Self promotion - Creative CV

This task envolved us adding some creativity to our already existing CV'S, the design had to say something about us as an illustrator and it also had to be fun and interesting to look at. At first i was a little worried about making up a new CV as i feared that i would not have enough room for all of the important details. Before i started doodeling out some ideas i thought it would be best to research some already existing Creative CV'S so that i could get some inspiration. I found some really cool designs, a lot of them were not actually restricted to the standard A4 format, a lot of them folded out and had some cool interractive features. Below are some of the examples that i found.

There were so many creative CV's online, some were really heavy on the information and had little illustration where as others were really visual but only highlighted the necessary information. I think that when i come to making my CV i want it to be incredibly visual and fun, i will need to review my CV and narrow down the key points of information if i want to do this. 

These are some initial sketches that i mapped out after doing some general CV research, Following on from the last module i wanted to keep my style consistent. I used a lot of geometric Aztec style imagery for the last module and i instantly started to draw using elements from the previous module, i instantly started to draw tiki heads as it seemed appropriate. I had an idea which consisted of creating a monster CV, the mouth would be open and inside there would be an image of me sitting inside of the monster, the tongue would then fold out and my details would be written there. I also liked the tiki head idea as it would allow me to keep my document with an A4 boundary which would make it easy to print. We wee given roughly a week to mock up a CV and i thought that for the short time period that we were given it would make more sense if i were to make a tiki head CV. 

I searched around for some tiki head designs and they came in a range of shapes and sizes. It was quite hard to find tiki heads in the style that i wanted but i managed to montage a couple of images together. I really liked how decorative the tiki heads were as their symmetry seemed to compliment whatever medium they were a part of. The surf board for example is perfectly symmetrical and works really well with the shape of the board. If this CV is successful i will definitely make some other products that keep within the same theme so that my work will tie in with itself.

Above are some of my tiki head sketches, the images on the lower right hand side are the early templates for my CV design where as the others were just experimentation imagery to get the feel right. The image on the far right is good but i do not think that i will have enough room for the information, i will colour it and see how it looks before i move on. 

The coloured version looks pretty good, unfortunately there is not enough room within the mouth to fit the appropriate information inside. I could maybe use this as a business card design though so i will hold on to it for future reference. 

I went ahead an coloured the other version that i made and it looks a lot better, i also managed to narrow down the original CV and fit all of the important stuff within my tiki's mouth. After showing my fellow illustrators the rough mock up i was then told that the text was pretty boring, they said that the text almost let the image down because i had put so much time into making the image and the text was just dropped in. I then decided that they were right, i wanted my CV to be fun and easy to read, my image deserved better than that. I looked back through my original sketches and decided that it would maybe be a good idea to mix my two original themes together, keep the large tiki head but give it a large fold out tongue that would hold all of the important information. 

Above is my finished CV, the tongue folds out three times, when the tongue is folded up it looks pretty silly but i think it really comes to life once opened up. I initially printed out a cheaper quality version of this and after some talks with the lecturers i decided to change the font to the one above, it is a lot more legible and it seemed to work better with the image and concept. This CV was printed in two parts and then stuck together with glue, the paper had a medium gloss finish which helped to bring out the colours really well. I originally went for really toxic colours and it was pretty harsh on the eyes so i am glad that i toned the colours down slightly. 

After making the CV i began to think about products that i could make for my promotional pack. Going back to me envelope task i mentioned that i wanted to make a huge monster totem pole, using that idea and going along with the tiki theme i came up with the above images. The plan was that they would all fold up into a little zig-zag print and then extend into this tiki totem pole, once they were coloured and printed off they were roughly the size of business cards. It would have been cool if my details were on the back and each tiki head were perforated so that the owner could tear one off. I am pretty happy with how these guys turned out and i will include this product as part of my final promotional pack.   Also after the success with my badge packs i decided to make some tiki themed badges, below are my my results. 

The images were made using some of the earlier sketches a starting point, i really like the one in the middle but i think that the green one is the strongest image. 

Self promo - The one day badge pack workshop

The second task we were given on this module only lasted a day, we had to create a promotional badge pack which we would showcase and share with everyone at the end of the day. We were originally meant to make one large badge but we were then given the choice of making some smaller ones. I personally chose to go with the larger template as i thought they looked cooler, i also had more room to show me design off

Above are some viking heads that i had lying around in my doodles folder, the green one wasn't quite finished but it wouldn't have taken much for me to finish it, i thought they would make some awesome badges but if thought i would look through my portfolio first to see if there was anything else that was a little more appropriate.

