Summative Position Statement

Summative Position Statement 

So I have come along way in the development of my ideas and feel this has been invaluable to me in these later stages of the degree. I have learnt that in order to create a professional standard of work I must continue to develop my ideas by repeating the design over and over but with any changes I feel will improve the final out come. These changes can sometimes be very subtle things such as line quality or could be more significant such as a complete change of subject matter. This has already proved a winner when it comes to customer satisfaction, for example, with the recent brief I have just done for some private clients, the stages of repetition helped me to create a range of different images that they were able to choose from. They where very happy with the choices I gave them to pick from and felt more in control of their design by having choice. This technique I feel is going to help me as I continue to build up my logo and designs for my brand LIVRID and will enable me to have a quality range of designs I can try to sell on and build up a reputation.

I am really going to focus a lot of my time on getting LIVRID going and out in the alternative music, board and lifestyle industries. By producing more then just garments of clothing and applying my designs to other items that can help me get to more potential customers. To showcase my work further I am take these products to markets and events where I can hold a stall and come to face to face with customers. I will continue to update my portfolio and different social media with the work I’m producing in the hope this will reach out to more people seeing my work.

Focusing on my brand will enable me to continue my understanding of screen-printing and develop the confidence to print other people’s work as I feel this could be another source of income that would enable me to build my equipment and knowledge of the medium.

I will also try to get freelance work from more people that want me to design or illustrate their ideas. The fact that I have been approached by several individuals to ask if I would be up for working with them on their projects has shown me that there is a market for my work.

Along side of all of this I am going to have to take on more part time work, which is not ideal but is necessary to have a stable income to contribute towards living costs. That said I am applying for jobs that are in creative environments or places I’m able to continue to network with creative people. So far I have applied to be a shop worker in a paint shop in town and also to a local college to be a technician on they art and design programs.

End of Module Student Evaluation

End of Module Student Evaluation

BA(hons) Illustration

Module Code: PPP3 OUIL602

Name:

Student ID:

Please identify where the evidence for each of the learning outcomes is within your submission and how well you feel you have met the learning outcomes. Please also grade yourself in relation to the learning outcomes using terms:

> poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent (Note- This is so that the team have an understanding of how well you feel you have done. It is not an indication of the actual grade you may receive)

Learning Outcome	Evidenced where? Blog, Sketchbook, Roughs Final Illustrations, development sheets etc.  (No more than 75 words)	Your grade Using words: > poor, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent
6A3 Demonstrate specific knowledge and specialist understanding of the professional and contextual location of their practice. Knowledge and Understanding - RESEARCH	Blog, sketchbook, final illustrations	Satisfactory
6B2 Undertake research to identify and evaluate their personal and professional skills and the career or progression opportunities available to them. (Cognitive Skills - EVALUATION & REFLECTION	BLOG, Sketchbook,	Satisfactory ß
6C2 Develop and implement a personal promotion strategy to communicate to relevant organisations. Practical & Professional Skills - VISUAL QUALITY)	BLOG, Sketchbooks, Final Illustraions	good
6D2 Use a range of appropriate communication methods to present themselves as a professional practitioner to a relevant audience. Key Transferable Skills - PROFESSIONALISM & COMMUNICATION	BLOG , sketchbook, Final Illustraions	satisfactory

Evaluation (See guidance below for more information)

You are required to write a 500 word evaluation of this module.

I was unsure at the beginning of the year where I wanted my practice to go. I tried to find a area that I could fit in to and my work would be accepted by others. I quickly realized that most of my recent work had a transgrestive feel and that I should concentrate on this area. With me drawing a lot of skull as this is my passion I thought why not just My real focuses has been on my hand drawn work and how I can produce this to a standard that needs very little digital editing before it is taken from drawing to product. I don’t mind using software such as Photoshop to clean up my work but I feel this can sometimes take away the charm that ‘handcrafted’ seems to have. I have used a variety of techniques and many different types of pen to find ones that do what I need them to do and translate my movements to marks that have movement to them . From tis I have begin to see that my work could be sold under a brand image as I produce a lot of images that would fit happy in the alternative music scene and be accepted to the heavy metal world. I have learnt to really focus on not using my first idea for the final design but to work on this over and over and over again. With the skulls that im drawing at first it was hard to draw them over and other again and get them to appear the same but I quickly realized it was working and that not all of them had to be like photocopy’s of each other for them to be seen as the same work. Now taking these methods and way of producing work and turning into products, This is where the whole unit has slowed right down as I am yet to get into my shed to print due to finances, but taking a turn as some of the commons I have done recently are been paid for and this will give me some funds to buy equipment I need to get my brand of the ground.  I have researched and shopped around to find the products I want to be able to produce products of a good standard. Also to my surprise some individuals have approached me to produces illustrations and designs for them. I have completed one of these so far and I’m just awaiting payment.  I have found this to be a nice experience and how well it went working with clients and the fact I have not had to evaluate every step I feels has help my creativity flow. I am going to try find more work that is working with other clients as I feel this is a area I have shied away from do to my confidence in my work but since been approached by clients its given my confidence a real boost.

presentaion

Presentaion Boards

Portfolio -Studio Brief 2

Mars Attacks
This poster was done to be part of a Fan Art show the course put on at a local comic book shop The Traveling man. I have added this to my portfolio as its one of my favorite designs iv done in the past few months.

