ASS5 - Project 1 - Working To A Brief

Research Point - Sample Briefs

Brief 1 - BBC 2

What the client wants and how they will judge what a successful outcome would be?

    The client wants a few 20 second credit clips to advertise the show. They want these to show culture through various subjects such as art, fashion,music and more. The are aiming at a young audience and want to showcase things are thought provoking, inspiring and challenging.

Does the brief provide all the information you need? What questions would you ask?
I would ask the following:

• Is this just culture based in the UK or worldwide?
• Who are the artists on the show? (people who are on the show) so can include them in the credit sequences to show the viewers a sneak peek to entice them.
• Deadline?
• What date and time is the show on?
• Where is this brief based on the open - closed spectrum?

    It is quite an open spectrum as there are a lot of genres on this show, so there is a wide variety of things you could come up with it's not just in one subject, there is about ten! Each subject has a huge amount of subjects within them, so there is a lot to choose from. 

Brief 2 - Orange

What the client wants and how they will judge what a successful outcome would be?

    The client wants an illustration to show technology in five years time. I think this is to advertise their possibilities for the future but it is quite vague.

Does the brief provide all the information you need? What questions would you ask?
I would ask the following:

• Brief does not say what they want to achieve, so I would ask what they want to gain from it?
• Technology is always changing so what new technology will they be able to provide in 3-5 years time?
• Who is it aimed at age? Gender?
• Deadline?
• Size of illustration or colour theme?

Where is this brief based on the open - closed spectrum?
   I would say this is a leaning towards a closed brief because I know what it is only about one subject. However because the lack of information it makes it a lot harder to pin certain things down such as the future technology they will be around then and what they are wanting to achieve from this illustration.

Brief 3 - Sainsbury's

What the client wants and how they will judge what a successful outcome would be?
   The client wants a carrier bag design of a certain size. They want it based on either best food for health, respect the environment or showing the quality of food they provide.

Does the brief provide all the information you need? What questions would you ask?

• Deadline?
• Are the bags recyclable? Plastic or paper?
• Digital illustration or traditional style?
• Colour of the bag that the illustration will be going on to?
• Shoppers target audience - but is there a certain age? Or gender?
• If illustration is going to be about the quality of your food what food do you have in the store to showcase on the bag that is of quality?
• If the illustration is based on be the best for health and food I need to know what healthy food you want in the illustration that you have in your shop?
• If the illustration is for respect for the environment - are the bags reusable? And are the environmentally friendly?

Where is this brief based on the open - closed spectrum?

   This is halfway in the open closed spectrum because you have three subjects to choose from and each one is important to the company. Perhaps I need to also ask them which is the most important to them too. There are two steps to this A - choosing out of the three and B - selecting an idea in one of the subjects. It's not fully closed and it's not totally open either. This is why I think it's in the middle.

Exercise: Writing A Rationale

Sainsbury's Bag Designs

Rationale 1 - Be the best for food and Health

     The illustration will showcase people’s well being. I will draw a simple illustration of a very happy family with one of them pushing a shopping trolley as though they are walking through Sainsburys. Surrounding them will be thought bubbles with an item of food or a health product in each one. This will showcase Sainsburys being the top place to go for health and food. It will be a watercolour design to give the illustration a gentle and bright atmosphere. The water colour style will help to make it look fresh and also show its a happy place to shop. This will influence people who see the bag to visit Sainsburys because it showcases its a great happy place for families, they have all you need under one roof and everything is of good quality shown by the fresh atmosphere that watercolours create..

Rationale 2 - Show Respect For Our Environment

     This illustration will show a world in the middle of the bag with a woman hugging it. Around the illustration will be the words - Reuse, Recycle and Repeat. This will portray a strong message to customers to reuse their bags and recycle once it is no longer fit for purpose and the repeat to get another bag and do the same process again to do their part to look and protect the environment.

Rationale 3 - Source with integrity

    For this illustration it would be an image of a few workers harvesting crops by hand in a field. It would show them picking out the best quality food that grows naturally. I would use rich colours to show the quality of the food produced and the culture of the people who are collecting them, this will indicate where the food is from. It would show the viewers that the food that you supply is fresh, of great quality and handpicked with care.

