My Postcards

So my postcards arrived! Printed by moo- really excellent quality and I am very very happy with them! I opted to cut a box in half and cover it in paper to create some kind of holder for them (I have no idea if we will get table space but this seemed like the simplest option). I have attached my teabags to the back with paperclips (I was originally planning on using pegs but paperclips ended up being more sturdy) my only criticism is that they sit funny when laid flat which is why I came up with my box idea I am just hoping that there will be somewhere to put it. I have 50 postcards all in all so i'll probably put half in on the first day and then the other half in the second.

Adding the Logo and Additional Information to the Branding Poster

When first designing the branding poster I didnt actually have all the information that should have been on there- logos and times for example.  Although I have hidden the logos in the design, I was told by Sue that more obvious logos (unaltered) would have to be added- she said that it would be ok on the invites- because they are hidden and on there but the overall branding posters would need the logos added. Sue also said to bring more attention to the "graduation show" phrase since this is supposed to hook people and make them come to the show. 

I put the two logos at the bottom of the poster to keep them out of the way- included the additional times and dates in the middle. And added the course and college as well. Positioning them required more tweaking. Having the graduation show phrase at the top draws attention to the words -although I think they could be a little bigger and more central.

I think this iteration is a little bit too top heavy- and the FDA BA graduation show isnt as obvious.

I think the layout above is my most preferred one out of all of my experimentations  I like keepinf the text near the laptop since it keeps focus on the centre of the page and keeps the text generally balanced.

Sue and BA Meeting...

We had a meeting with Sue and the BA's it was incredibly awkward. They pitched their own branding posters and accompanying movie clips (they had also been tasked to make clips promoting the show- like trailers). I can't say I really got or liked their stuff it seemed a little odd- getting away from the digital (but I don't really get that because we are a digital course everything we do is digital) and some of the concepts hadn't been refined enough (they had concepts but in my opinion they would require too much refinement and wouldn't be ready in time). One of the designs was also very impractical because it depicted pill bottles which inferred that we as designers were all on drugs (of course this wasn't intentional but it was indadvertedly implied). When Sue then suggested that we vote- Shirley brought up that the invites had all been printed with my design. They were irritated that we had had them printed- I dont think printed invites was something that they wanted to do- although I think it works well as a better hook- people see something visual and they are intrigued- I get why they would be annoyed that we had done this without them but unfortunately in order to maintain good show timing we had to get moving with the project and we were given the go ahead by Andrew. In the end the BA's opted to use ours (I am very glad because we have spent a long time on this and because I wasn't convinced on the BA's pitches as final ideas).

Printed Invites

So we finally got round to printing the invites- they look really good- unfortunately they all need to be trimmed so they have the same border- a task which Andrew Pledger has undertaken (he is really good at being precise so he's the best man for the job). The print is really good quality and cost £30.00 of our budget which I think is relatively cheap considering! Really happy - and I like how Connor has introduced his sleek style onto the back design- it contrasts well with the crowded chaos on the front.

What I have done for the Show so far...

In class I've actually been losing steam mostly because everything that we can do has been done at this point- but in order to clarify my involvement with the show (since we are being graded on this) im going to list my contributions thus far.

Contributed heavily to the name discussion,

Contributed heavily to the discussion regarding how the branding should look after our poster pitch

Produced a branding poster (we have all submitted these, but as my poster was chosen as branding, I have resized and tweaked to meet the full needs of the show- adding a more interesting background and all the right text etc)

Produced branding poster colour variations- with the help of Chloe Honeysett and (Gina Allen as an additional judge) additional colour schemes for the branding poster were carefully selected to provide variety.

Produced a page full of different logos to be used within the invitations, the show reel and the press release (I left he final choice up to the others since I didnt really have a preference, since I made about 25 lots of different people liked different ones so when Connor needed the logo for the back of the invite Connor made the final logo choice).

Gave Gina Allen pieces of work that could be tweeted about on the twitter page.

Helped briefly with the printing of the invites- (Chloe and Connor had/have this handled) but a few times I have voiced opinions on invite sizes and prices on our two print websites- not my domain at all and very light pointers on my part.

After saying that I had nothing to do for the show anymore teacher Andrew suggested that I look into promoting the show on Linked in but after looking into linked in an creating an account - I found that it wasnt a site used for that purpose- its a site used for designers looking for jobs to put their cvs on - its not really used for show/exhibition/work promotion.

