Andy J. Smith

Andy’s work caught my eye because I love his playful, earthy watercolour illustrations. They have a charming, but somewhat familiar look about them, reminiscent of 90’s Nickelodeon cartoons that make them look that more more alive and like they’re animating on the page. This isn’t surprising considering Smith’s past as an animator.

I only wish I could use watercolour as good as him, but I love how he uses the respective paper for such work, and the texture from that is still very present in his final pieces.

I do like how lively, and animated his characters and environments look, but don’t really feel they’d lend to my particular story, Snow-White and Rose-Red, which is a feminine-driven, and very innocent story about enchantment, and exploration. His illustrations have a very rigid quality about them, which is somewhat goofy, and perhaps male in aesthetic, and although it is comedic and my narrative has such elements, I don’t feel it would work in harmony with it to the extent I want.

The colours he uses are very vibrant and rich, but I think for my narrative I’d like to go for something subtler and more intricate - watercolour, however, will be utilised and experimented with.

Chocolate Skulls Gone Nuts via etsy

Loving the look of these little snacks that look at things a different way. Ever wanted to embrace your inner Hannibal Lecter? Look no further.

Not sure if I’d eat them myself, as much as I love me some (read: copious amounts of) chocolate. The whole concept of them is what caught my eye since I love things that have a twist on them or are a bit unorthodox. These would make great Halloween party treats for guests and would definitely get people talking.

As if no one made the correlation before with the shape of brains and walnuts?!

seantoweyprocon3:

This animator is Edd Gould, known on Youtube and Newgrounds as ‘EddsWorld’.

I found out this morning that he had been battling cancer for the past 6 years. Although, he had beat it before - his Leukemia came back with a vengance. Sadly, he passed away on the morning of the 25th. 

I’m saddened by this because, I know I don’t know him personally, but I’m just sad that the abundance of animations he made will be no more - rest assured, the rest of his videos will go up and up in views and ratings.

As his friends stated in the last few minutes of the video…

“EddsWorld will keep on spinning” :)

This is really sad. I loved some of the collaborations he did with Weebl.

lpearsondesign:

designcloud:

The Comic Sans Project

The Comic Sans Project shows us how would the world look like if Comic Sans wasn’t hated into oblivion. See famous brands re-imagined with this non-popular type face. (via stock logos)

Can’t believe I’ve even considered reblogging this…..I think I STILL hate it.

I’ve got to say, I do think this makes Comic Sans somewhat more bearable, but I think that’s just the fact that it’s being used here on already established brands with solid, memorable visual cues and colours used. It’s still disgusting (oh lord that Louis one) but it kinda works for the Maccies and Coke ones, since they already have obnoxious, monopolising and powerful visuals anyway it works with how vile the typeface is itself.

Finally got my presentationa and dissertation out of the way. Decided to do them on Coca-Cola, and brands as a whole because of how we buy into them, why we buy into them, but also, how they can get branding wrong when it seems like such an easy thing to get right at the end of the day.

I’m confident in my essay and the question I chose, but after handing it in I do feel like I could’ve spent a lot more time looking into the field in question, since it is such a complicated and wide area to scope out - I should’ve looked at more varied sources, and mediums, such as journals as well.

Robert’s Copyright + Ethics talk - 5th March 2012

This was a really intriguing talk to go to, because as an aspiring rookie illustrator this kind of thing daunts and confuses me, but it was a very enlightening lecture that opened my eyes about all the boring legal sides of design and working as a professional.

Copyright is the rights to reproduce a certain image for an agreed set of time - contracts are involved with the image’s creator, and what the person owning the copyright will be able to do with the said image. At the end of the day, you still own the right to the image, but they can reproduce it to their will.

Some things can complicate the whole process, one of these is collage.

Collage often utilises previously produced and printed materials and manipulating that in other ways. Things such as patterns or likenesses can create legal problems, and that is why the medium is particularly risky when producing and publishing artwork without the proper rights to the images within. Styles, are another area which is often touchy in regards to copyrighting. Things such as handwriting often cause problems.

People can often get miscredited or not at all, which can breach copyright, and you can not give copyright by a verbal agreement - it must be done by means of a written contract.

The talk also touched upon the fact as a professional artist you should avoid work for hire, for example, Hallmark, who will use your artwork via a contract, but essentially own the copyrights to the image and get the credit for it.

It’s all about control and reputation. An image may be bought for use in a stock image library, and used for things beyond your control, and reflect badly on you as a professional. For example, if an image of yours was bought from a stock library and used by a political party you didn’t support, or a controversial visual campaign you did  not agree with.

