PPP2: Creative Presence

This brief concerns with our marketable identity.

A unique selling point is generally a easily visualised facet of our individuality, something that can be used to establish brand recognition. Thus, in the following project I shall aim to compress some amount of my personality into visual language that can be applied to a variety of products such as business cards and websites.

Kyle Steed

This business card refers to the Kyle's show that specifically involves profile studies. This is an example of a business card that can be tailored to specific events. Thus, whoever takes the card will on later reflection be reminded of the event and the artist.

This approach allows the illustrator to inform their identity based on their current situation rather than a predetermined idea.

Peter Donnelly

I am conflicted in regards to wether business cards are more efficient as a single-sided design. However by separating the textual information onto the opposing side the illustration is enabled to communicate the profession and general aesthetic interests of the illustrator without the need of text.

The project requires the creation of a promo-pack, which is somewhat more than a simple business card.

For the recent Off the Page exhibition I created something similar to a promo pack, a clear plastic wallet that contained three prints a business card and sticker, though this was mostly created to shift my remaining stock it embodied the general idea of the thing.

Through this project I wish to make a pack that can be applied more deliberately and tactically.

PPP2: Off the Page: Curation is Stressful

Preparation

Some weeks ago we were given the opportunity to curate our own exhibition; during a frantic hour or so we divided the group into teams; the Promotion team, the Hang Team and Drinks Team. I elected to be part of the hang team as I find manual labour enjoyable. Unfortunately due to some pointing Tom and I were appointed as the joint managers of this team.

Initially the team was without drama, typically it was the week of hanging that brought the stress. It was our initial intention to hang the prints with white tack, as it seems an easy process. After some tests we decided nails and bulldog clips were a more reliable solution.

I bought a good few hundred 40mm nails, as I believed these were sufficiently short enough whilst supplying a good anchor for the heavier prints. Tom surveyed the space and proclaimed there was enough wall space for every print. Although it became obvious we couldn't be sure until we started sticking things onto walls.

Multiple lists were made to catalogue the prints entered into show, as well as catalogues for the amount of stock each student was submitting for sale.

Hanging

Hanging occurred over two days. The first day, being four or five hours consisted of compositional qualms. We soon found that deciding how prints of varied format and size was easier with less people; this at least dampened the annoyance that many team members had decided not to attend.

One of our tutors Matt assisted with some final issues, but I was proud enough that he found little fault with 90% of the arrangement.

Composition was based on several factors:

1. Colours of a similar nature should not be grouped together (made problematic by the large amount of blue used)
2. Large prints should be broken up by smaller prints
3. Avoid tiling prints, break consistent gaps when possible
4. Stay within a maximum height range

I arrived after 9am the following morning and began to hit nails into the wall. We had decided that only three hangers were required to complete the job before 3PM (the show was at 6PM.

I am glad to say I made only two nail mis-placements throughout, this is mostly due to making a conscious effort not to rush the job.

Rowena brought red wool, which we used with a large spirit level and copious amounts of white tack to ensure that the prints were exactly aligned.

We nailed the last print into place around 4PM, at this point we were exhausted, between me, Tom and Paul, Joe. S and Rosie we secured over 110 prints.

The rest of the hang team were utilised for other critical elements of the show, which they will no-doubt evaluate on their own blogs.

Evaluation

The exhibition was alarmingly busy, far exceeding my personal expectations. I heard no complaints or criticisms of the layout of the actual prints, which thankfully remained on the wall. I found the curation enjoyable, but critically stressful. The exhibition preparation consumed a good week, meaning that I neglected many other pressing tasks.
I found that I was initially reluctant to allocate tasks to people, however by the second day of hanging I was less afraid to throw orders around. I cannot stress enough how helpful the team was in reducing the stress of Tom and I. I could write at length how each individual helped but that would make this wall of of text more of a novel.

Reflections on the After School Sessions

Since the Autumn of last year i have engaged in periodic After School Clubs with the progression team. This has involved assisting the tutors of sessions and keeping tabs on the more disruptive students. The first term of sessions were centred around animation, meaning that my initial technical input was limited. However, the sessions paired with the workshops in the concurrent module involving animation meant that each week I had more to bring, and thus teach.

The session above involved assisting students with their claymations. Unsurprisingly most of their animations involved gratuitous violence. I found it enjoyable to pass on my limited knowledge of animation, and in turn I was able to learn a great deal about softwares such as iMovie.

The session above was led by representatives of the ThoughBubble convention, meaning that Zatul, Paisley and me being the student ambassadors were free to simply join in with the workshop. I exploited my access to a printer and created a Keanu Reeves lantern, as I found this concept most amusing.

This year, the sessions focus around text and image, which is more familiar territory for me and Zatul.
During the session shown above we discussed the importance of sketchbooks, whilst passing around examples of our own.

Overall I have found the sessions a highly beneficial, they have conveniently allowed me to improve my image-making techniques, whilst working to pass on the knowledge to GCSE students who are frequently from schools where the arts are poorly taught or neglected. My social abilities have been refined somewhat, talking in-front of groups at length has become far easier. 

PPP2: Life's a Pitch - The Pitch

During this session each group presented their prepared presentations.
The development of our presentation was largely without drama, during meetings we had decided upon a general structuring allowing me to create a shared Google Drive presentation which we were all able to contribute to. Although I was responsible for a large amount of content, it was indeed based on the groups research, in this way we contributed more or less equally.
Becky created the logo after a few discussions, and I gave the presentation some inoffensive earth-tones to improve readability. I was generally pleased with the over-all content and aesthetic of the presentation, although i would have liked to include more slides like the 'future' slide which involved less text.

The actual presentation went fairly smoothly, although none of us had attempted to learn our loose scripts, meaning for much of the presentation we were likely looking at our notes. The feedback from the group praised the logical aspect of the presentation and made useful suggestions regarding the actual proposal.