PPP: Business Cards and Why I need to now make some

I  N E E D  T O  M A K E  B U S I N E S S   C A R D S 

This weekend I went to Thoughtbubble (which I will blog about my experience soon.. probably after this actually.) and I was expecting to have a few conversations with other creatives but what I quickly found is that they were so interested in what I was talking about and doing with my practice that they wanted to keep in touch.  One professional in particular had contacts at both Nickelodeon and Disney and was really interested in getting young artists into the industry. I didn't have a business card to give him and oh boy did i feel like a fool, luckily for me he persevered and followed me on instagram and told me to follow him on LinkedIn. Although all was not lost and plans were made to meet up and show him my portfolio in the future, it really hit home to me that he could be a potential client and I really have to be on the ball with this! 

Thoughtbubble is a great place to have a look at what people are doing, so naturally I took every business card I could get my hands on. I wanted to see the different styles and shapes and decide from there what I liked most!

I'd started rough working on a business card before the weekend, it uses my cat from level 5 that was a particular favourite piece of work of mine. After seeing the cards that other creatives have I really need to decide is how to come across. As a professional illustrator I'm serious about getting work but I would define my art style is playful and thoughtful.  At the moment I'm trying to get across both of these things but I'm not sure how much of myself to put on there (so to say). I am an illustrator and I am a film enthusiast (which I feel really influences my work at times, especially when it comes to perspectives and composition) but I also really love garlic bread (and making people laugh) so I added that on there too! I think this might have to be one of the things I ask a tutor or other colleagues about. I like it, but does it send the right tone of voice??? 



Another thing I'm having illustrator life problems with is that currently there is another company with a very similar name. Now up until a few weeks ago this was never a problem, they are in a different country and they had a fairly poor social media approach but they must have invested in someone good or something because now when I google for my name, instead of coming up with my social media things as it did before, google now presumes I've typed in wrong and suggests this other company and they have lots of social media now. 


The big question is, do I change my illustrator name now? Before I start becoming a professional? Or do I stand and fight and become a stronger presence? I've gone under the name Sugarcombe since I was around 15, it was a completely made up name (and 'sugarcomb' is also a made up word too). It came as a fusion of who I feel I am as a person (sugar - because my life revolves around it and combe - came from my love of finding things 'to comb' but with the name sugarcomb already been taken on a few formats I added the E because I felt it was more aesthetically pleasing).  

PPP: Thoughts on building a website and My graphic designer friends laughing at me

T h o u g h t s   o n   b u i l d i n g    a   w e b s i t e 

SO I made a list of things I really would like 

from my future website!  It needs to be: 

• Easy to access on mobile devices and computers (because so many people use their phones now, it can't be having a slow loading time). 
•  Easy to edit, I don't want to be hassling people to help me every time I want to add a new post. 
• Linkable to my other social media's (linked in and instagram as it is). 
• Be able to have a domain name/ an address that isn't ridiculously long 
• Something that I can blog on
• Something I can link a shop too 

Now this seems like an easy list but it's been an absolute nightmare. I already own 'sugarcombe' as a domain on tumblr but I'm not really sure whether Tumblr is the best thing to have as your website, I'm also very confused on how to get a domain name on Tumblr. 

I thought about using WIX as John mentioned it in one of his talks in the previous weeks however upon mentioning it to my graphic designer friends I was laughed out the room and told that clients wouldn't take anyone seriously if they used that as a website builder. I asked why? Apparently WIX is commonly used by young teens and it's somewhat of a running joke within the graphic design world. So I guess that means I'm not using WIX then... 

Moving on from that I asked them what I could use? SquareSpace and Weebly were the ones that were used within their client circles as they are easy to edit, but they do have a cost to retain a domain name. SquareSpace you can't use without paying for, but Weebly you can (if you don't want to pay it ends up looking like  - www.thisismyusername.weebly.com) which is bareable I thought.  

So far I've had a go with Weebly, I'm not finding it the easiest thing in the world if im honest, theres a lot of snapping things to things and although it's created to be basic, it's actually overthinking basic (which no undo button, it leaves you trying to backtrack when you mess anything up). 

I'm going to try to persevere with it, just for the sheer fact I feel like it looks more professional than tumblr (honestly i'm probably going to end up having it on tumblr). 

PPP: Who are you now, what are your plans for your future practice.

 W H O   A M   I   N O W 

I filled out this sheet at the beginning of September, after a month and a half back at Uni and working on my practice every day I still have the same feelings about who I am now as an illustrator. I'm still very interested in colour palettes, so have started looking for illustrators that are working with limited ones. Whilst doing COP research I found a really great website - moviesincolor.com which showcases iconic cinema shots with a colour palette underneath.  It's something I enjoy looking at in my own personal time. 

I'm also taking more of an interest in concept work and character design, I've been following more accounts on Instagram that focus on this area. Some of the people I've followed are concept artists for Disney, Cartoon Network and Dreamworks. It's interesting to see how their practice works, they often don't post a lot of what they're actually working on in their studios (for obvious reasons) but instead they are being constantly creative and engaging with their instagram audience. Many of them draw on the way home or make their own comics in their own time. 

W H E R E   A M   I   G O I N G ? 

I've begun to email a person a week (as I feel like thats a small amount of progress to start with) about their practice or about going to visit them. Last week I emailed someone from West Yorkshire Playhouse about volunteering, as it's a busy time of year for them they had most of their spots taken but I have been put on a waiting list so hopefully by January I will be able to go up there and see how their costume department works (which is something I found interesting and wanted to know more about how they got their jobs and how the costumes are designed and sourced). 

Personal goals I'm setting myself are to keep drawing as much as possible and draw more small comics from what is going on around me. I'm also still experimenting with media as much as I can, I want to stay away from getting too good at one thing. Last month (october)  I've been focusing on digital drawing and getting better with a wacom, but November I want to focus on lino cutting (partly because it's a great way to make xmas presents) but also because it's something I never really explored in second year but spend a lot of time looking at online (watching lino cutting before bed is so soothing). 

One of the other students showed me a book (and dammit I can't remember the name, I'm totally going to find it and put it on here though..) but it looked like it had been screenprinted when actually it was produced digitally and had layers of texture to make it look as if it had been screen printed. She also said that she could see my work working well in this style so that's something I will also be investigating into.