Reflection Of Rationales

    By doing these rationales it has helped me to think structurally about a brief better and taking certain things into consideration. It shows I understand the brief and then why I think my idea will work based on what . It is a great way to make sure you have the right idea and put your idea across before you get drawing the illustration. If the client agrees on one of the three above then that means you now have the brief they have given you as well as your rationale (a second brief which is self directed as its your idea) that you are happy with. This makes the brief more of a closed one than it previously was.

Research Point - Examples of Self- Directed Art Projects

Find examples of self-directed projects set by illustrators. What sort of brief did they set themselves?

   Behance is a great place to find illustrators who are creating series of work and projects to showcase their talent. I have found a few online that were of interest:

Michelle Currie

https://www.behance.net/gallery/79785259/HookedPackage-Design?tracking_source=curated_tools_illustrator

      Michelle designed these fish boxes to help with the world's plastic issues. They are very cleverly designed in a fish shape and help to remove plastic packaging from the fish food pellets we give our pet fish at home. Her packaging designs are aimed towards children because she mentions there are not any fish products around that are advertised to children to encourage them to look after fish. She states that the fish we have as pets are fed by food from plastic containers which is ironic because fish are now known to have plastic fibres inside them.

Michelle's brief

From reading her interesting write up I think her brief would be as follows:

    To create a series of packaging for fish food produce to be aimed at children. The packaging needs to look friendly to entice children to care for and feed fish. The packaging will need to be environmentally friendly - non plastic. This will help to reduce plastic particles that the fish intake and also help dispose of it easily once it is empty. Overall this will help to promote regulated fish feeding and teaches children responsibility of caring for fish around the world.


   I think her designs have very much answered her idea and plan. Her thought process to create packaging that is environmentally and fish friendly is shown in her designs. I like how she has created the boxes for the food pellets into fish shapes and then designed a different species of fish for each type of pellet flavour, to show what type of fish eats them.

Ranganath Krishnamani

https://www.behance.net/gallery/78580719/Shift-in-playing-field?tracking_source=curated_tools_illustrator

      I found Ranganath’s illustrations very inspiring. She has brought her child playing memories and combined it with the child life of today to showcase the differences. If you go on the link you can see her pre sketches and also some of her illustrations have motions within them which make them very interesting. I read somewhere before that this type of moving illustration is upcoming and will be a big thing in the future for online marketing.

Ranganath’s Brief
From looking at her work, I think her brief would be as follows:

   To create a series of illustrations to show how being a child has changed in the last 30 years. To show how children used to play outdoors such as marbles and flying a kite to our modern world today where children are seen to be playing with technology and are no longer playing outside. The illustrations should be aimed at 30 plus age who can relate to times playing outdoors more before technology came into existence and also to children to show them something that's alien to them.

  I think the illustrations showcase this message well. I like the use of her colours and the lightning effect she uses within the work. It makes the illustrations look very dynamic which builds an atmosphere to show the importance of how technology has changed us.

Wylie Beckert

https://www.wyliebeckert.com/?show=process-selfdirected

   Wylie Beckert is an illustrator who wanted to create something unique that would sell. The link above to her blog is very interesting in regards to self-directed art. She explains that this project was to help her use her own interests and ideas. She mentions she finds it difficult to get the right brief from clients that shows her strengths and interests, so decided to do her own idea and illustrations to create a pack of cards that is called Wicked Kingdom. 

   I really like her style, the colours she has used are very subtle and Mucky looking when together. The colours help give the atmosphere of War clothing and the characters themselves are very expressive. She also tells a story in the Pack of cards. The outer box created that the cards go in to has a very eye capturing front cover and the way she has used the writing around the centre illustration is very attractive. It gives customers and viewers and insight into this pack of cards project.

https://www.wyliebeckert.com/?show=wickedkingdom

   Here above is a link to the actual card set that she created. She says that this card set showed off her storytelling skills and also her artistic painting skills. Another interesting thing to mention is that she used Kickstarter which is an online donation fund for followers to donate so her dream could become a reality to create a product to showcase her talent and skills. By promoting herself she managed to get the publicity she needed to gain the funds to create her idea.

