Tutorial with Hayley

I have been very eager to have a tutorial with Hayley as I feel the input of some one as successful as she has been in this subject would have a lot of impact in the direction my ideas are heading, and I was sure se would be able to give me some general inspiration.

I proposed my original idea which was to rebrand a fashion event using Illustration and showed Hayley my online Portfolio so she could see the style in which I work. As I have felt that this original idea could be a very good project I was quite surprised when Hayley suggested that there would be other means of working that might benefit me alot more and allow me to produce a much more challenging project.

I found what she had to say really interesting and inspiring and it has defiantly made me think twice about the kind of work I want to produce for this project. Hayley said to " challenge your style and place it on something/somewhere that it wouldn't normally be seen". This has made me think about placing my work on publications that haven't used my style of work before, which would then allow me to prove that it can be applied elsewhere, which in its self would be challenging and inspiring = A wining combination.

Hayley mentioned that she herself has re-designed book covers, with her own work and said that I should look at Penguin who actually commission Illustrators to design their book covers. 

Another area that would provide good research material is the AOI website and looking at Vogue and Guardian archives.

"Apply Fashion Illustration To Other Elements Of Which It Wouldn't Normally Be Applied"

Hayley Potter - Illustrator

Visiting Illustrator Hayley Potter gave a talk today on her work and life as an Illustrator in the industry. Her work is very charming and magical, at a first glance I was really intrigued to find out more about all her funny little characters. I especially liked her animals which during her presentation she explained she used them to add a bit of animal into her human illustrations. 

There were a couple of things which Hayley talked about which really caught my attention:

• Build a portfolio of the things you would like to do (redesign book covers for a book you like)
• Placing Illustration: Placing Illustration where it wouldn't normally be placed, this really got me thinking about ideas of my FMP, also linking in with promotional material by placing my own work on T-Shirts and other media.
• SELF PROMOTION - This is something that I am really going to have to consider for this project and especially when working in the industry as I will need to make my self known. Hayley does this by sending regular emails to her mailing list, if anything to keep reminding people of you. Attending meetings and giving talks at least once a month.

Professional Project

Now it is time to pull together all that I have been taught so far and produce a project that will show my true abilities at their best. Using Illustration as my chosen specialist area I am going to bring together all of my practical and professional knowledge of this area, I am going to be working to a professional level which would be required in the industry planning and then producing a final piece which will reflect my style at industry standard.

Producing a conceptual piece that is Illustration based is going to be challenging for the next three months, I am very aware that I am going to have to select a topic that will be enough work to fill this time period, and allow me to produce a adequate final piece, but will also be challenging and realistic by means of sticking to this time scale. 

From a recent brief (greetings cards) I feel that I have finally defined my style and I would really like to challenge this further producing fashion illustrations. An initial idea that I have had which would enable me to do this is to produce all promotional material and re-brand a fashion event using fashion illustration. As far as I know most fashion events use photography rather than Illustration so this would be a challenge in itself to start off with. However I am eager to have a few tutorials first to make sure I am setting off on the right track and give me any other ideas which might be more suitable than this one.

Bridging Studies Unit

Today an email has been sent round informing us that this unit will commence on the 9th of February.  This unit requires a 2500 word essay (which is actually alot less than I thought) so in preparation to the first session I will need to have thought of a topic which I can research within the time and resources at AIB.

As I am going to be moving to Ba Illustration this essay will have to reflect this design interest.

I am very aware that I have alot of different commitments going on now so time planning is going to be essential in gaining the most out of these different tasks. Last year I did leave the assignment till quite last minute so this time I am going to manage my time and give myself enough to produce a high quality piece of text.