Leeds College of Art BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION OUIL603 Extended Practice
Level
06
Credits 60
STUDIO PRACTICE Statement of Intent Name
Sophie Hargreaves
Date
13/10/2015
www.s-hargreaves1316.blogspot.com
Rationale Throughout this module I want to become more confident in my skills as an illustrator. I will be focusing on specific areas to refine and develop the quality of my work. As well as developing the practical aspects of my practice, I will be developing my overall professionalism. This will include how I present physical out-comes, propose those I cannot create myself and my ability to talk about my projects. By the end of the module I want to have a clearer idea of the sort of illustrator I will be when I graduate and a portfolio to be proud of and represents my skills.
Themes / Subjects Practicing professionalism is fairly straight-forward and to do this, I will be allocating more time to presenting final outcomes and considering what sort of presentation is most suitable. For example, photographing a physical piece of work, producing presentation boards or choosing an appropriate stock for printing. Within the briefs I set myself I want to explore publishing once again. In level five I don’t feel as though I did enough work with book illustration, character or smaller publications such as zines. On the back of this, I will also be investigating product and packaging to get a better understanding of commercial illustration. This will include developing products or packaging for a specific brand, print requirements or restrictions and which materials and production methods would be most suitable. A more overarching theme I want to investigate is my voice as an illustrator, I am interested in how I can combine the way I draw – which is quite bold and girly – with social/political issues I am concerned with.
Products / Methods of Distribution
Specific products I am interested in making are book covers and inside illustrations, zines, greeting cards and illustrated home-ware. These are all quite commercial areas of illustration and I feel that although they could do with some improvement, they resonate with the strongest parts of my practice.
Practical Skills / Media / Formats
In order to improve on my practical skills, I intend to work with traditional media and digitally. During level 5 I particularly enjoyed working with screen print, so I am planning on revisiting it. Currently I think it would be most appropriate for making greetings cards – especially if I want to use foil, flocking or inks outside of the CMYK spectrum. Another relevant skill to develop would be brush lettering and my overall use of brush and ink so that I don’t always rely on brush pens. For the home-ware/packaging based briefs I am interested in exploring repeat pattern. This can be done both digitally and with traditional media, so I intend to use a mixture of the two. This way I can play with overlaying shape, texture and adjust colours accordingly.
Brief 1:
Deadline
Book Covers & Inside Illustrations Rationale:
I will be answering The Folio Society’s Book Illustration competition, which asks for a cover design and two inside illustrations for Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’. I intend to expand the brief and produce the same outcomes for 5 books in total. Potentially this could be an on-going brief – it depends how much I feel I have improved. Brief 2:
Deadline
Greetings Cards Rationale:
The initial idea for this brief is based on an old Tigerprint competition brief which I will be adapting. I will be investigating brush lettering and other traditional processes to create a range of greetings cards. The range could be expanded from simple greetings cards to cards for most occasions (Christmas, birthdays, Easter, thank-you’s, weddings etc). What I want to get out of doing this is more confidence in my illustrated type and improve the quality of my hand-made work instead of relying on Photoshop to clean up. Brief 3:
Deadline
A Zine A Month Rationale:
The aim of this brief is to produce a zine a month for the length of the module. Each month I will draw based around a theme, which might be social, political, a specific colour, tool or word. The point of this is just to keep me making images and to do something with them that is more unrefined. This will stop me over-thinking a theme or a particular drawing and rely more on my initial response. Putting the drawings into a zine format will make me consider how these drawings can reach an audience and what I am trying to say. Brief 4:
Deadline
YCN Briefs Rationale:
The point of picking up a YCN brief is because it was set by somebody else. It requires me to answer something real world to a professional standard that may be slightly more challenging of my skills. The deadline is much more absolute so it will force me to be more disciplined with my time management.
Brief 5:
Deadline
Hallmark Creative/Colouring Book Pages Rationale:
Expanding on an old Hallmark Creative competition brief which asks for one colouring book page, I intend to produce one page per week. Once again, this project will span the entire module so that when I have finished, I will have a complete colouring book. This is an area of publishing I am interested in and it requires a lot of patience as adult colouring books tend to be very detailed. I will be essentially investigating the whole process of creating a book, from initial sketches, outlining, cleaning up, printing, binding and proposing a point of sale/audience.
Additional Project Proposals:
Illustration Friday to keep me drawing and responding to something every week. ‘Inktober’ throughout October.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice BRIEF TITLE The Folio Society’s Book Illustration Competition & Extra Brief Create three illustrations and a binding design for Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’. Apply this brief to 4 other books to develop book illustration skills.
