Live Projects
Isobel Williams
Live Project Overview
Below shows the projects I have worked on over the course of the last ten weeks. I used my Live projects plan, done in the first term, as more of a back up option as originally I had planned to fill my time mainly with competition briefs. After some consideration I felt it was important for me to use this term to gain some slightly more relevant experience, So I fought to seek out alternative options. Aims: Gain experience in fields relevant to my future. Practice and hope to improve illustration skills,. Undertake appropriate self promotion with the hope of moving forward from student to graduate. Practice and continually work on time management.
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Self Promotion
Week 5
Internship with ToucanBox
Week 6
Website Illustration
Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10
Penguin Award Collaboration Photography for The Whiteboard Project Don’t Panic Competition Brief
I set a side one week to work on some steps towards self promotion. With the final term before graduation looming I want to make sure I put in place as much as I can ready for a smooth transition from student to young professional. I have been trying to apply my illustrations to formats that will ensure they have a purpose, e.g cards, postcards. A Brief Overview Of The Week: + I sent my card designs to buyers + Updated and revamped my website + Redesigned my business cards + Produced self initiated illustrations The first thing I did was to update my website and business card. I felt it was important for them to work well together so i used the same design for the home page as on my card.
Previous to this term I had sent my cards out to a couple of buyers but on reflection I feel I aimed too high, sending out to the big ones; e.g paper chase. So I decided to approach smaller companies and ones outside of London. I sent a selection to each of the card buyers I felt might be appropriate.
Dear Isobel, In total I sent out my cards to seven card buying companies. I felt that it would be good to see how my designs measure up on a professional level, I feel I can handle rejection well so in my eyes I had nothing too loose. Unfortunately I only heard back from one company who weren’t interested in my work. However this doesn’t defer me from trying again in the future when my designs are perhaps, more developed.
Thank you for taking the time to submit some examples of your work. Regrettably your style is not suitable for our company or our market, but we do wish you all the best for the future. Kind regards Jean Poole Studio Administrator Abacus Cards Ltd
Cat Typeface
Illustrated typefaces is one of my favourite things to do, and I have found with previous typefaces that its a good tool for producing cards and postcards. I spent a day creating an illustrated cat typeface. As I wanted to use this term to find tune my skills I was keen to gain practice when I could. I also really like cats.
Card Designs
I think cards or postcards are a really nice platform for illustrations. I also feel they sit well in my portfolio. I decided to create some new illustrations that would work well on cards. Over the last few months ideas have come to me for cards which I have been keeping a note of, but until this term I hadn’t had time to create them. I felt it would be beneficial to get them done whilst I’m exploring self promotion.
Illustration Project
Kerry Laws, a freelance writer from Bournemouth, approached me with an idea for a website. She wants to create a website that offers writers and authors and platform to read and discuss book reviews. Kerry is a good friend of mine and knows that I am keen on illustration. When she was looking for a visual for the website she asked if I would illustrate it. I was keen to do so as I feel as an illustrator, working with a writer could be a good investment of time. At this stage Kerry just wanted an illustration of a row of shops, these will become links to different areas of the website when its up and running. We began buy meeting over skype and throwing back and forth ideas and inspiring images.
I created an image using the pictures collected in the previous slide as inspiration. (see image below) Kerry was keen to embrace my childlike style so I kept the image quite rough and ready. At this stage kerry is still working on the website and the concept, so I may edit my illustration if it doesn’t work so well with the rest of the website but at this stage Kerry is happy. This will be an on going project as me and Kerry are both keen to collaborate further. She is hoping to get the website up and running in the next few weeks. I am always keen to do work for people who are familia with my style and my body of work as I comfortable to create what I see as my instinctive to draw and I don’t worry so much as not being good enough. Small projects like this are idea for me to gain practice working with clients and also I feel the more time I can spend drawing, the stronger illustrator I will become.
