Monday, 7 May 2018

UPDATED Studio Brief 2 Proposal

Leeds Arts University
BA (Hons) ILLUSTRATION
Level
05
LAUIL504 ILLUSTRATION 4: Applied Illustration
Credits
40
Module Brief  
Title: Product, Range & Distribution

STUDIO BRIEF 2: Individual Practice Project Proposal

Project Rationale

What do you intend to do and why?
I intend on making a minimal of 4 editorial illustrations using a digital/screen approach to go alongside an article in a newspaper or magazine. I am going to focus on controversial plant-based/vegan ideas and products that have come out recently. Specifically, the vegan burger that ‘bleeds’. As well as looking into lab grown meat, the horse meat scandal and possibly the Yulin dog meat festival. 

Making a set of illustrations that go alongside an article will make me consider the layout and content of the design as it will have to be appropriate to the newspapers audience. Although, I still want to have a satirical approach to my work that reveals the darker truth of eating animal product and even supporting plant-based companies that still use animal testing to create their ‘vegan’ products.


THEMES / SUBJECTS
What Themes/Subjects will form the content of your work for this module? This should include theoretical and non-creative based content and concerns. This section should identify your consideration of the social, cultural, ethical and creative concerns of contemporary Illustration practice.

GENERAL THEMES:
·       Veganism/plant-based products
·       Controversy 
·       Social Issues

SPECIFIC SUBJECTS:
·       The vegan burger that ‘bleeds’ – being aware that this product isn’t exactly designed for vegans but instead making a plant-based diet more appealing to meat eaters. Is it really going to work? How could it be made appealing? Impossible Burger fed the soy leghemoglobin to rats before human consumption so is it really vegan?
·       Clean meat – lab grown meat is definitely not targeted at vegans, but again reduces the environmental issues and the treatment of animals in the meat industry as animals will no longer be needed. However, the animal cells are grown in the blood of the blood from calf fetuses, so what are they really achieving?
·       Naïve art, outsider art, primitive art – research from the last module feedback made me look into these kinds of practices and made me consider painting again (especially suitable for this brief involving animals and perceptive).
·       Screen-printing – experimenting with print methods (both traditional and digital) to work out different outcomes for the brief and develop my practice and interest/skills in screen-printing further.
·       Digital work – during this brief I am going to try and work out how to give digital designs the appearance of screen-print which will be useful in the future when I don’t always have access to printing, as well as saving time.


PRACTICAL & CONCEPTUAL APPLICATION
What areas of Illustration do you intend to investigate in relation to the practical and conceptual, production/ distribution of work in response to selected briefs?

SPECIFIC DISCIPLINARY AREA:
I intend on challenging myself by using a digital approach to create the designs to mimic the aesthetic of screen print. This will be a useful skill to have in the future as screen-printing facilities won’t always be available to me when I leave university and want to continue my practice, as well as it being a time saver, meaning I can produce more outcomes at a fast pace.

I am going to look further into naïve art to become more aware of my practice and possibly start painting again to develop my designs.


AUDIENCE/CONTEXTS:

·       People who generally read the newspaper/political magazines, focusing on more left wing orientated such as The Guardian and The New Statesman. 
·       Young people (18-21) who are socially aware and will possibly share my posters.
·       Contextual research will involve using the internet to find existing articles and facts about the specific subjects that I’m looking into.
·       Vegans who aren’t aware of the Impossible Burger being tested on animals to bring it to light and continue spreading their awareness.

PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION METHODS:

I intend on screen-printing the designs, or just making a digital piece that has the aesthetic of a screen-print to save time and make more possible outcomes. Placing the designs in an editorial context will help me consider the layout of my designs and how it would fit into the article.


CONTEXTUAL REFERENCES
Identify areas of professional/creative practices that will inform the contextualization of the work that you produce. This should include specific illustrators, studios, practitioners and products as well as broader creative disciplines and methods of Production/Distribution.

ILLUSTRATORS / DESIGNERS / STUDIOS:

·       The New York Times
·       The New Yorker 
·       The Guardian 
·       The New Statesman 
·       Nobrow Press
·       French Protest posters 1968
·       Naïve, primitive and outsider art
·       Stewart Mackinnon 
·       Henryk Tomaszewski 
·       Cobra Movement 
·       David Shrigley
·       Henri Rousseau
·       Henning Wagenbreth
·       Bill Rebholz
·       Sophy Hollington 
·       Stephanie Unger

CREATIVE SKILLS
What practical skills do you intend to further develop and apply during your project? What do you intend to use the skills for? Consider extending the use of skills that you already have in order to deliver work of a higher standard as well as identifying new skills that you will need to develop.
Monoprinting will help me to produce different textures that can be used in my digital designs to create the screen-printing aesthetic. Monoprint is one of my weaker points so using the print facilities with ideas from the staff will help me gain knowledge.

