PROJECT REPORT
LIFTING TOWER BRIEF To collaborate with animation students to produce a Christmasthemed animated sequence which will be projected onto the lifting tower at Wellington Place
PRODUCT A 20 second long frame-by-frame animation, which will then be combined with sequences produced by other students.
TONE OF VOICE Festive, but not clichĂŠ, eye catching, playful.
AUDIENCE General public, people aged 20-50 who work and live near Wellington place
CONTEXT Animated projection will be projected onto the Lifting Tower
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Sequence has to be 20 seconds long, and bright coloured as the projector tends to dull them down
DELIVERABLES: A 20 second long animated sequence celebrating Christmas
LIFTING TOWER
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I decided to take on this brief as I’ve always been interested in animation and thought a live brief would be a great way to help me refine my frame-byframe animation skills. T Ăœ T T T T T T T
I don’t usually plan a lot before going forward with an idea (sketching, experimenting), so the initial part of this brief was really interesting for me as I had to storyboard all my ideas. I was required to put a sufficient amount of detail into the storybaords so my teammates and the supervisor from Lumen would be able to understand my ideas without me present. This was a very different to the way I usually work, and it developed my visual translation of ideas, which is an important skill to have as an illustrator. The process was a lot more tedious than expected: initially I thought as an illustrator I’d mostly be illustrating still images that the animators would bring to life, and I might be given a small part to animate as I’m not as experienced as them. However, there were a lot of communication problems in my group, and I ended up having to animate a 20 second long frame-byframe sequence on my own. Overall I’d say I’m pretty pleased with the outcome of what I’ve produced for this brief. Collaborating with others is definitely not one of my strong suits though as I prefer to be a follower rather than a leader, so whenever problems arise I tend to be a pushover.
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WEEKLY EDITORIAL BRIEF Create an editorial illustration based on a news article once a week
PRODUCT A series of editorial illustrations which could be used to strengthen my portfolio
TONE OF VOICE The tone of voice would change depending on the topic and tone of the article itself, and the targeted demographic
AUDIENCE Again, this varies depending on the article but is an important element which would be taken into consideration every time I create an illustration for this brief.
CONTEXT Newspapers, digital newspaper (website), magazines
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Each illustration would have to be produced within the span of 1-2 days, and the articles would be chosen at random
DELIVERABLES: A range of 10 editorial illustrations
WEEKLY EDITORIAL I’ve had previous experience with creating editorial illustration during my summer internship, so I decided to make this brief as an extension of that to continue practicing my editorial illustration skills. The articles I illustrated were chosen randomly, to imitate how it would work in the industry. This made it really challenging sometimes as the article was completely uninteresting, or very hard to visually translate. Sometimes if the article is extremely hard to illustrate I try to focus on my illustration style instead. During the time when this brief was ongoing, I was still trying to find my illustration style; so I used this as an opportunity to experiment with colour and shape, and sometimes medium as well. I found this brief a little difficult to complete sometimes as I was setting the deadlines myself, and wasn’t given them, which made me feel less pressured. I think this occasionally affected my performance as I would slack off, or create work that isn’t up to par, and wouldn’t care. Despite that, this brief pushed me to draw even when I had creative blocks, or when I thought I was too drained to do so, which I think kept me on my feet as I was always creating. However, some really strong images did come out of this brief which I think are good enough to include in my portfolio along with the work I did during my summer internship. Editorial illustration is definitely something I’d like to continue pursuing as part of my career.
TRAVELLING MAN BRIEF Create a fanart-themed poster
PRODUCT A movie poster based on Satoshi Kon’s film Paprika
TONE OF VOICE Fun, playful, echoes the mood and atmosphere of the movie
AUDIENCE Young adults, adults, people who are interested in Kon’s films and anime in general
CONTEXT The poster is printed and sold at Travelling Man Leeds
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS The poster has to be A2, and uses a specific colour palette consisting of green, blue, and purple.