Wylies Brief
From looking at her work, I think the brief would be as follows:

Before The Idea Brief
   To create a product that shows off his interests and his personal style. The product needs to be sellable and attractive and to also be able to find a target audience to sell it to preferably people who played war games with models, who attend Comic Con and gaming. The illustrations will be done by paint and need to tell a story between friend and foe. The project will be publicly funded so you will need to market your ideas and promote to your followers to donate to fund your dream Project.

Brief Of The Idea
   To create a pack of cards which are illustrated telling a story based on a battle between different clans. The cards will be of a normal size pack and will be printed onto sturdy card with a gloss finish. The cards will be aimed at people who like playing board games and also people who are into Comics and also gaming. You will have to work on a budget based on how much funding you get from your followers so you need to work within your allowance. The pack of cards needs to Showcase your talent and your interests to share with your followers.

I think he deserves two briefs as doing a self-directed project from scratch is quite difficult. You have to brainstorm all your interests and ideas and then actually work out a plan and an idea, even before you start creating the work. This compared to having a brief is more broad and difficult as an artist you usually have so many ideas to work from but with a brief you're more directed and in a way following a corridor about a certain subject instead of looking at many. His first brief is actually his thoughts deciding and what he needs to do and then the second brief is when he has his idea and needs to understand what he needs to do in order to create it.

Reflection
   By looking at these artists and their self-directed projects, I can see that you have to really think into what you are interested in and also look at the world today in order to create work that is easily understood and also makes an impact to the world out there. I think self-directed projects are good because they give you a free roam to showcase what you are best at and also what you're interested in.

   The only problem is that compared to having a brief you are more open and it is a lot harder at the start to think of an idea and stick to it. However it is also great to mind map and see all your ideas that you have in your head. You may want to explore these more when doing future self-directed projects too, so they are good to keep and reflect on.

Exercise: What’s your working process? 

Different illustrators work in different ways. Many of the elements of your creative working process will be similar to what we’ve outlined, but there may be variations, different emphasis in different places, areas that need development or particular strengths. Reflect on the projects you’ve been involved with up to this point. Write a short outline of your working process. Include flow diagrams if it helps describe how you work. Be as honest as you can about how you actually undertake project work. Reflect on your relationship to ‘finishing’ your artwork in your learning log. Is this an area you struggle with? Identify how you might get around this issue.

How would you describe your creative working process?

   I would describe my creative work process as very thought through. I like to think about all the ideas based on a subject and push myself to create something that is outside the box, pushes my talent and discover something that no one else has created yet

   I find that I am great at thinking in the mornings and when it comes to creating illustrations I am more of a night owl. I work in the afternoons at a company, so I use my time wisely. I use the mornings for writing up research and planning out ideas and the evenings for creating actual work.

What stages do you go through?

     What I usually do is I look at the idea or the brief that has been given to me and to begin I start writing down notes and ideas that I think would be interesting. I always jot down the most common things that I can think of first so this list is called my ‘no no list’ which means that these are the most common things that artists would come up with so I try to avoid them and keep exploring until I come across something which I feel excited about. My idea has to be something I've never seen before. I take in o consideration who its aimed for and what age group.

     Once I found my idea I then do another mind map but this time explore the idea that I have come up with. I usually then write down key words and explore the subject. I begin to sketch out ideas. I usually try to think of as many different layouts and ways I can do my idea until I feel that I have exhausted exploring all options. When this happens I go back to my mindmap of ideas just to make sure I've not missed anything and I'm still happy with what I am going to do.

    After I have done and looked at all the illustrations of different layouts and designs, I then pick out a design and then draw it out as a final draft. I test out various mediums to see what will work best for the project given, If there is colour involved I scan in the final design in to my computer and print if of the practice and experiment with color relationships in the design. I think of which colours best would create the atmosphere I want for in design.