In my own time i made these little monsters which were originally meant to be stickers but i thought they were perfect for my badge designs, they were colourful, fun to look at and a lot of my work is based around a general theme of monsters so i thought that it tied in perfectly.

Above are the finished badge packs that i made, i chose to make another pack just because i had some extra time near the end of the day. The pack on the right is the original image that i use as my header for this blog, i thought that because of how busy the image was it would not really matter where the template was cut and it turned out pretty good as the design follows over to the sides of the badge.
I think the outcomes were pretty successful, maybe if i were to do it again i would make my name a little bigger as it it quite small in comparison to the rest of the product. The pack on the right managed to keep the badge pretty still within the packaging but the one on the left was pretty loose and the badges kept sliding around, in the future i would maybe need to pin the badges to the paper but apart from that it is all good.

Self promotion - The envelope task

During the second week of the module we were all given a small envelope, the task was for us to make a small promotional pack that would fit inside of the envelope which we would then show the rest of our class the following week. I did not really have a clue what i wanted to do and the small format made me feel quite trapped. i drew up some initial sketches for what i wanted to do but i thought that i should think simple as i only had a week to do this. Below is the basic planning page from my sketchbook.

Using my initial Pinterest research i manged to come up with a few designs, at first i thought it would be cool to make a little pop up monster card which would stand up on someones desk, that way it is something that the owner would want to keep and put on their desk instead of throwing it away. Another ideas was just to make a really nice print which had my details on the back of it, that way the owner gets something work keeping and because the details are on the back it will not obstruct my artwork. Finally i had the idea of expanding past the envelope size by making something that fits into the envelope but then folds out to make something a lot larger. The image on the bottom left shows a basic plan of what i wanted to do, the plan was to make a monster that stretches open to reveal its massive mouth and long arms. I really liked the long monster idea so i started to draw out some plans, i thought it would be best if the item broke down into three sections as then i could keep the paper size smaller meaning the printing cost would be less. I quickly decided that it would be a lot cooler if the stack was compiled of three different monsters standing on top of each other like a totem pole. Below are the three monsters that i mocked up to be stacked together. 

From top to bottom the stacking order goes from left to right. I messed around with feet shapes and head sizes so that it would get wider at the bottom. I started colouring the one on the left first and once he was finished i decided that he looked pretty good on his own and maybe he would be more effective this way. I used some of my Aztec patterns to complete the image and below is the final result. i think it works pretty well!

I ended up just using this idea as i thought that he was strong enough on his own and did not really need the other two although i would like to make the other two for future reference at some point. 

I printed my image on A4 card and i included the above image so that i could fold the card in half and glue it to give a double sided effect. I essentially made a large business card and i was pretty happy with the end result. Once this card was complete i moved on as i wanted to add a couple of other things to the pack, at the point i still had a few days before it was due in so i thought i would make the most of it. I looked through my sketch book and there was one image that i had previously worked on and wanted to finish, i thought that this promotional pack would give me to opportunity to finish this image and make it into a miniature poster. Below is the image in it's black and white format. 

For a while i made a big thing about getting rid of the line work and stripping it down to pure colour, i really love that style but i didn't want to forget my roots so for this image i wanted to keep the line work and just fill it with vibrant colour.

Some obvious problems occurred when i coloured this image as it came straight out of the sketchbook, for example the image just cuts off and some of the image was lost. The finished image (later in post) demonstrates how i handled that minor problem with the use of some boarders and crop marks. I really liked this image and i think that the colour palates were well thought out, i ended up printing this one on my ink jet printer on some Hammer White paper which has a parchment texture over it, i thought that was fitting seeing as the image was of a medieval theme.

Finally i wanted to test out the new sticker paper i had recently purchased so i drew these guys free hand using Sketch book Pro, pretty simple designs but i thought they were perfect for little sticker designs. The prints came out really well and i just cut them out by hand.

Finally once everything had been printed i made a simple little band to hold it all together, it fitted perfectly inside of the envelope and i was really happy with the results.
I think that this was a pretty nifty idea and it explained enough about me without giving too much away, i think i will use some of these elements for the next stage of self promotion.

Self promotion - The pillar of shame verses the pillar of glory!

The first initial task we were given for this module was given to us from both Caroline and Mel, they had literally covered a table in business cards that they had collected over the years. We were given to task of selecting 5 cards, three of which we liked and two that we utterly hated. Below are the ones that i liked, there were a lot that i actually liked but i managed to narrow it down.