Listed on the UAL creative opportunities site was a job vacancy for someone to design children’s craft activities. I felt this was potentially a good opportunity for me as it was relevant to what I want to specialise in post graduation, (this being design for children.) I emailed an enquiry and received a response telling me if i wanted to apply for the job, I needed to design a bird craft activity that a 2 - 5 year old could make, also required was a list of materials used and a description of how to make it. As I was late to apply I only had a day to make my bird and instructions, but decided it would be worth the effort as its not everyday I get to use PVA glue.
Below is my designed method for how to make my bird. I kept the design simple as I was conscious that the target audience was very young children. I sent in my application and received a positive response asking me to go for an interview. Virginie Charles, the Co-founder was flexible about my mobility issues and came to oval (where I live) to meet me. I felt the interview went well and she told me she would email me formally offering me work.
I received an email offering me work for 2 months. My workload will include designing brosures for the craft boxes, designing activities, illustrating colouring pages and design of the box. Virginie was happy for me to work from home and the internship would be flexible enough for me to manage with my health problems. This seemed like an ideal opportunity, both in terms of experience I am keen to gain, relevant portfolio work and time frame for this term. I accepted her offer and was keen to start immediately.
More about the company;
ToucanBox is a new company, when I started working for them they were yet to launch there first box or website and so there was a lot of prep work to be done ready for the launch. This ment that the work I was given had an element of ‘trial and error’ as some ideas didn’t work out when put to life. Toucanbox’s office is based in Fulham and there are two people working there full time.
Taken from www.toucanbox.com
My first task was to design the packaging for the box. The theme of this months box was birds. So I started designing what I felt would be appropriate. Initially the brief was to design the outside of the box. My first design was the one pictured below. The guidance I was given was to include the logo on the box and ‘delivered monthly’ The website URL was also required to feature somewhere.
After I submitted my first idea the concept was changed from designing the surface of the box to creating a sticker that could be stuck on the box. The theme of the first box would be birds so I decided to incorporate that into it. Virginie also suggested having an area for the child to be able to write there name on. From that I decided to rethink my original idea and created the one pictured below.
The next three designs above show the process of trial and error that I went on. I sent the images over to Virginie as I made them and she was able to give me prompt feedback on how they were looking and which elements she felt work and didn’t. After some problems getting the logo to fit in with the design we decided the one below worked best. Following that I changed the colour and Virginie was pleased with it.
Pictured above is my design sticker on the box that will go out to the customers. Once I got the format and basic lay out of the sticker, it was easy to create the one for the next box. The theme of the next box is ‘jungle safari’ So I replaced the bird illustration with a giraffe. I sent it over to Virginie and she was pleased with it.
Colouring Pages
My next task was to illustrate colouring pictures for the craft boxes. Mike (co- founder) provided me with sample images which I then based the illustrations on (see image on left) I used illustrator to trace my hand-drawn images. This
This brief was a good opportunity for me to practice my drawing skills, which is something I want to do during this term. I didn’t feel very confident to draw birds but by using the guide images as reference I was able to create the images to a standard that Mike was pleased with. I think working to illustration briefs, rather than me drawing what I want to and feel comfortable doing is a useful way to push me outside my comfort zone. I feel this could potentially help me to improve my skills.
How to Draw Birds
As part of the ‘bird’ theme craft box Virgine wanted me to illustrate a step by step that could help children draw birds. I googled some basic concepts and created the image on the left. Generally when I illustrate I don’t tend to use illustrator very often, but during my work for ToucanBox I tried to give myself some practice in it as I don’t consider myself to be very competent in it. As I have worked through this term I have found my skills in illustrator to improve and I think I will be more willing to use it in future.
Jungle Colouring Pictures
For the jungle theme box I illustrated another series of colouring pictures. Mike sent me over the image on the left and I used them to create illustrations. Me and Mike worked together to create copy to go with each of the animals.
With the practise from the previous colouring pictures under my belt I found it much quicker to produce this set of images. I am feeling more confident with illustrator and the whole process was a lot more efficient.
