PPP Summative Position Statement

I am an Illustrator and Designer with a focus on football and sport design, I want to work as a part of a team as I feel I work strongest as part of a team. I produce very highly commercial work for advertising, I really enjoy the conceptual development of projects and I want to be part of the team that comes up with the idea for the projects not just creating the final resolutions. I also feel that my work is strongest when I've developed the concept of the project myself as I'm much more invested in the outcome.

At the moment I'm looking at design internships at Umbro and Rapha, I've been in contact with Ultan and Alex and I'm hopeful of being at one of these companies over the summer. Over the summer I'll be looking to build up my portfolio to include more design work, This will include reformatting my website and my portfolio so that there is more explanations for the projects as the projects I'm working on at the moment are not just images there's a lot of conceptual work behind the projects and I really want to show this on the website and in my portfolio. I've already started applying for jobs and internships and I will carry this on but if this does not yield any results in the next year I'm going to look at graphic design and art direction Masters courses. My ideal job to get in the short term would be a design job at a company like Rapha, Umbro, Nike or Adidas in the long run I want to be working as the art director for Nike or Adidas.

PPP Evaluation

Overall my progress in PPP this year has been really good and has been whats kept pushing my practice forwards when I was otherwise starting to go off the rails a bit in COP and after Thought Bubble, PPP is the module that's given me confidence going forward after leaving uni. I've been in contact with a lot of people that have really helped me define my practice such as Phil Dickinson and Ultan Coyle who have both been so helpful with my final major project and I've tried to keep in contact with the professionals I've been meeting and chatting with. I struggled at the start of the year getting in touch with people in the comic book industry as they don't seem to reply to emails but i still managed to get in touch with a few, But PPP became really rewarding when I redirected my practice towards sports and design work and I think being informed by the professionals I've spoken to has really enhanced my work and given it an extra level of legitimacy.

Over the year I worked on two collaborations one with a writer at the start of the year that worked really well but eventually petered out due to a change in direction for my practice. The second collaboration was with graphic designer Matthew Brewer which was really rewarding and has lead to in my opinion some of my most successful briefs.

The biggest moment of the year for me has to have been Thought Bubble as although it was an awful experience for me I feel like it really got me to think about what I actually want from the course and what I want to do in the future and has lead me down this sports design path. To this end my practice is in a transitional period where I'm starting to build a sports design and illustration portfolio but at the moment that's not ready but hopefully will be starting to take shape in the next couple of weeks for the final show.

Some of the parts of PPP I've struggled with this year are putting together my portfolio and website, this generally comes down to my practice changing towards the end of the year and I didn't have any where near enough work to fill a portfolio or website so what I have now is an intermediary and as soon as I've built up my portfolio and after 603 submission I'll reformat both to be a project based format rather than single images.

I've really enjoyed PPP this year as I feel that I've been much more consistent with it this year than I have previously which has lead to me actually making strides in the industry that I want to be a part of and making meaningful connections that will form a support base for me when I leave the course.

PPP Presentation

With my presentation I decided to keep it really simple in regards to the design of the slides I just used full images and no type as I was speaking through all the slides and didn't feel it was relevant to reiterate it on screen, I decided to just talk through my year and the big transition that my work has gone through and my plans for the future.

PPP Creative Presence

PPP Portfolio

I've had a big problem putting my portfolio together in that I don't have much resolved work at the moment that represents my practice due to this I see this portfolio as a placeholder until the end of 503 as I have multiple projects entering their final stages and these project swill replace some of the older work in my portfolio. Also in the future I'll be looking to change the format so that the work will be on boards rather than just images as a lot of my new work is more concept based and will need to be explained where as the work I have at the moment is pretty self explanatory.

PPP - Promo Pack

At this point I didn't feel that it was relevant to make myself a promo pack to send out to people though I've got a creative presence, I'm looking to make a pack towards the time of the final show as due to the way this year has gone for me my practice has ended up in a really transitional period where I'm still starting to wrestle with what my practice is specifically about, So I feel it'll be better to wait until my FMP is over and I'm at a more resolved spot I'll make a promo pack with that work in it as I feel that is so much more relevant to my practice than anything I currently have.

PPP - Stuart McArthur

Phil Dickinson has put me in touch with Stuart McArthur who is the design director for Nike apparel so he's in charge of Football Kit design as part of this. He told me to get in touch whenever but I'm still waiting for a reply, I'm going to persevere though as I feel Stuart will be a really valuable person to talk to in regards to my practice and FMP.

PPP The Modern Game

I've been getting in touch with the website the Modern Game in regards to getting them to feature mine and Matt's collaborative work and also potentially my big kahuna project when it's finished. The Modern Game is a site that I've followed for a while and I'm really interested in a lot of the stuff that they publish and it would be good publicity.

PPP Julian Wade - Below Sea Level

I've been in contact with Julian Wade who was the creative director for 180 a design studio in Amsterdam and previously worked for Nike as a senior designer. He told me to send over my project and he'll reply when he gets a chance, it'll be good to get another experienced opinion on my work for the Nike project and he's previously worked with Adidas a lot.

PPP Alex Walters Meeting

I've agreed to meet Alex next weekend in Leeds, he's going to bring some examples of his work up which will be really good to see, I'm going to try and get some work experience with Umbro over the summer I think which would be really good as they're only based in Manchester.

PPP Updated Creative CV

I updated my old creative CV to be more relevant for applying to sports design jobs, I updated the Skills and Interests. I also updated the Cv with my newer branding.

PPP Branded Invoice

As I don't intend on being a freelance illustrator I didn't aim my branding and promo pack at freelance illustration the majority of it is aimed at getting a job, but I though it would be important to have an invoice just in case I do take on any illustration jobs.

PPP Slightly Updated Business Cards

I spoke to Matt Brewer about my business cards just to get a second opinion of my business cards and the only thing he suggested was to change the spacing of the type on the back of my card. The card on the left is the new one and I feel it works a lot better than the design on the right as it keeps the text comfortably between that middle strip.

