Whats happening now

There is always lots of different things going on that you can go and see. As in any creative industry it is good to keep up to date with whats going on in the world of design. This involves going to different  exhibitions and events to see what is current and what is working within the industry.

Here are a few events and links to web pages that i have found that are happening around England in the coming months:

Richard Hamilton was a pioneer of the pop art genre and one of the most influential artists of the last century. His work is being showcased at the Tate Modern from Thursday 13th February until Monday 26th may http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/richard-hamilton


Dick Bruna is most well known for creating the much loved children's book character Miffy. as it is coming up to his 60th anniversary since the first publication of 'The apple' the Foyles book shop is hosting an exhibition showing Dick Bruna's work on tuesday 6th August 2013  http://www.foyles.co.uk/Dick-Bruna-Exhibition

Here are a few examples of galleries that are really well known especially for exhibiting illustrations

Illustrative festival Berlin

This festival is a bi annual festival celebrating and showing art and illustration from all around the world.  This festival is not set in stone to be held at a specific time of the year and some years it is not ran at all so with things like this you have to keep up to date with what is going on and where you can exhibit your work. Festivals are great for showing your work to lost of people in a small amount of time. This festival is also particularly good for young illustrators as every year they have a young illustrators award.
Find their website here

House of Illustration

This company is great for illustrators in particular as they curate touring exhibitions, run international competitions and put on events with some of the worlds leading illustrators. They are also working towards opening up their own public gallery and education space especially for illustration. 

Find their website here

The illustration cupboard 

This is a great place for illustrators to showcase their work as this gallery is well known throughout the illustration industry. The illustration cupboard is a central London gallery that shows some of the best contemporary illustrations from around the world. This gallery is mainly focussed on children's books.

Find their website Here

keeping up with trends

Keeping track of trends is probably one of the most important parts of working in the creative industry as it keeps you ahead of the game and enables you to create and sell what people will like. It could also really help with getting inspired. it sounds strange that creative styles that are used change with the current trends but they really do so its a really important thing to consider.

There are many different ways of keeping up with current trends. Things such as:

• Buying the latest magazines.
• following companies on social media sites such as twitter, Instagram, youtube and Facebook.
• Looking at the trending topics on social media sites.
• Going to events such as art exhibitions, design shows, art conventions, fashion shows ect.
• going to big shops and looking at the displays.
• taking notice of changing trends within your local high street.
• taking notice of what shops are selling. 

Even just looking at the world around you and taking notice of what is going on can help with keeping up with trends. It is a really easy thing to do. Knowing what is going on keeps you one step ahead in the design world as the way that trends develop and evolve is with slow but sure nudges and changes. so if you think about what is in now and adapt it a bit it can help to predict what will be in within the next few months. 

Trend forecasting is another great way to check and be sure on whats on trend as they are the people that set and notice the trends that are in. There is trend forecasting for all different things, almost everything you could imagine, for example things such as fashion, colour, interior design ect. All of these companies have websites that are very clear on showing whats in and how the latest trends are developing here are a few of the companies and their websites that are really good for this:

• Colour trend forecasting: Pantone
• Fashion trend forecasting and analysis: WGSN
• Fashion trend forecasting: Trend Stop
• Design trend forecasting: stylesight
• Interior design trend forecasting: Inrerior design

Lots of different things effect how trends are influenced and change and all areas of design complement each other for example whats on trend in terms of interior design or colour will reference whats on trend in fashion or illustration. For example i looked on Trendstop and i noticed that in the trend briefings for spring/summer 2015 Pantone's colour of the year (Radiant Orchid) was referenced a lot. Here are some images to back up my findings. 

In this Trend briefing mood board for Spring/Summer 2015, the hat to the left and the petal jumper in the centre use pantone's colour of the year. 

Exhibitions

Galleries are a prefect platform for self promotion and selling your work. They are also great to see what people seem to like most about your work, this in return will help you to develop and refine creatively.

There is different types of exhibitions to suit everyone's target audience and style. To hold an exhibition or have your work on display it should be well thought through and considered before going ahead and showcasing your work. There are a few things in particular that should be considered:

• Your target audience, are you showing your work in the correct setting where your target audience will see it?
• Layout, will how you've displayed your work be visually pleasing and intrigue viewers
• Price, if you are selling your work think about and consider who will be wanting to buy it e.g business men  and women or young students. Does your price fit with the target audience.
• does your work represent your target audience well.  