As well as focusing on my digital skills to work on how to give digital work the appearance of print which may be a challenge for me as I am not the best on Photoshop. I will use my existing skills in printing to get a strong starting point and interpret new skills into my designs to strengthen them further. 

Working on my digital skills will help develop my practice in the future as I will have the ability to make digital designs at a fast pace to meet any future fast deadlines to a professional standard.

KEY TEXTS
List a selected number of books, articles and texts that are central to your proposed area of practice. These should include a combination of design and non-practice based books, theoretical texts as well as visual publications.

You should include a list of relevant websites.


·       DIY Culture: party and protest in nineties Britain – Emily Stein and Celia Willis 
·       DIY: the rise of lo-fi culture
·       In Loving Memory of Work – Craig Oldham 




ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

I plan on doing further research into my subject area to make sure my designs are consistent and thoroughly considered throughout the brief. 

















Friday, 30 March 2018

Studio Brief 1 - Reflection

I instantly knew that I would want to focus on the Socio-Political Poster brief, although, I took it on me to make some designs for the Hookworms brief as well seen as though the deadlines were so distant from each other.

Making a design with little to no context isn’t something I usually do, making the Hookworms poster extremely difficult. I couldn’t grasp at an idea that would be appealing to the band and their current vibe. Starting with the text seemed to be most appropriate until I gathered up a strong enough starting point for the visual side of it. The photocopier became my best friend.

Using the photocopier seemed to strengthen my ideas massively, it creates textures and the mistakes are sometimes unexpected accomplishments. Accidentally overlaying the text on one of the copies became one of my strongest designs (according to my peers in a group crit) so I went away with a lot more confidence to make the designs more appropriate for screen print using Photoshop, always considering the scale of the poster and the short time that it had to be completed for, making my ideas as simple as possible with minimal colour.

Overall, I just couldn’t wait to get that brief over with and move onto the political poster where I knew I would be a lot more confident in my own practice.

As soon as I started focusing on the political poster I felt a lot more comfortable. Making a list of all ethical/political/social issues I am passionate about allowed me narrow my ideas down for what would be most suitable for the brief. Veganism is a passion of mine, although, I felt like the brief didn’t want this subject covered, so I interpreted my views in a more environmental and health orientated fashion. Whilst developing my ideas, I heard about the Conservatives cutting back free school meals, which is what my most finalised idea was based on, considering the number of children not being able to eat their lunch, represented by the apple cores in my design.


I only sent one poster off to Poland for the competition as problems with my personal life seemed to have a huge impact on my work, meaning I haven’t done as much as I would have hoped for this brief. I plan on possibly making more designs for the poster brief if I get time before the deadline (without it taking over Studio Brief 2).


Thursday, 15 March 2018

Friday, 9 March 2018

Studio Brief 2 - Study Task INDUSTRY RESEARCH (Group Presentation)

Some useful links:

Industry Facts

  • Editorial illustration is one of the most well known forms of illustration as it is seen most regularly by the general public in newspaper and magazine articles.
  • Imagery alongside articles first started appearing in the 19th Century.

Online Resources

Trends

  • Digital/Interactive work (as newspapers and magazines become more and more of an online resource).
  • Social Awareness - an obvious one with editorial, people are becoming a lot more aware of social issues (especially women's rights and cruelty towards animals).
  • https://www.creativebloq.com/features/illustration-trends-2018

Case Studies 

  • Its Nice That 
  • The New York Times 
  • Anorak 
  • Sophy Hollington 
  • Leslie Herman 
  • Anthony Russo 
  • Luba Lukova 
  • Paul peter Piech

Resources I need to find:

  • The most up to date issues. 
  • How the editorial illustration industry works.

How do these concerns relate to your practices?

Being up to date on social issues is a huge area of concern for editorial illustration, keeping up to date with these issues can involve reading newspapers and researching into the issues you're passionate about.
Email people in the editorial industry and ask some questions (which is something I'm doing as part of PP Studio Brief 2).