Level 5 Professional studies introduction

Within professional studies this year we will be learning about and expanding our knowledge of the illustration industry and where we fit into this fast paced industry. We will learn more about things such as networking, markets, working with clients and other similar topics.

The main aim of this module is to help us know the industry inside out so that we are prepared for the real working world when we leave university. We will research all areas of the industry then choose an area that we would like to focus on in more detail and in the end produce academic evidence of our findings. This module should help us realise where we fit into the industry and be able to correctly identify our target market.

I enjoyed professional studies last year and look forward to taking my studies in this subject further in level 5.

Level 5: Halloween Party (side project)

As part of professional studies we have been asked to arrange a Halloween party for the university students that will also double as a fund raiser for the illustration and graphics courses. The skills needed to do something such as plan an event like this will be very helpful for us in the future as the transferable skills we will gain from it will help us learn things such as marketing, self promotion, managing budgets and workloads and working as a team. It will also help us have a better understanding of how to plan events such as gallery openings, exhibitions and other similar events.

As we had just started to plan the event we had to take a number of things into consideration for example: how much budget we will have, finding a venue, ticket prices ect. to make the event planning run more smoothly and to make sure none of these details were forgotten as a class we decided to assign people small tasks for them to do o the workload was evenly distributed. we decided that we needed people to 

• Make tickets and posters
• Source venue and beverages 
• Source bands and music
• Set up a Facebook page and do marketing
• Ticket selling 
• Room Decorating 
• Co-ordinator 

We had some things that had to be thought about straight away to get the planning process moving along such as... 

Budget planning

Budget planning is very important to us in this case as we are aiming to plan this event with as little funds as possible to optimise the money that will be raised. I think as this is an art university and we have access to art materials for the posters and tickets and we know people that will be willing to play live music for free, we will be able to achieve this goal and plan a great party with a small budget. 

Choosing a venue  

We had to decided this before anything else could be arranged as it is the main priority for planning any event. We were given 2 options for the party venue, option one was the Art Cafe (the college canteen) and option two was the old theatre in Hartlepool.  We were quoted prices for both venues and unfortunately option two was completely out of budget so this had to be ruled out. Option 2 would have made a better venue but we can raise more money and spend more on decorations ect with the art cafe as the venue.

Assigning jobs

As there is two classes coming together to make this event a success we had to assign jobs straight away so it didn't get confusing as to who was doing what. By doing this it minimises the chance of things going wrong or things been forgotten as people only have one or two tasks to complete each. 

Hopefully with everything we have done so far the party should get planned in time and the event will run smoothly without any hitches. I will do a few updated blog posts as the events planning goes into full swing. 

Questionnaire response from Quatro Publishing Group UK

Quatro Publishing group were also very kind and answered the questions that i asked. They had different views to Candlewick press on the topic of trends. It was great to see companies with opposing views so i could compare them within my report.  

1.       Do Illustrations in children's books respond to changing trends in colours and styles?

Not really. I would say the illustration styles we choose for our books are quite traditional, and timeless as we hope the books will sell for many years to come, and not become old fashioned looking.

2.       If so how long does it take for the changes in trend to influence illustration?

3.       Do trends influence your choice of illustrator?

We have series styles to follow. The choice of illustrator is made on what would best suit the project.

4.       Are Illustrators given remits that reflect current trends?

No

Kind regards

Laura

Questionnaire response from candlewick press

Jessica from Candlewick press answered the questions in my Questionnaire and she was beyond helpful she gave me a lot of information and starting points for more research. I am so grateful for her help, she made my report a lot easier. Here are her answers to my questions: 

Hi Melissa, 

I'm Jessica, the Art Coordination Associate at Candlewick Press. I'm responsible for scouting new illustration talent, maintaining a database of artists who might be right for illustration work on Candlewick projects, and matching illustrators with manuscripts (among other things!). I'd be happy to help you with your project. 

Do Illustrations in children's books respond to changing trends in colours and styles?

Yes, I think they certainly do. I think, in general, palettes are becoming brighter and more saturated, and with more white space integrated into the illustration. There is also a kind of counter-movement to this with muted colors that are very fresh and contemporary but done in a sort of retro style.  