I chose the first one because it wasn't so much a business card, but more of a promotional image. The image is beautiful and colourful and it immediately caught my attention, the artist also used a really nice boarder to frame the image meaning that the design and presentation was well considered.  Below there is some text that seems to give a small narrative to the image.
The next one is so simple but i loved it, the guy on the horse caught my attention first but then i noticed that there were characters from James and the Giant Peach on there as well and i instantly connected with the image. The back of the card is pretty minimal but i thought that it was a nice balance as the reverse had a lot going on. The third one was another larger image that i picked up because i understood the reference to Alice in Wonderland straight away, the style is not really my thing but the finish on the card was really nice and the layout seemed well considered so that was reason enough for me to choose it.

Above are my selections for the pillar of shame, the first one came in this little brown envelope which at first seemed like a professional way to package something, it had a little hole cut out of it so that you could see what was inside, this would have been a good idea if the image actually lined up. The reverse of the envelope also had the same shape cut out but the reverse of the card of nothing to show meaning that the application and design were not well thought out at all. The artwork on the card was extremely messy and time had clearly not been taken to neaten the image up, i wasn't sure if the artist intentionally made a stylistic choice to make the image this way but i don't like it regardless. The back of the card on the other hand actually worked really well as it gave off that handmade feel but it seemed like it was executed a lot better, the artwork is not consistent and the flow of the card doesn't really entice me into wanting to hire this artist.

Finally the second card was chosen because i thought that the orientation was completely wrong on the front, maybe the negative space was supposed to be used as the sides of the building but i didn't really like it, the business card is door shaped and it would have made more sense if the image was flipped vertically so it followed the corners of the card. The information on the back was informative but a little too simple in my opinion.

Self Promotion - Gaining some ground

After completing the previous independent pracitces module I have been inspired to create a range of products to sell, the module also taught me that a product not only demonstrates my skill level but it promotes who i am and what i stand for as an artist. I was very happy with the products that i had produced for the previous module and i am sure that some elements will work their way into this module. I learnt a lot about who i am as an illustrator and how i generate my work. I learnt how to sculpt, make foam cut outs and even design and make my own boxes, they are some useful skills to have.

The new self promotion module is just another step forward in that direction as i am to make a product(s) that i can send away to companies that i would want to work for, i also have to think about the general public, i need to have something at the ready should someone want to get in contact with me.

When i think self promotion i think business cards, post cards, badges and labels, i will need to think further than that for this module as i want my things to stand out from the crowd, i want them to be remembered. 

For the most part of this year i have been absolutely certain that i wanted to be a children's illustrator and i am pretty sure that i want to continue down this path although i feel as if i could broaden my path on the way to my end goal.  Before i made my own self promotional pack i wanted to look around and see what other illustrators were doing to promote themselves. 

Over the last two years i have had the pleasure of being able to work with artist Jack Teagle, he ran a comic book workshop a while back and he was also one of the campers at camp CBSP which was another awesome comic book event, throughout the workshops i have learnt that Jack' style of imagery works really well outside of paper and because of which he has been able to make a variety of things which he then sells in his shop. Throughout this module i am to find ways to effectivley promote myself as an illustrator through psychical products and virtual space.
I chose to use Jack Teagle as my first point of research because he seems to have the full deal, a huge online presence, online stores, a vast range of promotional products and a big career to back it all up/.

Jack Teagle is hugely inspired by comic books and throughout his career he has made a bunch of his own little comics about his life. Above is one of his comics named 'Turtle Fighters' which was being sold at Teagle's stall at the stuff fair, i picked one up because the idea was so good and it was very cheap to both buy and make. The comic only consisted of three pages but it folded out into a A3 poster which i thought was a really nice touch, at the end of the comic Teagle also added his website and his name at the bottom of the page which helped to promote him. 

I thought that a comic book was significant to Jack Teagle and that is why it works well as a promotional object for him, i wanted to know if every illustrator needed to have a significant item for their promotion to be effective, does it all need to tie in? 

I had a quick look at Greg Kletsel because he has some really abstract work and i wanted to know how he promoted himself, Like Teagle, Kletsel has a massive online presence with sites such as Tumblr, Instagram and twitter to name a few. also in comparison Kletsel has a very tactile look to his work which makes it look very home made which reflected well in his store as i saw hand made badges and screen prints, he did not need much more really. 

I now need to search further and look at a bunch self promotional ideas and packages so that i can begin to make my own. 