Blogging, just like here on tumblr, is also somewhat breaching copyright laws by snatching an image and using it as if it were your own. I myself have encountered with other people I follow on sites like tumblr posting people’s artwork, merely as a form of sharing and flaunting someone’s work, but they may not have added a clear link to their portfolio, or mentioned that they are the source artist. This is even more complicated when said artists are from overseas where language barriers and usability are an issue. I also follow artists on tumblr who have created very successful, and popular images of fictional characters and the like, which have been recreated on t-shirts abroad, and not only breach their rights, but also the mass corporations whose character likenesses are being used by traders.

One example of copyright in the media are the twitter campaign fronted by the Associated of Illustrators in regards to an image by Hidden Aloise, reproduced and edited for production on bags sold at craft giant Paperchase. The store said they had bought the print from an successful London design company, goes to show no one is safe from plagiarising, even the big companies are at it.

Something worth noting was that anything, regardless of aesthetic or perceived quality, can be copyrighted.

Overall, copyright and the like are a very complicated and serious issue for us designers, but nontheless, the talk really opened my eyes and intrigued me, because I know my eyes would be turning red had someone used an image of mine, but that’s what agents are for, right?

I have been working on a postcard design with Salford based design company CUCKOO. I was called in for an appointment in January and had a quick chat with two lovely employees there who made me feel very welcome with it being my first ever design job, as it were. What they were looking for was a postcard design for their monthly postcard they send out to affiliates and other designers, which portrayed what they’d been working on as of late. Cuckoo said they’d successfully completed a project with an organisation called “Keep Britain Biking”, in terms of helping them set up and kickstart their business with a set of branding as well as helping signal their online identity. This was what they wanted to portray on the postcard and I was assigned the job. They wanted to express the “maze” element of social media, and getting around it and out of it successfully. A biker character would be navigating around the maze, with social media icons representing sites such as facebook, or twitter, as well as a “workshop” representing Cuckoo itself. My final image seen above is how I interpreted the brief, with a successful biker character boosting out of the Cuckoo workshop after a successful meeting perhaps, and out of the maze around him. Around the maze are several popular icons that represent things such as facebook, email, Youtube, and Google, as well as the trademark Twitter bird!. I was really proud of this design and thought it worked really well in black and white (I was anxious to add colour). I was however told it did not follow their postcard size (oops), as theirs is more unorthodox and slimline, so I edited it, and managed to fit all the necessary details in one image as per the guidelines and this can be seen below. I enjoyed working with Cuckoo, and this brief was great fun, even though I was kind of rushed for it with the dissertation and my presentation racking my mind, but I’d love to do more like this in the future and possibly work with Cuckoo again.

I have been working on a postcard design with Salford based design company CUCKOO.

I was called in for an appointment in January and had a quick chat with two lovely employees there who made me feel very welcome with it being my first ever design job, as it were.

What they were looking for was a postcard design for their monthly postcard they send out to affiliates and other designers, which portrayed what they’d been working on as of late.

Cuckoo said they’d successfully completed a project with an organisation called “Keep Britain Biking”, in terms of helping them set up and kickstart their business with a set of branding as well as helping signal their online identity. This was what they wanted to portray on the postcard and I was assigned the job.

They wanted to express the “maze” element of social media, and getting around it and out of it successfully. A biker character would be navigating around the maze, with social media icons representing sites such as facebook, or twitter, as well as a “workshop” representing Cuckoo itself.

My final image seen above is how I interpreted the brief, with a successful biker character boosting out of the Cuckoo workshop after a successful meeting perhaps, and out of the maze around him.

Around the maze are several popular icons that represent things such as facebook, email, Youtube, and Google, as well as the trademark Twitter bird!.

I was really proud of this design and thought it worked really well in black and white (I was anxious to add colour).

I was however told it did not follow their postcard size (oops), as theirs is more unorthodox and slimline, so I edited it, and managed to fit all the necessary details in one image as per the guidelines and this can be seen below.

I enjoyed working with Cuckoo, and this brief was great fun, even though I was kind of rushed for it with the dissertation and my presentation racking my mind, but I’d love to do more like this in the future and possibly work with Cuckoo again.

What to look for in an agent - Robert’s Talk 20th Feb 2012

Another really great talk from Robert about a grey area I have NO idea where to start in.

When choosing an agent it’s really important to get someone you know is going to do their job and represent you to their fullest and this helped highlight where to start when choosing the right one.

Some may have trial periods while representing a fresh out of university designer, while illustrators may require prior experience or a solid portfolio of work to gain an agent full-time.