Since linked in was a bust I made sure that I shared the dots per inch page on my Facebook page (my mum has liked it so far). Whilst I have a twitter account I dont use it so I have no followers whatsoever so I didnt really think that tweeting about the show would actually be of any use, especially since Gina seems to have twitter under control.

Paid in 30 pounds

Stuff that I will be helping with

Putting up work in the show space/helping with layout (although this of course will be a joint effort)

Probably have a hand in helping Connor print everything- since its a big job for him alone (depending on whether he needs it or not) I was originally in the print section but I had the branding to worry about at the time so I sort of faded from that area. Now the branding is done I can now rejoin if needed (none of this can happen till wednesday since the BA's need to submit work and it probably wont go to the printers straight away because we will get the work on a wednesday afternoon and I think the print office is closed). Printing will probably not commence until the monday after.

Stuff I have done for personal promotion
Produced a responsive portfolio site (my twitter page) with my own personalised banner design

Made sure that all of my work is on Behance and is copyright protected under a creative commons licence.

Produced postcard designs (rather than business cards) to hand out around the show with my email, website and behance portfolio.


At the moment I feel like I have done all my input into the show - Im not sure if anyone feels the same- but I think we have done everything we can do at the moment. I have also been really organised with my own personal promotion (im really proud of my postcard designs)- I think its because I got excited and did all my tasks quickly - now I have nothing really to do until printing.

Back of my Promotional Postcard...

So before ordering my postcards - I realised that in order to have full creative control I should also design the back, so I can just stick the image on the back of the card and I don't have to worry about using the print sites layout. The back would need to contain my details for sure and I plan on including one of the phrases I have previously come up with to make it more fun.

This is the design for the back that I have come up with, I have left the top space clear because thats where I plan on attaching the teabag, and I have incorporated some of the triangles to preserve continuity but also because they fill up space and it looked a little bland without something in the background. Very happy with how they look and cant wait to get them printed!

I 

So Far...

We had a meeting with Sue about what was going on with the show- since interaction with the Ba's has been limited. I think that we are supposed to be presenting our branding posters again on wednesday along with the BA's so essentially any of the branding work we have done is probably going to be disregarded. It doesn't bother me that mine wont be used- I just don't like the fact that we have all been trying to work towards something and we are now back to square one. I dont understand why we have been allowed to get this far into the project if our ideas are going to be scrapped. Since its the BA's last year then of course it should be their show- I just dont really know what I am supposed to do towards the show now since everything has yet to be decided or confirmed as of yet.

Invite Colour Schemes...

Chloe - head of invites- wanted my poster in a variety of colours to be printed as postcards for the show. So collectively we worked together to figure out some new colour schemes for the invitations, we both decided that the background images should be removed for the A5-A6 size cards- in order to create a bolder design (we also werent sure if it would work as well on a smaller scale) so we opted to keep simple fill backgrounds. After much experimenting we settled on three additional colour schemes to go with the red and blue background.

 I really like the black and pink colour scheme- its probably too girly - but as its just one colour set out of four I think it adds a chic feel to it- I also think the pink really offsets the black objects which have a high contrast.

 The purple and green is probably my favourite colour iteration - i prefer it to the original red and blue - I think its a bit funkier and I like the vibrancy of the purple tone.

I dont like the orange and yellow colour scheme at all really but we needed a lighter sunnier tone- to offset the others and this was the only yellow combination that looked workable. So whilst I dont think its amazing I think it works well with the collective.

Promotional Postcard Idea...

So my overall plan- I want to really tie in the tea theme so I plan on including a teabag with my postcards- along with some kind of rhyme to make it relate to my work. Thus far I have managed to come up with:

Boil the kettle, its tea time
Look up my artwork online

or

Take the time to make some tea
My works online, come find me

or

Relax with tea its only smart
Online is where you'll find my art

or

A cup of Jess its only right
So take a look at my website

I am currently swaying between the second an the third rhymes, maybe ill print both- one on the back of each design- with my portfolio tumblr account link and my behance link.  Ideally id like to find teabags in a packet to avoid mess but if I cant then I plan to use very small envelopes- with the words a Cup of Jess on Me on the envelope containing the teabag. The rhyme would be printed on the back of the postcard- so I need to design the backs as well.

Self Promotional Postcard Design Number 2...

