Creative Presence- Promotional material action plan.

What Do I Want?

• To have a promotional pack rather than a single piece. 
• A print no bigger than A4, screen printed? and backed. Limited edition series, details on the back. 
• The second thing, only small but not like a traditional business card, something more original and print-based or based on a narrative. Badges? something they can interact with !!
• Will have details on the back of the print or the small add-on.  
•  Regular business cards can sit on the exhibition space but are there for passers-by, the specific people who I target will get a print 
• The prints could be half of a story and they then have to come to the next show or contact me to get the other half?
• Nicely packaged in self-made tote bags? screen printed. 

What Do I Need To Do?

• Print room - twilight sessions and general room availability.
• Digital print.
• Buying materials - tote bags, inks, paper.

Time Plan:

• Use existing work for the prints and bags. 
• Work and design branding. Type.
• Print- one or two colours only! 
• Design extras using a section of a print and type. 
• Digitally Print. 
• Back Screen Prints and package giveaways in bags.
• In addition, add branding to blog, and kick off the website! 

Change of workshops plan.

So after several phones conversations with the council we weere able to arrange dates and participants of the workshop. Also the university progressions team became involved  which was great as I was able to get free materials and free sketchbooks and pencils to give out to the particpants at the end. I also got the help of an ambassador to help me run the workshop which was a life saver as we had a one or two more people than we aticipated turn up. We had a large family with very young childern from Somalia. I decied bacsed on workshops that I had been involved with preiously that simple screen printing stencils should work fine and with support is a fun activity for small children to do. They all really enjoyed the workshop and went home with a large amount of work. But unfortunetly due to time I wasn't able to keep on running any further workshops. This is a massive shame as now I have got the hang of runing and orgainsing activities. However this has highlighted an intersting part of my practice that is somthing I am going to consider take further int he future. Not nesserly the workshops elements but the repotage and documentations of conversations. The workshops where a really good platform for this but it would be amazing in the future to go to another country and talk and record coversations about significant political and social issues for an editorial piece.

Task 3 self evaluation

Within my work, I have achieved a high level of print knowledge and skill. My work towards the end of the second year had a refined process and was very detailed. However, I kept using this same process, which was very restricting. I need to loosen up and re start. I have perfected lino print to a standard I’m happy with, but I want to focus on quicker processes so I have more time to think about more in-depth images in terms of composition with multiple features and image narrative. By freeing up my practice I hope to improve initial drawing skill and make it versatile. Last year I was just focusing on editorial, this year I need to expand my practice to cover more commercial illustration. Printed textiles is an area in which I want to do this. Dealing with less heavy subjects and more lighter ones will make my practice more diverse. Creating illustration that tells a clear narrative is another aim. By finding a method that is quick, enables me to produce a high quality and involved fun/ playful compassions is the aim.

No 5 website - Handsome Frank.

https://handsomefrank.com

Very simple first page, illustrious with text and name in grid format with small running show reel when arrow it hovers over.  White background easy to read text. A new element which the other websites didn't have was a side pop out menu. This holds all the artist names in a quick scroll through menu and is on a different coloured background and type, making the text easier to read in a larger format. Above tabs are simply labelled in one work and laid out well spaced and gives the viewer room to absorb information.  And echo as the other websites to an image lead approach.

No 4 website - Blink Art

https://www.blinkart.co.uk
 First page like big active contains and moving show reel but of images that takes up the whole first page , but there is an arrow indicating to scroll down. The different coloured type as well is a good idea. It gives it a point of difference and defines the categories clearly but dose clash with some of the images in the reel making in hard to read, but this is only momentarily. The logos colour and style fits with the rest of the text on the page. This help the design to look complete and well rounded. A professional finish. A change in background as you scroll down to a clear bold categories accompanied with simple graphic motifs. The artists catalog is in the grid format again but images are evenly sized and on a white background. When arrow hovers over an image box and small show reel sicks though at a good speed showing snippets of that artist work.

No 3 website - Big Active.

http://www.bigactive.com/artists/

Big Active front page has a simple but close layout. First page shows similar tabs above as other websites but has a show reel that covers the full first page. The show reel dose contain videos which works well. Make the viewer click and then they stay on the sight for longer but there may need to be more information to scroll down as there is a large amount of good content below but this is not made that obvious. Again image lead approach with layout in a slightly off set gird format and with minimal text , but with varying size of images it dose make the page interesting and demonstrates the versatility of the arts the agency holds. It is a music lead website so shows the protest it has previously been involved with and in regards to the artist catalog the same layout with image of work and name underneath. It is also all based on a white background again, this definitely allows for more colour and images to be on display and also the use of a different type face that is softer makes it easy to read. Mobile and desktop friendly and the close compassion works well on a desktop because it breaks down the images you see into a few at a time.

No2 website - Central illustration Agency

https://centralillustration.com

Houses illustrators and animators. Similar layout to Heart in that is it an image lead approach. Clean , legible and all placed on a white background. Tabs above also include a link to a blog and projects in which the artists have contributed to. Social media icons are easy to spot , enabling the agency to have an increase web presence.  Again shows a wide verity of work. Positioning of the floating images seems to be within a grid format. This has been present on both sights and if is format that works and makes all the artists information easy to see.
Show reel , takes up most of the first page when you enter the sight catches your eye and you automatically end up watching it. Then is structured cleverly so you see the boxes bellow labelled illustrators , animators and latest blog but have to scroll down in order to see the full thing.Making you stay in the page even longer. (example below)

Web site Task 3 part 2 - No1- Heart Agency

https://heartagency.com

Floating motifs of artist work on the first page of the website. No names till you scroll down, it lets the work speak for itself.  The tabs above home, artist, beat (publication), contact and store. Simple, easy to coordinate and well controlled. Need social media icons on show if the agency runs these, however there is a store link in which artist can sell their work/ products. That would help to increase web presence. It also has an image lead approach with little writing. This allows for a large selection of illustrators work to be shown in small snippets at the side which can be clicked to enlarge to the full image. It demonstrates well the large verity of work of the illustrators it houses. The look of the website too is clean, orders and not overcrowded. A white background definitely helps with this.

