Summative Evaluation

Project Report & Summative Evaluation

Final Presentation Boards

Final Images & Mock Ups

After the mega crit I felt fairly confident in finishing my project off. I created the rest of the images in a similar vain to the two shown on my mock up design boards, and applied some of the newly finished illustrations to some of the products I'd previously proposed. I feel as though the application of my illustrations to appropriate formats has been thought through, with each proposal serving a purpose and hitting a specific area of my intended target audience. If time had allowed I would have liked to put some of the GIFs onto iTunes and other music players as a visual mock up, and made an After Effects mock up of the YouTube teaser with music, able to play. However these are both things I have considered in the submission of this body of work.

Final Mega Crit & Peer Feedback

Mega Crit & Peer Feedback Sheets

Rough Design Boards

Final Models & Some Mock Ups

With the plans in place I began making my final models. Unfortunately only two were dry in time for the Mega Crit on Thursday, meaning only two of the final images could be mocked up onto rough design boards. This however still proved to be very useful in seeing the final images and what // where they could be applied. I kept in mind the main three applications of my work; product, merchandise and promotion//advertising.

Product wise I wanted to show both vinyl mock ups and net designs that could be made into tangible products. I also wanted to show music players so the pieces could be seen within a digital contemporary context.

Merchandise wise I focused on a couple of clothing options and additional supporting material such as badges, mugs and posters.

Promotional and advertising were mainly billboards and posters, though I did mock up some quick lanyards that could be distributed for entrance for the private album launch party. In addition to this I also mocked up a YouTube format advertisement that could be played as a teaser both on a YouTube account itself or as an advertisement before videos. As stated earlier this would help reach the demographic of younger music lovers that I was targeting, as well as expanding the reach beyond those who already have an interest in indie//lofi music.

Final GIFs

Tutorial with Ben

Tutorial with Ben

Get blogging done and sorted

Just continue to apply to more things – tour merch? Jumpers, hoodies ect

Think about design boards and how you want to display everything

Just get it finished up!

2D Plans for Models

With each track paired with an animal, I began sketching out gestural drawings for my final models. I took into account how the music made me feel; and if applicable the lyrics also. Not wanting my characters to seem to anthropomorphic as they had done in the past, I kept the gestures within the capabilities of each animal, using subtle human expressions and physical forms of affection to inform the gestures.

It was vital that I drew out the models in 2D before going directly to creating my 3D finals, without this step of the process I would not have been able to create such emotive final characters. At the end of each process I also made notes of what colour background I felt would best suit the song, and what to GIF//animate if I wer eto turn them into moving album artwork pieces.

Andre De Loba & Cardboard Experiments

As suggested in my peer review, I looked at the cardboard work of Andre De Loba. Though I wasn't sure if the work would reflect the tone of voice I was achieving with my current media, I decided to try it out anyway given that Loba's work did possess a quality of rawness about it that may fit with the tracks on my set list.

Once I had made the models I put them through a similar process to my DAS clay images, photoshop and then GIF-ing. Though I do like the final images, I feel they may be a little too cute // loose some of the serious emotional attitude that comes through in my clay sculptures. I'm glad I did try an alternative media however as it has concreted in my final media choices being that of DAS clay.

Cardboard GIFs

Peer Review

Peer Review

Refine clay media? Look into other options such as card to push models further? Artist Andre De Loba - cardboard models. Try something simple and see if it works? Have time for media play due to good organisation. 

Urab Graphics - worth looking at for range // products

Keep applying to new things; videos, posters, gift pack // promo pack? New products as well as record sleeves

'Handjob' and 'Handwriten' both books for hand-rendered type if needed

Mock Ups & Applications

Mocking Up; Collection

With some basic designs to work with I began creating mock ups of where this work would sit within the real world. It was important that the work was recognizable as a collection, but could be applied to a multitude of formats in order to serve different functions. The range would have three primary functions; the product (vinyl sleeves both tangible and digital), merchandise (badges, stickers, t-shirts, tote bags ect) and finally promotional // advertising (posters advertising the launch, adverts on youtube for pre-order ect). 