     And there are certainly trends in styles too. Of course, digital coloring/drawing (i.e. in Photoshop) is a huge difference between contemporary illustration and that of 10–15ish years ago. I am personally not a big fan of the flat, digitally colored look, so I'm glad to see a swing back towards more textured illustrations now—both with traditional mediums like watercolor and acrylic, and digital art that looks more like traditional media. I think a lot of illustration artists are combining traditional and digital media too—creating physical paintings/drawings and scanning them to either tweak the work or digitally color the sketches. A few of my favorite artists also work in digital collage, where they paint lots of patterns and then scan them into their computer, creating collages without physically cutting and pasting anything. 

    When I think of art from 20ish years ago, I think mainly of a warm, slightly murky palette that's somewhere in between bright and muted, and realistic paintings. Now, I think illustrations are becoming much looser, less realistic, and incorporating more mediums into each illustration (so not just 100% watercolor or 100% acrylic, etc.). Though of course there are certainly a huge amount of exceptions here. 

    Looking at the Caldecott winners and Honorees (and, in the UK, the Kate Greenaway winners) over the years is a great way to see the trends, I think. For example: 

• 1993 winner – traditional watercolor; palette is definitely a bit murky; and characters are pretty realistic 
• 1994 winner – traditional watercolor; highly realistic style. (Note palette quite bright here—many, many exceptions to the generalizations!) 
• 2013 winner – mix of traditional and digital media; style is graphic, subtle, simplistic; palette is muted but still rather saturated with all the deep black—this is the kind of retro-muted style I was mentioning.
• 2014 winner – kind of harkens back to the older picture book look, but note that the human characters are much less detailed (especially their faces), and there is a lot more variation in the typography and page layout than in 1994's Grandfather's Journey; this is, I think, a very successful modern take on the old picture book style. 

If so how long does it take for the changes in trend to influence illustration?

This varies of course but I think not very long. There are thousands of new picture books published every year, and illustrators and publishers are always looking for styles that look different and will thus stand apart from the rest. I think because of this crowded marketplace, the boundaries are always being pushed to keep illustrations looking fresh and unique. 

Do trends influence your choice of illustrator?

Yes, we will certainly discuss what style of illustration will best complement a text. For example, if a text is very contemporary, we will often look for a similarly contemporary-looking artist, which of course changes according to present trends. We also sometimes pare more traditional texts with contemporary illustrations as a strategic way to set the book apart in its corner of the marketplace, or to highlight its contemporary attributes (i.e. a modern retelling of a classic fairytale). 

Are Illustrators given remits that reflect current trends?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question! Happy to answer if you want to clarify what you mean by "remit" for me. Maybe this is a US/UK usage thing :-) 

     If you mean something like art direction(??) then yes and no—yes in the sense that art directors and designers will always gently push illustrators to give their best work and to evolve their style slightly with every new book. But no in the sense of pushing an artist to do something that isn't true to his/her personal artistic style… or at least a good art director wouldn't do that, though I'm sure it happens sometimes! 

Copyright

The dictionary definition of Copyright is: the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.[1]
In basic terms If you have created something then you legally own it and no one else can claim that it is thier's. You are also protected if anyone claims that they created something that you did. The only thing with copyright is that there is a lot of loop holes and flaws within it. For instence you cannot copyright protect an idea as an idea is not a physical thing. If you action the idea and create what you were thinking of then that can be copyrighted and protected. Almost anything that has been created can be copyrighted for example a drawing, poem, photograph. The use of the internet has made it more important to copyright your work now because someone could see a piece of your work online and decide to take the image of your work and claim it as thier own. If you have copyrighted it then you own all of the rights to that work.

 There is a few things you can do to protect yourself with copyright for example you could use the copyright symbol with your name next to it on the bottom of your work. You could also post yourself a physical copy of your work within a sealed stamped envelope as this will pass through the mail system and have official date stamps, Although this is not the best way to copyright it still provides a bit of evidence if anything gets took to court. The best way to copyright a piece of work is probably to talk to a copyright lawyer that can help you to choose the best option on how to copyright your work. 
Copyright also does run out after a certain amount of years so its good to renew it after 50 plus years. 

[1] Oxford Dictionary Definition, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/copyright (accessed 16/04/2014)

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.