NAVIGATING THIS BLOG

Start on the tab labelled "Strategy".
There, I outline what objective this project is working towards and why.
You'll also find a list of potential Clients my work could/will be sent out to.

In the "Workshops" tab you'll find my lecture notes and write-ups of workshops and assignments throughout the project.

Consult the "Research" tab to find links to Pinterest boards I created for inspiration and research, you will also see my reviews of company sample packs from Solopress, Vistaprint and Instantprint, you'll see a write-up of guest lecturer Jenny Bowers, and you'll see my reports on articles detailing "tabling conventions" (having a table to sell your work at an art convention).

The other tabs you'll find my designs for promotional items and some details of final items. For instance I've designed Bookmarks and T-shirts, but my final items are Stickers, Postcards and business cards. 

In the "Table" tab you'll find photos of a model table I've constructed where I can display how my table will look and my desired compositional elements.

And finally, in the "Final Items" tab you'll find all my final designs, photographic evidence of my compiled Portfolio and photos of items I've had printed professionally (Business Cards, Stickers and Postcards).

SoloPress and InstantPrint Sample Packs

Sample packs from SoloPress and InstantPrint arrived. Consult the Business Card tab for notes and analysis.

Select & Review 2 Illustrator's Websites

http://jagoillustration.com/

"Jago Illustration" starts you off on an image, that quickly loads (which is a joy compared to many other sites) and with the very clear menu on the left hand side. Within moments I was browsing his other work. Clicking the image, because experience tells me that that will cycle through images, actually took me to the screen below, to thumbnails. As it turns out, clicking the centre of an image takes you to the thumbnail screen, clicking either side however will cycle through them like a gallery.

The layout I can't fault, it's simple and very easily accessed with the menu/tabs along the side constantly, but this does not detract from the quality of the work showing. His work has plenty of detail, even his logo-style image that doesn't change (top left) is packed with detail, so ideally his best approach would be to create the simplest and easiest online portfolio. From the font to the colouring of the logos of social medias (bottom left) it's all kept consistent and simple. The font is sans-serif and has a nice tracking to it which helps for perfectly clear reading but isn't crampt together, which may draw your eye away from his work. The logos beneath the menu are a light shade of grey, so you have to actually look at them to notice them - this is a good thing. The point of this site is to display his work, contact comes second, so people like his work, they then want to seek him out, thus seeking out the logos.

The pages are very clearly categorised and load especially quickly, something again, is very satisfying.
Easy to navigate, and very clear images with a perfect margin between them helps emphasise them individually and isn't hard to read.
There is an "About" tab, a very short and creative paragraph about himself, then a formidable list of awards - the fact that it's a bulky list here doesn't detract from the point, in fact it emphasises it. It shows, as a form of typography, how well he's respected and sought after, by looking at the text as an image, a mass. It's large - respected.
A rather formidable Client list included, would be appropriate for myself, when I develop a larger clientèle of course.
Browsing the website as a potential client makes me feel like my request would be in good hands. The clarity of the site makes me believe he'd be hard working and a great choice, although expensive, he'd be extremely professional.


Tips for building my site, in reflection of this one:

• Absolute clarity
• Emphasis on my work over the actual site, sans serif font, light shade typeface, other colour unnecessary
• You're advertising your work, not your accomplishments or other websites. Links to other medias are appropriate, but shouldn't be in your face

http://duss005.com/

 Dustin Nguyen's website is quite clean, but not like Jago Illustration. This site appears unfinished, which I feel is one of the least professional traits of promotion. I can't quite explain why, but I feel like it's because of the fact there're too many pictures drawing your attention over their actual intentions - this is a menu. Each picture depicts a menu tab, but it's not that clear. I'd prefer definitely another tab for personal work, separated from commissioned work.

When we go into the gallery, it's much easier to understand, much clearer, but again it would look and feel better if the personal and commercial work were clearly separated.

