An update - yes I am alive!

Right, just so you guys know I am planning a mega update on my social media approach and things. This blog was a massive standing stone for me and it helped to get my feet off the ground. I plan on giving it some well needed maintenance but I do have 10,000 things going on at the moment.

If you are interested in my journey and current work then please have a gander at my Instagram, it's updated every week with new content!

Check it out HERE

Speak soon beautiful people!

Working with Oxford University Press - part 1

Okay so off the back of new designers last year I got to meet with some of the awesome art directors from Oxford University press! They were interested in my characters used in my children's book Invent with Ivan - How exciting right!? 

The first contact from OUP wanted me to illustrate a book cover for a new children's story coming out soon. This was super exciting and I got straight to work, they sent through a transcript so that I could get a feel for the characters and so on. I worked on various designs which went back and forth over the coming weeks. Eventually I sent through what was to be the final draft for concept before I went in with the final artwork. Below is my final draft design for the book "Grizzly Dadams".

This project unfortunately ended for me at this point as they went with another illustrator who had already worked with the writer before. This totally made sense and they were super gutted that they could not continue working with my illustrations - I felt the same, none the less they are super awesome people and I hope to work with them again! 

I learned a lot about my style during this project, my typography and characterization got a lot stronger and really played to the style of the book. A great experience! 

Update Numero Uno - part four!

The quest for the ultimate Thai street food continues! 

So after completing the logo for Supha's I was then tasked with creating some interior visuals for the walls. After seeing the logo I got super excited to see other work blown up to that scale, keen was an understatement! 

This was actually one of the first illustrations that I had done for Dan, it went on the back burner for a while whilst I worked on the logo but it soon resurfaced after. It ended up being a huge part of the interior decor and being blown up to something crazy like A0-2 or something like that. Excuse the lighting! 

Skipping forward a few months, Supha's officially opened a few weeks ago and has been buzzing since. Feel free to have a look on their Facebook page to see some wonderful photos of the private view. I was so happy with the interior choices as it all seemed to perfectly match my logo, even the floor had beautiful streaks of orange! 

Check it out here SUPHA'S

I am currently working on some collectible herb sheets for the restaurant so I will release photos once they have gone to print, they are looking pretty good at the moment! 

 I took my parents to Supha's the other day and we had some incredible food. If you are in Plymouth and fancy something totally different, perhaps a pleasurable assault on the senses, then I'd totally recommend Supha's street food emporium! 

Update Numero Uno - part three!

I met an awesome guy named Dan at my summer show who was interested in opening a new food emporium on the Barbican in Plymouth. I had a few initial meetings with him whilst I was working at the Pub, started to worry a little about the workload at this point.

When we first met Dan wanted me to work on some posters for him, I was totally cool with that, a little further down the line however he decided that he wanted me to work on the branding for the entire restaurant.


The next few blog posts may be slightly inaccurate as a lot of these things were happening at the same time!

Okay so this is the logo that I came up with for Supha's street food emporium!

The eye shape in the background is supposed to mimic an abstract lemon being sliced in half. They wanted me to really capture this idea of "fresh" and "clean" street food. The vibrant colours are used to reference the bright and colourful streets of Thailand.

I was pretty happy with the logo and could not wait to see it go into print!
I was informed of how big roughly this logo would be when it went to print but I had to actually see them in person to believe my eyes!

I walked up to the restaurant a few weeks before it opened and saw these bad boys! Massive things! 

More info on how the project unfolds coming up next! 

Update Numero Uno - jobs part deux

Okay so I got the chance to create some test cards for Woodmansterne, I got the chance to meet up with a wonderful gentlemen named Lee to whom I complimented on a wondrous pineapple shirt. 

Any how, Lee was interested in my characters from my children's book and wanted to see how that style would transfer to greetings cards. 

I came out with a few initial ideas for Christmas themed cards, have a gander! 

This was my first try, I was really chuffed with the robin and I think that he looked fairly commercial which was a step in the right direction! 

I then had a pop at this neon Santa which I may have preferred! I sent both across and unfortunately neither took the company's fancy so they were not used in the end. Great opportunity though! 

Update Numero Uno - Jobs, sobs and bits and bobs.

Okay so the last time I posted about myself and illustration I was talking about the summer show. So that happened, it went incredibly well and I picked up some amazing opportunities, which I will talk about later!

Anyway, the next step was for us to take the show to London for New designers 2015.

This was my space at new designers, excuse my Gomez Addams holiday realtor get up, we went to London during the hottest time of the year and I nearly melted.


My table set up was very similar to what I had at our summer show. Demo below

I had a lot of interest with my kids book which was great and it was a good shout that I made a lot of business cards as they were swept up quicker than I could say Bonanza. I saw some amazing artists whilst I was at the New Designers show and I had my fair share business card swiping for my collection.

Top client meetings included - Oxford University Press - The Science Museum of London - Tiger print - Hallmark - Little Tiger and Woodmansterne cards.


