Professional Practice Presentation- planning

At this point in the year I think it's good to start re-capping everything that I've learnt so far and getting down key points that I want to discuss in my presentation. I actually feel that I have learnt a great deal and have a lot to talk about:

Printed Pictures- 

• Understanding that traditional print processes, shape and colour are where my strengths lie and where I want to take my future practice. 
• My outcomes are strongest through extensive trial and error, development and process

Responsive- 

• Roald Dahl: learnt a great deal about composition, character design, colour & technical screen printing. 
• Batsford: learnt a lot about zine production and the importance of creating low budget outcomes, as well as learning more a bout photoshop and digital techniques. 
• Secret 12": learnt a lot about producing fast pace work and using paint and more analogue processes. 
• Collab: learnt a lot about team work and the importance of time management and communication. Also found confidence in talking about my own work and talking to other practitioners from different backgrounds. 
• Overall presentation of myself thorugh design board.

Applied Illustration- 

• Understanding what contexts I want my illustrations to be applied to with focus on product and print for fashion and homewares. 
• Learnt the processes of fabric screen printing and using digital techniques to aid my design.

COP-

• Struggled with synthesising my practice to academic research but understand the importance of this process.
• Found research into COP3 to be much more beneficial, chosen to research and discuss the importance of abstraction in regards to communication. Finding something I'm excited about to be better and will help me understand more about my practice.

Creative Report-

• Really significant part of understanding my practice and where I want to take it.
• Importance of social media and self promotion. 
• Thinking about setting up a studio, further education and teaching.

Social Media Presence & Print Fairs-

• Life's a pitch proposal
• Print stuff print fair
• Instagram, big cartel, tumblr- wanting to make a website and online portfolio more professional.
• Pinterest is important
• Followers don't mean everything

Creative Report: conversation starters

I've jotted down some questions for Laura Slater as conversation starters, I want the conversation to flow and feel casual, but these are just ideas as starting points:

• How did setting up your studio come about?
• How long after graduating did that happen? and what did you do in-between?
• How did your John Lewis Kin collaboration come about?
• What have you found to be the best way of promoting your work and name?
• How does your pricing and contracts come about?
• Does not living in London ever effect your work?
• Do you feel teaching has influenced your practice?
• After graduating what was the best way to keep yourself motivated to keep working?
• Whats the best piece of advice given to you? and what is your advice to anyone starting out on their own?

After gauging how the conversation goes I may enquire about an internship/ emailing over my work for her to look at. I'm not going to take any work with me as I feel this may be presumptuous. But it's definitely something that could develop my practice.

Life's a Pitch: presentation planning

As a group we've decided that it'll be best for our current practices to put forward a collective to approach and sell work at art markets as we each have individual prints and products. We have also decided that on top of this proposal we are also going to put forward a monthly zine under our collective name. We all feel this is a really appropriate context for our individual practices as we are not only interested in prints but creating zines and products such as ceramics, cross-stitch, fabric printing, weaving, knit & crochet. I personally am pushing my practice towards printed fabrics, fashion and homeware, therefore feel this would be a really great platform for my work.

Individually we each push our work through process a lot and capitalise on playfulness and colour. Therefore we have named ourselves The Beanbag Collective as it relates heavily to fun and nostalgia. 

The zine plays with our existing work and new creations each under a set colour palette for each month, with focus to begin with on primary colours to really communicate our exciting work. Here are some mock-up front cover designs I have produced featuring my own work as well as Charlotte Bowie's, Annie Merrick's and Keiran Blakey's. The main focus behind the zine is to get our names out there and should be produced at a low cost making the product much more available as it is a cheaper product and universal to lots of audiences.

 

Creative Report: Laura Slater

Yay I heard back from Laura, the follow up email worked which I'm really happy about as I'm excited to learn more about printed textiles as a whole and her individual practice. Just need to brainstorm some questions now as we've arranged to meet next friday. 

I've decided not to get in touch with Jo Goodberry for now as I feel her work isn't that in touch with where I want to take my practice. For now I don't feel that it's too vital for my learning to be in touch with her. However this is something I can pursue over the summer break. 

Creative Report: drafting a message to Jo Goodberry

As I know Jo Goodberry on a personal level and have her phone number I think in order to get the best response I should send her a text message to arrange talking to her about her work and the industry.

Hi Jo. Just a quick message asking if we could possibly meet up during the Easter break to have a little chat about your work and advice in regards to agencies. I'm home from the 12th-17th April if you're free for ten minutes or so at any point that would be great. Thanks Jo. Ruby. 

