summative position statement

As an illustrator I feel my practice is one that is very experimental and process led, focused on an exploration into shape and texture. The playful aesthetic within the developmental work is often transferred into finished pieces using a mixture of processes such as mono print, lino print, collage and digital. My practice approaches a verity of themes and subject matters but is all held together by a strong tone of voice. My work currently fits mainly into editorial and publishing, due to a love for literature and illustration with a sense of narrative. However, I am very open to all opportunities where my work can be applied.

I have been sending my work out to publishers, magazine art directors and agencies, and will continue doing so through the form of emails and mailers. I have set up an internship at the advertising agency J Walter Thompson for two weeks over the summer. Just the experience of going for the meeting and talking about my work gave me a insight into how it works, how agents sell the people they represent and how illustration fits into advertising. Going for the internship will develop my professional practice even more so by boosting my confidence in selling myself as an illustrator as well as building up contacts for the future.

Traditional print has been a big part of my practice, and something I intend to carry on. So I have looked into affordable print studios I will join when I am back in London; this will allow my process to continue to develop and not stagnate. I will need a job when back in London but alongside that I will continue to produce work, create briefs for myself and enter competitions while also sending out my work very regularly to relevant people. My plan for the not-to-distant future is to be an established illustrator with my own studio space, with enough frequent commissions to be able to sustain myself solely on my practice. 

summative evaluation

I have gained a lot from PPP this year; it has forced me to think in much more depth about my future and who I am as a practitioner, something I have put off in previous years. Throughout these three years I have continued to develop my practice while also relating it to the professional world of illustration.

My website is my main platform for displaying my work, along with other social media sites. All are regularly updated and used for varying uses; my Behance is for finished projects, similar to the website, but allows for feedback from followers. My Instagram and Tumblr are for more process and development posts, allowing an insight to how my practice works. The website can be improved, at the moment it is simple yet basic; the thumbnails could show a larger crop of the work and the way each project is viewed should be cleaner. However the design at the moment is acceptable for now, as it doesn’t take attention away from the work.

My branding conveys my process led practice while also giving a sense to the aesthetic of my work through the use of shape and texture. I went with a theme based around natural forms, as that is something my work is often inspired by. The icon I use is relatively simple but also bright and textural, matched with a cut out style type to sum up my practice. I wanted the promotional pack to be exciting and intriguing for whoever I sent it to while also giving a sense of my process based practice, so there are various bit to look at and open with a hand printed envelope, a fold out print, postcards, CV, business cards and an original lino print with a handwritten message. Admittedly it is a lot to include and not very economical, so only a few people will get the whole pack. For future use it makes sense to just have the postcards and lino print sent, as they are the most important elements to show off my practice. 

I was hesitant earlier in the year to contact anyone, as I was nervous and just didn’t feel they would have the time, or want to answer questions from a student. But once I started it became much easier and I managed to get quite a few good, useful responses. I found other practitioners were the most willing to share their experiences which has in turn informed how I think about my next steps; who I else I should be contacting, considering print studios, agencies etc. Receiving compliments for my work from the people I have contacted, some being very established illustrators or agencies, has been a massive confidence boost and has made me more inclined to send it out more often.

I feel I could have been more engaged with the module earlier in the year, and wish I had started contacting practitioners earlier, and generally asked more questions. However, nearing the end I feel I have developed a lot in terms of my confidence in talking about my work and selling myself as an illustrator. I have also learnt a lot about myself as a practitioner; how I work much better around other creatives as well as a need to continually experiment and play with processes. All of this has been essential in developing my decisions for my time after uni. 

final presentation

creative presence boards

professional portfolio

they draw and cook

Rebecca showed me this site called 'They Draw and Cook' which is where anyone can illustrate a recipe and submit it and they will show it on the website, and their favourite ones on their blog/instagram. It isn't great exposure as anyone can submit - not just illustrators, and there are so many recipes on there it would be hard to get noticed. But I think it is a good thing to start doing - even just to start building up my food portfolio. And popular illustrations are put into books with your details and you have the option to sell work through the site. Also you can have a portfolio section with the food illustrations, and apparently art directors regularly look at the site so it is something I will definitely look into doing. 

the dots

I have now also joined 'the Dots' which is similar to LinkedIn but is more focused on creative jobs. You can search for specific people like art directors, publishers, jobs, internships and creative workspaces as well as uploading your portfolio
https://the-dots.co.uk/astridweguelin/portfolio

emailing

 

