George Cunningham Illustration @georgecunninghamillustration - Tumblr Blog

Potential Client List

Recently I’ve been looking into potential clients I’d like to possible work for in the future. Since I’ve always struggled with what I actually want to do after graduating this years PDP has answered some questions of mine. The potential client list has made it clear to me that I’d like to work on pattern, surface and packaging. From this I looked into various uk clients. Such as; Butterfly Cannon, a ‘luxury packaging design agency’.

Contrado, a London based company who specialise in fabric, homeware and clothing products. Contrado is another client I’d like to work for because of the opportunities they can offer along side the support of their creatives.

A more ambitious client would be Cath Kidston, a well known retail store who's prints/illustrations are pattern based and vintage inspired. I’d like to create an identity within my illustration/pattern work which Cath Kidston has, it is a goal I’d like to achieve.

Meanwhile, looking into other potential clients I thought about editorial work. It’s always a place to start when looking for clients so I thought about Independent, The Daily Mail and even the Gardeners World Magazine. The Gardeners World magazine being closer to home for me because my work is influence heavily by nature and has an environmentally conscious ethos. I could see some how my work would fit into a magazine like this.

Illustrated by Tanja Wilmot

With finding possible client I struggled because at the moment I still don’t know what I want to do in the future. For now my aim is to specialise in something and refine it.

#pdp #pdp3

After my prototype I went onto creating these designs above. I did come across some issue however. For a start, the material I used was balsa wood.... A wrong decision on my part, it’s so flimsy and weak, it broke very easily however, it burnt less and was lighter in weight. In the building of the tiny homes I came across more issues, only minor but things I could change. Slight measurement alterations and orientation of element are what needed adjusting which I did.

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Illustrator/Authorstrator Tiny House Movement

As my project grew and I decided to try laser cutting, my skills in laser cutting also developed. I have never laser cut before nor have I prepared a file for laser cutting yet I picked it up instantly and designed multiple 3d designs in the form of flat pack models. Above is my first 3mm MDF prototype of a 3D model. The top image showing how it is before you build it. I then used my new skills to develop more elaborate designs.

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Illustrator/Authorstrator Proposal

I want to explore the process e.g converting a shed into a ‘tiny home’. Additionally, I want to do this by explaining how to create a ‘tiny home’ through an illustrative process such as info graphs or exploded diagrams meanwhile, showing who they could be aimed for and the reason to create one such as, a studio for a student, a place to study away from distractions. I also want to look at the pros and cons of converting a structure such as a shed into a place to reside. Exploring the ‘Tiny House Movement’, a movement where more and more people are changing their lifestyle by downsizing their home into 100-400 square foot of space opposed to the typical 2,600 square foot home, I will use as much knowledge and use it to develop my project. The tiny house movement is currently most popular in USA however, the word is spreading and people are building their own tiny homes all around the world. In the USA, a housing and financial collapse in 2008-2012 led many people to lose their jobs, homes and even retirement plans which led some people take their lives in their own hands and discover the tiny lifestyle, one which has ecological responsibility, financial benefits, independence and freedom. However, this movement isn’t for everyone, living tiny means giving up most of your possessions and only have the things you really need in life due to the lack of space but to some it’s just a simpler way of life. There is also another movement which is very similar, ‘Bus Life’. In addition to the tiny house movement, bus life is practically the same thing but living in a vehicle which has been converted into a home for living. This may be another movement I will look into along the development of the project.

As some initial primary research, I have gone through the process of converting a shed into ‘living space’/ studio so I have some brief knowledge on the process and what to expect people want to know. Important information such as, structure, legality, cost, security, insulation/heating and storage etc. Additionally, the community of people interested in ‘tiny living’ including people who actually live tiny and even off grid will inform my project. I could interview such people and possibly get in contact with some companies such as the local company, Dwelle (http://www.dwelle.co.uk) and (http:// micro-house.co.uk). I could possibly even visit various destinations which tiny livers dwell and interview them. This community is getting more and more popular due to things such as, economy, global warming and even people’s happiness, some people want a “simpler” lifestyle. I wish to look into structure/size, layout, cost, heating, sustainability, environmental impact and location etc. I will use these to inform my project and the work produced. Additionally, articles on sustainable living/housing, books such as ‘Tiny House Living’ by Ryan Mitchell and even documentaries such as ‘SMALL is Beautiful: A Tiny House Documentary’ will help me inform and develop my project and the work produced. I also will be looking at info graphics (http:// www.informationisbeautiful.net) and deconstructed diagrams such as the Haynes manuals and the work of Todd Mclellan (http://www.toddmclellan.com/commercial).

