illustration, design and research. I’ve been interested in space for a while and there has been a lot of progress made in the field of astronomy recently. In the end, I produced 9 18”x24” screen printed posters and digitally produced the spreads for a 36-‐page book which I intend to send off to a professional printer, due to time constraints not allowing me to screen-‐ print or bind the book myself. This pushed my abilities to filter and translate research into illustration, and as a result my confidence as a research and illustrator has increased for tackling larger projects. Brief 3: Deadline 19th May Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Rationale: I wanted to create an illustrated front cover design and at least five inner illustrations for the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick because I am really interested in illustration for books and really enjoyed this book over summer. In the end, I produced a cover for a special interactive hardback edition for the book and had to abandon the inner illustrations due to time constraints. Brief 4: Deadline 18th January Folio Society – War Horse Rationale: I wanted to enter this Folio society competition because it is a book illustration brief and Folio Society’s products are renowned for their extremely high quality. This allowed me to practice my skills making professionally finished illustration for publication and as a result I improved my technical skills as an illustrator.
Brief 5:
Deadline Various Smaller Responsive style briefs Rationale: I entered: -‐A book cover for A Clockwork Orange into the Penguin Random House Design Award -‐5 designs for vinyl sleeves as part of the Secret 7” competition -‐Designs for a special interactive hardback edition of The Versions of Us for the Orion Creative Competition Brief 6: Deadline 15th March D&AD x Shutterstock Rationale: I entered three screen prints into a D&AD brief set by Shutterstock in order to try and adapt screen-‐printing to as many briefs as possible. I wanted to push my abilities to tell stories through images with this brief. Brief 7: Deadline 19th May The Bell Jar Rationale: I made a book jacket and product range for Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, as it’s a book I researched extensively for COP and wanted to put that research to use in my Extended Practice module. I also wanted to begin building a portfolio related to book design and publishing. I took a typographic approach in order to improve my skills of using type as image. Brief 5: Deadline 19th May Lolita Rationale: In order to beef up my portfolio for publishing and book design, I made a book jacket and product range for Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita as I finished reading it earlier in the year. I made an animated trailer for the book as I wanted to do some animation this year, and the fact that publishers are using it to promote books more and more these days. Brief 5: Deadline 19th May Naked Lunch Rationale: In order to beef up my portfolio for publishing and book design, I made a book jacket and product range for William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. I wanted to vary my approach to image-‐making in order to keep my portfolio of book covers fresh, so used a cut-‐up style of making the imagery for the product range.
Contextual References http://www.prop4g4nd4.com -‐ Music events graphic designer prop4g4nd4 Bill Bragg – book cover design and illustration http://www.cinemaposter.com/FSTallgal.html -‐ Polish School of Poster Design http://bartoszkosowski.bigcartel.com/about -‐ Black Bird Illustration -‐ lots of poster design, particularly screen-‐print. https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/135288462 -‐ Part of a series of animations on romantic stories: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-‐blog/2015/october/i-‐think-‐readers-‐are-‐hungry-‐ for-‐honest-‐stories-‐about-‐relationships-‐editor-‐daniel-‐jones-‐on-‐the-‐new-‐york-‐times-‐modern-‐love-‐ column/ http://robertfrankhunter.com -‐ use of colour http://www.andybridge.com -‐ book cover designer and painter http://www.sonnenzimmer.com -‐ print duo based in Chicago that produce a lot of gig posters http://www.jonathanburton.net -‐ illustrator that does a lot of highly illustrative book covers and some impressive screen prints. http://www.owenfreeman.com -‐ Did some very graphic book covers for a series of Burroughs books
RESEARCH ACTIVITY: Read library books on poster design
Details
Deadline
I found a whole section in the library about poster design for various contexts – music, film, etc. and think that I would really benefit from having a browse through them early on in my screen-‐ printed poster brief. RESEARCH ACTIVITY: Deadline Read up about Astronomy Details In order to produce a convincing book about space and astronomy, I need to do research into the field. I want to find all the recent articles that have been coming out about all the recent discoveries that have been so far. RESEARCH ACTIVITY Deadline Colour mixing Details Since having finished my first screen print for Brief 1, I realized how little I knew about colour mixing since I struggled to attain the perfect colour. I want to devote some time into understanding how to mix colours successfully in order to smoothen the screen-‐printing process in future RESEARCH ACTIVITY Deadline Details RESEARCH ACTIVITY Deadline Details
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS / TEXTS - (Harvard Referenced)
HAYES, C. (2009) Gig Posters. Philadelphia: Quirk Books LE COULTRE, M. F. and PURVIS, A. W. (2002) A century of posters. UK: Lund Humphries LOOMIS, A. (1947) Creative Illustration. New York: The Viking Press LUPTON, E. (2008) How to design and print your own book. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. PEDERSON, B. M. (1996) Graphis Poster 96. New York and Zurich: Graphis PERRY, M. (2011) Pulled: A Catalog of Screen Printing. New York: Princeton Architectural Press WILLIAMSON, C. (2013) Low-‐Tech Print: Contemporary Hand-‐Made Printing. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. SONNENZIMMER (2015) Didactics: Warp and Weft: Poster Construction + Formal Additive Programs. Chicago: Green Lantern Press MAGAZINES / JOURNALS / ARTICLES – (include publication date and details) Varoom 30 – September 2015 – Articles referring to the importance of play throughout practice. ON LINE REFERENCES / WEBSITES / ARTICLES (include specific urls) https://www.creativereview.co.uk/subjects/illustration/ http://www.itsnicethat.com OTHER REFERENCE MATERIAL (Films, events, exhibitions, conferences) E.H. Shepherd – An Illustrator’s War exhibition, House of Illustration, London Otherworlds exhibition, Natural History Museum, London