Why? Context & Audience

I chose billboards and posters to advertise the launch as they're often used within the music industry to promote launches // releases // tours ect. This would allow for the otherwise primarily indie//underground music to reach a new platform of general music consumers, as well as reach out to those who would have been interested already. 

Things like music player mock ups were needed to show the product in context. While vinyl is making a resurgence in the music sphere, a large proportion of music nowadays is downloaded or steamed directly from the web. It's important that the artwork works in this format as it would be one that a large number of the focused target audience would be using to see the art. 

Linking on from this, the notion of using quick 30 second adds before videos on YouTube and other web-based platforms would be another way to engage with a younger audience who are more likely to have an interest in the type of music focused on for this album.

The 1975 - Album Teaser

Title

I also revised the title of the album at this point. The Sad Playlist didn't reflect every song on the album and that was important. The song's themselves weren't all sad but all felt very intimate and open, there was an honesty in every track that made it desirable. I liked the idea of calling it something simple and charming. Really Feely sounds playful and harmless without sounding pretentious or childish.

3D GIFs

Click on GIFs to enlarge

GIFS

When I had some mock up album covers done, I started playing around with turning them into GIFs. With illustration constantly moving with the times, and with editorial illustration now including things like GIFs for online articles ect, I thought it would be beneficial to explore moving artwork as a form of distrobution. I believe looking into how illustration could be applied in the future is just as important as tailoring and applying my work to existing formats. 

Process

Using the digital lines created in photoshop I began making subtle edits to transform the work into GIFs. I didn't want the movements to be massive or overshadowing the characters, but to add to what they were already conveying. Subtlety was key here.

Application

I could propose that these 'moving albums' would be adopted by music players such as iTunes, Soundcloud and Spotify, allowing for a looped GIF in place of where the album artwork would originally be. As well as this, the GIFs could be used as advertisements for things such as electric billboards or screens as often used in London Undergrounds ect to provide a more immersive and engaging advertisement. 

3D DAS Airdry Clay & Mockups

Media

Wanting to try out some more hard-setting media, I picked up a pack of DAS air drying clay. Though this isn't a brand particularly raved about, I wanted to try it out and see how I worked with something that was a little more sturdy and allowed for less detailed sculpture. Having used brands such as Super Sculpey in the past, I knew what high end levels of craft you could produce using them, but for this brief I wanted something that felt a little more raw.

The media itself was great to work with, the air drying facet made sure that I didn't spend forever perfecting each model before it was done, and lent itself more to shape driven character work. Once dry I photographed the models with coloured card backgrounds. Bending the paper to create infinity wall meant that when photoshoping a gradient was made that helped give the pieces a sense of depth.

Originally I was going to paint the models and just edit the levels in photoshop, however once they'd dried I really liked the textures and surface that the models had when photographed. I worried that painting directly onto them may take some of that away and cheapen the look slightly. It was here that I decided to draw over my images using a thin pen brush on photoshop.

The juxtaposition of digital and analogue media in this fashion worked wonderfully! I was able to get across a sense of delicacy and detail through the digital addition of features without it looking crass. I mocked up a few of the models as album covers to see if they fit the tone of voice I was striving for; and finally my 3D renders were matching and amplifying the emotions of my 2D illustrations.

Name // Title Considerations

I also began thinking of an album title to use throughout the pieces for the launch. Each image would have this title on it so it had to fit with all the tracks. I opted for hand-rendered type as I felt it fit best with the human emotion I was trying to convey. Currently the album title stands at The Sad Playlit, but that doesn't embody all of the tracks, while they may be intimate and vulnerable, not all of them are specifically sad.

Animal Drawings; Shape

Shape Breakdowns

With a clear focus in mind, I chose six different endangered animals to represent the six different songs I would be creating. I matched up each animal with what track I felt they best depicted and began some studies of each animal to work out basic shapes that could make them up when I translated them into 3D models. If I can dissect the shape elements for each animal now, it will make planning for final 3D realisations easier, as well as making gestural breakdowns more manageable and quicker to plan out.