 
I emailed illustrator Lucy Cartwright who is represented by the Artworks. I really like her work, some of her book covers are really lovely. Also I think her process is similar to mine with her use of texture and shape. I saw she has recently graduated, so I just asked her a few questions about her first steps out of uni and her experience with an agent. She replied pretty quickly:

She seemed to have a positive experience with an agent and really recommend getting one. She managed to get hers at New Designers, so hopefully if I manage to get into New Blood I will be able to meet with some agents as well as continuing to send my work out.

post presentation

The presentation days were tiring but interesting. It was good to see what everyone else was doing and what their plans were for the future - it was all very diverse. 
I feel my presentation had a positive response; I was very nervous about doing it and I think that came through quite a lot - public speaking is something I definitely need to improve on. But it feels good knowing that I have something definite lined up for when I finish with the JWT internship, I feel that will benefit my practice by creating contacts and just giving me an insight about how the whole creative process works within a big company like that. I think it was definitely a good idea to do the presentations now rather than at the end of the year because it forced me to really think about what I am doing and what I need to do, while also giving me the confidence to email and send work out to people now rather than later. 

a working portfolio

I made a portfolio of my work so far. It is quite long as I have added whole pages with detail of each image. It does give a good overview of my work but for a digital portfolio it is a bit too long - if I was to send it out the file would be too big. It may be better to save it for taking to interviews rather than sending in emails. 

agents

A good article about getting an agent with interviews with four different agencies
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/creative-business/how-get-illustration-agent-how-keep-one/

jelly

I emailed Jelly asking some general questions about the agency and for soem feedback on my work but they emailed back saying I should be emailing submissions so I have sent my website again to that email

art directors

There is this very useful site - Illustration Age which has a section on art directors from various publishing and editorial companies. There is the email of the art director for this food and lifestyle magazine Lucky Peach, it has a lot of food based illustration. It is an american magazine but I decided to email the art director Devin showing him my work, asking for some feedback and to possibly consider me for future articles - it is a long shot but worth a try. I put some of my work actually in the email to attract his attention straight to the food illustration that I do.

continuing my printmaking

In the email from Francois, he encouraged me to keep up with the printmaking, and to enter lots of printmaking competitions as it is a great way to get work out there. I have been working a lot with lino recently, and it is something you can do at home as a press isn't essential. So I have looked online for materials I can buy - the price varies quite a bit, some quite a bit more expensive than others, but a lot of the places do student discounts so I should start buying them before my card expires!
Some of the shops:
http://www.lawrence.co.uk/shop/Printmaking.html

https://www.cassart.co.uk/craft/printing/block_print

http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/art-shop/art-supplies/lino-printing.html

http://www.greatart.co.uk/Printmaking/Relief-Printing/Linoleum-and-Wooden-Panels/

http://intaglioprintmaker.com/category/japanese-hard-rubber-rollers

I follow 'linocut boy' (Nick Morley) on instagram, he makes some really great prints and has worked for clients like Penguin, the Folio Society and lots of other publishers. On his website he gives his recommendations for buying lino materials - as he runs his own lino workshops - which is really useful and a good place to start. 
http://linocutboy.com/ten-essential-materials-and-tools-for-linocut/

I also found the 'East London Printmakers' which is a printing studio open to members, which also holds classes for beginners. To become a member it is only £15 a year for students and recent graduates which is a really good deal! I am definitely looking into this further
https://www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk/membership/join-us/

reply from francois

I received a really useful and in depth reply from Francois!

He was so nice, he found some art directors on Linkedin I could contact as well as some useful books which has publishers and art directors names in it, which I will definitely look into buying. He suggested getting an agent which I do want to do, also was pushing the mailers which is another sign that they really do work. He also encouraged me to continue with my printmaking, I hadn't really considered trying to do that without the uni's facilities but I am really enjoying it at the moment, so I might look for places to do it in London. Francois shared his experience with art directors which was useful - he mainly does children's picture books and so everything revolved mostly around that, but children's books aren't something I am dismissing, I think my style could work well appealing to a young audience. His reply was very encouraging and full of advice I will take on board. 

francois hall

My housemate has a family friend who illustrates children's books - Francois Hall, so I thought I should contact him to ask some general questions about publishing - how to best to get into it, how much creative freedom you have with publishing jobs, and his first steps after uni. He got back quickly:

He was very complimentary and said he will talk to some other illustrator friends and get back to me with answers which is promising! 

ana zaja petrak

I recently discovered the work of Ana Zaja Petrak and love it! She mainly does food illustration and has a similar process to me - focusing on texture and shape. She has worked for lots of big clients like BBC, Fairtrade, Ikea so I emailed her asking about getting into food based illustration and where a good place is to start for a soon-to-be graduate and she replied really quickly with a great in-depth reply!