DELIVERABLES: An A2 sized movie poster of Satoshi Kon’s Paprika
TRAVELLING MAN This brief was outside my comfort zone, as I was never particularly interested in or comfortable with illustrating characters. I felt like creating fanart was basically replicating something that already exists, which made this brief extremely challenging. Since I always avoided drawing people as I was bad at it, I felt like this brief made me confront my fear. I spent a lot of time drawing and redrawing Paprika, and at times I felt really defeated as I wasn’t able to execute this mental image I had in my head onto paper. Once I got the most difficult part out of the way I grew to enjoy this brief as it was really broad, and since we had to stick to a certain colour palette it allowed me to focus on the composition. This brief in a way was also a turning point for me as it was when I began to realize that I really enjoyed creating images with a lot of detail in them. I was also very determined to not trace reference images to avoid creating an image that looked exactly the same as the film. This forced my to stick to using my own style, which is another issue I had as at this point of the year I was still very much unsure of what my style was. Although this brief wasn’t significant in size, it was significant in terms of self realization and growth as an illustrator. I was able to begin to discover my style, as well as consolidating it.
OUT OF ORDER BRIEF create an image with the theme “out of order” which will be exhibited at Colors May Vary
PRODUCT A printed illustration
TONE OF VOICE Has to relate to the theme, and echoes your style of illustration
AUDIENCE Gallery-goers, customers at Colors May Vary
CONTEXT Exhibition, print, public art
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Has to be in a square format, and relates to the theme
DELIVERABLES A printed image
OUT OF ORDER Similar to the Travelling Man brief, Out Of Order was also a very open brief, which allowed me to explore stylistically. This brief is an extension of my CoP project which consists of pictorial maps and surreal architectural illustration. By the time we were given this brief I’ve already found out that I enjoy illustrating buildings and imaginary cities, so I used this as an opportunity to continue to develop my style. At this point of the module and during this brief I realized that imagined cities are fun to draw but unfortunately contain no context which was something I kept in mind. I also realized that with the amount of detail I include within my images that they should be bigger in scale as that would allow the audience to see them clearer. This brief was another stepping stone towards what I’m working towards to, which is to be able to illustrate intricate pictorial maps which pulls the audience in immerse them, bringing them into another world.
IBIS MURAL BRIEF
AUDIENCE
Design a mural for IBIS Style Leeds, revolving around the theme of what you like about Leeds
Customers staying at the hotel
PRODUCT
Public art, mural
An image which will be made into a mural and placed in the hotel’s reception area
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
TONE OF VOICE
DELIVERABLES
Personal, refined
A digital image of a proposed idea
CONTEXT The mural has to express what you like about Leeds, and fits the size of the wall
IBIS MURAL I decided to take on this brief because I thought it was a great opportunity to create a large scaled map, something I’ve been wanting to do but did not get the chance to do so until then. However, I was really unhappy with the outcome of this brief as I felt like my mentality throughout the entire brief was incredibly negative which heavily impacted how I approached and executed the brief. The theme of this brief was “what you like about Leeds”, which really put me off as I wasn’t the biggest fan of the city, so I felt like I was lying to myself if I tried to put Leeds in a positive light. So while I was doing on-site research by walking around the city I was really angry as I felt like I had to force myself to see the city in a way I didn’t want to. This had a great impact on the process of creating the image; while I was drawing the mural I was angry the entire time and I all I wanted to do was to finish it. This was not a good mindset to have at all and I was extremely disappointed in myself as I wasn’t able to separate my emotions from my drawing and it was extremely unprofessional of me.