Project Proposal Re-Write

Simplification

Taking a step back from this project I decided to reassess my aims for this brief. Primarily this was a project driven around music and a 3D illustrative exploration of that. The notion of an exhibition and gallery format was maybe taking away from this brief a lot more than it was giving. While the work should reflect and be a response to the tracks, perhaps it would be more suited to create album artwork as part of an album launch as opposed to a exhibition//album launch combination. 

The backgrounds were also taking away a lot, visually, from the focal characters. I went back to look at Keaton's work and realised that the answer lay in less is more. Rather than trying bold coloured characters, perhaps the characters should be white with coloured backgrounds; the hue and vibrancy appropriate to the song.

Rather than an abstract narrative, it also made more sense to dedicate one character to each song and explore that song independently. With white characters and coloured backgrounds the pieces would work far better as a range; each song would have a corresponding image, but the audience would be able to pick whichever cover appealed most to them.

I also went back to the idea of moving album artwork, it would be nice if I could make some of the images into GIFs that could be used as digital moving album artwork for things such as iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud.

Project Proposal Re-Write

With my project a lot more defined and stronger, I re-wrote my initial project proposal to one that better reflected the brief I was undertaking.

Group Tutorial

Group Tutorial

Think about toys to go alongside exhibition? 

Have work hung above practical work so can be seen together? 

Considerations of a set have been taken; think about lighting?

Considerations

Though the suggestions here were useful, I still feel like they may have over-complicated the concept of my work further. Simplification is something that definitely needs to occur so my illustrations have a set purpose so the application and distribution of them can be appropriate and focused. 

Simplification

I feel at the minute there's maybe too much going on with my work. The idea of an abstract narrative and having backgrounds to consider as well as the characters is a lot with the time available. Maybe all these extra components are taking more away from the work than they are giving back? The focal point of each of these pieces is to express emotion through 3D illustrated characters, and I feel that is maybe getting lost in everything else. Perhaps they should be stripped down to more block colours for the characters with coloured lighting to set the tone//atmosphere rather than complex environments; less is more.

Final Song Selection & Format; Struggles

Final Song Selection

The 1975 - I like it when you sleep

Arcade Fire - Some other place

Pet Cemetery - Birthstone (reprise)

Michael Cera - 2048

Keaton Henson - Can't help falling in love

Modern Baseball - I think I you were in my profile picture once

Practical Format

Thinking about how each 3D practical piece would be presented is something I've been trying to consider throughout this brief. Right now I'm thinking that a way to maybe get the pieces to work as a set would be to have each of them displayed in a box format that was consistent. Built with four panels, each set would be an open box so the insides could be viewed by the audience as they listened to the track.

Initially I was thinking about making each of the backgrounds out of clay also so that they would fit with the characters, but with revisions of time I no longer think that would be a viable solution. Maybe the backgrounds could be paper cut or painted on? Would this fit with the clay figurines though?

Application

The pieces themselves will run as part of a 'collective album launch', containing the chosen musicians and tracks, as if it were to be released as one album. The 3D pieces would be shown on display while the album, on vinyl, CD and cassette, would be available to purchase with one of the six pieces of photographed artwork on the front.

Struggles

So far however I'm struggling a little with what I want to communicate with these pieces. Are they more of a Fine Artist response to tracks or are they pieces of album artwork to be commercially sold? Can they be both? I've played around with the idea of putting the songs into an order that tells an abstract story, repeating characters in different pieces to make it more understandable. But I'm struggling with putting the songs in an order that makes sense, and this idea may over complicate the whole thing; perhaps things need to be simplified down?

Mega Crit & Peer Tutorial

Mega Crit

People getting the sadness through the drawings and want more 3D figures

Need to work on translating 2D sadness into 3D making skills

Make final playlist choices to help with workflow!