PPP Website

My website is finally up and running I decided to keep the design very minimal so the focus is completely on the work. As my portfolio grows I'll be looking to change the format slightly so that images such as the Kanye West ones and the Football programs will be grouped together on a separate page. I've had a couple of problems that I need to fix, one is that I can't work out how to add to the Alli poster and the program covers that they're collaborative projects without adding the text to all the images and secondly there's a big gap at the bottom of my website that I can't seem to get rid off in between the images and the copy write and email address.

PPP Updated Business Cards

I updated my business cards slightly, I'm really happy with how they're turning out. I think this could be really interesting if I could get some gloss highlights on the white parts of the design but I think this would just make the cards very expensive.

PPP Studios and Jobs Research

Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing more research into studios or places that I can work for when I leave uni. Lot's of the realistic job I can find are internships to begin with but it could be a good way in to a studio that I want to work for.

Super Hero Cheesecake Internship

Superhero Cheesecake are an Amsterdam based, they are currently looking for design interns to start in June. I think they'd be a great company to work for, they worked with Adidas on the launch of the Ace and the X last year, they seem to have a really diverse range of companies they work with.

http://superherocheesecake.com/

I love Dust Mid-weight Designer

I Love Dust are a company that I've wanted to work for for a long time, I love their work and they're currently hiring a mid weight designer. Though I think I'm way to under qualified for this job I'm still going to apply for this job.

http://www.ilovedust.com/

Shotopop

Even though on their website Shotopop aren't advertising that they have any job openings I'm going to send them an email with my portfolio once I've put together my PDF portfolio as I feel my work really suits their style.

http://www.shotopop.com/

Design Studio

Design Studio just did the rebrand for the Premier League which will come in to effect next year which is how I became aware of them I really like their work. I'm going to send over my portfolio as they take on interns but don't advertise that on their website as a position.

https://www.wearedesignstudio.com/

Adidas Graphic Design Internship

Adidas are taking on graphic design interns for 6 months in Germany this is a dream job I'd love to work for Adidas, the deadline for this is over a month away so I'll be able to wait until my Nike project is finished so I'll have more sport oriented stuff in my portfolio when I send it over.

https://jobs.adidas-group.com/adidas/job//321006901/?feedid=138901

PPP Website Designs

Over the last couple of weeks I've been putting together my website, I'm really struggling with work to put on though as I don't really have any work that i'm 100% happy with anymore.

PPP Business Card Design

This is my preliminary design for my business cards, I'm going to change the text on the back of the card before getting them printed. I think the logo works really well on the card though.

PPP Logo Adjustments

I changed the central colour of the badge based on peer feedback, It works slightly better now. I also think the back and white design works well as well and well work on letterheads and design boards. I also think that the central part of the design could work well in isolation as a smaller version of the logo.

PPP New Logo

This is my new logo, I feel there are still a few more tweaks to be made but it's much more appropriate to my practice now than my previous logo was. I used a couple of elements that I produced for my big kahuna project such as the stars and the ball but I changed the context so I feel they work as part of this piece well. I still need to check wether the design will work in black and white as well though as it's important it does for things such as letterheads.

PPP Logo Research

I've decided that I want to redo my logo as I feel my previous one wasn't fitting for my work anymore. I still want to try and keep the football logo aesthetic that I had with my previous logos, this is some research I did into logo design and football badge design.

Follow Joe's board Logo Research on Pinterest.

PPP Alex Walters - Umbro Meeting

I carried on speaking to Alex after my last blog post and we agreed that when he was next in Leeds we were going to meet up and he was going to show me some of the projects that he's working on at Umbro.

PPP Nerea Palacios - Supporters Pro

I recently emailed Nerea Palacios who does lots of football kit designs and is joint owner of the company Supporters Pro who make football shirts based around lots of different concepts. I followed her work for a while and some of the designs are really interesting, I asked about how she comes up with concepts for the kits and how she mocks up her designs. The reply was brief but helpful, especially the link to the kit template.

http://supporters.pro/
https://www.behance.net/nereapalacios

PPP Phil Dickinson - Some Ideas 2nd Meeting

Whilst I was in London to meet Andy Walker I went back to meet Phil Dickinson again, he helped me give my Big Kanhuna project a real grounding and ethical message which has really helped the project and moved my project away from being an internal document to being something much more and I'm thinking so much bigger with my project now than I was before. He also said I could email him anytime to get some help and feedback with my projects which is so helpful.

PPP Andy Walker - Nike Creative Director

I went back to London on Friday as I had the opportunity to meet with Andy Walker who is the creative director for Nike, It was such a great opportunity to go and visit the Nike office and he talked me through some of the projects he'd been working on and he helped me out with my big kahuna project. I got the opportunity to see some of the upcoming kits for the European championships in the summer before they're released which was really exciting. The visit really solidified that I want to work for Nike, it's my dream job wether it would be working on the kits or as a designer both would be great I feel I'd probably be better as a designer to begin with.

PPP Phil Dickinson - Some Ideas

The last person I visited whilst I was in London was Phil Dickinson who put me in touch with the last two people I met, He's been so helpful putting me in touch with people and helping me plan my big kahuna project. He used to work for Nike as their creative director for football and now has his own studio called Some Ideas which I visited whilst in London, I found it really interesting and he's really helped me solidify my brief for my big kahuna. We spoke about the work he did for Nike and what he does now and the clients he works for, he showed me the publications he produced for Nike and we spoke about the campaigns he came up with for Nike and the greater messages behind them.

PPP Matt Jones - Accept and Proceed

After visiting Ultan I went on to visit Matt Jones who is the creative director for Accept and Proceed, It was really interesting meeting him and seeing the work they do at Accept and Proceed. I really like the way they visualise data which whilst on initial look most of there design work just looks like a pretty piece of work once you analyse the details you realise that everything is there for a reason and has a specific thing it represents. We also spoke about the work they do for Nike Football and it was really interesting to hear about their experience working on these projects, They showed me some internal publications that they made for Nike that sets the tone for the design direction for that season, I found these publications really interesting and have started to inform what I intend to produce for extended practice.