Grunhilda - VW camper 

I was asked to make two designs with skulls, a yorkshire rose and the name Grunhilda. These where to be put on the side of a 1964 Splitscreen VW Camper my all time favorite vehicle.
These have also been my very first paid commission work which is nice and also terrifying, but it all went really well and the van owners where over the moon with the designs. Just waiting for them to be applied to the vehicle for some final images.

Out OF Order - Show poster

Gig Posters and Record Sleeves

This is a selection of Record and Gig poster that I have made for my favorite various bands,

DEATHEARTH

This is from one of the second year briefs personally its one of my favorite images i created whilst at LCA.

Updated Creative CV

Promo Pack - Studio Brief 2

When coming up with the promo products that i could give out to potential customers/clients I want to produce products that have a practical use not just things that are ready for the bin due to the poor quality or the fact its just a business card that gets put in a pocket and forgot about. Id like to produce product for promoting my brand that have a practical use. So here's what im proposing to be in my

PROMO PACK

Add caption

Business Cards / Mini Prints -

A selection of different business cards so people have a choice of design to choose from.
These can also double up as a set of mini prints that could be given out in a pack because sometimes things look better as a set.  Print them out at a slightly larger size then business card and on some nice stock paper.

I have also done a few of these hand drawn as I feel a nice hand business card has a nice feel to it and its abit more personal.

Car Air freshener -

Freshen up the smell and look of your car because not everyone likes a tree dangling. These would take pride of place in someones car and could advertise myself to others that may travel in the car also.

Totebag -

Cheap to produce and quick to produce, can even have two different designs one for each side of the bag. Not sure about these as personally im not a huge fan and they can look right cheap.

Wrapping paper one sheet

Who doesn't run out of wrapping paper and need some at the last minute, well here i can supply people with that emergency sheet just in.

Tea Towel

With this same design which i do like myself very much I can see it fitting well on a tea towel which i know from previous external projects these are cheap and good quality to make, And you dont see many tea towels like this.
All that is needed is to make the design more rectangular in length and it will fit straight on to a tea towel.

See.....

Badges/small Stickers

So by selecting areas of my other designs which would make a good visual for a small badge or small sticker. These would be cheap er to produce then some of my other ideas and would be nice to send out in orders or on a stall if i was to do some art fares.

I have used designs that are on my business cards as this will save me time designing products and gives some similarities with what i'm handing out.

YOUR VISUAL IDENTITY. - Studio Brief 2

Skulls, Death and Macabre 


Buisness Cards -

I have a thousand and one ideas that i could use for business cards, I would like to produce some of my business cards by hand too make them extra special but also have plenty made up to hand out as a contact or just if people like my work as a little free sample with how to find more of my work by my information on.

Here is a selection of the designs i have made up into buisness cards. I draw that many different designs that may never see the light of day but by having multiple different card designs i can used these unused designs to promote what i do. As you can see every one has some sort of skull on it with shows that death themed designs are what i do and that skulls feature heavily in my practise.

These are the cards I have done by hand, each one is unique and done in drawing ink and fineliner pen, I have done them on heavy watercolour paper and its my rigged and business card quality. I really like producing my business cards this way it is quite time consuming but handing some a hand made card feels better. The only issue I have is my handwriting is terrible and this i found when trying to add my details on the back of the cards ruined them, so im thinking of getting a stamp or some black cards made so then all i need to worry about is the design. With this way of producing one off business cards i could if i started attending craft shows this could be a good gimmick at attracting customers to my work, one off art on a card just for you. 

Online Presence - Identity 

So with my different social media accounts and webpage I have kept the identity of each of these very similar to each other as this will help people identify my work straight away. By using one of my  skull designs  of some form as my header image this will show that this is my page. Keeping the overall image/identity of each Site or Page the same helps people to identify my work from the crowd as its easily recognisable.

instagram -

facebook - 

webstore -

tumblr - 

I have worked on my own style of skull for along time and have developed it into what it is today. this i feel now has its own unique qualities that identifies the style of the image as my own, I will continue to develop this logo as my career develops and my image making skills evolve.

Online presence - Studio Brief 2

Web Store/Site  - Big Cartel

http://livrid.bigcartel.com/ -
I have used Bigcartel as my platform for my work as I have used this site in the past and feel I have a basic understanding of how it works. It also has a number of positive aspects;

• Easy to upload products to be sold. 
• You can upload and customise the layout and appearance of your page so it suites the work that's on it. I
• Easy for people to buy using paypal and card payments.