    With all the pre sketches and colour choices I also write a lot of notes by the side of my sketched ideas and colours. These are my thoughts at the time that I refer back to about ways I can improve my idea or notes to remember to when I come to doing the final illustration.

    Once I'm happy with my idea then begins creating the illustration. As I go along I tend to write notes on a jotter pad which I refer back to later to write up my process. This helps to remember problems I came across or a mid change of an idea as I go along.I find this very helpful because when you're in the zone creating something I find it difficult to keep going back and forth to my PC to write notes so having a notepad and Pen beside me is useful.

    When I'm creating a final illustration I do my very best to create what I have designed sometimes I come across difficulties and problems which I face head on and work out how to get past them to create my idea. If I end up getting quite frustrated I will come away from my art desk for 30-minutes to do something else and then go back to my desk to really look at it usually I find that this helps to refresh my thinking and work out what I need to do next in order to achieve the final illustration.

    Once the work is finished I usually take it and show my husband and see what he thinks. Sometimes he is very helpful and highlights areas which could be better or notices that I've missed something from my original idea. I find it useful to have someone else to look at to make sure they understand the story within the illustration. When I am finally happy with it I then praise myself for achieving and succeeding on a task. I then go to my blog and type up my notes and add photos which I have taken along the way. I also try to take time-lapse videos when I can to show my working progress. This helps to Showcase my actual progression throughout a project and reflect on the final outcome.

As well as following through projects, I also sketch something each day and fill my sketch books with ideas and it helps to keep my drawing skills fresh. I find it also helps mentally as it is relaxing and I get enjoyment out of it.  

How do you undertake research?
   First of all when I begin to think of ideas, I like to get out of my art room and go to a different space. There is so much surrounding me there and I find it too busy! Great to work in, but I find I need a clear space to think in. In summertime I find outside in the back garden is really refreshing hearing all the sounds of nature and also my two bunnies are there. I find it soothing and helps me to feel relaxed. My mind is clear and it helps me to think about a project. If it's a rainy day I find the spare room best as no one goes there and it's very quiet.

    I undertake research first by exploring the ideas in my head. I then also sketch some rough ideas and note down my thoughts. Mind-maps are so useful and helpful to explore my thinking. I also note down keywords based around the project. For further research I look online for information on the subject and also look at other artists' work for inspiration. I like to create something that I can't see that is out there. It's really inspiring when I look at other artists' work because they have different ways of thinking and when I see their ideas it helps me to think about my own ideas and put them into place.

    I also have quite a substantial amount of books in my art room which I also go through depending on the subject which help me and guide me to where I want to be. I gather all my thoughts together and spend an hour or so away from my art room contemplating which would be the best idea to do. I then decide on my idea, do a bit more research online and in my books to make sure it is the right idea. It has to be something that I feel excited about in order for me to put all my heart into it to give it 110% of my efforts.

How and when do you critique your work and what questions do you ask yourself?

     I critique my work once I've done some research and draft thumbnail illustrations to discover my idea. First of all I ask myself which one is the right idea? Does it look attractive?  What can I do to improve them? Is it outside the box thinking? Will it make an impact on my viewers? Is it clear and easy to understand? And does the quality of my idea answer the brief given?

     When I come across problems whilst creating the final illustration, I also critique myself having come across a problem without thinking that I would have it the first place. I then also have a look if I have made an error and realise what I could have done instead or if I can amend it. I also critique my work once I've finished my final illustration. Also I look at it and critique it based on what I could have done better? what I could have changed if there's an area I don't like? and what other ideas may have been successful if I hadn't done this one? I love critiquing my work as it helps me to push myself and inspires me to do better on the next project.

How do you manage your time?

    I manage my time by having an app on my phone and selecting different times to give myself with breaks in between working on illustrations as I feel it helps you go away and come back with a refreshed look on things. I also think it helps to have a deadline so you don't take such a long time on one subject, after all there is a lot of our work to get done. I also make sure I have water by my side and a bit of food as when I get in the zone I tend to forget to do anything else and just focus on my project.