Also what’s worth noting is are you getting an agent who knows what you’re good at and will represent you where you need to be represented? There’s no use in applying to be repped by an agent that specialises in publishing for educational purposes when you want to break into advertising. It’s a simple point but I’m sure people get it wrong while rushing to get out there and prove themselves, after all an agent’s job is to represent you and get your name out there as soon as possible of course, and you want to be sure you’re getting the best chance and the full attention you feel you deserve.

Will they be devoting as much time as you’re paying them and handle everything you want to be taken care of? Usually, bigger agencies accomodating many clients, with lots of agents will take care of things such as taking briefs, negotiating fees, and attending meetings on your behalf

In the talk I also understood how they would promote me as an artist. Some may rely on mailing out, or use of a website and advertising rather than presenting to clients face to face. Some choose the former to save money, while others prefer creating strong client bonds so it depends on what the artist themselves thinks will get them out there more, and how assertive they feel on their own.

Some agencies have established links abroad, and may ask if you wish to be represented in other countries, which can be incredibly beneficial, boosting reach and the amount of opportunities.

In regards to payment, some have fixed rats while others measure depending on the client and budgets. Most charge 25%-33% per job but as an artist would not be required to pay any other fees or commissions.

Also worth noting is promotional costs, which are unavoidable with or without an agent, it is worth asking what the policy for this is beforehand. In regards to payment for the job itself, some will pay as soon as possible, while others may pay within the following 90 days.

And finally, it is important to feel comfortable, and trusting of your client. A great rapport, is not essential but it can help, and they should always be able to inspire you with confidence that they are going to do their best to keep you and your career afloat and beyond that

Getting an agent is something I have considered (while somewhat expensive, I guess), so this talk really helped me with some questions I had about the whole thing. I don’t know when I’ll be able to afford an agent of my own, but I now know how!

InDesign refresher w/ Jules

Today I went to Jules’ class on Indesign to get me reacquainted with the software. I won’t type up all my notes, but I did learn some new things.

Indesign is an Adobe program, used for print purposes. Layouts, pagination, books, leaflets - anything with pages and designed to be printed as such, Indesign will assist you with. It’s predecessor is Quark, another similar program.

There are many options to suit to your needs when printing documents such as bleed, which is there to help avoid error with a guillotine. Things such as placeholder text also help while realising what books could look like, without mindlessly tapping into a keyboard to fill where the text would be.

There are some differences between it and other Adobe programs, one of them being the direct selection tool, an alternate pointer tool for selecting an image ‘within’ its frame. Images also appear in lower res than their usual resolution to save RAM and avoid performance issues. This can be changed any time by going to View > Display Performance. The W key can also be used

It is also good practice to keep things in one folder, especially images, since they will not be embdedded into the document, and if viewed externally, may not keep the image intact.

A master page is also used to keep continuity throughout the document and replicate styles automatically for example if it was a catalogue with a certain background image or colour, it would apply that to each new page instead of doing this manually each time.

There was also mention of things such as text wrap, columns, and grids, which are all on my notes

I basically already knew my way around InDesign, after using it extensively in college, but it’d still been a few years since I’d actually used it, and I was admittedly, a tad rusty. Jules’ Indesign refresher class was great and it got me back up to speed with the programme since I hadn’t used it for years since, especially after specialising in Illustration, and using digital means even less.

Right now

Feeling incredibly…lost. Demotivated is probably a better word, I just feel negative about everything lately, and just as I started getting into a pretty good work ethic before Christmas, a few weeks holiday comes around and I lose all motivation and vigor I had before…

I think it’s just the amount of pressure I have on me these next few weeks, there’s a lot I need to do, but I always pull through in the end, I’m just having one of those days (or weeks…)

Got to decide on what I want to do for my NMP. I honestly haven’t thought this through at all, but I do want it to be something special that showcases my talents in the best way possible.

I also need to rework my dissertation quite a bit, and my presentation side of that module is in just a few days. Just been briefed on a project I’m doing with Cuckoo as well and that needs to be done in the next two weeks, as well as keeping up with classes and anything else life throws at me until then. I really need a timetable or something to get out of this artist’s block.

Self Employment - Robert’s Talk 6th Feb 2012

In this talk we learnt about things such as tax and expenses, which were things I never even considered or knew about in terms of working as a professional artist.

Income tax is something which every working person is faced with. The start of the tax year is April 6th. The site for handling such things is the hmrc, and self employed artists would follow schedule D.

“Schedule D is the part of the 1988 tax act that refers to income for those who are self employed or in partnership”

Something I was really intrigued about during the talk was that of “Allowable expenses”, which I had no idea about before. This is in regards to things which are costly while working as an independent professional, but can be claimed back.

Things such as the use of a personal home office or studio rental, agent fees, secretarial fees, professional magazine subscriptions, Travel, Telephoning, Messasging, and internet, printing, posting and packaging„ professional software and the use of licensed press cuttings, illustrations or stock photographs are all things that can be claimed back while working independently.