She suggested putting my work out there on every possible platform - which I have started doing but need to update more. She got her work picked up through this way so I guess she must have been pretty relentless with it. Also being very clear on what I want to do is important - what areas I want to work in and start planning how to approach people in those areas. I think it helps to present yourself to work with a particular thing - like her whole website is food so people go to her for food based illustration, maybe having a website which shows lots of different things could be confusing for clients. I definitely love doing food illustration, so will try build up that side of my portfolio as well as publishing work. 

business cards

For my business cards I wanted to have a few different ones - which show off my work:

I just picked a selection which shows a breadth to my practice - and is different from the designs on the postcards. 

This is the back of the card - my business card last year had an image on both sides and the text was illegible so I wanted it to be really fear this time. Also it is a good chance to show off all the places my work exists, highlighting my accessibility. 

I also made some which relate to the promo pack, I think they work the best with the logo and visual branding 

more emails

At the meeting yesterday they suggested looking at BlinkInk and Rush agencies as they felt my work might fit there, so I emailed them today asking for some feedback on whether I would be a good fit or not:

I also emailed the agent I met yesterday with my website, so hopefully he will get back with some advice. But I got a reply from BlinkArt straight away!

Although she isn't taking on any new work at the moment, she have me some constructive advice which was good! She suggested looking at working in house at Publishing companies as that way you get to illustrate and design covers yourself. Actually working at Publishing companies isn't something I had considered so I might think about internships within that areas as well over summer.

I also sent an email to Sam at B&A agency (who I met at J Walter Thompson) so hopefully meeting him before will give me a better chance of getting a reply:

a meeting with a creative producer!

I ended up staying in London for longer than I planned, so I thought I should meet up with my family friend who works in advertising. Gillian works in the accounting section of J Walter Thompson, so she told me a little a bit about what they do there. They have worked for loads of well known companies like HSBC, Ribena, Philadelphia, Nestle, First Direct etc. and made lots of prints based, web based, TV ads and social media stuff - lots which I have seen around which is pretty cool! 
Outline of the meeting:

• She got one of the creative producers - Simon - to meet with me which was helpful. He had a look at my website and said I had a very distinct style which works well. He got me to talk through my work and really liked my CoP project about Russia - he said a good move would be too keep making work with a purpose which I can talk through well, something which has context
• I met a few people and they all said they have kept postcards on their desk from mailers which they like - and they do actually refer back to them when thinking about jobs. So I will definitely go through with my mailers - and make sure I do it frequently. 
• Illustration fits into their company lots - they usually remember illustrators they like keep them on file until the right job comes along
• While I was talking to Simon, an agent for Bernstein & Andriulli came in, an agency for photographers, stylists, illustrators, make-up artists, CGI etc. The guy - Sam - brought in loads of A3 flip books to sell some of the creatives he represents to the advertising agency. He knew loads about each of the people and was really selling them; he would suggest things like 'this illustrators work would work well for something like Specsavers' and had obviously picked out bits of their work he felt would fit with this company. It was interesting to watch. He was saying that he sometimes asks potential illustrators to show him their sketchbooks as well as finished work in case there is something they missed that they should be pushing. 
• They also kept mentioning the 'share-ability' of practitioners work, like how much publicity work can get. There was one artist represented - 'Insa' who had developed this app which makes his murals animate when you look at them through the app: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/augmented-reality-gif-iti-app-brings-insas-moving-murals-to-your-smartphone That was really cool, and they were mainly talking about how much attention you could get for that - on the instagram page, time lapses of painting the mural, tv ads etc. They made clear how important social media is with creative industries - especially instagram as it is so easy and shows a more process based side to a practice. They said  should definitely include a link to my instagram when sending emails. 
• Simon was kind enough to introduce me to the agent, saying I had some interesting work! So the agent gave me his email for me to send him some of my stuff which is very exciting!
• Everyone there was really nice, and have said they would be happy to have me intern there for a couple of weeks in the summer which is great, I don't necessarily want to work in advertising and it wouldn't be as an illustrator but it would be good and useful to see how it all works! They kept saying how important networking is so this is a good chance to make some contacts! It is a bit of a relief to have some sort of plan for leaving uni!