What Does Illustration Mean To You

What does Illustration mean to you

Does illustration have to have a price tag?
Can ANYTHING be an illustration?
What can an illustration DO?
Illustration is a job. 
Illustration - communication - Problem solving (triangle)




Publishing and book design 

Product - Children's storybooks
Context - Print, Waterstones 
Function - to Entertain, to narrate 

Product - Primary school educational books
Context - Print, Waterstones, School, online
Function - To educate and engage, communicate a point

Product - Womens weekly magazine
Context - Print, News agents, public waiting rooms
Function - To entertain, amuse, communicate

Product - Mens Health
Context - Print, Gyms, news agents, waiting rooms, Internet/online
Function - To inform, to entertain, to educate, to communicate

Product - Comic novels 
Context - Print, Online/internet, waterstones, special events 
Function - To entertain, to narrate, to amuse. 

Product and packaging 

Product - Stationary 
Context - retail, shops, promotional events 
Function  - To sell, to work as a functional piece of stationary, to be aesthetically pleasing, to promote a place or event. 

Product - Cereal Box 
Context - Retail, food shops. 
Function - promotional, to sell, advertise the product or other similar, as a piece of packaging, to communicate (nutritional values). 

Product - Alcohol 
Context - Retail, bars, clubs, promotional events. 
Function - To Inform (of alcohol values), to advertise (the quality of the product), to promote (a new product from that range). 

Product - Nike Shoes 
Context - Nike stores, sports retail, gym. 
Function - To promote (the brand), status symbol (to show higher class), to work as a high quality shoe (long lasting gym wear). 


Product - Tote Bags 
Context - Shops, comic con fairs, promotional events.
Function - to carry items, to promote items inside, to promote something on the outside, to persuade someone to visit that shop. 


Character and Narrative 


Product  - Video Games 
Context - On screen, promotional events, E3 convention/gaming conventions. 
Function - To interact (with the player), to challenge (their game playing abilities), To Narrate (the game plot), to entertain (the player). 


Product - Toys 
Context - Toy shops, promotional events, on tv. 
Function - To advertise ( a movie or brand.. barbie..bratz), To entertain, to educate (about social values), to engage (the child to playing learn something from it). 

Product - Mascots 
Context - promotional events, shops, football games etc. 
Function - To Narrate (what ever is going on at the location), to entertain (the customers), To interact (with the customers or crowd), to promote the brand, to inform the customer of what the product is. 

Product - Television Ads 
Context - Tv, Online/internet
Function - To narrate, to inform (of the product), To educate (on what it is), to entertain (younger audiences), To advertise/ persuade (to older audiences). 


Product - Phones Apps 
Context - Mobile phones, Ipads, Ipods. 
Function- To entertain, to educate, to advertise (if its a game of a larger brand), to engage (you to carry on playing), To Narrate (a game story). 


Retail and merchandising 


Product - Starbucks coffee
Context - starbucks coffee shops, motorway services. 
Function - being a cup of coffee, To advertise (the brand), to promote (the higher class ideology), to enjoy (the taste). 

Product -  Sports Shoes (Nike, Addidas ect)
Context - gyms, television ads, billboards, sports shops, sports magazines. 
Function - To be a shoe, to advertise the brand, to engage the customer to buy the brand, to promote (the idea of branded shoes being better than unbranded), to entertain (the user). 

Product - University Apparel 
Context - University shops, uni sites/ 
Function - to be a piece of clothing, To promote the university, to inform to others that you attend that university, to interact with others (wearing on open days), to advertise that you are proud to belong to that uni. 

Product - Band Merchandise (shirts, wristbands, posters, badges etc) 
Context - Actual concert venues, Online, In selected shops. 
Function - To Enjoy (as a fan of that group), To promote the groups social status, to inform others of your music taste, to advertise the band to others that might not have heard of them. 

Product - Computer / laptop 
Context - technology stores, schools, university, general public etc. 
Function - to work as a computer. To Advertise the brand (like macbook), to engage others, to inform others of your social economic status, to function towards your needs (notebooks for writers, travellers, PC's are for gamers or technologically advanced). 

PPP- Study Task One - "Who am i? Why am I here?"

identify 5 things you have learned so far on the programme

Making to do lists/ keeping a diary really helps improve my personal timekeeping. If I designate myself time slots to achieve things in I get more done in general. 

Blogging is a really good way of keeping all your thoughts in one place and sometimes by doing it you will discover something new or think about it in a different way. Also if you get behind on blogging it is hellish. 