Collaboration with the refugee council on the workshops within the council building.

In additon to the workshops I proposed to carry out , the council asked to to run a series 3 workshops with them at their office in leeds. Before the workshops could start however , they asked me to paint aporx 8ft by 8ft tree on one of the walls in the new floor of office. With the help of a voulenteer of the council we painted the tree on the wall in two afternoon sessions. From there we set up and ran workshops with the clients who came in for dropin sessions and the staff. The aim of the project was to promote community within the building and make it a more friendly and welcoming place. The tree needed to be decorated and on the wall by the time they had there office opening event. The project defiently met the aim as it promoted unity. But also it highlighted for me how vunrable the refugee and asylum seekers are. The turn out was low and after talking to some of the staff , they said that it was one of the biggest challenges they face with getting people in to reseve support. They lack a lot of confidence and so it takes a lot for them to go anyware that is new or unfamilar. Overall however this sereies of wrokshops was fun and good to do, defeinelty helped having that intial work before commensing my own workshop.
 Examples of work and tree below:

British Refugee Council - meeting

Meeting with the lead project worker Richard and David, family support worker was daunting. They asked me to meet them in there office to discuss a plan of what I intended to do. I think the hard part was going to a new place that was fairly large and pitches an idea. It is something that I have never done before and was very unsure about how to approach it. so I went in with printed out project proposals and digital mockups of what I intended to produce with the clients.  I felt like the meeting went well but they did mention that at the council they don't have the facilities to run any workshops so would it be possible to run them at uni. it defiantly gave me some perspective on the vulnerability of the group. Realising that I have underestimated this and learning that the council helps the people in the very early stages of entering the UK did scare me slightly. It meant that is a higher possibility that they may not speak English and that they have only just recently fled their home country so difficulties and seeking asylum in the UK that they faced there are still fresh and potentially still ongoing. So it is vital that the project that I run with them has a positive outlook that does not focus at all on the past. David and Richard were both happy with the project idea and seemed happy to let me run the workshops at uni and it should be easily possible.

British Refugee Council collaboration.

Over the summer I knew that I wanted to work in collaboration with an external client. Knowing that I have a strong interest in people as well as social and political issues , Context of practise is the prefect module to do this in. As part of being a creative practitioner one of the values that I stand by is , we have this ability to communicate in a universal language. Communicating is a key role but the subject matters. I think that it is all well and good creating work that pleases people who invest in commercial products such as books and fashion and these projects are fun to do, but I have a strong belief that more creative practitioners need to use there skills for addressing the wider issues.
I was very nerves emailing these different charities with a project idea. It felt like it was a  big risk and it was only a vague idea but it is was daunting to think of which would be the best approach in working with this particular group of people. The refugee crisis is something that dose concern me, and with the rise of right wing politics in the UK it felt like this group where becoming increasingly isolated for mainstream society.
It did take a while for someone to get back to me , but it was the West Yorkshire playhouse. They run a creative group/project with asylum seeker refugees. So the plan was to run my workshops within this a a small side project. But unfortunately they later got back to me saying the they were unable to run it but forwarded my details onto the council. Council had a keen response to and requested a meeting with me to discuss the project.
https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk

Task 1 -Creative Manifesto

The themes and subject matters that I tend to address in my work cover the topics that relate to social and political issues. I normally take the approach of doing in-depth research into subjects and from this, I develop ideas. Working with these subject areas, you must consider the audience, possible reactions and the content of the image. Tackling social subjects that are related to race, class or religion are very heavy going and an aim for myself in the module is to try and step away from the serious and go toward lighter subject matters. With the practical development of these ideas, I use print processes such as lino and screen which give successful results. However, this is very time consuming and with one sector of illustration I’m interested in, editorial, and using my current process, the turnaround wouldn’t be quick enough. Within my approach to documenting the work and research, I find having a material with which I can write and dot down ideas helpful. The blog is useful for this, however, writing too much is an issue. Taking the writing out of the blog into book form could be a good alternative and help me to condense down the key points. But the blog is still useful for posting development images. It makes it easier to look back pick up failings or ideas that could be taken further. However, going back to point of a more light heart approach, within this module I want to add a more experimental approach to my practice. I want to explore printed textile and more ascetical driven ideas. As I am finding, working constantly with difficult subjects can make my ideas dry. By creating and making for ‘vanity projects’ I’ll be able to play around and develop technique more, with the aim of improving the images I make. Process lead practice will still be essential to how I work. I find using a process to develop ideas very effective and by the end of this module and as a practitioner this is something I would like to be identified as. My aim at the end is to be an illustrator that is able to create ascetically pleasing designs for commercial use e.g. textiles and product, but also still work in the editorial sector. Not in political and social issues but more creative magazines and articles. Currently, I still feel like my practice is wavering slightly and I haven’t settled yet on a process that I am happy with and can be applied to different sectors and keep its core visual signature. One way around this is to simply play, have a re brand and develop work that had an identifiable continuity.
I also aim carry on building strong connections and gain more confidence in approaching people and companies. This will make the transition from leaving university and into industry much easier and is something that I can constantly build on.