The colours, or lack there-of do work very well, again, like the other site a light grey for the shade and a small, coloured logo/picture to depict the illustrator of site; helps to separate the page from other illustrator's pages.

It's easy to navigate, but only once you've gotten used to the site.

Tips for building my site, in reflection of this one:

• Should be easier to understand the functions of the site
• On the main page, have the functions much more obvious, like the labels of "Gallery" and "Store"
• I'd rather a sans serif font over this serif font
• A light shade like the colour of the tab at the top. The clarity of the tab we're on is good though, with a darker shade depicting it
• I feel that these tabs are a little too specific for their purpose, instead of "2014 conventions", especially now, shouldn't specify 2014, it's out of date. If it was just "Tours" or "Conventions", I think it would fit a little better. There are similar changes to the site I would make.

#4 Notes - BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL ILLUSTRATOR

GETTING STARTED

• Evaluate what you have to offer - Unique strengths and skills, and weaknesses to work on
• Be critical and honest - consistently produce what you're offering to potential clients
• ADAPT; be flexible with time
• Consider benefits of exposure and portfolio, charity, ethics, morals, different markets etc, over finance sometimes (when applicable)
• Be aware of pricing, rights, copyright
• Work out who you want to contact and how

PRINT

Editorial, books, posters, packaging, leaflets, greeting cards, wallpapers, typography, reports, internal magazines, educational/decorative material

DIGITAL

Apps, screen savers, animations, digital rendering, concept art, films

GROUP TASK

List, from A-Z, Illustration based careers you can think of

A - Animator, Agent

B - Books

C - Concept Artist

D - Art Director

E - Editorial

F - Freelancer

G - Graphic Artist, Designer

I - In House

L - Visiting Lecturer

M - Marketing Illustrator

R - Researcher

S - Sketch Artist, Screen Printer

T - Typographer, Tattooist

SO NOW YOU HAVE DIRECTION, WHAT NEXT?

• Strengths and weaknesses
• How you will develop strengths and heal weaknesses?
• Need any particular specialist skills? Such as specific software knowledge and experience?
• How will you learn this? (There are classes on things like that)

SKILLS

General, Essential:

• Creativity
• Willpower
• Technical skills
• Confidence in colour use
• Understanding of materials and uses
• Visualisation of use of skills and idea generation
• Knowledge of Typography
• Knowledge of digital work like scanning, position, resolution, scaling, file formats, bleeds etc

Specialist:

• Digital
• Print
• Book Binding
• Pattern/decorative
• Narrative

Personal:

• Gathering inspiration
• Organisation
• Time management
• Ambition and drive
• Self critical
• Pleasant and good communicator
• Confidence
• Focus
• Perseverence
• Efficient
• Energy (Staying healthy), motivation

Transferable:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Colour Theory
• Understanding things like anatomy, perspective
• Creativity
• Time management
• Communication, written and spoken
• Negotiating
• Confronting issues such as late payments (*Note, make sure on contracts I add "payment expected within 30 days of delivery - exceeding this will incur an additional fee")

Business:

• Team Player
• Adaptability
• Flexible
• Fair
• Knowledge of rules such as copyright, contracts etc
• Knowing how to do your finances - tax returns, incoming, insurance, outgoing, costs etc
• Keeping up to date with payments and correspondence
• Preparing and using invoices, contracts etc
• Marketing and promotional strategies
• Networking
• Time management and organisation

WHERE WILL YOU WORK?

Home, rented space, rented desk, collaborative space?

SHOWING YOUR WORK

Portfolio

'An artist's portfolio is a showcase of an artist's intended style and practice and usually their best and most appropriate work

Things to consider

• Whether sketchbook pages are appropriate
• A3/A4
• Box, bound together in a box, loose pages, printed book, booklet
• Create brand identity with consistent/similar typefaces and layouts

Benefits of personal practice

• Develop skills and ideas throughout all of your work
• Adds to portfolio
• Fills gaps between commissions/commercial work

#3 Notes (pt3) - COPYRIGHT

The Illustrator's Guide to Law and Business practice, AOI, 2008, Simon Stern

What is Copyright?