Even things such as theatre tickets, TV costs and rentals, book charges (and late fees), bank charges/interest, educational courses, reference books and DVD’s, accountancy, book keeping, research assistance, and repairs or maintenance all fall under allowable expenses. These are the ones that really shocked me - who knew you could claim back money for theatre visits you needed to “inspire” you?

There was also mention of professional means of travel, like a personal vehicle used while working. A vehicle licensed under such purposes MUST have your logo or name on it, and you can’t claim from a client for travel expenses unless you follow the usual route - for example, you cannot take advantage of your travel costs being paid or mis-use it.

Overall, this was a really interesting talk, and opened my eyes to something I had absolutely NO idea about, I thought it was a hard knock life for independent designers, but seems the heat isn’t so bad. Well, it’s still bad, but you know what I mean.

Really need to get my gallery fully functioning on my website, and get it hosted.

Never had a site before that was hosted on my own accord, I think it’s meant to be relatively easy to set up though.

I need my lightbox working though but I had no luck incorporating it so might have to get a bit of help with that. If I’m going to start getting my name out there these coming months, I’m going to want a working site after all, as opposed to forwarding people to this crumby blog.

Just sayin’

Just sayin’

Went in for a chat today at Cuckoo Design in Salford. It was a quaint little building which I’ve walked past many-a-time but never noticed, which is pretty shocking. I got there much earlier than expected but it seemed to be cool with the guys there I was meeting with. I’ve got to design one of Cuckoo’s monthly postcards which they send out to other designers and clients that document what’s going on at the company at the moment, or what projects they’ve just been working on. Cuckoo just finished a project with Get Britain Biking, and launching their social media and marketing connections onto sites like facebook and twitter, and the theme of connections, and the whole maze of social media is something that Cuckoo wants me to interpret into the design, as well as obviously, bikes. I’m still waiting on the details to be sent out to me as well as a quick sketch which better describes what they’re looking for, but I was told that I have a lot of freedom with it to see what I think’s best. I took some examples of previous work with me and the guys there seemed to really enjoy my Hansel and Gretel narrative I did a few months ago, which made me feel a little better. I was pretty miffed when I didn’t leave enough time to experiment with colour on the book but they seemed to like it how it was. I’d love to do a full colour narrative as part of my FMP, with lush, rich, bright colours. I like to think of myself as a fairly confident person but today I was so…nervous. When I have to talk about things in similar environments or under pressure I tend to not gasp for breaths and just keep talking and talking and talking which makes me feel so on edge. Need to work on that, especially if I’ve chosen the Presentation option for my negotiated theory.

Went in for a chat today at Cuckoo Design in Salford. It was a quaint little building which I’ve walked past many-a-time but never noticed, which is pretty shocking. I got there much earlier than expected but it seemed to be cool with the guys there I was meeting with.

I’ve got to design one of Cuckoo’s monthly postcards which they send out to other designers and clients that document what’s going on at the company at the moment, or what projects they’ve just been working on. Cuckoo just finished a project with Get Britain Biking, and launching their social media and marketing connections onto sites like facebook and twitter, and the theme of connections, and the whole maze of social media is something that Cuckoo wants me to interpret into the design, as well as obviously, bikes.

I’m still waiting on the details to be sent out to me as well as a quick sketch which better describes what they’re looking for, but I was told that I have a lot of freedom with it to see what I think’s best.

I took some examples of previous work with me and the guys there seemed to really enjoy my Hansel and Gretel narrative I did a few months ago, which made me feel a little better. I was pretty miffed when I didn’t leave enough time to experiment with colour on the book but they seemed to like it how it was. I’d love to do a full colour narrative as part of my FMP, with lush, rich, bright colours.

I like to think of myself as a fairly confident person but today I was so…nervous. When I have to talk about things in similar environments or under pressure I tend to not gasp for breaths and just keep talking and talking and talking which makes me feel so on edge. Need to work on that, especially if I’ve chosen the Presentation option for my negotiated theory.

One of the sites that influenced my web design. Scott Balmer’s homepage features simple, clean, and readable links in the header navigation bar, as well as his logo, which stands out amongst the plain but classic white background. An exampel of his work in the form of a character also appears to draw the viewer in, something I opted for with my design, using an old Dragon character design.

One of the sites that influenced my web design.

Scott Balmer’s homepage features simple, clean, and readable links in the header navigation bar, as well as his logo, which stands out amongst the plain but classic white background.

An exampel of his work in the form of a character also appears to draw the viewer in, something I opted for with my design, using an old Dragon character design.