CITY DRAWINGS BRIEF Create a range of illustrations of cities I’ve travelled to
PRODUCT A range or illustrations depicting cities in a surreal perspective
TONE OF VOICE Black and white, detailed, surreal
AUDIENCE People interested in travelling
CONTEXT Editorial, postcards, tourism
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Has to be cities I’ve travelled to and has to be surreal
DELIVERABLES: A range of surreal illustrations of different cities I’ve travelled to
CITY DRAWINGS I was meaning to make this my FMP, but I was chosen for the MEPC brief and had to prioritize it as it was a live brief, and didn’t have time to fully complete this brief. However, I did start working on it and it’s something I want to continue to work on after completing uni. During my travels to Scandinavia I realized that travelling and seeing the world is a fundamental element of my practice. I draw inspiration from the little things that catches my eye while I’m in foreign cities, without this, I would not be able to create pictorial maps. I hope to apply these illustrations in various areas of illustration, such as editorial and publishing. I realized that the smaller scaled illustrations of cities could fit in inflight and travel magazines, as well as travel guides. With these illustrations I hope to reinvent peoples perspective of seeing a city, and inspire them to travel.
DUST JACKET BRIEF Illustrate a dust jacket for a photography student
PRODUCT An image of housing estates and terraced houses in London
TONE OF VOICE Black and white, detailed, revolves around residential areas of London
AUDIENCE Hanna (the photography student), and perhaps the people who will be reading her book
CONTEXT Publishing, book cover design
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS The cover has to be of London, but cannot include tourist landmarks such as the London Eye and Big Ben
DELIVERABLES: A black and white image depicting different kinds of housing found in London
DUST JACKET This was also meant to be part of my FMP as I was exploring the context and range my architectural illustrations and pictorial maps could be applied to. I found this brief slightly challenging because I couldn’t go down to London in person and look at the architecture, which is the best way I work as I draw inspiration from being in the place and experiencing it. I had to resort to looking at various reference images and illustrating the dust jacket from these images, which in the end became a good thing because I was able to use more of my imagination rather than drawing what I saw and photographed, which is what I did for the IBIS brief. Hannah specified that she didn’t want any tourist landmarks included in the illustration, but wanted it to be of London. This was a fun challenge as I had to think outside the box but work within it at the same time. Instead of including the Big Ben or the London Eye, I incorporated tube stops and trains as that is an integral part of London but isn’t a tourist landmark. This brief proved that my illustrations could be used as in the publishing industry; though it might have to be very specific categories, such as guidebooks, or books revolving around locations.
MEPC (FMP) BRIEF Create artwork for the reception area of 5 Wellington Place
PRODUCT Piece(s) of art for 5 Wellington place
TONE OF VOICE Open to interpretation
AUDIENCE People who work at 5 Wellington place (people aged 25-60)
CONTEXT Public art, mural
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS Has to be able to fit on the wall (3.84 x 14 m)
DELIVERABLES A black and white, surreal illustration of Leeds, mounted onto MDF which could be placed on the wall as a temporary art piece
MEPC (FMP) After getting chosen to be commissioned by MEPC I decided to make this my FMP due to the sheer size of the brief. All in all, I think I did very well as I basically figured everything out on my own. The proposed idea was to illustrate a “utopian Leeds”, which is a surreal depiction of the city. The idea was very well received, and since my design for the IBIS brief wasn’t chosen, I reused elements of the design and incorporated it into this mural. I also made sure I did sufficient on-site research; I walked around the city center, Leeds Dock, Headingley, Little London, and also visited Settle, a small town part of the Yorkshire Dales. Unlike a typical illustration brief, instead of just sending the client a complete image, I also had to figure out how to print and present the work. This usually wouldn’t be a problem but since it was a mural and very large in scale, I initially had no idea what the solution was. Besides creating the image I also had to manage my time so that I’d be able to figure out the printing method, print it out, and get MDF boards ordered in to mount the prints on it. This was by far the most difficult part of the brief as I had close to no experience in woodwork and logistics. Though this is a live brief and is close ended, which slightly differs from the aim of the FMP, I feel like this project really helped and pushed me to grow as an illustrator; I was able to finally see my work large scale and in context, and also pick some skills up about woodwork. It has also really helped with my confidence as a professional as I feel like I am able to tackle any brief no matter the size. I’m proud to say that my maps and architectural drawings are good in a range of contexts, and that I’ve become a better illustrator after this brief.