    Generally I make sure within a week that I have one day off for myself. I work 25 hours a week at a reception, 20 hours a week working on my paper portrait business and also fitting in a degree. So time for me is crucial in order to complete everything I need to do each week.

    Lists are really helpful, I do one each day with things I want to complete within that day. If I don't get it all done I just add them on to my list for the following day. It's great and helps you remember all the things you need to accomplish. Also seeing these lists ticked off motivates you to show how hard and productive you are being.

    I have a diary that I write in each morning too. I found in the morning you have a clear head so it's good to write down what you want from your day and reflect how well yesterday went. I really have to be hard on myself as it is very hard to be motivated to stick to your schedule that you have given yourself. In order for me to do that,I make sure I book in my free time where I can do normal things.

Where are the sticking points?
   My sticking points are mainly at the start of a project when I'm thinking of ideas to do. As I am so    creative I have so many ideas and at the start of a project I struggle to pick one. I overcome this by doing a lot of research and thinking to finally decide on what I need to do sometimes this could take me a day or it could actually take me a week depending on the project and also my ideas.

    Another sticking point is when something goes wrong during creating a final of an illustration. I tend to get frustrated when it's not going as I have planned so the best way to overcome this kind of sticking point is to get away from my desk and do something else and while I'm doing something else I tend to think of how I can overcome the issue to progress to create my final work.

What do you think are your strengths and where do you need to develop further?
I think my strengths are:

• Creativity
• Good imagination
• Using paper as a medium
• Drawing characters
• Choosing colours that work well together
• Thought process and exhausting an idea
• Thinking positive
• Persistent
• Great as experimentation
• Great at compositions

My Weaknesses are:

•  Sometimes it takes longer than planned on a project (I must try to work in times I give myself to help me learn to work with deadlines. However sometimes problems do come up. If this is the case just learn from it for you next project)

• My work is more towards characters, lack of realistic illustrations (this is due to what perhaps Im comfortable with at the same I really enjoy creating character this is why I feel I would fit in well with Childrens Illustration. When sketching in a sketchbook try to do realistic drawing of things I am interested in like nature, food and interesting objects. This in time will help improve the quality of my work.)

• Creating perspective (I have always had trouble with this. I am getting better but I do need to push myself because If I want to get into children's illustration this is a must for backgrounds in my story telling work.)

• Drawing people (I need a lot more practice for this. I am doing the Drawing 2 course next so I am hoping to practice this a lot more and study the human form better to improve)

• Take a while to decide on a project (I think this only improves with age, I need to keep focused on briefs and self directed ideas and don't be too hard on myself to create some good ideas. I think I do put a lot of pressure on myself at this stage in my process but that is only because I want to create something great.)

What’s the process of finishing your work? and Is this an area you struggle with? 

    Fortunately I don't struggle with finishing work. Like I mentioned above the main thing I struggle with is thinking of an idea. I have actually brought a book the other day called The Creative Licence' which has had good reviews to help with inspiration and picking ideas. It has had a lot of good reviews. I am hoping this will help me with my struggle at the start of my process. As far as finishing work I think because I struggle at the start trying to think of an idea and then eventually come up with an amazing, I just love to create it to see the finish illustration idea in front of me.

I can understand though ways that people could be affected when finishing work such as below:

• Wanting the work to be perfect
• Too much time spending on tweaking the illustration
• Not happy with the outcome
• Take too long in creating it
• Too much pressure
• knowing when its finished

   All the above can create issues when completing your work. I find I thrive on finishing a project as I love to see my outcome. Everyone is different to how they work. I use to be a perfectionist before I started this degree 7 years ago. I have come such a long way and now feel confident when knowing when my work is finished. I think my art business has also had an input in this too  I have learned to not put too much pressure on myself and enjoy what I am making. If you love an idea I find that my talent shines through my finished work. I do tweak some of my work afterwards but only a little I like showing imperfections in my work  because is it of a traditional style. It helps give it originality and character to my work.