#pdp

For the illustrator/authorstartor project I went with the information overload brief. I initially got stuck on what to do and force infographics into my mind which i quickly found out is not my thing. I wanted to create a project around the ‘Tiny House Movement’. After development and research I came up with the idea of creating literal tiny homes, a product for people to build, to illustrate how to ‘go tiny’. This also led me to packaging, and pattern similar to the future self project.

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Professional Practice Talk

I’ve been very fortunate to have had many opportunities to attend talks from many creative people including, Emma Reynolds, Barney Ibbotson, Brian Grimwood, Olivier Kugler, Chris Madden and others. All of which have been very interesting, informative and stress relieving. As a student, you often worry about getting work after you graduate but each one of these professional have mentioned that it has taken years to get where they are and the thing is that it is a journey to get where they are.

http://www.maddenillustration.co.uk/#/adweek/

One thing Emma mentioned in her professional practice talk was that she didn’t just fall into a full time job or freelance, she got a part time job after graduating, this is what I’ve picked up from many talks is that it is a smart idea to get a part time job in the creative/design world. This allows you to have time freelance and build up your clients and focus on your work meanwhile, getting a steady income and gaining skills from the real world. Emma also told us more about tax, and claiming yourself as a business which was an information overload but it was good, it let me understand how to make my first steps into the world straight out of graduation. In a talk from Chris Howker, he told us that he is a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to clients but Emma Reynolds is the opposite, keeping on top of her work and payments as soon as possible, this just goes to show people work differently and we will have to find our way of working.

http://www.barneyibbotson.com/#/manchester-mural/

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Tutorial Feedback - Project Two -Tiny House Movement

Summarising my feedback for Illustrator/Authorstrator. I started the project trying to figure out what brief to do, after a lot of back and fourth I decided on information overload. I wanted to do a project based on shed life which through development this quickly changed to the Tiny House Movement. A movement in which people are downsizing their regular homes to a space of around 400 square foot, tiny! I started by worrying too much about the brief which made me focus on infographics which is not my thing. In my tutorial feedback I was told I spent too much time worrying and some advice I received was to just create, forget about the brief because it will develop and structure itself over time. After I received this advice I had a quick turn around and started developing the project. My worrying prevented me from progressing my work further. Once the project was developing I came up with the idea of creating a laser cut product to advertise tiny living and how to downsize. I got asked what my context was, I thought it was the fact I had a product however, I got told to develop this, think about the company behind the product. I responded by creating a business plan and company design. A suggestion to develop my project was to create multiple products as a product range with correlating packaging and get these photograph. In my most recent feedback a suggestion was to maybe film the tiny house product rotating on a platform for digital mediums thinking about presentation and finishes. Relating to finishes, the interior of my box has a different colour palette to my exterior design I was advised to edit the colour to fit more with the exterior design to make everything look connected and maybe create a few different interior designs. For my mid feedback my agreed action plan was to create 2 laser cut tiny homes, one painted and flat and one painted and made. Get them photographed in context and film the product rotating on a platform for digital mediums and sell the business as a concept for sustainable living.

#pdp3 #pdp

Portfolio Feedback

Over the past couple of years I have been having portfolio reviews from many creative people such as; The Chase, Brian Grimwood (HOW LUCKY AM I!?), WeAreFlow, Beth Mills and more. Each review gave me an outsiders insight on my work. Overall, I am very happy with the responses I have been receiving and the constructive criticism has been so helpful in preparing my portfolio.

The first thing I will mention is to have your portfolio ready to show, you do not want to show someone, especially a professional an unfinished portfolio. It will reflect badly on you and be straight up embarrassing. Luckily, I haven't had to experience this yet apart from minor outdated information which has no been updated. I would also like to start of by saying people love handouts and physical portfolios, Flow called mine ‘an old school portfolio’. A well presented portfolio is a not just to show your work, it’s showcasing what you are about. A shoddy, juice soaked portfolio is not going to reflect well on you so keep it clean and professional. Neat, tidy and aligned, good paper stock and quality prints are all thing you need for a professional portfolio.

To summarise my reviews I can mention a few things that popped up a couple of times. The first being my use of colour, I feel that I struggle with colour however, after these portfolio reviews it turns out I’m not so bad after all. My last two reviews have said I have a great use of colour throughout my portfolio. One suggestion I got about the colour of my images was that a couple were too dark, they needed brightening up, which I did and now I haven’t had any negative criticisms on that. The next thing I heard a lot of was to make sure each page has alignment from one to another, there is nothing worse than a portfolio that is out of alignment on each page, it just looks unprofessional. Relating to layout I got one suggestion to be bolded with my layouts for example, my condiments page, the suggestion was to simply have one element like the ketchup bottle and place it on one whole page meanwhile the rest of them keep them on the next page. An interesting piece of feedback I got from Flow was that they would love to see sketches and processes in the back of my portfolio. I haven’t heard this from anyone before however, I really like the idea of it. Showing a client how I got to the final piece is just as important as the final piece.