So I really liked my first promotional postcard design, but I felt like I could benefit from a little variety, in much of my research many illustrators provided at least two pieces of artwork to promote themselves- or variations of one at least. I kept with the same tea theme, I contemplated making a diving image, a me inside a rubber ring (represented by a party ring) but finally settled on a mermaid version of myself in a teacup bath. I kept the same triangles and flag design and used the same fish and colour scheme to maintain overall continuity. My mermaid self was inspired by the fish on the side of the teacup and I wanted to make the design fantastical in some way so the tail fit the bill!

 I do like the yellow background- its very bright and happy - Im not sure if I like it better than the green- but ill have a think before I get it printed.

What my site looks like at the moment...

So far my Tumblr site looks like this http://jesshislopdesign.tumblr.com/, I am personally very proud of what I have managed so far - Im also trying to restrain myself because I want to keep it simple and relatively clean.

 I am struck by how colourful my work seems to be- and Im glad I made my banner equally bright because I am really happy with how it looks against my portfolio. I am a little bit unsure as to whether I should keep the comments beneath each post- although I think its a little odd to look at some of the designs without an explanation. I also want to maybe figure out how to make each of the images the same size - I like the randomness now but I think it would probably look more professional if they were all the same size, having said this users would then have to click the glasses icon on the image to see the full thing and I think that could get annoying especially if being viewed on a mobile.

I like how each of pictures fill the frame on the responsive version - it makes it easy for users to scroll down and view without having to zoom, but I my banner does look comparatively tiny - in order to try and rectify this I plan to delve into the code and see if I can adjust the percentage on that element- I don't have a lot of hope - but I want to try just to make it look a bit more balanced. I also want to play around with fonts for the top nav bar and colours to see what works best stylistically.

Banner Design for My Portfolio Site...

After toying with a few simple typographical iterations of my name (and finding them too frustratingly bland) I opted to create a banner out of something random- initially my first idea was to try out making my name out of lights (like the lights made for Latest TV) but I quickly scrapped it because it looked odd. Ideally in my head I wanted my site to use a white background- since I think it works as a nicer offset to the bold colours of my work. In order to do this my banner would have to work without a background colour.

My first official design had the right idea but I thought my name looked a little too obscure on the clothes line- so I opted to develop it further. The design below is very much inspired by Briony May Smith's header but I wanted to make something thinner (since thin banners are common within Flikr, Facebook and other potentially promotional sites). Im really proud of my design I like the madness to the concept, although I am still unsure as to whether my little bird is too realistic in comparison to the rest of the design and whether this even matters because its such a small element. Thus far very happy with it - depending on how the project goes depends on how much I tweak the design!

Tumblr Themes Research...

I plan on using tumblr to make my portfolio site (since coding is not my forte) but before doing so I began by researching various responsive Tumblr themes.
A quick google search led me to this site : http://themeguide.tumblr.com/ which had a great deal of responsive tumblr themes to choose from. It was important for me to choose something that could be heavily customised to suit my style which is one of the factors I used to narrow down my theme choice.
I felt that these three in particular were my best options and played around with each of them during the initial creation of my site.

 Although from a photographical perspective the lack of space between the image creates an even moodboard, I found that when putting in any of my illustrations it looked too bold (there was too much going on, a lot of my images need breathing space) from a design perspective if I decide to explore other illustrative styles then this theme is very limiting since I think in order for it to work well there needs to be a cohesive style.

 I liked the Belle theme above- but I had issues trying to customise it- it didn't seem to like the image that I placed at the top of the heading and it required a permanent avatar which I didnt like since I wanted to create a banner at the top and then have my work with nothing to interfere with the overall look.

In the end I settled on the simplest of the themes that I could find- it allowed me to incorporate my own header- control the amount of columns and fully customise to my preference - overall happy so far.

Promotional Sites (Illustrators/Animators/Designers)

Before designing my own promotional portfolio site I looked into what other illustrators and designers produced to advertise their work. Personally I want to make something very simple to allow for my work to speak for itself but with enough of my personality to give it a Jess flair.

Abigail Halpins page is the one of the portfolio sites I really liked, the sites front page - its a lovely illustration that displays both name and style and I like the idea of using that as a sort of intro into there rest of the work.The work itself has been placed within a simple grid shape (when work is clicked on the square expands to show the whole pice) which I think works incredibly well - easy to understand navigation occupies the side of the page which separates the work into various categories. An additional hand drawn name remains the constant logo within the design which is once again a personalised element but it also ensures that both name and style are iterated clearly.