I think this message is a good balance of professional and friendly and I like the fact that I have put forward dates that she can choose from which should make arranging to meet much easier. Now I just need to think of some important questions to ask Jo about the more professional side to being an illustrator as I don't take too much inspiration from her process as I feel my work is aimed much more at product & packaging with traditional print methods as a key part in my practice.

Creative Report: back up plan

Unfortunately I haven't heard back from Laura Slater which is really disappointing, however I'm going to try a follow up email to the same email address and to her contact email on her website which is different so maybe she checks that one more regularly? I'm also going to try emailing from my personal email which may look less like spam.

Hi Laura,

I'm Ruby Shelton a second year illustration student at Leeds College of Art. This is just a follow up email from the one I sent previously enquiring if it is at all possible to have a quick chat with you about your process and the printed textile industry.

I'm available in the college everyday so please let me know if you have a spare ten minutes. 

Thanks again,

Ruby Shelton. 

J O     G O O D B E R R Y 

As well as getting in contact with Laura Slater, as a back up plan I am going to contact Jo Goodberry a family friend and editorial illustrator. If I don't hear back from Laura it'll be really good to talk to someone who is in the industry and can advise me on pricing, copyrights, agencies and much more even though Jo's line of work isn't necessarily specific to my own. If I do hear back from Laura that'll be great, I think it'll still be prudent for me to talk to Jo anyway and just have an even more rounded understanding of illustration in the outside world.

Daily Mail Recipe- Asparagus 

Daily Mail Recipe- Linguine

Life's a Pitch: collective research

D A Y     J O B     C O L L E C T I V E:

A B O U T:

Day Job Studio collaborates on publications, murals, workshops, moving image and installations. We work with a range of media including print, textiles, ceramics, and moving image, all with an ethos of playfulness and a desire to encourage abstract thinking.

Day Job was founded in 2012 by 10 graduates from Camberwell College of Art: Joshua Checkley, Daniel Clarke, Grace Helmer, Katie Johnston, Charlene Man, Charlotte Mei, Ella McLean, Peter Rhodes, Victoria Willmott and Aaron ZIggy.

We have worked on a variety of projects for clients such as Somerset House, the V&A, Vitamin Water, Peckham Space, The Loop and Camberwell Press.

M Y    T H O U G H T S:

I think this collective is really exciting, they host exhibitions showing their individual work surrounded by a theme as well as creating zines and work for live briefs that incorporate the collective works together. I think working in a collective allows strength in numbers and starting out after university as a group means that as individuals you can be more confident in approaching gallery spaces and possible employers knowing that x many heads are better than one.

I think I would like to pitch a collective to create work for an exhibition as it means individually we can show already existing work and take the pressure off possibly creating a new work for a publication as this part of the year is so busy with other deadlines. It'll just be a case of finding an over arching theme that brings my work and other peoples work together.

Creative Report: drafting an email to Laura Slater

Hi Laura,

I'm a second year illustration student at LCA and was hoping to have a short chat with you about your work and setting up your studio after graduating. I'm really interested to understand more about the printed textile industry as I feel my process definitely overlaps the two fields and I think your work is really lovely. 

I'm in the College everyday if you have a spare ten minutes to talk at any point that would be great.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Ruby Shelton

I've drafted this email to send to Laura Slater, I thought about sending a card or letter however I understand from my friends on the printed textile course that she's a busy person so I think this is a good place to start. I'm going to send this email to her LCA email address as I know it will definitely reach her and feel much more casual. I just now need to come up with some questions to ask Laura that I really want to know about.

Life's a Pitch: presentation notes

From Patrick's presentation about presentations I made some key notes that I want to take into consideration for my long PPP presentation, Life's a Pitch & Collab pitch:

• Dress Appropriately
• Introduce yourself, smile & say hello
• Use pauses & speak clearly
• Practice timing
• Rehearse!!!!!!
• Distill down information to whats important
• Make eye contact
• Be expressive, animate your points
• Use humour, be relatable to the audience
• Use prompts but don't rely on a script
• Build in variety, don't let the audience get bored
• Speak with high energy, show you're excited about what you're talking about
• Take some risks?
• Prepare, prepare, prepare
• Don't rush
• Keep slides visually exciting, not too much writing/ academic information
• Show vulnerability, don't be cocky
• Don't take yourself too seriously
• Bring water
• Use WE as opposed to I
• Simple, Engaging, Relevant