I feel that a good thing about using BigCartel over the other sites such as etsy is based on how popular the site is with other users and the amount using it. This can be a good thing for the owners of the web site but I feel with the likes of etsy is it's so over saturated with everyone who's anyone creative using it, this I feel this can limit the amount of people directed to your space on the sight. As you have to sithhed though hundreds of others users making similar work that is then in the same place as yours competing to be bought.

One thing I'm waiting to change is my web address but I need to upgrade my account to be able to use livrid.co.uk which I now own. I will also need to continue to add the products to sell and add pages such as a portfolio page which I can show my past and present images. This will be filled up with merchandise very soon once I pull my finger out and start printing my designs on to garments of clothing.

One of the only downsides is the fact you have to pay a monthly fee to be able to upgrade and have more use of the features that are on the website such as the use of my own domain address, to be able to set limits on products so you can track what stock you have sold or have left, to see where the traffic to the website is coming from and if the methods i have in place work at getting people to my page. But this is not a high fee $9.99 which is just over £8 a month so seems a worthy investment.


I will be adding a link to this page to my other social media pages to bring potential customs directly to my products.

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/livrid/ -
Only ever used to show my creative side and the work I produce, its the site I keep up to date the most with my illustrations and images. Using hashtags to mark my work with the methods and subject matter in order to increase the amount of people it's shown to.
Instagram is my favorite place to show off my work and i feel this is due to how simple the site is to use and it's available as an app which is my personal preference. All you have to do is upload a file of your work and post it and thats it, no having to right sentimental messages or say anything that makes you look bigger and cleverer then the next person at all if you dont want. I personally like to add a title and then using the hashtag processes to tag my work with the subject matter and the methods I have used to produce the image, I feel this just helps to broaden the number of people that may click on my image via the hashtagged word.
The only downside is again the amount of accounts on this site due to it being one of the most popular of the social media sites in the world. This has a massive impact as the site is not just used by people in the creative industry, you have to compete with millions of others particularly sifting through pages of selfies which is all too often what is saturating instagram in the current day. This often means your work may go unseen by many.

Instrgram

Facebook Page
www.faceboom.com/livrid

I have set up a page on facebook to try promote myself on there too but due to me not using the social media site as much as I used to this has had an effect on the content been applied to the page . Also the fact that all they seem to do is get money out of you to use the account as a business or to promote yourself. But it does have the most amount of users that could potentially see my work. If i had the money i would try put some money into the page to see if it would be successful in bringing in new customers and potential clients, but i don't have any money so this will have to wait to be tested at a later date. 

Tumblr

livrid.tumblr.com

So I also have a Tumblr page which i have to say seems to have not been any help in recent years as i feel the website is not used as much as other platforms and this has an impact on the traffic it pulls to my other pages and sites. It feels like tumblrs days are numbered or is it i just need to make a extra effort on ot to make it work for me. 

Linkedin

www.linkedin.com

This is something new to me and I have mixed feelings on it, I'm not sure if at this time in my creative practise this networking is for me just yet. Its use is to contact and connect with other creatives but for my freelance I don't need to be adding friends on a website that do nothing. 

WEB ADDRESS

SO getting my prefered web address LIVRID.CO.UK . The idea of using my brand name as the website address feels significant. Customers can become confused if they are redirected to a site that has a completely different name. I plan to upgrade my Big Cartel site and use this as the basis of my website.

Brand Text

To keep my brand recognisable I have tryed to use the same LIVRID text on each design. I just kept it simple and not over complicated. I choose two one thats been vectored in Illustrator to keep the edges all nice and smooth and looking neat, and another thats a bit pixelated so it fits with some of my designs better, looks gritty and darker.

LIVRID LTD

I have registered LIVRID as a limited company so it is now officially LIVRID LTD, this gives me the opportunity to work a part time job along side this without it have a impacted on my tax contributions.


Also applied for a business bank account with Lloyds this is in the last stages of been accepted of denied.

UPLOAD PHOTO FROM HMRC

Buisness cards

So I have made many of my designs I had no purpose for yet in to a selection of business cards that I want to print out. I feel this is a great way to put out designs and illustrations that dont get to see the light of day otherwise. There are many more designs that i can adapt to make these with. Also These could be given out in packs as a little gift as i for one like to collect business cards for other creatives and some have even made it to be on display in my home.







Nearly forgot to make the back of these cards, so i have just put the basic info on the back of these cards Name, Website, Email, Social media and my name. Used the header text that I did for my Website header image as its clear and bold, and because its going on a business card and needs to be net and clean to give off a first good impression iv vectored the text to make it nice and smooth all round the edges.

Done one for landscape cards and portrait ones.

PORTRAIT

LANDSCAPE