I worry that my work doesn’t always look like it is from the same person. Now I’ve have both negative and positive feedback about this. Starting with the negative, as a portfolio consistency is key to advertising professionalism and advertising exactly who you are now I’ve also had feedback saying that it’s not bad to have variety, it’s a good thing because it shows I have versatility. A note I picked up on was that it all depends on who you are showing the portfolio too. Agencies, companies and clients all vary on their opinions on what a good portfolio is about. So stick to your guns and be confident in your decisions of what you are putting in your portfolio or have a mini portfolio they can keep to showcase all your work.

Another major thing to note down is context, always show your work in context even if it is a menu or a book cover. By doing this it is making it easier for whoever you’re showing your portfolio to understand how and where your work can be applied. This seems to be the most important piece of advice because I received it off everyone. I have images of my work in context in my portfolio but there never can be too much context!

I would also like to add that getting these portfolio really give you confidence, especially when Brian Grimwood likes your work! I have received so many tricks, tips, advice and constructive criticisms from these reviews.

http://www.briangrimwood.com

http://www.weareflow.uk

http://www.thechase.co.uk

#pdp #pdp3

Tutorial Feedback - Project One

Summarising my feedback for Future Self p1. For the Kosmonaut Exhibition I responded quickly and efficiently, using my digital skills to re-create my gouache typography in just four selected colours. I am please with the outcome however, a suggestion I received was to do the full A-Z which is what I aim to do for the future. This would produce a whole collection of typographic illustration of toxic plants.

The feedback for the packaging and pattern design project was pleasing. I am happy with the final outcome however, I wish I did a collection. A suggestion I got back in the feedback was to create my own branding because Pukka Tea is already a very established product. I completely agree with this and I may continue this in part two. I got positive and constructive feedback about how I have a large bulk of work, showing, lots of research, experimenting such as, paper test, designs and colour schemes. A suggestion was to look at finishes for the box such as debossing/embossing/foiling and maybe create labels for the tea bags.

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Future Self - Part one

After lots of playing about drawing and mono printing, I wasn’t getting the desired effect I wanted initially. So, I decided to use my digital skills to produce a vector pattern design. Above is the final design I created for the Star Anise and Cinnamon tea packaging. I used my mono print and digitally reproduced them and arranged then within adobe illustrator. Making patterns was a new skill for me so I wasn’t as quick as I wanted to be. However, I now have the hand of it and recently discovered the ‘Make Pattern’ option in illustrator making alignment and composition a lot easier instead of manually changing x and y axis on the edge elements to make it a continuous pattern.

Above is the final package design fully created with information, logos etc. Overall, I am very pleased with this design however, next time I’d like to create more. I lost track of time playing about with pattern making and learning new things. Now I have the skills to make patterns, I want to create more tea packaging. Maybe my own branding. I also want to look into textile production.

#rr #pdp #pdp3

Study sketches, mono prints and digital designs I created before coming up with the final pattern I used for the re-design of packaging. I creates loads of mono prints because I wanted to give the pattern I created a natural and traditional feel. I had to consider that Pukka Tea package design is very beautiful already so maybe I needed to create my own brand. This is maybe what I should do for Future Self Part 2.

#rr #pdp

Future Self Part 1

Straight after the Kosmonaut exhibition we jumped into the next part of the semester, Future Self part 1. We got briefed to have two outcome, I chose package design range with pattern design as the supporting outcome. Pattern design and packaging is something I’ve always been interested in, so I was excited to do this project.

I started the project researching into packaging and what products I could create designs for. After looking at beer, soap, food packages, among other, I decided to create a new pattern for Pukka Tea. Then looking into the range of flavours I decided to start with Star Anise and Cinnamon. Taking in consideration of the product, I knew the design had to shout star anise an cinnamon. So, this is where I took my project further. Creating mono prints, digital illustrations and sketches of star anise and cinnamon.

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Kosmonaut Exhibition-Chroma

After summer we had been given a task to create a piece to put in an exhibition in Kosmonaut, Manchester. We had to produce this work using a limited colour palette and in response to our summer work in a short span of time. Above is what I produced while working on this project. I was forced to quickly respond due to the time schedule which I actually enjoyed. Probably because the design side went so smoothly for me. Usually I struggle using the right colours but being put under pressure like this allowed me to ignore my pickiness and just create the perfect balance between colours.