• Copyright is the law that stops people from copying other people's work - music, photography, film etc
• 'The owner of the copyright in an image is the only person with the right to copy that image or to allow others to copy it and this applies to any sort of copying'. Pg 46, The Illustrator's Guide to Law and Business, AOI, 2008
• 'As soon as an artist makes a drawing he, she owns both the artwork and the copyright' *unless you are an employee, unless you have copied someone else's work
• You do not need to use the copyright sign to own copyright
• Copyright lasts for the creator's lifetime + 70 years. After this time it is out of copyright and enters the public domain

Copyright

• Does not apply to similarities that happen by chance
• Does not apply to 'works of artistic craftmanship' in a public place - buildings and sculptures
• If you have sold copyright of your own work, you may copy some of an earlier work provided it 'does not repeat or imitate the main design of the work'
• Incidental inclusion - eg, if a work of art is in a setting and you didn't put it there yourself
• Best not to sell your own copyright
• Try and use you own reference material
• If you want/need to use something else, ask permission and get it in writing

Infringement

• "If you take a 'substantial' part of someone else's work and use it in your own then it will be an infringement"
• Question yourself, "Am I taking someone else's copyright work, the product of their though and labour and appropriating it as my own?"

Penalties

• The copyright owner can be expected to be paid damages - usually the licence fee for the job
• Could also have to pay any profits made
• Worse case - destroy all works made with infringement - usually a settlement is made before this
• Most cases occur when an illustrator's work has been used for 'purposes beyond the original licence

How To Keep Your Copyright

• Grant licenses (permission) for specific uses - purpose, territory and time frame

Reference

• Using photographs - same copyright rules apply to photographs so the rule is 'use the information in the photograph, or in a range of photographs, but not to reproduce too much of any individual image'

Fair Use

• Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In U.S copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship (wikipedia 2015)

Creative Commons

• Devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share
• Creative Commons licences consist of four major condition modules: Attribution (BY), requiring attribution to the original author; Share Alike (SA), allowing derivative works under the same or a similar licence (later or jurisdiction version); Non-commercial (NC), requiring the work is not used for commercial purposes; and No Derivative Works (ND), allowing only the original work, without derivatives. These modules are combines to currently form six major licences of the Creative Commons (http://bursa-kerja.ptkpt.net/_lain.php?_lain=1443, 2015)

Copyleft

• Under copyleft, an author may give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute it and require that any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same licensing agreement
• Freedom 0 - the freedom to use the work
• Freedom 1 - the freedom to study the work
• Freedom 2 - the freedom to copy and share the work with others
• Freedom 3 - the freedom to modify the work, and the freedom to distribute modified and therefore derivative works (wikipedia, 2015)

(wikipedia, 2015)

Where To Find Copyright Free Reference Materials

• Wikicommons as long as it has a copyright free symbol

(http://www.clker.com/clipart-12267.html) 2015

• Morgue File - free reference imagery
• Dover publications - can use up to ten images from each book completely free of charge

#3 Notes (pt2) - SOCIAL MEDIA

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS - https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/page-post-tips

• Use engaging material - images and videos of people using your product  and shorter posts of 100-250 characters to get people's attention. People engage with the visual first
• Two way conversations - ask for feedback and show you've listened. Builds loyalty
• Deals and Promotions - create these to maintain customer interest and loyalty - 2 for 1, limited time offer, free mystery gift, competitions, prize draw when you reach a certain amount of likes etc.
• Timing - relate your posts and activity to current events, from pop culture to Christmas time, Valentines Day, Halloween, Back to School, Summer etc
• Reply to followers swiftly and don't forget to reply
• Post a daily sneak peek of upcoming sales prior to Black Friday/Cyber Monday
• Create a timetable of what you are going to post and when - this helps keep updates regular and varied
• Schedule your posts when most of you followers are online. You can find out by visiting you Page Insights and going to the posts tab.
• Use link posts to direct people to your website, blog, external links etc. Include an image to grab their attention.