Peer Tutorial 

Artist research Alexandra Niepsus - shape driven animals with raw feeling; help with shape driven images and less cutey too human characters

If need a box making for fixed format of each set can go down to Vernon Street and ask about lazer cutting wooden box

Think about having half a horn removed from animals? Make them even sadder//more vulnerable?

Plasticine Experiments

Plasticine Experiments

Moving on from the PlayDoh experiments, I tried my hand at making some 3D renders out of Plasticine. This media is much more resilient and easier to craft into more complex shapes, again whilst it's not a media I would consider using for final pieces of work, it allowed me to try and transfer my 2D illustrations into the 3D realm.

Gesture & Problems 

Though this was just a test, there are a few things that should be noted from this experiment. At the moment I feel the model is far too human, it lacks vulnerability and look more like a toy than an expressive piece of work. Though it is nice to see the characters finally be brought into 3D resolution, the initial character itself needs a lot more work to reflect the tracks at this point.

Endangered Animals; Character Development

Endangered Animals

Building on from the endangered animals as characters I went onto the WWF website to try and find a list of threatened animals to chose from. I thought it would be best to chose animals that reflected the nature of the songs I would be illustrating. I've still to decide on my final six songs so at this point I just want animals that I think would be able to reflect the vulnerability of the tracks.

It made sense to have a few of my animals be herbivores, I felt that they seemed most at risk and vulnerable compared to some of the carnivores. However the inclusion of some carnivores//omnivores would be beneficial for the sake of visual diversity, as well as maybe representing some of the tracks that are less sad and just more lofi//ambient. 

Rhino Drawings; Tone of Voice

I started drawing the Sumatran Rhino so that I could begin investigating visual language of these chosen animals. Watching videos of the rhinos from the wild helped getting a sense of weight and shape of this species, I wanted to break them down into shape driven images so they could be better translated to 3D pieces. I'm very conscious of making the animals too anthropomorphic at this point though, the addition of clothing didn't suit the tone of voice I was going for. The characters still needed that animal element of vulnerability; maybe things need to get more stripped back for the images to work best? I don't want the images to just look like Animal Crossing characters, they needed that Charlotte Mei // Rosie Brand expressive sculpture element to them. 

PlayDoh Media Experiments

PlayDoh Experiments

To start something in 3D I went out and bought some PlayDoh. Though this isn't a media I would use for final models, it provided a quick format to start playing around with 3D and shape. I don't want the final models to look too cutey or as if they were made for a primarily child orientated audience; the finals would have to be a lot more crafted and be made using material that allowed for that. It did however start to give me and idea of how expressions and gesture could work on characters - whether or not they should have clothes - was is necessary to show the full character? These are things I will have to consider moving into more final images.

Illustrator Workshop

Packaging & Net Design

Art board tool to change existing art board size // create new boards 

Can change size to exact dimensions 

Can use presets for exact shapes 

Drag in grey space for new art board 

View > Rules > Show Rulers (CMD + R)

Right click on ruler to change measurements 

Left click and drag from ruler to create guides 

Can double click on ruler on desired measurement to create guide

Hold shift to snap to points

Can delete guides with back space

View > Guides > Lock Guides 

To draw shapes and turn them into guides ; CMD + 5 (View > Guides > Make Guides)

With shape tool can left click + drag for shape or JUST left click to insert specific size!

To edit points // add more use pen tool

To round edges use this tool and drag inner circle 

When rounding edges make sure you select one corner at a time

Layer Panel (Remember to name layers)

Select everything, copy, lock layer

New Layer

Edit > Paste in Place

Shape Builder Tool (Choose selection before clicking on tool)

Make sure when drawing shapes they overlap so you can merge with shape builder

Can change stroke of line to dashed to show cutting ect

Can use 'arrow heads' to make a key for what to cut // score ect

Use weight and opacity to alter how visible cut lines are // outline of net ect

Fold marks outside of net to not interfere with content // packaging on the net

New layer > name it content to place in illustration work

Doesn't matter if your content goes outside of net design as it will be cut off during cut process 