Icons
I created icons to symbolize the different benefits of the activities and the relevant time frame for each activity. Virginie sent me over examples of the sort of thing she had in mind and I used that as a reference while I created the icons on illustrator. Previously I would have used Photoshop to create these images, but with one of my aims to gain practice on illustrator I decided it would be worth the extra time it may take me. Once I got going I found illustrator much more efficient to use. I feel with further perfection of my illustrator skills I will have more control over the quality of my future outcomes.
Virginie emailed me a mock up of the instruction manual and I set about redesigning and illustrating it. The only experience I have in creating booklets has been for my own purpose, so I have only had to worry about pleasing myself with the design. This booklet needed to be antithetically pleasing in the eyes of ToucanBox, serve its purpose in giving clear instructions that children can understand, and keep within the size limits. I decided to use a limited pallet taking two colours from the ToucanBox logo.
Reflection On The Booklet
I found designing the booklet quite a challenge and I didn’t feel it looked right, Virginie agreed that something wasn’t right with it. I sent the files of the images that I used in it and she got another designer to have a go at it. I think with more time I could have produced something more suited than what I did, but with the tight deadlines I felt relived when she said she would get someone else to do it. As much as I have a level of confidence in my ability I am aware that I have a vast room for improvement, which with time and further practice I feel I can achieve. But for now I didn’t want to put myself under too much pressure. Some of my images were used in the final booklet, but the layout and style is much better and more affective than what I was working on.
Photo Work
With ToucanBox being a new company, the website was yet to be up and running. Virginie asked me to experiment with the photos of the team for the website and see if I could inject a bit of fun to them. I created 3 examples using the colours from the logo. Although Virginie liked what I had done, her and Mike decided to keep the photos minimal and natural, see image below. I enjoyed experimenting with different ideas and consider it all to be useful practice.
Line Work
Many of the craft activities in the boxes use a net or template that the children can cut out to help them create the different projects. Mike created the templates using Paint, but as a result they were all very pixelated. So I used my newly polished Illustrator skills to tidy up the templates and make sure they were at a good standard. This was not one of my favourite tasks as I found it quite time consuming for some of the images. It also involved a lot of starring at the computer screen which is not one of my most loved areas of design. By the time I had completed most of the editing I found myself to be working a lot faster. As much as this was a fairly dull job, I think it has been useful for me to get practice of this nature. One of my flaws as a worker is the speed in which I work. I am generally quite a slow worker, practice with this amount of work has helped me to increase me speed. Click the link below to see the extent of my picture editing.
Click Me
When I began thinking about term two my main aim was to gain experience that would prepare me for what I want to do after graduation. My ideal would be to freelance from home working on illustration or similar projects. My internship with ToucanBox gave me a taste of what that would be like. As much as it was my aim to work from home, I was unsure about how realistic it would be to find companies as flexible as I require. ToucanBox offered me a great experience and it was a big moral boost for me to find out that there are companies who are or could be willing to take me on board despite my restrictions . On the two occasions they needed face to face contact with me, they paid for a taxi for me to get to Fulham. I feel very grateful that I was able to have what I would consider an ideal experience and it was definitely a big confidence boost with regards to my workability.
Isobel joined us for an internship to help with illustrations and design. She’s been involved since the very early days of the business and has been involved in various projects. She came up with the design and illustrations for our box packaging, which was really important for us to get right as it sets the tone for our brand and is the first thing children will see when they receive their package. Moreover, she helped with the illustrations for our instruction manual, which gives step by step explanations on how to build each of the four projects included into each box. Finally, she was in charge of all the illustrations for our colouring activities, which included 12 colouring cards depicting various birds and safari animals. Isobel has done an outstanding job at toucanBox and has been a brilliant addition to our team. She always has a positive attitude and is a great illustrator. She’s been able to work independently, asking the right questions, and understanding our requirements straight away and we’re looking forward to continuing our cooperation together as we continue to grow the toucanBox brand.
The Penguin design awards was one of the competitions I had planned to enter. When Lo Parkin asked me if i wanted to do a collaborative entry I felt it would be a great opportunity to create something a bit different. I am a big fan of Lo’s work. Her style of illustration is very different to mine, she creates mainly black and white images with a lot of detail and line work. Where are mine tend to be colourful with quite simple lines. We both felt that combining our styles could create a strong entry for the Grimms Fairy Tale brief.