Product
Tone of Voice
Book cover design for ‘War Horse’ and three inside illustrations accompanied by the relevant quotes. Use same deliverables for 4 more books.
‘War Horse’ is quite a serious children’s book about friendship and loyalty. These themes should be reflected in the illustrations whilst still being appealing for a younger audience.
Audience
Context
Primarily children aged 9 to 13. The judges at the Folio Society.
Re-design/re-launch of ‘War Horse’ and all the other book designs completed.
Additional information/Considerations: How can I make them work as a set? I will need to consider colour palettes, materials used and production methods.
Mandatory Requirements
Deliverables
At least one binding design [140x203mm with 5 binding designs, 15 inside illustration designs 20mm bleed] including spine [25mm x 203mm, and presentation boards for each book. design must start 12mm down and there must be 10mm either side for hinges]. Three inside illustrations for at least one book [portrait, 197x137mm or 203x143mm for bleed].
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice BRIEF TITLE Greeting Cards Brief Create a range of greeting cards for numerous occasions using illustrated type and other traditional processes.
Product
Tone of Voice
A range of greeting cards for: birthdays; Christmas; congratulations; get well soon; graduation.
Celebrative, fun, hand-crafted, thoughtful, seasonal.
Audience
Context
People who shop at card/stationary stores such as Paperchase, roughly aged 18 to 35.
Birthdays, wedding season, family occasions, Christmas.
Additional information/Considerations: Production methods I want to explore – brush lettering, screen print/foil flocking
Mandatory Requirements 25 greeting card designs. 5 occasions, 5 designs for each.
Deliverables 5 Christmas cards, 5 birthday cards, 5 congratulations cards, 5 get well soon cards and 5 graduation cards. Possibly extend range to gift bags/wrapping paper and tags.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice BRIEF TITLE A Zine A Month Brief Produce one zine every month until the end of the module. Each zine will have a theme which could be a single word, colour or something social/political I want to discuss that month.
Product
Tone of Voice
At least 7 zines, between 8 and 16 pages, monochrome, each on a different theme.
Lo-fi, fast responses, opinionated, girly, challenging, promotional.
Audience
Context
Primarily young adults aged 18 to 25.
Exploring my thoughts and voicing my opinions in a way that can be distributed in a low-cost way.
Additional information/Considerations: Consider coloured paper, texture, current issues, format (hotdog booklet, saddle stitched?), could these be sold in future?
Mandatory Requirements
Deliverables
7 A5 zines
7 A5 zines on various themes.
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice BRIEF TITLE YCN Lush Brief 2014/15 Brief “Reinvent the way that our Emotional Brilliance products are branded and packaged”. Create new packaging and label designs for at least two of the products in the Emotional Brilliance range.
Product Eyeliners, Lipsticks, Eyeshadows
Audience Predominantly women and young girls aged 15 to 35 Will have used Lush products before and want to incorporate their makeup range into their daily routine.
Tone of Voice Fresh & handmade Ethically sourced Unique Playful Informative Fun Context Reinvent the way some of the Emotional Brilliance products are packaged
Additional information/Considerations
Friendly and non-judgemental Personable, not prescriptive Main competitors are MAC, Benefit and NARS
Mandatory Requirements Must be made from recycled or readily recyclable materials Must include the Lush logo Must include product information such as ingredients, legal requirements (weight etc) Same font family (Helvetica Neue) Should be sympathetic to the black and white packaging used in other products in the Lush range
Deliverables Packaging designs for at least two products in the Emotional Brilliance range Proposal/Presentation boards
BA (Hons) Illustration - Level 06 OUIL603 Extended Practice BRIEF TITLE YCN Lush Brief 2014/15 Brief Create (at least) one colouring book page per week based around a consistent theme which can be bound into an adult colouring book. Explore illustrated text, quotes, character and pattern.
Product Adult colouring book.
Tone of Voice Fun Interesting/Detailed Relaxing Playful
Audience People aged 16+ who enjoy colouring as a pastime or method of relaxation.
Context Would be sold at bookstores like Waterstones
Additional information/Considerations: How do I make this different to existing adult colouring books?
Mandatory Requirements
At least one page per week Must be suitably bound and trimmed Inside illustrations to be black and white
Deliverables One, fully bound and covered adult colouring book with roughly 24 fully illustrated pages to colour in.