TWITTER

• Tweet often - at least once a day to keep audience interested
• Compose your tweets concisely and effectively. Only use short URL links as you only have 140 characters per tweet
• Consider the suggested people - gain followers through followers
• Twitterholic.com - top twitters
• Add your twitter link to communications, CV etc
• Use "#" (hashtags) to emphasise content ie. #SilkScreenPoster
• Increase exposure by getting involved in trending topics
• Ask followers to re-tweet your posts - this reaches a new and wider audience
• Add pictures

BEST TIMES TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Maximise the reach of your posts by learning the best (and worst) time to communicate with your audience

• Facebook: 1pm-4pm
• Twitter: 1pm-3pm
• G+: 9am-11am
• Pinterest: 2pm to 4pm, 8pm-1am
• Linkedin: 7am-9am, 5pm-6pm

Flickr

• Take good photographs
• Order your photos - viewers will only see the last 5 photos that you have uploaded so make sure you put these at the end of and album
• Tag your photos so that they come up in other people's search terms. Don't tag unnecessarily or incorrectly
• Reciprocation on Flickr is very important - share, comment and favourite to expect this from others too

LinkedIn

• Make connections with people that share professional interests
• Join groups that can be anything from employment opportunities, alumni to interest groups
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential employees
• Updates - post own updates and like or comment on other's updates
• Complete your profile and update it
• Use only a professional profile image
• Title and summary - who you are and what you do - keep it concise and precise

Pinterest

• Make you own portfolio board
• Upload your own work and categorise by themes and projects

#3 Notes (pt1) - PRICING & LICENSING

The most common limits to a licence are:

1. USE
2. AREA
3. DURATION
4. EXCLUSIVITY

USE

Usually the use of the image will be known but to cover any possibilities, state on licence: 'further uses will require a further fee'.

TERRITORY

This will cover where the image will be used in terms of geography - categories are usually UK, Europe, USA, world. There will be a difference in fee for each.

DURATION

How long the image will be used for. This can vary greatly depending on the application.

EXCLUSIVITY

This means exclusive only in the terms of the licence. There can be other licences for the image. If the client never wants the image to be used by anyone else then this needs to be added as a special term.

FEES

Fees vary according to use of the image. Some other factors can be added in such as amount of work involved, illustrators reputation, tight deadline, attractiveness of job, etc.

CIRCULATION

Low circulation, national circulation, international circulation, internal circulation.

ROUGH GUIDE TO PRICING

Magazines & Newspapers

• Art director's budget is usually set.
• Varies between different magazines/newspapers
• Covers - between £500 and £1000
• Inside illustrations from £150-£450 depending on size
• Full page inside illustrations around £450-£800

Book Covers

Vary between £400 and £1000 depending on selling potential

Record/CD Covers

• Similar to book covers
• Classical music pays less than popular music
• Licensing needs to be clearly stated for band merchandise as this is re-use and requires another fee

Educational Books

£300-£500 per double page spread

Children's Picture Books

• Paid with royalties or an advance
• Advance of £3000-£5000 but don't earn any royalties until this advance is met with sales.
• Work out by thinking of your acceptable minimum rate and then multiply by the number of hours you think the book will take
• Usually paid in instalments - on signing contract, on delivery of roughs/delivery of artwork and on delivery of final artwork/publication

Greetings Cards

• Quite badly paid
• Flat rate of £150-£250 per design

Brochures

• Covers $400-£1200 depending on size and print run
• Inside illustrations £250-£1000

Packaging

Huge difference depending on manufacturer, product, complication of desgin. From £250 for small image to £1500 for more complicated full design.