Stage 2 thematic research

Grizzly tales for gruesome kids 

This video loosely relates to one of the characters from my story as they both share a theme of being trapped inside of something. The boy in this video is obsessed with computer games, so much so that he would later wish that he could live in cyber space and get away from his nagging parents. The boy eventually gets sent instruction over the internet from a mysterious figure named 'the post man' to scan his body into the computer and send it away in an email. Upon that happening the boy gets sucked into his computer monitor where he is greeted by his desktop interface, the interface scans him for virus's and then throws him into a pit of trojan worms so that the boy can be debugged before going into cyber space. The boy was stripped down to his bare essentials, an eye ball, two hands, a brain and a box of fluid to keep it all in. The boy would float around cyberspace with all the other 'brainboxes' and play whichever game he desires. A evil computer virus then attacks and the boy panics, he types in a code and the mysterious figure posts the boy back through his computer and into the real world, though the boy now looks as he did when he was in cyber space. His mother was not shocked to see his new form, in fact she was delighted as now she had him right where she wanted him, she would place him in a box of water away from his computer and would lock the door to prevent the cat from mistaking one of his eyeballs for a gold fish.  

This episode was particularly scary for me as the little boy was named Jack so in an odd way i felt as if i was the boy in the story. Jack loves to talk, he interrupts people all the time and never gives his tongue a rest, his parents got so annoyed with him that they decided something must be done to sort him out. They hire a creepy looking magician to maybe distract Jack with magic tricks so he might just shut up. The magician is also a puppeteer and he shows Jack some of his dummies, one of which talks without the old man helping it, the dummy then jumps out at Jack and tells him to not make the same mistake he once did. Jack ignores the warming and meets up at the magicians house for a free magic lesson, the man then makes a wooden jacket for Jack which acted as a small coffin for his body, Jack got changed into a puppet. Jacks parents came along the puppet in a store and bought it because it reminded them of their son who had been missing for weeks. The puppet was in fact Jack but he could not speak because his mouth was zipped shut.

In this episode of the Grizzly tales, a boy is obsessed with prank calling and is always on his phone. one day 'the gas man' phones the little boy and tries to sell him some helium with his key selling point being that the boy could potentially make the best prank calls ever as he could pretend to be an alien. The little boy had always dreamed of impersonating the queen for a prank call and buys the helium as he thinks that it will aid him in doing so. The boy soon realizes that helium soon wears off and is constantly inhaling the stuff to keep up his squeaky voice, the boy eventually floats off into space because of the mass helium intake and ends up on a satellite, his phone then dies and he can never make a prank call again.    

Stage 2 inspiration - 7 deadly sins

I just gathered together some character references from existing cartoons, films and books in hope that it would help me later on with my characters that will represent the seven deadly sins. 

Mike Teavee - Charlie and the chocolate factory. Mike is a little boy who is obsessed with violent video games and television programs and refuses to come away from his spot which evidently is in front of his telly. This restricted life was encouraged by his parents as they thought that it would be easy to find him if he is always in the same place, they could also just set down his food right next to the telly, what they didn't realize was that a long exposure to the fictional violence would soon rub off on a young Mike. This little boy always has a scowl on his face and when he did eventually leave the house to go to the chocolate factory he brought with him no less than 18 fake cowboy pistols as he was clearly way too attached to some of these films.

Daffy Duck - Looney Tunes.
Daffy Duck is one of the classics from Warner Bro's cartoons, he is usually partnered up with Buggs Bunny and the pair really do make for some good comedy. Daffy is always aggressive towards Buggs and the other looney tunes, this is probably because Buggs gets all of the fame and Daffy is always left with an anvil getting dropped on his head. Despite Daffy being incredibly aggressive he would have a hard job bringing harm to anyone because he is pretty weak, also his mouth usually gets him in trouble with the stronger looney tunes in which case Daffy runs away like a little girl. 

Kevin - Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Kevin is the neighborhood bully who is always trying to impress the girls by acting like a complete and utter jackass to the three main kids of the show (Ed, Edd and Eddy).
Kevin always wears a baggy green jumper and what look like black tracksuit bottoms which to me shows that he is dedicated to sports and maybe wants to show off his athleticism to the girls. Kevin fits into the stereotypical jock character by always carrying around a football and showing a keen interest in working on his 'ride' which in this case is a chopper pedal bike. Kevin is easily annoyed and is forever after the three Ed's for scamming the other kids of the cul-de-sac and is often shown with a red face and sometimes even steam coming from his ears. 

Sid - Toy Story. This little cretin is one of the most spiteful kids throughout the fictional world. Sid is a psychopath child who likes to take apart toys, he then rebuilds them using jumbled up parts from other toys to create these deformed creatures. That's pretty creepy under normal circumstances but what makes it even worse is that Sid is from a universe where toys can talk and most probably feel what is happening to them. Sid isn't the best looking but he doesn't help by scowling all of the time; baring his braced teeth like a possessed dog. 