PPP Ultan Coyle - Rapha

Yesterday I travelled down to London to meet a few studios, The first place I visited was Rapha which is a cycling brand with exceptional branding and design. I spoke to Ultan Coyle at Rapha who is the Art Director, he was really great to chat to and showed me a lot of stuff he's worked on he also showed me how he proposes and presents work which was really interesting and has given em an idea of how to present my ideas in a more professional context. We also spoke a lot about the research he does going into designing a new jersey especially when trying to evoke a certain era.

PPP Alex Walters - Umbro

Over the last week I had a quick chat with Alex Walters an LCA Alumni who is the head of graphic design for Umbro. Umbro is a great brand with a lot of history when it comes to football and sport design which is something I definitely want to eventually go into, so talking to Alex was great because it gave me an idea of the projects he works on and what he thinks makes a succesful football shirt design.

PPP AOI Lecture

Last week someone from the Association of Illustrators came in to speak to us about pricing work and working as an illustrator. Whilst I thought the talk was interesting an very informative, The problem is that I don't want to work as a freelance illustrator when I leave uni I'd much rather be working as part of a company as a designer or something along those lines, I still want to work within the creative fields but I feel my work is much stronger when I work in a studio or as part of a collaboration therefore going freelance would not suit me well. As the talk was so heavily leant towards freelance illustration it felt slightly irrelevant to me.

PPP Adidas Job

I've applied for the job at Adidas, now I've just got to cross my fingers and wait for them to reply hopefully I won't be waiting too long to hear either way. I doubt I'll get the job but I thought it was too good an opportunity to pass up and it's worth a go.

PPP Creative CV and Cover Letter

For the Adidas job I created a new CV and wrote a cover letter for my application, I found it really hard to write the cover letter as I wanted to come across as genuine and I think there's a very fine line between coming across as genuine and being cheesy. I'm happy with what I ended up with in the end and I got a couple of people to check it over before I sent it.

PPP Job Research

Over the last two weeks I've started to focus my research around what I want to do next year, I've decided to wait at least a year before considering a masters as I feel I'm just doing it because I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I've decided that I want to work as part of a studio I don't feel that going freelance is the best decision for me, ideally I 'd work as part of a studio such as I Love Dust or Shotopop, I'm going to try and arrange a visit to their studios next time I visit London, I've also been looking at jobs working for Nike and Adidas which tie into my most recent project. The jobs I've been looking at are as a production artist for Nike and assistant hardware designer of football for Adidas, both these jobs are really exciting and would give me the opportunity to move to a new country and work as part of an international studio. I think the Adidas job is more interesting to me as I want to at some point go into football kit design and I feel this would be a great first step.

PPP Potential Work Opurtunity

http://www.leedsinspired.co.uk/blog/leeds-inspired-and-liff30-call-artists

I found this the other day which I'm going to apply for I think this could be a great opportunity for a live brief which I think my portfolio is sorely missing at the moment. This was also the impetus for me to update my tumblr as I didn't have anything to send in before. Hopefully this will also wash away the bad taste of my last live brief which was an absolute nightmare.

PPP Tumblr Update

Over the past week I've been updating my tumblr as I didn't really have an active online portfolio as I keep putting of making a website because I don't feel that I really have any work strong enough to put up. I do think it's important to be able to have something to send people though. I still need to update the branding to be in line with my current business cards and logo.

http://joeshielsillustration.tumblr.com/

PPP Tomer Hanuka

http://thanuka.com/

Over the last couple of days I've been looking at Tomer Hanuka's work after seeing his New Yorker cover, I'm a huge fan of his work and the way he uses colour. Most importantly ideally in the future I'd love to work for the same type of clients that he does, I really like the editorial illustrations he does and before I looked at his work I kind of disregarded editorial as being something that I'd never do but now I see it as a very viable option. At some point I'm going to try and get in contact with him.

PPP Daily Instagram Posting

After keeping up the daily Instagram posting over the course of the first semester I took some time of over christmas, At the start of the year it was really helpful to get me started on work and force me to produce large amounts of work but over Christmas I realised how detrimental it had become to my practice I was forcing myself to churn out sub par work just so I'd have something to post each day and I wasn't producing work that I was really proud of so I've decided to hold off on daily posting though I'm still going to try and post regularly hopefully the posts will be of a much higher quality.

PPP Travelling Man Exhibition 2

I've been in contact with travelling man about wether they'd be interested in having another exhibition of work there and they seemed really keen, this time though I'd be looking to work with a smaller group of people and each person will have more than one piece. I've asked 7 people on my course wether they'd be interested and they all seemed keen, The only problem is there are people that would have wanted to work with again but due to wanting to work with a smaller group I wasn't able to ask them to be part of the exhibition there were other people I wanted to ask as well but I didn't think there work would suit the exhibition as well as others stylistically. The theme of the show is going to be alternate movie posters which will work very well with the products that the shop sells.

PPP Another Potential Collaboration

I've recently been speaking to Norwich based fine artist Hannah Johnston who make really great graphic shape based work that focuses on cinema and space within the sets. I think this would be a really great collaboration and would give me another opportunity to work with someone outside of the confines of Leeds College of Art.

PPP Linked in

I've set up Linked in and started using it in the last couple of weeks, I'm not going to lie I'm not a big fan. I can't really work out how to use it effectively, as soon as I try to add anyone that I see as someone I'd want to contact it won't let me because I don't already know them. I think I've got a big problem not having a website that I can link to this with my work on it, I just don't have work that I'm proud of enough to put on an outward facing website.  