The Brief
Penguin Design Award The Brief Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Grimm’s Fairy Tales has been translated into more than 160 languages and was first published in English in 1812. Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for this classic, in order to reinvent Grimm’s Fairy Tales for a new generation of readers, encouraging children (and adults) to revisit it time and time again, and ensuring that it remains an integral part of childhood. Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (cut-down B format, 178mm high x 129mm wide, spine 28. 2mm wide).
Previous Winners I looked at the previous penguin book cover winners to grasp an idea of what is considered good. The examples vary greatly from one to another. It would be hard to predict what they might be after for this brief, so I feel the best plan is work towards whatever me and Lo feel to be appropriate.
Stage One
Research Myself and Lo began our project by going to the library and researching other fairy tale illustrations. It was useful to absorb other visual examples and see that fairy tale illustration generally has a very traditional style. We wanted to seek inspiration and also wanted to ensure our design would offer something different and new.
Stage Two
Mapping Ideas Me and Lo spent a day together doing some alfresco idea generation. We created mind maps considering all factors and also at this stage we created a plan of how we plan to tackle the brief.
Action Plan
LO + 1 X collaborative IMG + 3 X weird/scarey IMGS + ‘grimms’ title type (reflective of contemporary twist on traditional illustrations)
IS + 1 x collaborative IMG + 4 x friendly/soft IMGS + Cover Layout + ‘fairy tales’ type (reflective of contemporary children’s illustration)
Stage Three
Experimentation & Creation From the research conducted and the studying of the different stories I chose to create images that I felt would work with my style. Me and Lo agreed that a good start would be for me to do the house from Hanzel and Grettle, and then Repunzels hair. We felt Tom Thumb was a good opportunity to merge our different styles. Lo using her slightly darker style to illustrate the cow, whilst I use my more childlike style to draw Tom Thumb. We felt this was a good way to represent the feel of the story.
Final Illustrations
Stage Four
Layout Lo emailed me her illustrations (pictured on this page) and I began to experiment with the layout using the Penguin template I downloaded. I expected this part to be a lot easier than it was. I started by merging our illustrated type buy illustrating a boarder and background (see below) I emailed Lo examples as I made them and we chatted over the phone about what we felt worked and what didn’t.
After some playing around with the layout me and Lo agreed on a final design (see next page) I checked back to the brief to make sure I had included everything and we felt happy with our finished product.
Stage Five
Outcome & Reflection
Reflection On The Project I found this an enjoyable brief to work with. My portfolio had previously been lacking any collaborative work so I was glad to have the opportunity to work with a like minded illustrator. In the past I have avoided collaboration as its not something I have particularly enjoyed prior to now. I feel now those previous feelings where more a reflection on the compatibility of people I have worked with in the past. I felt me and Lo worked well together and it was definitely a positive experience. The work load was evenly spread and we were both able to give each other honest and relevant feedback. From this point I would be keen to collaborate further in the future. Our primary aim for our outcome was to create a contemporary twist on tradition fairy tale illustrations. I feel with the combining of our styles, we have achieved this.
Don’t Panic is a free publication that is distributed in carefully selected independent shops, bars, universities and art spaces. They run regular competitions to design posters, the winners poster would then be featured in the publication. The Brief The brief is to design a A2 poster relevant to the theme believe. The winning poster will have 80,000 copies printed. 20 signed and 200 unsigned copies of the winning poster would be sold in the Don’t Panic shop and the revenue will be split with the winner.
Previous winners
I consider it to be important to sus out the style of the previous winners when embarking on a competition. As you can see from above there is a wide range of styles, and it would seem Don’t Panic is open minded to a range of mediums. The voting procedure however concerns me slightly as it is up to the public to vote online for there favourite entry, the ten posters with the top amounts of votes will then be put in front of a judge. This leads me to believe that success in the competition is quite a lot down to how many people you know that will be willing to vote.
