603 - Statement of intent - Self Initiated

For this module I need to establish what areas of work my practice is best suited to. I also need to have a more cohesive portfolio. Experimenting is important but with each new piece of work I do at the minute I try a completely new way of working and I'd like to be more productive by using a successful piece of work and building on it.

I will take on the Penguin Student Design Awards - Owen Jones, Establishment book looks like it will suit my work best as I like the tone and subject matter.

D&AD adidas brief - this brief is open and interesting. Illustration for sport brands is something I'd love to work on. The brief is more for advertising and design but it will be fun and good practice for future briefs.

I want to strengthen my editorial work as a lot of editorial articles capture my interest as I'm easily distracted and I can create work quickly in response. I will select a few articles from editorials from editorials like New Scientist, The Guardian, New York Post, Vice etc and make responses.

Personal work
I think personal work is going to be very important for me. It's going to be vital in showing potential clients looking at my portfolio who I am as an illustrator and encourage like minded people to want to collaborate with me in the future. Making self initiated briefs with a focused discipline area such as editorial will help me realise what kind of work I want to make.

At the moment I'm trying to create work for various areas of the industry and spreading myself a bit thin so I want 603 to be at first an exploration of various briefs, as above, and begin to realise where I can thrive as creative practitioner.

I will continue to push my process forward using hand-drawn based work and digital colouring as I feel I am able to express my technical and informative skills as a practitioner best this way and this allows me to avoid relying on collage when I struggle to initially tackle a brief using hand-drawn methods. Hand-drawn only work will also make more visual sense cohesively for my portfolio. 

603 - 7 x 7

I had this piece along with another two as a series accepted for the Zero Zero Seven brief and featured on The City Talking site with a little bio about my work. It was nice getting a bit of coverage and recognition outside of the university bubble. They spelt my name wrong so I had them correct that. No point having publicity if they spell your name wrong!

http://www.thecitytalking.com/simon-sellers/ 

Final outcomes

Final outcomes

I'm really pleased with these final pieces. This is the direction I've been wanting to be heading for a long time and feel I'm starting to create work I truly believe in. After spending hours messing around with digital painting I found a subtle way of maximising the use of a minimal amount of colour.

These were both resolved late in the module but I'm pleased I managed to produce something I can take into level 6 next year that excites me and makes me want to make lots more work in this natural style using my drawings. Using collage has given the drawings a boldness and strength they lacked on their own.  

This one is fairly messy and unrefined because the methods were still fairly new to me but it was a significant breakthrough in using digital paint and collage in a looser and more expressive way.

Studio Brief 1: Live Brief

The chance to do a book cover for Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time was a great opportunity.

My initial sketches and ideas lacked personality and were typical scientific illustrations seen in old text books and it was surprising how easy it is to fall into the trap of clichés and coming up with what you might think someone imagines a science based book would look like.

After a group crit and tutor lecturer advice, a more figurative image seemed to communicate better for the audience the brief wanted to appeal to. My first attempt was a good idea but wasn't executed well enough technically. The colours were too bland and the retro, screen print, 1960s feel I wanted wasn't relevant to the audience I needed to reach.

I used the brief to use Illustrator more and try create a figure using vectors based on my drawings. I was happy with the outcome but feel the focus was entirely on the figure without much thought given to the type and rest of the cover as a whole. It was striking yet perhaps too bare. Again I had technical problems with the file size and the whole process was time consuming.

I didn't want to restrict myself too much with digital drawing and use digital collage which was refreshing. It allowed for a more emotional and universal image that captures imagination about some of the profound subjects in the book without being too alienating to non science audiences.
I was inspired by the sci-fi film Interstella(2014) to start taking a serious interest in science and took inspiration from the use of corn fields seen in the film, people who are intrigued by the deeper philosophical meanings of astrology often have their interest sparked by film and popular culture.

This collage is by far the most successful in communicating a story and emotional response with the kind of audience Penguin wanted to capture. The design also fills the space well and the colours are warm and inviting in order to not put people off who may feel science is a cold and emotionless subject.

I've been trying to use drawing more this year and almost tried to forget about collage. Using collage again made me realise how much I love it and how I need to continue pushing collage just as much as the drawing. Collage allowed me to create a powerful composition that captures imagination, using the focal point couple to hint at a story. I'm also pleased with the small details that give added depth to the story such as the fragments breaking away from the couple which really works well in showing time as a physical form, visibly eroding the couple.

I didn't get to submit this design in time which is a shame but after the death of Hawking was announced I felt compelled to come back to the brief and make something worthy as a tribute to him and feel it was from the heart.

Goals for 504

Goals for 504


Better time keeping/management
503 seemed to be rushed towards the end and I want to manage my time better and have work ready for scheduled tutorials and group crits. I found with 503 I had done far less physical work for early group crits and therefore had no proper feedback.
Make more mistakes
Continuing to use varied methods and processes is still really important for 504. This is the time to use programs and techniques that I haven't fully explored even if it means finding out I don't want to use them ever again.

In summary my main goal is to be in a better place with my overall practice. I want to use this module as a way of experimenting more and being bolder in my work. I'm certain I haven't found a way of working that has fully clicked into place yet and want to exhaust other ways of working so I can at the very least know more about what I don't like and learn from any mistakes to take into next year with a confident idea of what kind of work it is I want to be making and what I'm making it for.

Summative Project Report

Overall I have enjoyed making work for the module. I feel my ability to produce professional level work is much more consistent. I've developed new methods of working by adapting to problems  faced with each brief and feels like a definite progression in my all round craft which is really pleasing. 
The Zine brief I reverted back to a collage making process which felt lazy and led to my decision to embrace drawing for the next brief and the determination to have faith in trusting myself to create good work based more on drawing than collage.



I was pleased with the final outcomes for Idea Pictures. I was able to create interesting outcomes with; layering and collaging the drawings. At this point of the module I was convinced this was the way I needed to work but although the editorials were aesthetically and conceptually successful I needed my work to have more power, variation and flexibility. It was nice recognition to have two of the editorials selected for the university NEST magazine.




Learning After Effects was a new skill gained and I intend to master it more as it makes sense to play around with the software and use the technicians' advice while at university. I've improved my knowledge of Illustrator too and it became a vital part of Printed Pictures, using Wacom tablets to trace my drawings.



For the early stages of the module I certainly felt a bit lost in having a quick and fluid way of approaching briefs but as it's progressed my process has become more streamlined and efficient because of the way I've brought all the hand drawn and digital tools together.


Whilst happy with the outcomes for the briefs I want to eradicate my tendency to be underproductive for the first half of each brief. I've confidence in my ability to produce a good final outcome but need to resolve ideas much quicker for a more professional approach. 

I struggled keeping up with the work load and not spending enough time in the studio in the early stages of each brief I'm sure was the reason for this. I avoided some group crits and studio sessions as I felt I could get more work done at home but after spending more time in the studio environment for the last parts of the Printed Pictures and Moving Pictures briefs I now see how the studio can be a quiet place to work, focuses me and being around my peers stimulates a better work ethic. Experimenting in the print room is something I need to do more of as using printed textures is something I definitely want to become a feature of all future work.

I enjoy the image making process as a whole much more now I can see overall improvement in my standard of work. Last year I'd often feel relief at just managing to produce a final outcome and tended to enjoy the visual journal drawing process more as a sort of procrastination but now feel excited about the journey as a whole and enjoy the challenges more because of the new skills and techniques I've gained over this module. I hope to take this more complete approach into the new modules.

Project Proposals for Studio Briefs 2 & 3