work

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Graphic design TREASURE HUNT!

this turned into quite a laugh AND some very good learning experiences.

we were tasked to find and approach graphic designers and studios, interview one of them, get a business card off another, and take a photo of a studio

bad timing and excellent good luck played a big part of the days proceedings. i was lucky to find myself in a group i worked well with. as ive commented before ive found this can have a massive impact on how it all pans out. 

more than once i found it difficult calling on a button and explaining through a tinny microphone what we were after. all in all pretty much everywhere was very student freindly and we picked up some excellent leads to follow up later int he week.which im confident we will do. two fancy looking places suggested we make an appointment for later in the week and they would talk to us about what they do how they do it how to get a job what they did after graduation show us round etc etc, some places sounded like they do excellent projects such as posters, dvd cases, moving image etc. one place even left us with a ton of magazines.

most places ,as it was monday morning, where very busy with meetings and pitches etc but like i say invited us back, so it wasnt quite a door in the face.

we were very lucky enough to stumble accross a courtyard full of illustrators and one was more than happy to have a chat to us and gave me some solid gold feedback....

That Printmaking and hand-made marks are important and 'very relevant' full stop-and are becoming more in demand and popular [she sited wood/lino cuts and monoprints and their textures, i think this is her style though-but relevant none the less] [i cheeky bough a good slab of lino recently as a result] [as well as a stack of etching plates-more on that another time]

she got into it by studying graphic design too, and undertook illustrative modules. -i feel this is excellent and incedibly encouraging. i also think its a very positive to have a sloid grounding in graphic design if your going for illustration to understand how the piece will work in relation to the print/web based end product etc.

aim for the market. HAVE YOUR OWN STYLE

be flexible

at first you will 'have to put in 200% effort'

it is hard.but possible and achievable

KEEP SENDING OUT SAMPLES

be firm but polite when negatiating with clients

and also mentioned a helpful website www.association of illustrators
i havent checked it yet, but its £70 a year and puts you in tuh with a big base of work.

£70 sounds better than the 30% of whatever you earn going to an agent which karl mentioned yesterday. and i must say some feel £120, £150 a job is low. id be quie happy with that, thats about 20 quid an hour, yeah you couldnt live on it but with enough work or part time on the side id be proud of myself to get this

All in all i feel incredibly lucky to have her time and meet and illustrator especially considering the explosive realisation that editorial illustration is fucking amazing and i feel i can really tune in to it.

Ive also contacted two places we visited who were too busy to see us as it was monday morning and all had meetings. with a bit of luck they may get back in touch so we can visit and learn more about how a graphic design studio works and how we could fit in and what skills they use the most etc. ill hassle them next week if i dotn hear back but ive already taken a massive amount from that illustrator so im content for the time being.



No comments:

Post a Comment