Sketches, Ideas & Experiments
From my mind map I was able to pull ideas that I felt would make a pleasing visual image, I experimented with those initial thoughts (see above). I also tried out the idea of using text as the main image. I didn’t feel this was strong enough but decided to develop the idea of a unicorn as I felt that would be something that tied into the theme of believe whilst also being something I would enjoy creating,
Final Design
Pictured on the left is my final design. I was pleased with my out come as I felt it incorporated the idea of ‘believe’. I also enjoyed the process of drawing it, although I didn’t move far out of my comfort zone with regards to experimenting with different techniques and styles.
Getting the Votes
I used social networking to try and entice some votes. I was pleased with the amount of votes a received but it wasn’t enough! I finished at number 17, and as mentioned before it was necessary to be in the top ten to go through to the judge. I was 124 votes off getting into the top 10, so it was by quite a lot I didn’t get through! Next time I will really go all out with the promotion of my entry as on this occasion social networking was not enough. I feel that getting enough votes is obtainable to anyone, its just a case of persuading people to vote. Next time I would consider approaching people around uni and asking more from friends of friends. Over all despite the voting system not being the best, I found this an enjoyable experience and I intend to put my entry into my portfolio.
The White board Project started in August 2010 by Paul O’Donnell & Rick Moreno. It is a unique online platform offering a different approach to interviews and reviews. The name comes from the concept of conducting interviews through the medium of a white board. The artist being interviewed is invited to draw there answers to the question on a white board. Photos are taken of the answers and then the interview is posted online. Through out the second term I have been working for the White Board Project interviewing up and coming bands and photographing them. Photography is a keen interest of mine but sadly I have not had the opportunity to do much in recent months. I felt like this was a good opportunity to gain some more photography for my portfolio and reacquaint myself with my interest.
I received the questions for each of the interviews from either Rick or Paul a day before so I was able to formalinise myself with them. The first interview was Manchester Orchestra which took place at the Sony headquarters in South Kensington. After I finished the interview I edited the pictures and formatted them so I could email them over to Rick in the right size for the website.
Canterbury & Young Guns
Reflection
The experience I’ve had working for The White Board Project has been highly enjoyable. As the majority of the other work I have been doing has been from home I found having a more social job on the go at the same time to be valued. It has given me good experience in meeting the quality expected in the photography work. Conducting interviews with people I have not met before has been good practice with social skills and professionalism. As mentioned before, my interest in photography has been neglected in the past year, and it’s been great to work on a project where I have been able to use my photography skills. Currently this is not a paid position as The Whiteboard project is only just becoming recognised, but if there came an opportunity for a paid position I would be keen to continue in the field of work.
Conclusion & An Overall Reflection This term I have entered two competitions, completed a two month internship,designed some self initiated pieces and undertaken a small freelance project and worked on a on-going photography project.. I feel that the live projects brief has been an ideal experience to prepare myself for post graduation. The internship that I undertook was very well suited to me for a number of reasons; It enabled me to gain valuable experience in the area of which I would like to go into; design and illustration for children. Due to my current poor health I am only able to work from home, and I had previously thought this would rule out the possibility of taking part in an internship. However, I was wrong. Toucanbox where more than happy to accommodate my working conditions with out me having to go into great amounts of detail. As a result I now feel much more positive about my future, where as before it was a massive concern for me as I doubted companies would be as flexible as my experience. This may still be the case but this experience now aids a much more positive outlook! Toucanbox have also said they would like me to keep working for them which I was pleased to accept. I was able to manage my time reasonably well, working from home everyday to my own schedule required some organization and motivation, but I was keen to prove to myself that I could do it. Time management is still an area that has room for improvement but I was able to meet deadlines and find ways of communication that worked for me, e.g skype. I enjoyed my experience of collaborative work with Lo on the penguin book prize, this was something I had previously stayed away from. I now feel that successful collaboration is down to who you work with and your compatibility to work together. Overall this term has been of great value and I look forward to being met with the challenge of becoming a graduated designer.