PPP Jared Muralt

I found this awesome illustrator on Instagram yesterday, I love his work. I'd seen a couple of pieces before but didn't know who they were by, The line work on his work is insane it reminds me of Moebius but slightly more detailed. I'm going to try and get in touch with him but I know he's swiss so I wan't to find out if he speaks english before emailing him.

https://www.behance.net/jaredillustrations
https://www.instagram.com/jaredmuralt/

PPP Jason Latour Southern Bastards

I've been looking at Jason Latour's art quite a lot lately and I love the way he works with colour in his covers for Southern Bastards his comic series with Jason Aaron, I think the way he works is with a mid tone then line work over the top in black and then adds white highlights over that before finally overlaying colour but I'm not sure so I'm going to try and get in touch with him to ask about his process.

PPP James Jean Sketchbook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVG3XhvLmH4

I found this awesome video where James Jean goes through a moleskine sketchbook that he's had for a couple of years, it's so inspiring to see the way in which he uses his sketchbook and makes me kind of sad that I hardly ever work in a sketchbook anymore unless it's for roughs. It's just jaw dropping the quality of the work in his sketchbook and how consistent it is.

PPP Animated Logo

Here's an animated version of my logo that I made to be the first thing you see when you open my website.

PPP Website Development

I've started developing a website for my illustration work, heres a couple of screenshots though at the moment I'm struggling to find work to go on my website as I don't have many pieces that I'm really happy with. I might wait a month or two whilst I produce more finished work such as the Marvel Posters I'm doing for a 603 brief.

PPP Frank Oriti

When I was in Edinburgh I got a chance to go to the national portrait gallery and got to see this piece by Frank Oriti in person, a lot of the work was really impressive but this piece really stood out to me the detail is phenomenal. It's a shame his website is so awfully designed though. 

http://frankoritijr.com/home.html

PPP Edinburgh Illustration Ma

Today I was in Edinburgh looking at the Ma illustration course and I was really impressed by the course and the city, I've decided that I definitely want to apply there. I'd have to look at getting funding through a scholarship though as in Scotland I can't get a loan. I really liked the ethos of the course and it seemed very communal and studio based which was one of the problems I had with the LCA Ma course in that it didn't have any studios that you could work in which turned me off the course as if I remain in Leeds I'd more than likely be living on my own and I don't want to have to work at home.

Also I had a look around the undergraduate Illustration course studios and I was really inspired by some of the work there it was really impressive and I just wanted to get back to Leeds and start drawing again especially after the Thought Bubble project which didn't really allow for much creativity I'm ready to really start creating my own work.

PPP Thought Bubble Matt Taylor

Over the weekend I also had a chance to follow up on my email conversation with Matt Taylor, which was great he was really friendly and took the time to chat with me. I spoke to him about his experiences at I Love Dust a company that I've previously looked at as a potential company that I could do work experience for but he told me that he had a bad experience there and that I should look at other companies. ( I also found out that Olly Moss used to work there.) He told me to look at a company called Shotopop and to email him and he'll send me some more details. Also he followed me on Instagram after our chat which was nice little ego boost.

PPP Thought Bubble 2015

Over the weekend I had a stall at Thought Bubble, It was a great opportunity for networking and meeting professionals. I'm going to speak about my experiences of having a table on my studio practice blog as it was one of my briefs but on this I'm going to talk about who I met and what they said.

Over the course of the weekend I managed to make a couple of really good contacts that I'm going to get in touch with when I've set up my website and portfolio. The first person I'm going to try and get in touch with is Andrew James the Doctor Who editor for Titan Comics, I spoke to the guys at the Titan table and they seemed really friendly and enthusiastic about my work so I gave them two prints and a business card to pass along to the editor I also got his email so I can send a follow up email.

I also spoke to Justin Brookhart who is the vice president of operations at Mondo which is one of the companies that I've always wanted to work for, He said that if I sent over my portfolio he pass it along to the art director which is great. I then spoke to James Park from Black Dragon Press who work with a similar type of artist and make similar products to Mondo and they gave me an email to send forward a portfolio.

The last company I spoke to was Vice Press, James Henshaw who is the co founder was really friendly and asked me to send over a portfolio. From my research after I've found out that Vice press are relatively new company and this could be a really great opportunity to get in with them as they're starting up and become a bigger company.

After Thought Bubble it's become very clear to me that I need to organise and put a portfolio online, I've been planning on doing this for a while but I've been faffing about with it, I think now though I have a real impetus to do it so that I can get in touch with all these great companies as soon as possible this is my next project for PPP.

PPP Comic Pitch

Today me and a writer I've been collaborating with have submitted a pitch for our comic series to Vertigo so we can hopefully get a session with their executive editor Shelley Bond. This would be a great opportunity for us, I'm not 100% happy with what we sent off but I feel now that we've got to this deadline and after next weekend when Thought Bubble is over we'll have the opportunity to assess where we are and decide wether to redo the pages.

PPP Contacting Matt Taylor

A couple of weeks ago I spoke to Matt Taylor via email and asked him about what he thought made a great comic cover, He gave me some good advice, and gave me the names of a couple of people to look at the majority of which I already know about but there was a few I didn't. Also I'll make sure I go and introduce myself at Thought bubble and talk to him about his experiences as an illustrator.

He also gave me some feedback on a cover I'd done which was a real help as I'd been struggling with how to incorporate the text into my cover.

PPP Project Management

For the last couple of weeks I've been project manager for the Thought Bubble x Leeds College of Art exhibition at Travelling man, I identified this as an opportunity to work on my leadership skills as this was something that I had identified I wanted to do in my statement of intent for the year. To say the last couple of weeks has been stressful is an understatement.

We decided straight away as a group that we were not going to have a theme for the content we instead decided to have a colour theme that tied together all our work, we decided this because I looked at who was part of the exhibition and felt that it would be unfair and unnecessary to force everyone to work on something that wouldn't suit their style. This was agreed and we began working on our A2 prints. I made a Facebook group for everyone so that I could send out updates as the project went on, This was a mistake. It quickly became clear that this was not the best way to communicate and sometimes people don't read the posts and wonder why they don't know what's happening. The other problem I had was Travelling Man not replying to emails which made it very hard to organise anything but I think in the end we've all produced something we can all be really proud of.