Here are a few examples of exhibitions that i really like and think work well. I decided to focus on looking at the layouts and overall look rather than the art itself.

William J. O'Brien, 'The Lovers', Installation view, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris. © William J. O'Brien. Photo 

I really like the installation above because i think the bright patterns stand out really well against the white walls. I think it brings out the paintings in a really nice way. I also like how they are placed a bit mis mashed it is a nice change to the average perfectly placed gallery picture. This kind of exhibition would be good for all types of different people as it looks fun but at the same time professional.

Chicken Leg Window on the Moran Street Installation

I really love how the artwork above is displayed it is so unique and the colours work so well together. I really love the fact that the artist has utilised an old house to show art work in a creative way. This approach wouldn't really work for commercial sale unless it was done on the side of a building to promote people to come to an exhibition you might be holding. 

  I love the simplicity of the way the space within the above exhibition has been used. the layout and frames compliment the work beautifully and the monochrome colour scheme works perfectly within the art work. I think the natural wood frames bring the whole thing together. this exhibition would work well within a small gallery with a target audience of the every day person or art student i would say. I think the setting doesn't look high end enough to be targeted at more wealthy people. 

After looking at a few different exhibitions that i like i have discovered that i like exhibitions that have a bit more of a unique quirky look to them. I prefer a more junk shop look to a clean sterile looking gallery with everything placed perfectly in the centre of a wall. 

creative CV

A creative CV is different to a usual CV that you might use to get a job. it is quite similar in the fact that it documents previous things that you have done, but instead of documenting previous jobs it documents previous companies/ artists that you have worked for. It can also look more visually attractive than a normal CV as it is acceptable to personalise it with some of your creative work. The layout can also be different and un formatted compared to a traditional Cv

As i will need to create my own creative cv in the future, i have done some research into some creative cv's that i like and why i like them. I have also included a few bad creative cv's and my opinion on why i think they're bad.

The image above is a creative CV that i really like. I love how simplistic and neat it looks but at the same time it looks interesting. I really like how the artist has shown their different skills and the level of them in a pie chart format i think thats really clever. Another little detail that i think works really well is how the artist has shown the different locations that they have worked by using the little pin point logo from google maps. I also think that the timeline at the bottom is a really strong feature within this CV

I love the layout of the CV above everything is laid out and designed really nicely it all works really well together. I also like the simple monochrome colour scheme It fits in really well with the style and design of the drawings and fonts that are used within the CV.

The creative CV above is very different to the two previous ones but i love it so much. I think it is such a unique way of showing your design skills and delivering a business card in a chocolate bar format.I haven't seen anything like this before and it would definitely leave a lasting impression on any potential employer.

I don't like the CV above i think the layout is really poor and it looks hard to read with the angles of the text. I think if i received this CV i wouldn't want to read it it looks too complicates and it would take too much effort. 

plagiarism and copyright

Plagiarism is when a piece of work or an idea is stolen or re used and passed off as someone else's. Plagiarism is a huge thing in the creative world and there are are hundreds of cases going on every day to fight for the rights to the work. Plagiarism is also a pretty vague concept, as an idea cant be copyrighted because lots of people can think of the same idea it just takes one person to go out and actually create the idea. If you thought of the idea but didn't create it then thats your fault not the person that did create it. You can write down an idea and post it to yourself it then gives you the copyright to the idea as the idea is in a sealed dated envelope and that is proof of the time that you had the idea. 

To be honest the whole area of this topic is quite grey and it has became a very complex thing to understand as there are many different loop holes and ways to get around plagiarism. A lot of the most famous art such as 'the Mona Lisa' and 'the girl with the pearl earring' has been copied and plagiarised time and time again. Here is an example of plagiarism on 'the girl with the pearl earring.'

Plagiarised the girl with the pearl earring 

One loop hole that people try to use all of the time is they say their work was simply inspired by the original piece, this would be classed as something else called a homage. A homage is basically when a piece has been re created but in a different way (it is usually obvious) sort of like a tribute to the original. The example below is a homage to 'the girl with the pearl earring' its made from balloons

Homage: the girl with the pearl earring 

  



Another way that people try to get around it is to claim that the work is a spoof but a spoof is something different yet again a spoof is where something is re created or imitated in a comical/humorous way. below is an example of  a spoof. I decided to use the same piece for all three as i think shows how different the three things are. 

Spoof: the girl with the pearl earring