Above is what I exhibited. Throughout this process I learnt some valuable notes to keep in my head for future projects like this. The main being don’t leave it two days before the exhibition to print the final because or if you do make sure you have back up printers available because I wasn’t happy with the final quality of print.

Above

#Kosmonaut #illustration #a-z

A-Z

During the summer I decided to start and A-Z of toxic flowers. After multiple ideas on what I could do for an A-Z spanning from A-Z of kink illustrated with cartoon bunnies in a humorous fashion to an A-Z of textures. I came to the conclusion that I wanted do create something with what I enjoy, nature. I didn’t just want to do an A-Z of herbs or random flowers, so I researched a bit and came across an A-Z of toxic plants using the scientific names and the toxicity of the plant. I knew I had to do this! I started off by looking through the list an choosing which flowers I wanted to draw.

http://charlottedaydesign.com/#/lush/

I then came across Charlotte Day’s Illustrations for Lush cosmetics. I loved how the illustration wraps in and around the text which is where I got inspiration for my A-Z Illustrations.

After deciding to go down the traditional route I started to paint the plants. Above is my gouache painting of Amaranthus Caudatus, medicinal yet has toxicity levels. By its scientific name I’m using this plant as ‘A’.

My next step was to scan my paintings and digital add the corresponding letter meanwhile, using the idea of weaving in and out of the type I developed the above. I’m happy with the A and B however the C is barely visible which I later fixed by duplicating the painting digitally and re-arranging so the C is more visible. These then further led me to my work I produced for the Kosmonaut Exhibition in Manchester.

#a-z #illustration

Skills Audit & Action Plan

After observing my own skills, to see which skills I personally feel the need to improve on, I have made note on how I want to improve them throughout the year. The skills I feel the need to improve on throughout the year are ; working to deadlines, online presence, working in a team, understanding and keeping on top of trends and being able to use colour effectively.

Working to deadlines… I’m a procrastinator until the last steps of a project, I get the work done however, occasionally I’m not 100% happy with the final outcome so this year I want to keep on top of this by setting daily/weekly tasks to complete and create a plan of action to keep me on track and prevent me from going off on a tangent and procrastinating.

Online presence is a major thing I feel the need to improve on, since it’s such a great opportunity to promote yourself and show others what you and your work is about. I want to improve on this by firstly setting up my E-mail and creating an Instagram account dedicated to my work and try to post daily. As of this point I haven’t yet made the Instagram account but I am planning on doing it shortly.

Working in a team… Bane of my life, not because I don’t get along with people, it’s just the fact that I don’t enjoy working with other people. I feel there are certain creative restrictions working as a team can have. It’s exactly the same feeling as working in a certain space that you feel comfortable which furthers your enjoyment in the process vice versa in a place you don’t feel comfortable in you simple either don’t want to do the work or don’t produce the best work to your ability. For me it’s a personal preference, I prefer to work independently however, I’m not against team work. So I work improve this by simply enjoying team work more.

Understanding trends is a major thing in the creative industry because trends can have a lot of influence on especially online. This factors into the online presence, I need to get online more and see what other illustrators are doing, what’s trending and jump on the ‘band wagon’ but in my own way because trends could be a great way to get your work a presence online.

Lastly is colour, I always struggle with palettes so this year I want to research colour and understand it more so I don’t waste time dwelling on what colour to use on my illustrations, especially on my pattern designing.

#pdp #pdp3

I wish I had done this.

For the majority of the personal project I have spent my time on experimenting and trying to develop a thought process and a plan. I have wasted a bit of my time procrastinating which I wish I didn’t, due to time I didn’t achieve the furthest goal I wanted to which would have been to create a pattern such as the above, Timorous Beasties- Opera Botanica. It’s such a delicate and intricate piece that you know time has been spent on creating it. I wish I had figured out within the first few weeks of the project what I wanted to do (Pattern) and spend most my time creating high quality patterns such as this, even if I ended up with just one.

#IWIHDT

Personal Project (Update)

In the application of pattern process I have been slowly leaning toward surface design such as, wall hanging, mugs, pencil cases, aprons etc. Basically, thinking about the audience my work is aimed at which for this pattern I have recently created would be for people who are in to “arty-shit”. Whether it’s sowing, printing, painting, drawing or collecting, I believe I have achieved the target audience with this piece. Again it’s just what to apply it too.

#pdp #rr

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