Creative CV; Web Version

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Business Cards

My business cards came!
Printed by Moo

Only one turned out badly printed. Out of a batch of 24 designs I’m not going to complain. (It was 90% black on black so *shrugs*…I mean it looked fine on screen and laser printed but…meh)

Creative CV; Print Version

Open publication - Free publishing - More creative cv

More Emails!

From EK Weaver who writes/draws TJ and Amal.

From Stewart of Just Add Water (Who I actually didn't know was at college today, grr!)

From Elena who writes/illustrates Sister Claire and the upcoming Nightingale (A tale of a blind superhero)

I've always been quite nervous about emailing/ringing people that I don't know but over the last few days I seem to have quashed that anxiety and I'm emailing people I never thought I'd get in touch with.

Edit:Leigh Gallagher (Defoe 1666) who I met at Thought Bubble. (How much I don't pay attention to my surroundings, a shout out I didn't know about)

And Emma who is currently working with Windflower studios (and has worked far Marvel comic and Tokyo Pop)

Email Away~

I've been sending emails off the last few days to various illustrators and designers/design studios and the first ones back were from Windflower Studio. A UK based comic book studio (all women) who have all recently graduated. As a studio they're currently working with writers Leah Moore and John Reppion, as well as comic book illustrator Emma Vieceli. They're working on a project for Hat Trick Productions and Channel 4 Education. (I'm told it's going to be a motion comic set in Victorian Manchester...which sounds awesome if that's true)

I emailed the studio as a whole and it was Fez who got in touch. (And this morning I received a really great email from Kit.)

My email to them.

Fez's reply.

I'm just waiting on them to get back to me with the answers to my questions. (Which all 4 of them are going to answer) They've got a deadline for Wednesday but I said whenever is good for them. I also just need to go through the images on the website and give the a list so I can get the higher resolutions.

Questions for Design Context Book

Some proposed questions for my design context book that I am currently emailing out to designers and character designers. I won't send them all, and a few more questions need to be proposed. Some of the questions would be tailored to the designers I'm sending them too.

• How do you go about designing, and what goes through your mind, from start to end?
• What is a typical day for you, and who are the people you work with?
• What are some of the things that you have worked on?
• What projects are you working on now? (if you're allowed to tell)
• Who are some of your favorite artists/designers out there?
• Could you talk about your process in coloring your work, as well as the types of tools or media that you use?
• What part of designing is most fun and easy, and what is most difficult?
• What are some of the things that you do to keep yourself creative?
• What are some of your favorite designs which you have seen?
• What is your most favorite subject to draw? And why?
• What inspired you to become an Designer?
• What are some of the things you have learned from other designers that you have worked with or seen?
• What wisdom could you give, about being an Designer? Do you have any tips you could give?

Last Module Feedback // Grade

Design Practice 3: OUGD 301 feedback.

"The level of practical and visual experimentation is good but inconsistent resulting in a body of work that lacks clear focus and direction. A more critically aware approach to the development of initial ideas would help you to exploit the potential in your work more consistently."

If I'm being perfectly honest, I was expecting a worse grade. I struggled to get myself of the ground for the fist module of this year and this has impacted my grade significantly. My inability to time keep and keep a record of this also contributed to the grade.

"A more organised approach to your studies would allow you to develop a more effective studio practice."

By definition I'm not a very organised person. I kept up the blogging and posting something everyday, even if it was just a small reflection but I clearly need to step this up. I need to be making action plans, (something I struggle immensely with) and my briefs need to reflect my design practice more because something clearly went wrong in the process for last module.

I liked the briefs for their character design aspect, I didn't like them for the applying to a range ect. There was so much more I could do, yet I didn't do this and the only thing I can blame is my poor time keeping abilitys, despite being in the study 5 days a week 9-6. This is something Lorenzo brought up today during group progress surgeries. I'm not a brief writer.

Despite being disappointed in myself I now know what I've got to do to make FMP work for me so my portfolio will reflect my design practice and my grade will reflect my efforts.

(Posted on FMP)

Designers to email

Over the past day or so I've been collecting the emails (or not in one case) of character designers/illustrators/ comic book artists for my Design context journal. Ideally I would like 50 names and emails to send off by the end of this week to see who would be interested in being interviewed ect.

These are people working at Nickelodeon, Cartoon network, freelance, children's illustrators and animators.So far I have 15 names of designers/illustrators whose work I have admired/followed for the past few years.

People to Email:

1. Jamie Smart: sixtyfootmonkey@yahoo.com
2. Chris Battle : CBillustation@gmail.com
3. Sanford Greene : sanford.greene@gmail.com
4. Bobby Pontillas : BobbyPontillas@Gmail.com
5. Darren Rawlings : contact@rawls.ca
6. Pascal Campion : pascal_campion@yahoo.com
7. Flaviano Armentaro: flaviano.armentaro@hotmail.it
8. Eric Canete : ERIC.CANETE@GMAIL.COM
9. Francisco Herrera : blog@herrerabox.com
10. Steve Gordon : http://stevenegordon.com
11. Mike Thomas : Sketchmt@aol.com
12. Ryan Woodward : rwoodward@mac.com
13. Sean L. Moore : seanlmoore@shaw.ca
14. Dan Panosian : Info@danpannosian.com
15. Skottie Young : Will find his email/send a message through his website.

I will also be making case study posts of all of the designers i email over on my FMP blog.

I'll update this post with more names and emails and also mark off who I have contacted and whose got in contact with me.

Edit: 18/01 - I aim to have 25 by tonight

16. EK Weaver : ek@tjandamal.com
17. Justin Rodrigues : Justinrod123@sbcglobal.net
18. Matt Jones : matt_jonezuk@yahoo.co.uk
19. Sean Galloway : seansgcheeks@yahoo.com
20. Jeff Lemire : jeff@jefflemire.com
21. Elena Barbarich : Elena@yamiloo.com

Si Scott

(Posted to FMP as well)

I had my first portfolio review with Si Scott today and I was not really sure about how it would go. He pointed out a couple of my fears such as what I'm going to do when I graduate to tie me over. (Breaking into comic books is hard, I'll need something to do to pay the bills for that first year or so)

When looking through my work, the piece that stood out the most to Si was my Marvel Novelization brief. It surprised me that he actually liked it so much and we spoke about what I could do incorporate that kind of style into some of my briefs this year.

Another aspect he liked were the smaller characters I draw, that there is a darker theme to them despite almost looking like something for a children's books.

I'm taking him comments on board and seeing how I can work these into my final major project briefs but I know it's just one opinion of many. When it comes down to it I need a portfolio that's going to get me a job and Si knows what he's talking about.

Revised Portfolio

For next portfolio surgery's I re ordered my portfolio (as well as completely re-designing it using an altered template from last modules submissions boards.) These are my strongest pieces to date and the beauty of a portfolio is that they're always changing:

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

At the back of my portfolio, I wanted to include some illustration so I chose 3 pieces to show if time restraints let me. (If not, it's not a big loss.) :

Open publication - Free publishing - More portfolio

Along with it will be my square format business card that I'll be printing tomorrow with the other stuff.

After next weeks surgeries, I'll review both my work and portfolio and I'll use any remarks/suggestions to help me re work this for digital/email distribution. I'm also looking into make a more illustration mail out that I can send to designers/agency's.