We had a little bit of a rough week whilst we were in London due to some complications with our living arrangements. That was probably the most PG way to put it. Let's look at it another way, if I were to say that Tom hanks in "Castaway" lived in better conditions than we did during that week, it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration" Rant over. 

After the eventful week, we packed up and left our quarters, we felt like new men on a new journey for greater illustration enlightenment.

Cheers London, Sincerely, the PCA illustration class of 2015.

A new blog for Short courses

As part of my crazy year that was 2015, at the end of the year I got the chance to teach the Illustration short course at the Plymouth College of Art. How awesome is that? 

I was nervous at the beginning because I had never done something like this before, but I am currently 6 weeks into the 10 week course and I seem to have found myself, everyone seems keen and there are always plenty of questions which is good!

Anyhow I have made an additional blog which will follow myself and the students journey. If you are interested then please do have a flick through!Doodles, scenery and Photoshop wizardry.
                                                     
                                                      Updated every week. Hopefully. 


                                                http://jiantshortcourses.blogspot.co.uk/

I am still alive ladies and gentlemen!

Greetings from the past and welcome to the future. I am aware that I have not posted on here since last October! I know! 

Rest assured this is because I have been super busy and I have so much to update, a lot has changed in this time and I want to keep you in the loop!

Over the next few weeks I will be trying to release some of my updates from last year and that will hopefully bring me up to speed.

In the mean time however I am fully active across my social media sites so please have a browse and follow my journey!

Thank you and much love, team!

Raising money to get us to New Designers - We had an auction!

After all of our hard work leading up to the final deadline and with the great success that was the summer show we were all feeling pretty good about ourselves.
We then started our road to New Designers in London which would ultimately give us the best start into the Illustration industry as it would allow us to meet some big name clients as well as exhibit our best work to thousands of people.

One of the most successful schemes was for us to host an illustration auction, we were to have an event which would feature rare prints and one off originals which we could then auction off to raise money. We got very lucky and the student union allowed us to co exhibit in the canteen with them and their P.U.B event which meant that there would be alcohol in the mix! That could have only ended well!




I donned my best Neon green bow tie and stepped up to the challenge of being auctioneer.


I had two main assistants for the evening without whom I would not have remembered the current bids as I got so excited with the festivities at hand, I may have also been a little bit drunk.

Time for a little bit of cheeky promotion on their behalf.

Firstly thank you to Suzanne Sharpe - A wonderful decorative illustrator click me for portfolio site!

Secondly, thanks to Leah Trengove - Another illustrator who is absolutely dotty click me for portfolio site!


And thirdly thanks to my third helper on the far right, Meghan Hill - A delightfully delicate illustrator! Click me for portfolio site!

The event had a great turnout and people were literally fighting over the artwork, it was a wonderful moment and everyone was so enthusiastic!

I mean look at this turnout! this was wondrous indeed, it was good to see a mixture of students there also! 

In the end we made nearly 600 pounds and we all went for a well deserved pint after the festivities, not like I hadn't already hand enough mind!

Great effort from the entire team and it was not possible without every single one of you!

I made a website!

Okay so in the past I posted about the process of making a website and things but it wasn't until the final months of my third year that was website actually started looking nice and full. It is now fully updated and ready to go.

You can view the full site HERE

Still a little more work to go but it's looking sharp!
I want to change the links so that it is written in my own font, that will hopefully happen sometime this year.





Another screen grab of the site, after three years it is honestly satisfying to see all of these tiles filled with my artwork. I was an aspiration of mine when I started first year to have a nice and consistent web gallery, now I have one. May it continue to grow and evolve!

Summer show time!

After the final deadline we were then tasked with setting up our summer show which was only weeks away!
There was painting to do, posters to hang up, promoting to occur and much more before I could even think about having a celebratory end of course pint!
Each student was to be allocated a space on a table as well as a wall space for their images to be showcased. I was lucky enough to score a wall partition which meant that my work would stand alone and away from a wall, only 5 other students got this opportunity so I felt very honoured.
The table had to include our portfolios, a copy of our CV, a quick description about out work and some business cards and postcards, the rest was up to us.

Above is what I went for. Additional things included:
- A copy of my children's book
- A double fold out post card set complete with perforated edges for easy tearing
- My fully functioning children's menu from a previous project

And this...


Is my wall space!




                    

I even got to include some large character cut outs from my children's book.

AWESOME RIGHT?


It took a lot of moving around until me and my lecturers decided on the pyramid shape. I was overjoyed with the way it turned out.



Next up: Private Viewing!

So... I finished my degree!

Greetings all.
I just wanted to make a brief announcement, I have now officially finished my degree and this blog has played a huge part in my journey. It has acted as my virtual sketchbook and it really has racked up the views! I wanted to thank anyone out there who has stumbled across my blog, either by accident or on purpose, it really helps!



SO...

What now?

Well I wanted to continue this blog and update you guys as I venture into the world of freelance illustration.

And in true Jiant fashion I will write in hindsight,

Lets skip back a few months...


Enjoy and thank you for staying tuned!
          

This is from what I remember the first image I created after handed in my final deadline, he is going to be part of a crazy bird series I will work on through the up and coming months.