I produced this a3 poster as there was problem with one person getting their work printed. I worked in collaboration with Mathew Brewer which was a really good pre cursor for our collaborative brief that we'll be doing early next year. I found it really hard to write the text at the bottom but I feel that it captures the ethos of our course well.

Hanging went well I went down with Tom and Rosie W, I think 3 people was the best because it meant that there wasn't too many people faffing about in the background. I've also identified a great opportunity, They are looking to expand there zine and independent comic section so if I have any zines left after Thought Bubble I'll take them down and ask them to put them on sale.

PPP Raised Online Profile

Over the next year I want to raise my online profile and post more work online than I previously have over the next year I aim to post a new piece of work everyday on Instagram, I've been doing it over the last week and I've found it a challenge to churn out work everyday but I think it will help me really push my practice forward and it goes hand in hand with my Football body of work brief for OUIL 603.

https://instagram.com/joe_shiels/

PPP Macbeth Posters

I really love these posters for the new Macbeth film, I think they really capture the atmosphere of the film. I really like the colour scheme of the poster on the left and it reminds me of Paolo Rivera's Lord of the Rings poster. I really like the cinematography in the trailer as well something about the way the film's been shot makes each scene look like a classic painting, the only problem with the trailer is the horrible typography I'm not sure why they changed it form what they used on the posters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqHhKuCQmoY

PPP Summary

Over the next couple of months I think I really need to focus on getting my portfolio and promo material ready so by the time Thought Bubble comes around I'll be able to give business cards out and they'll have links to my online portfolio. Around this time I'll also be looking to contact studios where I can do work experience in the new year after Dissertations are handed in I'm going to hold off on this for now though as I don't feel I have a body of work strong enough to send out to studios. I definitely think I need to focus my promotional on digital media as it's unrealistic that I'll be sending out physical packs regularly.

PPP Studio to Contact

I've found this studio called I Love Dust, They're work is really cool and blends a lot of graphic design elements in with the illustration work. I'd love to do work experience with them at some point so after I've organised my portfolio and website I'm going to try and get in contact with them. I've struggled to find concrete details on where they are actually based at the moment I think they have studios in Brighton, Portsmouth and London but i'm not 100% sure. I think there work is what i really want to be doing especially all the work they do with nike.

http://ilovedust.com/
https://www.behance.net/ilovedust
http://ilovedust-studio.tumblr.com/

PPP Potential Collaboration

I've identified my first potential collaboration for next year, I'm going to work with Matthew Brewer on Ba (Hons) Graphic Design course. We've decided we're going to do a project based around football, the current ideas we have are based around fantasy football tips or something based around the LCA football team. Theres no reason if this brief goes well to not work together again as we get along well hopefully the work will turn out well. If we did a project based on the LCA football team it could be interesting to try and get a few more of the team involved.

PPP Leeds College of Art MA

I went to the MA talk the other day, It was really interesting and there were lots of parts of the course that sounded really interesting but there were a couple of points that didn't sound right for me such as the course not really having any studios and only being in uni one day a week. I'm not sure if this is what all MA courses are like or not so I need to do more research into it but this is definitely an option for next year.

PPP Plans for After Uni

I've started to think about what I'm going to do after we graduate and at this point I think I want to do a masters course but I need to start looking at where is best and wether I can get extra finding for it even though from next year you can get an additional student loan for it. I'm going to start looking for open days.

PPP Project Idea

I think for one of my projects next year I want to do a painted mural piece, This is a natural extension of my work from last year where I was starting to really push the scale. I need to think about where I could do this as it's not going to be easy to find a wall to paint this on, Though before I do this project I think I need to do some smaller scale paintings but this where I could include painted type. If I wanted to do this at college I could potentially do something around the LCA football team which would probably make uni more open to letting me paint on one of there walls. Another option is to get a huge canvas, the only problem would be finding somewhere where I could keep it as we don't have our own studio spaces, I'd have to look into going down to fine art and working down there.

PPP Swallows and Amazons Work Experience

I've gone back to do more work experience with the art team at Swallows and Amazons over the last two weeks we've spent a lot of time creating props such as signs and props for a general store. I've found out that I really enjoy doing sign painting theres something very satisfying about it. I need to start thinking about how I could introduce this into my practice, I also really want to have another go at painting next year but  more in the style of my digital work. I can't post what I've made until the film is released.

PPP Marc Aspinall Email

I emailed Marc Aspinall to ask about his practice and how he merges the traditional and digital aspects of his work, and though he replied he said that he didn't want disclose how he makes his work as he feels it's unique to him which is fair enough, disappointing but fair enough.

PPP Football Illustration Research

This was my research into football illustration and I used these to start looking at where the illustrators begin to put there work and where my work would fit.

Follow Joe's board Football Illustration on Pinterest.

PPP Logo Redesign

Here is my redesigned logo, I think this is much better than my previous logo as the colour scheme is much more muted and much easier to reproduce. I've also created a black version of the logo that can be used on any background that isn't white. 

PPP Project Idea

For one of my projects next year I'd really like to do a rebrand for a football team, This would include redesigning the logo and kit and then making promotional material for the team. I think this could be a really good project to collaborate on with a graphic designer as parts of the project would be very graphics based. As this is a fairly small brief it could be interesting to try and produce one of these a month.

PPP Football Design Research

I've been doing research into design work that is based around football and sports, I think next year I want to start to push the graphics side of my work as I think this is one of the strengths of my illustration work and I really want to push this to the forefront of my practice.

Follow Joe's board Football Design on Pinterest.

PPP Plans for Next Year

I've decided next year that I really want to move away from pop culture work which I think is really important for my practice at this point, Over the summer I've been attempting to make comics but I've found that I really hate it which is disappointing as I thought this was where I wanted to go with my practice. This leaves me with the question where do I want to go with my practice and where do I fit in the broader illustration practice, I think I've decided at this point that next year I want to focus on football illustration as when I've looked back over the last two years the work that I really enjoyed producing was my Gerrard and Zlatan pieces. I've started to research where my work could appear and started to look at illustrators whose work associates itself with them.

