Prospective clients (Which Magazine)

Where I went

I went to the centre of London as part of my design practice to see prospective clients. Whilst I was down there I had made an appointment with a friend to meet Judy, who is the art director of the Computer Which Magazine. I intended to go and see her to show her my portfolio, and see if I could familiarise myself with what it is like to meet a client who is interested in my work and would be willing to use my illustrations in her magazine.

About Which

Which Magazine compare prices for products in the High Street. I think my illustrations would be suitable because they would add a spark of fun to their corporate designs. Judy said that the magazine mostly uses photography but she is interested in using more illustration in the future. Judy also told us what type of illustrations work best, such as diagrams.

My findings

I found that a positive influence for me was the understanding of how interviews are carried out in the work placement/work environment. This was a new experience talking face to face with a client. My objectives were: to have the opportunity to pitch work and portfolio to clients, to review the relevance for the client, to obtain feed back and gain practise talking to clients, to see if I was prepared to meet clients in a working environment, to identify any problems that may have occurred preparing me for the next time, to inquire what is best to wear, are business cards required and finally is my portfolio professionally presented.

Learning outcomes

I found that Judy was well spoken but aloud time for me to say necessary things about my work, which helped me as I struggle to say what I mean sometimes. Pitching is not a struggle if you have the correct tools: Preparation of list of questions, business cards and I should have gathered background research on the company or client base, because the client will not only talk about business cards and portfolios. Upon reflection I should have asked about some of the difficulties that occurred with using illustration the short time frames, due to the fast tempo of business printing times. As a last note I have learned to be confident and have a clear mind when meeting someone new and to speak clearly and calmly and reply as best as you can to questions asked.

Lanfranco Bombell

Stumbled across this designer Lanfranco Bombelli. His work for the American Trade Centre might appeal to you, esp his use of reduced colour and play with 2d/3d.

3D Vector robot image.

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-29320051/stock-vector--d-vector-robot-communication.html

This image is relevant to the project work I’m producing at college as it explores themes such as communication between two robots. The use of colour here is a tad week for what is being seen here, and also therefore less visually appealing. The robots look like space costumes which means the shapes are not symbolizing what they are.

End of Term Review

BOY XOOX IMAGE FROM PERSONAL PROJECT

During this term, I have been developing my skills and working on my own illustration style. This has moved me to take a graphic designers approach because I’ve been following the design principles. There were five main projects this term and each had differing outcomes.
For my personal project, I wanted to create a working library of objects that were interchangeable allowing me to re-use elements wherever a design aloud this. So eyes could also be wheels and so on. What I found out about this is there are limitations to how much a detail an element can hold. Testing them help me understand what worked. A lot of symmetry and paternal worked well, it was mostly the simpler ones with forty-five degree angle triangles, squares and circles. I produced some posters using this method and I used a grid and a black illustrator outline. This gave very structured designs that had a bold directness due to their uniformity. If I continued to work this way I would have to answer most if not all briefs set directly objectively. This directness pay off due to shape relation, this is a good thing for me to grasp for later projects. As far as reference goes I have been looking a lot in pattern books and generally simple design like building blocks.
The next project was the times cover project, I started by drawing ideas that I thought would work with the design system I created. It was funny that I had to remake most of the shapes again as they were not fitting into place, so there were some design issues emerging because I wanted it to look dynamic and slot together better, Also I used new shapes because I wanted it in colours that related to the project, in this case science. To add more dynamics I re-used a black line for the three spot images and drop the black line for the cover. This then made me think do I even need the black line, it isn’t adding to anything maybe it was just a comfort thing for me to see it.
We then got given a short one week brief, It was for Lloyds TSB and let you decide yourself what area of banking you would illustrate within set restrictions. After several sketches I decided to illustrate a man placing with giant building blocks that spelt out the word excel as I work to an idea that I have set till it has a message but makes you want to be part of whatever it is. I felt this was one of my strongest images this year as it conveyed no real answer but a sense of achievement.
After that we did a project with Andy Martin about seasonal winds for a calendar. This one I felt I didn’t explore to the best of my abilities as my sketches weren’t thought about fully so I should have spent more time on them. I wasted time here making shapes for a bad idea and therefore failing to create a design that works visually.
The last brief was for a competition, it was optional as to which one you choose. I went for the Monster Munch brief as it seemed there weren’t many rules and it allowed me to be very playful or creative. The brief noted bits of the time period and an aspect I liked was about Atari games. So my main concept was a monster munch game type thing. I don’t yet have flash game designing skills so I made a video of what it might look like instead. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time on the animation as I could have made lots of mini toys, key-rings and stickers. There were other game related ideas I had like a life size monster munch game with a huge dice and masks to put on. During Christmas I want to carry on making some of this stuff even if it’s just at a mock up stage and feel I should try to uses a bigger budget for this kind of project.(wood or plastic or huge prints)I’m still learning.

Nonograms

Have a look at this, in regard to the Monster Munch project it might be an interesting take on the animation / game.
Its the 1995- 2007 Nintendo version of Hanjie puzzles or Nonograms the way they build is interesting and has links with your interest in Japanese culture and gaming and the visual language you are developing.

Blanca Gómez

I don't know a lot about this artist, so I may contact her soon.
What grabbed my attention was this image of a cloud and trees. It holds within it the most basic of shapes it’s constructed of two circles, five triangles and five rectangles, well six if you include the white background space.
The point being that, say if it was created in illustrator it would be totally sapped of its joyfulness losing its naivety, because illustrator formulates and flattens the shapes.
As far as I can tell she is marketed as a Graphic Designer/illustrator so likewise this image is challenging her design beliefs. The image has an anti-graphic reality and explores isolation and differentials.(It is my believe anyway)

DEADLINE - Post- it stop motion

I saw this on T.V the other night and just thought wow! Such a lot of hard work and well worth the result. It's like old school computer graphics and the post-it notes become like pixels. See the full version here and also a behind the scenes - explaining how it was done.