Again Sophie Joyce has manipulated a similar grid system although her heading is not as illustrative as some of the other sites researched.

Im not sure if this detracts from the site because theres a lot of colour and line evident within her work and the name has been hand-drawn it just feels a little bland in comparison to the others I have looked at.

 Briony May Smith's work is one of my favourites to look at- I really love her style which is both playful and dark. Her site in particular is one that I aim to aspire to, I like the illustrative heading (unlike Halpins page there is no opening page its all on one) the simple grid to display her work and the top line navigation keeps the site professional and fully keeps her work centre stage. Each image when clicked on takes it to a new page where the full comic/story can be read.
I definitely plan on using a bold heading and grid layout- since its a common element to the portfolio sites I have looked at. I am actually very excited about making a top banner header - which is essentially going to be my own personal branding.

Creating a Website- Using Tumbler- Self Promotional Portfolio Site...

Since I am not amazingly good at web, and since we are not required to hand code our own sites I have opted to use Tumblr to create my own promotional site with all my work on. Its simple to use, theres a variety of different themes that I can use and if all else fails I know the tiniest amount of code which can help me make small adjustments. My Tumblr site is below- Im mostly going to link a lot of work from both Behance and Youtube which means that all of my work is under a creative commons licence.
http://jesshislopdesign.tumblr.com/

I want to keep my site very simple- at the moment I am visualising a simple grid system with one big header image as an opening into my site- although I will have to investigate some more themes to make sure this is feasible.

Self Promotion Design Number 1..!

So this is what I have come up with as my first design so far- Ive drawn myself as best as I am able (I think it looks a bit like me so I am happy) sitting on a teapot. I noticed that when drawing the teapot that it reminded me of an elephant trunk so I decided to turn the whole teapot into an elephant - adding the shape of an ear, feet and an eye. I opted to put something really random on the teapot because the whole design has a very random quality fish were the first things that came to mind hense the fish pattern. I knew that the design needed something else and since theres not enough room I thought that adding biscuits would be a nice alternative. Biscuits would also enable me to bring in some additional colours I was pretty limited in my colour palette so adding in some soft yellows and browns helped to provide contrast. I opted to add some brightly coloured triangles into the steam just to make the top half of the design more interesting and after much deliberation opted to use the same font that I had used in the previous branding experiments. I then exported the whole image as a png and put it into photoshop to play around with textures and shadow, I think that leaving it clean is my best option and I definitely like how the drop shadow integrates depth. Overall I am very happy with what I have produced!

 The image above is one with a grain and altered contrast, I think that its too much with the grain and I prefer it without. Below are some different colour iterations for the background but I think the blue contrasts best.

Drawing People Inspiration for Personal Branding...

Since I knew that I wanted to include a representation of myself I researched how others drew people and characters and narrowed down the results to this mood board- I have my own style that I want to utilise of course but I was kinda lacking in inspiration so looking up other characters was helpful in ensuring that I made something fun and playful. I particularly liked how cheeks are emphasised with shape and how faces can be rounded and elongated to make a more quirky representation.

The business cards below are just some extras that I came across when looking into other artists self promotion, mostly the colours caught my attention but I like how the designer has included a variety of designs in a range of colours to make it more interesting.

Self Promotion Inspiration Research...

I looked into a lot of other illustrators and designers to see how they promoted themselves. Since most of the people I looked at seemed to be drawers/ illustrators most of their self promotion included their illustrated work.  I like the idea of filling the front of a business card or postcard with some of my work (or something new to really advertise myself) since I think illustration is really my realm.

I have noticed that on a lot of business cards the illustrators tend to draw themselves or include some kind of representational character- If I made more than one business card design then this would provide a nice link between designs, but I also think that it makes it more personal.

I really like the style of the card above the drawing itself is quirky and the level of detail really draws the eye. The red and blue colours used on the face really help to give it a slightly more abstract idea and I like the shapes included on the cheeks which gives it a nice jaunty quirk.

Different designs with a common theme is a possible idea since it provides variety as well as working together coherently. 

I have since had the idea to draw myself coming out of a teapot (since I have  a great love of tea) and It was suggested by my mother to include a teabag with each postcard that I make- possibly with a little note like have a cup of tea and look up my work (obviously in a more lyrical manner) which I think will help peopleremember me and my work more.