Experimenting and researching at the beginning of the module is essential. If you stick with the first idea you get, its almost guaranteed to not be as great as if you had spent more time experimenting. 

You can make mistakes and it can be okay. 

Working digitally is not as hard as it looks but you shouldn't just immediately do everything straight digitally. 

Stamps/scamps? are important. 

Identify 5 things that you want to know more about

How to get into the character designing industry/ creative sector 

How to screen print onto fabrics 

How to set myself up online / online presence 

How to personalise sites such as wordpress (make headers/footers)

What studios are around in leeds that are available to work in?

How to send a letter to a potential employer (do you address them as sir madame? how to end the letter?) 

Identify 5 skills that you think are your strengths.

Being able to create a variety of ideas in a small space of time

Being able to make decisions fairly easily 

Being able to identify problems in my work and seek out a solution by myself (most times) 

Being able to grasp concepts (photoshop, adobe products) and how they work fairly quickly 

Being able to work faster if needed 

Identify 5 things that you want to improve.

Timekeeping (making sure that the research stage doesn't run too much into the experimentation stage etc) 

Being able to work on digital formats to a higher professional level (and understanding new tools) 

Being able to take my own personal work and develop it using college resources (being more brave and going to print studio and asking for help) 

Asking for help rather than panicking 

Making playlists to work too 

My organisation skills (making sure I use the folders we got at the start of the year to separate module works) 

Identify 5 practitioners that demonstrate your interest in illustration

Drew Struzan - an illustrator who has created many famous film posters such as indiana jones, back to the future, star wars. He has had a long and successful career from merging illustration with things he enjoyed doing (painting) and contributed to the defining of illustration. 

Pendleton Ward - An animator, screenwriter, producer and voice actor. He is the creator of Adventure time and The Bravest Warriors (internet series). He demonstrates my interest as he has explored lots of different parts of the industry rather than just sticking to one, but he also kept what he liked close to heart. 

He is essentially a storyteller but he took that skill and applied it to as many fields as he could including illustration. 

Walt Disney - Disney seems like a slightly obvious choice, but he too is a storyteller that used his creative skills of being able to draw (not sure if you would define him as an illustrator as such)to create a collective of creatives and in doing so, creating a whole legacy based on storytelling through animation. Although he is an animator, Disney was also a character designer - a cartoonist and it is that side of him that I am interested in rather than the actual animation side. He drew from the outside existing world to create his own fantasy world. 

@Hanecdote (on instagram, tumblr, big cartel) - Hannah demonstrates my interest in illustration because she takes it onto a different platform. Her embroidery creations are essentially just stitched illustrations. She spends a lot of time considering space, colours and the patterns. She put her stuff on instagram as a bit of fun but from that grew a mini business where she sold her creations on a bigger scale, even getting popular badges produced on a mass scale. 

Madeleine Flores - Is a illustrator who has worked as dream works and nickelodeon, but she also produces her own personal stuff as well. This demonstrates my interest because she often has Q+A's of how to get into the business (she did not attend university) and how to create an online presence. Although she may not be a massive illustrator yet in the business, she shows my interest in character design whilst also using time well enough to participate in comic cons and zine festivals. 

Jillian Tamaki -  A professional illustrator who creates a range of products for clients as well as producing books and mini comics for her own fans. She demonstrates my interest as she has gotten involved with a lot of different subjects but still makes time to do her own work and she has a successful online following which is something I aspire to have. She also has a really nice illustration style and I enjoy her work. 

Identify 5 websites/online resources that demonstrate your areas of interest within the creative industries.

Pinterest - although not aimed at illustration selectively, since getting pinterest I have found tutorials on how to draw muscles, human figures, as well as tutorials on how to use which colouring tools to create a certain affect. It is useful for when I am at home or during travelling when access to the library is unavailable. 

50Watts.com - This a site that i have only recently started looking at, it collects illustrators work and sorts them into sections (science fiction, book covers, children's book covers, ephemera etc). It demonstrates my interest because although I don't specifically want to be a book cover artist it can show me the latest trends in illustration which I can pick and choose whether to follow or to do something different from. 

TheAoi.com - This site is useful to look at when I want to see what is happening in the illustration world as well as offering the opportunity to look at how professionals have presented their online portfolios. It also advertises a lot of different exhibitions and shows which is useful to know if I have time to visit them. They also offer competitions from time to time (although I've never applied) i plan to enter in the future. 

Itsnicethat.com - This is another site which closely links into the illustration world, but rather than just being solidly illustrators work there are a range of creatives on there as well as interesting articles relating the