PPP Square Space and Updated Branding

I've been building my website on Square Space recently but my free trial has run out and at the moment I don't have the money to pay for the first year so for one of my projects next year I might use it to design and finalise my website and hopefully at that point I'll have more work that I'm happy with. A square space site would be a lot better than Tumblr as I think it will look much more professional.

This is a provisional banner I did for my Tumblr, I think for business cards what I'm going to do is emboss the letters and then have the illustration over the top on black paper. 

PPP Marc Aspinall

I found this really great interview with Marc Aspinall where he talks about his work and his process, I've liked his work for a while but I think the work he's producing at the moment is some of the best illustration work I've ever seen. I didn't realise that he worked digitally I still can't quite get my head around his process and how he gets the traditional feel to his work whilst still producing his work almost entirely digital, I'm going to email him and ask about his process as I feel like this could really help my work and stop it from feeling to digital which is the problem I've been having recently.

I also think the context of his work is similar to where I see myself after uni, The editorial work he does is similar to what I want to do especially the work he does for the New Yorker based on tv shows. Also this piece is my favourite piece of illustration ever, I love the use of colour and composition and I think it captures an atmosphere for the piece perfectly.

http://eviltender.com/2014/10/13/interview-gentleman-sophisticate-marc-aspinalls-illustrations/

http://www.thetreehousepress.co.uk/

PPP Potential Projects

I've had two ideas for potential ideas for projects next year, One is to make a playlist on Apple Music each month and to make an album cover for it, this is sort of an extension of my last project for OUIL 505 but there is slightly more freedom and I wouldn't be reimagining someone else's album they'd be slightly more unique. The reason I'd use Apple Music is because it is slightly more focused on user created playlists and they can easily be edited and you can add unique album covers to them.

The second idea was to do editorial illustrations for football new doing an illustration each week, there was two avenues I could take with this idea one was to do very general football new and do it every Monday but the second idea was to do it for Liverpool and do an illustration for each game they play with an image and the score. They already have something similar to this though I feel I could do a much better job than what they have at the moment.

PPP The Connection One Sheet

I found this poster the other day and it instantly caught my eye, I love the use of the colours of the French flag and uses the gradient technique I used for my American Gods posters in 504. I could even incorporate this into some of my work for COP 3 with the Wars of the Roses. I also think the composition is really strong.

PPP Visual Identity

I think over the summer I want to rethink my visual identity as I think the work I created for the last module wasn't my best work and I think I can probably come up with something more appropriate to my practice in the long run. Plus the majority of my promo stuff will need to be ready for thought bubble and I don't think the football stuff really fits the same audience as thought bubble.

PPP Swallows and Amazons Work Experience

I recently did 2 days work experience in the art department for the remake of Swallows and Amazons, and I'm hopefully going to go and do a couple more days in July when the production comes back to Leeds. I spent most of my time creating props for two scenes, one is set in a post office so I was creating envelopes that looked like they were from the 1930's and the second scene was set in a spy's room that has lots of spy letters all over the walls and I was writing the spy letters. It was a really interesting experience and it made me appreciate the amount of time that gets put into creating even the smallest props on the film. Though I did enjoy my time in the art department it isn't really something I can see myself doing after uni but it could be a part time job that supports my practice. One of the really beneficial aspects of the work experience was getting to meet some practitioners and talking to them about what they did after uni and how they became involved in working on the film, it really struck me at this point that it definitely comes down to who you know over what you know as most of the people working there had been hired through there connection to someone on the team. Here are some examples of what I made...

PPP Evaluation

Over the course of this module I feel that I've learnt a lot about my practice, more specifically the administrative and business side of being and illustrator. I also think that I've become more aware of how I fit in the wider world as a practitioner.

The branding side of this module has been really interesting and I've learnt that I can spend hours tinkering with business cards, I'm really happy with my promo pack at this point but I recognise that it's going to be something that evolves with me as a practitioner and while my pack is relevant to me now in a years time it could be completely irrelevant, this leads to the need for constant evaluation of who and where I am as an illustrator.

One of the major problems I've had with this module is getting things printed due to the print room being full and my slot not being long enough, Though I've put all the mockups on my blog which will give people a good idea of what i'm aiming for. I managed to get my creative cv printed which is the center piece of my promo pack and is all that will be sent out as it includes all my information and is more economical, I also designed an envelope to send it out in.

I've also been looking at illustrators which are relevant to my practice and how they got there careers started which has given me a good idea of where to start. At this point I've also decided that I think I need to try and get represented by an illustration agency as I've had trouble with the business side of PPP. I've gradually started getting my work out into the world over the course of this year and next year that's definitely something that I need to carry on with and try and push further.

The Life's a Pitch brief was definitely a learning experience and was very informative though I don't think I'll be starting a company in the style that we did in the brief, but a lot of the skills are transferable to our general practice especially with our presentation where we looked at producing a zine and looked at print runs. I think our group worked well together there wasn't any major issues apart from a few lapses in communication but they were easily sorted in our group meetings.

Overall I think this module has been really useful and has definitely given me a much better idea of where I should be heading with my practice and contextualised it much more than ever before. I feel like I have a much better plan of where I'm going though I'm nowhere near the finished article yet and there's still a lot more work ahead but that's what third year is for. Over the summer there's definitely going to be more of a focus on preparing my portfolio and starting to get in contact with people that I've been researching for this module.

PPP Updated Presentation

I've updated my presentation to include a slide about my promo pack just to tie in what I've learnt in PPP more.

PPP Business Cards Mock Up

Due to not being able to get my business cards printed I've made some professional looking mockups, I think these give a good idea of what I was going for with these designs. I might update my Presentation to include a slide about my promo pack this is feedback I got from showing my presentation to my peers and getting there feedback.