Advertising

• Largest fees
• Quarter page B+W £600, full page £1000-£2500 depending on client, region, distribution
• Posters from £500-£4000 if national, more if international

Re-Use Fees

Usually a discounted version of original fee

Rejection Fees

• When the client feel the image produced is unsatisfactory and no longer wants to use it
• At rough stage - 25%
• At artwork stage - 50%

Rejected Images

50% is usually used because then the blame is equally split between client and illustrator. The client then has no right to the image - but the illustrator may not use the artwork if it's based on a client's rough/concept

Cancellation Fee

When cancelled by the client

• Before rough stage - 25%
• On delivery of roughs - 33%
• On delivery of artwork - 100%
• At other stages - worked out accordingly

The client retains the rights to the work produced as if the project had proceeded.

Change of Brief

Subject to agreement/negotiation

Rights Grabs

'attempts by commissioners to use their superior industrial strength to force creators to assign their copyright, waive their moral rights and, in some cases, hand over ownership of the artwork'.

Some commissioners will say that they need 'rights grab' because of admin and that no one objects - Not true.

Damage

• Money - specific licences no longer used and image can be used freely and also sold on to third parties
• Loss of control - can be sold on, used in a context not approved by illustrator, cannot reproduce image
• Distortions - Illustrator's work may be changed, distorted, used out of context.

#2 Notes - A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ILLUSTRATOR

Average Day of an Illustrator - My Theory

9am - 6am

- Formulate list of priorities for the day/week

- Consult brief and continue with current projects, from research to drawing.

- Do any updating to wesites, social medias, blogs etc; unless you have utilised the scheduled    update function on some blogs and social medias

- Check emails, all social medias for opportunities, requests

- Hunt for inspiration, especially when things aren't running as smoothly as you'd like.                Browse art at galleries, take photos of the world/draw the world, or pop online and check        out appropriate art and artists. However, sometimes even the inappropriate ones can              inspire and educate you.

"Only about 40% of my time will actually be spent creating art. The rest will be in promotion, updating, exposure and communication. (And other things like tax returns etc)" - paraphrased from Georgie Hounsome, but appropriate nonetheless.

When Freelancing is less, it's time to search around. Look for opportunities through competitions or things like Craigslist - people request for artists a lot. It'll help with exposure and funds. (Any illustrator job, as long as you're credited, is exposure)

"Possibly set aside a full day for admin. Social medias, updating portfolio, communications, clientèle" - paraphrased from Georgie Hounsome again. This would be especially useful in conjunction with the scheduled post function. You could set out the posts for the entire week.

As a freelancer, you are a "Soul Trader". Taxed only after £10,000. If I intend on becoming a freelancer (which I of course would like to), once I finish uni I should register as a soul trader immediately. Must look into and ask more about this. Good place to start would be Georgie since she's a current example, also visit cons and expos where there will be appropriate artists to talk to there (likely selling their work, so I'll find something I like, buy it and also interview them briefly.)

#1 Notes - BUSINESS CARDS

• When designing business cards, take into account how appropriate the design is. For instance, you can change the shape of the card to reflect the service you're providing, like a spatula for catering, or screen print your design, because your art uses a lot of screen printing, kind of giving a hint to your actual work.
• http://uk.moo.com/
  &
  http://www.inkylittlefingers.co.uk/
  &
  http://mamas-sauce.com/
  are printers.
  Moo has "superfine" paper, apparently it is lovely paper they use upon request.
  Moo allows multiple designs for an order.
• Business Cards - 85mm by 55mm

Hard to read

• Too much caps-lock
• Light colour font on a dark background, keep it appropriate
• Too many typefaces
• Avoid similar typefaces
• Too many sizes and weights
• Careless us of colours and tones
• Inconsistent letter and word spacing - address Tracking, Kerning, Leading

http://webcomicalliance.com/featured-news/font-factor-leading-tracking-and-kerning/

• Left alignment
• Negative space is just as important