SLOTH 

Garfield- Garfield and friends. This cat is the epitome of lazy! all he thinks about is food and he just sits around in front of the television all day. Garfield is incredibly moody when his stomach is empty and he shudders at the thought of doing anything productive. I find Garfield's personality suiting as cats do often laze about and eat a lot of food and i think that humanizing him by allowing him to eat like a human gave him that extra level of laziness. Garfield also complains about Mondays as a normal person would on their way to their job which helped people connect with him and relate to him.   

Dwight Conrad - Futurama. This little guy is a smart and cunning child from the 31st century and is always seen playing pranks on his father Hermes. Dwight never wants to do any work because he believes he has better things to spend his time on, instead Dwight tries to think up some kind of scam or machine that would do the work for him. In one episode he is made to deliver newspapers around the galaxy, he had the genius idea of giving everyone their weeks worth of papers in one day (that way Dwight could take the rest of the week off). The idea was good until all of the papers started to stack up and cause a huge amount of waste around the galaxy.

Stinky - Hey Arnold. This guy was brought up on a farm and because of which he bares the stereotypical stupidity levels of a classic hillbilly. Stinky is tall, slim and has a massive nose which gives him a very distinct nasally voice which really drags out when he is talking. Stinky is often caught day dreaming and thinking of returning back to his farm when he should be doing other things. He lives a simple life and because of which has become lazy. 

Slowpoke Rodriguez - Looney Tunes. I remember this little guy from when i was little, Slowpoke is the cousin of Speedy Gonzalez the fastest mouse in all of Mexico. Slowpoke is always seen with a dull empty look on his face and he takes forever to do even the simplest of tasks, he speaks very slowly and always slouches.

GLUTTONY 

Eric Cartman - South Park. Eric is probably the most crudely made fat character on television today, South Park characters are made out of paper cut outs, they are then animated. Cartman has a harsh life and often gets picked on because of his weight though he is a bully himself so somewhere down the line he probably asks for it. There are several episodes that deal with Cartman's weight, one of my favorites being an episode where the four main characters get some KFC, Cartman quickly runs out before the other boys and eats only the skin of the chicken which supposedly is the best part.

Harold - Hey Arnold. This was a cartoon that i watched when i was younger, everyone in this cartoon had an oddly shaped body and head and i thought it would be interesting to look at because i like how the artist captured the mood of each character through their shape. Harold is an overweight bully, he always looks clueless and is incredibly stupid. I believe Harold bully's the other kids because of his weight, some episodes even dealt with him confronting his weight problems and going away to a fat camp, though he eventually gave into temptation and came back a whole lot fatter!. 

Humanized obese version of Bender - Futurama. Bender is a robot from the cartoon Futurama, there was one episode where Bender wanted to know what it was like to become a human, so the professor made a  machine which could do such a thing. Bender loves to gamble, drink booze, smoke a cigar and hook up with robot women or fembots as they are named in the cartoon. Bender soon realizes that his human body can't keep up with his robot like habits and he quickly becomes very fat, Bender then dies as a human. I looked at this character because of how extremely fat he is and how the artist dealt with such a thing. 

Chunk - The Goonies. This lovable lump is one of the most memorable fat kids in film history, his famous 'truffle shuffle' dance made him a favorite for most. Chunk wore some outrageous flowered shirts throughout the film which made him appear somewhat cute and clueless. It is Chunk who eventually saves the day though he does get himself caught by the Fratelli's first. Chunk befriends lovable giant; Sloth and through their shared love of pirate films end up breaking free of the fratelli's basement and saving the Goonies who by chance are trapped on a pirate ship.
Chunk differs from Augustus Gloop because it is Chunk's love for food that actually brings him and Sloth together as friends (Chunk offers Sloth a baby ruth bar!).

Augustus Gloop - Charlie and the chocolate factory. For my gluttony character i instantly thought of Augustus because of his pure greed and obsession with food. This kid literally adores food and he almost has a possessed look about him throughout Tim Burton's adaptation of the film (above image). The choice of clothing is also important here as stripes apparently make someone look wider which is a smart little way to convey that someone is large. Also his clothes are pristine and neat, meaning that he does not waste a single bite by missing his mouth and covering his clothes in food. Augustus eventually meets his end when his obsession becomes too much and he accidentally falls into a chocolate river where he then gets sucked up into a large pipe transporting him to various parts of the factory.