PPP Final Presentation

PPP Promo Pack

This is my pack it includes my...
- Logo
- Business Card (Front and Back)
- Creative CV A2 (Front and Back)
- Sketchbook
- Notebook
- Postcard (Front and Back)
- Tumblr
- Instagram
- T-shirt (Black and White)
- Envelope

PPP Presentation Notes

Slide - 1
Introduction, introduce myself to the first years.

Slide - 2
This is where I was at the end of last year, this was the piece that I thought was my best piece... lots of problems with it colours, composition, text all bad.

Slide - 3
this is the equivalent this year the last piece I produced, a lot better but still room for improvement. colour simpler and shows a lot more personality which is something I've been working on this year.

Slide - 4
This is What I'v learnt in the Last year about my process...

Slide - 5
Screen Printing as a process has been something that has really caught my interest thought I'd hate it. Definitely something I want to do again especially for though bubble. Don't want to base my practice around it as it won't be easy to access after uni though then I will probably get someone else to do it for me.

Slide - 6
I've done really well of the Little White Lies competitions, London exhibition and being featured on the Little White Lies website which has been great exposure. Good because this is a company I'd like to work for in the future.

Slide - 7
Research has become a much more integral part of my practice, I usually spend the majority of the start of my projects making notes and developing a good knowledge base before starting work which makes the final pieces much easier to produce.

Slide - 8
which leads me on to notebooks which I tend to use much more now as sketchbooks aren't really part of my practice anymore I tend to make notes then work almost exclusively digitally due to time restrictions which is something I want to move away from now I have more time.

Slide - 9
What i need to do next year...

Slide - 10
Simplify my projects, not everything needs to be some ridiculous large scale piece, almost every final piece I've done this year has been A1. I want to produce work that can been done quicker and isn't as labour intensive as it starts to pile up. especially for thought bubble people won't buy A1 prints as they'll take up a lot of wall space.

Slide - 11
I definitely need to have a much bigger focus on my Essay for next year as this year there was too many stops and starts. I need to make sure my Cop essay and practical outcomes need to be closer especially during planning as it became disjointed this year.

Slide - 12
What I want to do next year...

Slide - 13
I want to move away from doing purely pop culture work as it's starting to become boring and predictable and I'm becoming far too reliant on reference images.

Slide - 14
This leads on to doing some comics which is something i've wanted to do for the last two years but I just haven't had time, I want to create something that's my own and is not someone else's characters. When I first started this course all I wanted to do was work for Marvel Comics or DC Comics but now I'm not really interested in that kind of stuff I'm much more interested in creator owned comics and Poster work

Slide - 15
Painting was something I did this year that I really enjoyed but it turned out a bit rubbish and took much too long, I really enjoyed it as a process though and think with a bit more planning it could be successful especially if I stop trying to blend the shades and work with flat shades much closer to the way I work digitally it could lead to some really interesting pieces.

Slide - 16
I really want to try and push composition in my work as I think at this point I'm playing it too safely and the images I'm making are far too simple I want to really push what I can do with this. I think this will go hand in hand with moving away from using reference images in such a heavy way.

Slide - 17 
I really need to start pushing my online presence and get my work out there in the public eye this has started to happen with the work from the Little White Lies briefs. Over the next month or two i want to beef up my portfolio with relevant pieces such as book covers, Film posters and comic work. then start sending it out.

Slide - 18
And as I start getting my work out there I'm going to start contacting companies to work with and I want to start contacting Illustration agencies as I don't think the business side of the work is really my strong point which is something I've learnt from PPP this year.

Slide - 19
Thought bubble next year is going to be pretty big and is hopefully where I'll really start the push of getting my work out there and start selling it, I've got the Big Cartel Domain ready to be set up when I have work to sell. Also I'll start to make a big marketing push and hopefully make some contacts in the industry. I'm going to try and get in touch with some illustrators prior to the event to get some advice on what sells and if they have any networking advice.

Slide - 20
thanks for listening any questions...

PPP Comic Book Contextual Research

Follow Joe's board Comic Idea on Pinterest.

This is a board I've been keeping with my visual reference points for my comic idea that I've been working on, a lot of this stuff isn't artist research it's more looking into locations and clothes design which is slightly different to how I usually work. Though because I'm producing this my own characters I think the research has been a lot more open and it's a lot less referential stuff and these are more things that I'm going to use as starting points for the look of the comic.

PPP Branding

I'm really happy with the branding that I've made and how the final products have turned out though I do have the problem a lot of the work I want to produce the clients that I might pitch it to might be turned off by the football branding which would be a problem. Though I think it will work for now I might have to start looking at how I can adapt it more for my prospective audience.

PPP Logo

I made this logo with a picture of myself in the center as John said it's good to have an image of your self on your branding, though I hate how this has turned out and I think the Baggio branding works much better than the image of me. I don't feel like my practice is based around me as a person at this point so I don't think it's essential to have a picture of me in my branding.

PPP Where I'm Heading...

At this point I feel like i'm at good point to decide where I want to head with my practice, I've decided that over the start of the summer months I'm going to finish putting together a portfolio of work to start sending out to potential clients and illustration agencies. I want to produce 2 film posters a couple of book covers and some more general illustration work I'm going to make these so they'll be sold at thought bubble next year, I'm also in the process of putting together a proposal for a comic that I'm going to make which I've been writing over the past year.

PPP Presentation Feedback

In the end we got good feedback for our presentation though I think I mucked it up a bit in my slides and missed a couple of points I meant to make but I think overall the presentation went well, I think we kept the presentation to a good length and engaged the audience well even though it's not a particularly interesting subject to talk about I think we did well keeping the business side of the presentation interesting and relevant without skipping over it.

PPP Final Presentation

PPP Presentation My Slides

My slides that I'm going to make are the "Where we're Heading" and "Our Staff", I picked to do these slides as they were related and lead into each other well. I looked at the structure of companies such as Nobrow and how they started and tried to apply that to our business model. I also looked at Rowena's work with the financial side of our presentation and looked at how this could work with our staff and office spaces, as a lot of our future plans are speculative on how the product sells.

A lot of the staff work will be done by ourselves it would be spread equally between us the same as the profits would be, Depending on how our individual practices are going people could take on more responsibilities in out company and would be payed a wage on top of there share of the profits. The jobs would be fairly interchangeable depending on the amount of work we each have on at that time.

As I felt my slides were slightly simpler to put together than the rest of the groups I decided that Id take on the responsibility of putting together the slide show and doing the charts and graphics for it so I was pulling my weight within the group and it also made sure we had a much more cohesive presentation.

PPP Presentation Preparation

We've met a few times over the last week to discuss our presentation and what each of us will be presenting to make sure there isn't any overlap, we've each taken two slides and we've tried to make sure the two slides are relevant to each other so the presentation is easy to follow and we can each do our 2 slides consecutively after each other. Everyone is going to email me the information they want on their slides and i'll put it into a cohesive and consistent presentation.

PPP Company Changes

The idea is slowly getting changed into a more student focused anthology about promoting there work which I think is a bit of a problem as we're moving away from the unique selling point as if we're promoting there work it seems a bit silly not to attach there name to the work, we're leaning more towards a Off Life style product with more of a focus on getting student work seen.

PPP Business Plan

After our session Tom decided to write us a business plan and it captures a lot of what we're going for with this products, though obviously this isn't final and a lot of the details might need refining the overarching details are bang on. I think this has really helped us with the direction of our product and company, going forward in the next meeting of our group we'll discuss this plan and talk about what needs changing and what we need to do moving forward. this document sums up a lot of what we've talked about in our meetings but has finally put it into writing.

http://issuu.com/t-roberts1316/docs/ppp_business_plan-2?e=10769531/12887607

PPP Company Initial Idea

Our initial idea for the company was to produce a zine/ anthology that showcased emerging talent alongside established illustrators but there was no names attached to the work so the anthology was all about the illustration and wasn't about the name. The anthology is supposed to allow for people to focus on the art and appreciate it for what it is, whereas in my opinion I feel like a lot of illustration now i'd about who made it and even if it's not that good it sells well purely on the name where as sometimes incredible illustrators will get overlooked because they don't have an established name.

PPP SWOT Analysis

Product

• Anthology Magazine
• Zines
• Screen Printed Posters
• Printed T-shirts
• An event for the launch of the anthology.

Price

• Affordable for everyone.
• Some higher quality items will be more expensive.
• Price is enough to cover production costs and time invested in the production.
• Maybe put tickets for the event in copies of the anthology?

Promotion

• Websites
• Adverts in related magazines.
• Posters in shops such as colours may vary.
• Having a table at events such as thought bubble.

Place

• Somewhere easy to access.
• Cons such as Thought Bubble and ELCAF.
• Most of the Promotion and sales will take place online.

Nobrow

Strengths

• Very high quality binding and presentation to there books.
• Theres a wide variety of subject matter.
• Well thought out and unique visual identity.
• Really well designed website.
• Books for adults and children.
• Themes and colour schemes unify the work for each volume.
• They haven't flooded the market with lots of books at once.

Weaknesses

• Too narrow visual style.
• Not enough exposure for new artists.
• Too artsy, not enough of a mass appeal.

Opportunities

• They're getting rid of the shop in London for more office space.
• They have strong links with ELCAF in London.
• They do a lot of student visits and tours of there offices.

Threats

• Most of the products mainly appeal to people in the creative practices.
• Loss of the physical store could harm sales. 

PPP Presentation Who are we?

Our Product...
We're a company who produces an anthology each quarter featuring various artists each anthology will reflect the season the anthology is released, the anthology will culminate in a yearly annual that collects our favourite entries from the anthologies. There will also be an event to celebrate the release of the annual and eventually the company could expand into having it's own shop and release specific releases for artists that we like through the anthology.

Our Resources...
Initially we'd each put the same amount of money into the company that would each give us a 20% share of the company, The business would become self sufficient if the first run sells out and we can gradually expand the print run and size of the zines as we become more popular. We'd run this business alongside our practice so we wouldn't need to be making a living wage through the company and would be more of a side project.

To begin with I don't think we'd need a physical location for our company though it would be nice it would be unnecessary as the only thing we'd need space for is stock and even then most of that would probably be sent out to stores within weeks of being produced. Eventually we could move into having our own space with a print studio and store but this is definitely in the long run for our company.

Our Prices...
We'd aim to keep the anthologies affordable while having a slightly more premium feel to the annual which would justify a higher price and make the product more desirable.

Our Promotion...
We would primarily promote ourselves online through social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr but we'd also look into going to events such as Elcaf and Thought Bubble to sell our product.

PPP Cost of Living

I did my cost of living spreadsheets and I can't work out wether I filled them out wrong or i'm happy to live in poverty, I think it's probably a mix of both. At this point though I'm fairly happy to work everyday, it might sound ridiculous as everyone needs time off but when I look at how much work I was doing on the course at this point I never have a day off anyway. I at least do a couple of hours work each day which helps spread the workload and I usually just have the evenings off.

PPP Featured LWLies Website

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/features/articles/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya-creative-brief-winner-29617

As part of responsive I did this creative brief and came runner up, because I came runner up I was featured on there website which was great exposure and I got some really great feedback on my piece from the Little White Lies creative directors this could come in handy in the future when I'm trying to contact them for work.

PPP Printing

So trying to get my project pack printed was pretty horrific, the print room was packed even though I'd booked my session and it took an hour and a half to get only half of my stuff printed. I got told there was something with the way I'd set up the files for my business cards and postcards but wasn't told what I'd done wrong and when I got back the print technician had left and the other guy working there didn't seem to know what he was doing so I only managed to get my creative cv, envelope and stickers printed which is disappointing as I had everything ready to print.

At this point I won't be able to get into the print room again to try and get the rest of my pack printed so I'm going to have to just propose them. Realistically though this point the cards and postcards aren't really necessary apart from for handing in, I think the next time I'll really need these are thought bubble where I will be networking otherwise I'll be sending out my pack digitally apart from special exceptions.