Playlist Development

Current Playlist

Matt Healy - 102

Modern Baseball - I Think I Saw You In My Profile

Keaton Henson - Lying to You - Hallelujah Cover - Can't Help Falling in Love Cover

Aidan Qvinn - Camping Song

Kimya Dawson

Pet Cemetery - Birthstone (Reprise)

Dustin O'Hallorah - Opus 37

The Books - A Little Longing Goes Away

The Microphones

Michael Cera - 2048

The 1975 - Please Be Naked - I Like It When You Sleep

Arcade Fire - Some Other Place

Max Ritcher - Luminous 

Narrowing Down & Audience

It's important that the songs I chose to have for this project work well together and evoke a similar emotion // intimate feel. All of these songs fit into a indie//lofi//ambient genre of music, and though they have differing properties, all of them were chosen because they provoke an emotional response within me. They're all very contemporary tracks too, listened to primarily by people around my age//students//people in their 20s. This isn't to say that the track artwork will be specifically aimed at this demographic, but it's clear to me who the kinds of people listening to this music would be. A few of the tracks are very niche and not known to general music consumers, rather those with an interest in independent and lofi music. Because of this I want the pieces themselves to feel a little raw around the edges and lofi but with a definite contemporary illustration point of view.

As discussed in my tutorial, I will chose six of these tracks to illustrate // work in response to, forming a collection and series at the end of it. Six tracks feels like a good number to do and will create enough material for a visual collection to be made.

Environment & Character development

Sketchbook Page

Environments

I've began considering the environments in which my characters will sit; they have to feel intimate in order for the characters to fit in well with them. I've thought about using sunset//sunrise and night time as lighting // time options for when each piece will be set as they are usually romanticised times of the day. The idea of making beautiful moments of everyday moments would fit well with my current song choices and fit the overall intimate feel the series must encompass. Whether I chose to take these pieces down a more gallery or promotional route, the core must still be in gauging an emotional reaction from the illustrations. For these works to be applied appropriately the tone of voice of each image must match the purpose.

Characters 

Once the choice had been made to use animals as vessels for my characters, I started thinking about which animals to use and considerations to explore while drawing the characters out. Given the soft vunerabilty of the songs, I thought it made sense to use vulnerable characters too; it was here that I chose to use endangered animals for my characters. There already fragile status would only elevate the fragilty of the characters themselves, and this seemed like an appropriate choice to make, 

Character Research

Character Research & Audience

With the song choices I've made to date I know I want each of the tracks to feel a little vulnerable and fragile; it's important that this is reflected in the characters as they will be the primary communicators of atmosphere in each piece.

In order to get an idea of what visual language I wanted to express these characters in I looked at some pre-existing characters that I felt had aspects that I wanted my own work to embody. I want each of my characters to feel cute but sad, a lot of the characters I looked at gave me a sense of nostalgia and though they were brightly coloured and big eyed, they were capable of expressing a certain degree of sadness and real human insecurity. I think part of what makes these characters seem so sad IS their cute quality. Something that is already small and harmless seems even sadder when expressing negative emotions. For my pieces I think using animals as characters would give me that level of 'cuteness' but with more anthropomorphic characteristics. Expressions and body language will be key in the communication of emotion through my characters.

Characters Explored 

INUINU - Clothing Brand
Animal Crossing - Nintendo Game
Harvest Moon; A wonderful Life - PlayStation 2 Game

Tutorial & Peer Feedback

Peer Feedback

More media experiments; try to book ceramics inductions?

Think about lighting and how it will affect each piece- coloured lighting or not? Think about going down to the photography studio and asking there if they have that available? 

Make a definitive track list; pick songs that work well together, good list so far but quicker the list can be narrowed down the easier it will be to make artwork.

Tutorial 

Think about the mood of each piece; ambient//indie music. Who are your audience? Tracks that are purely instrumental or with lyrics too?

Installation; how would it work? As promo for collaboration album release or as standalone exhibition? 

Media; think maybe fimo or super sculpey? Not enough time for ceramics or wood; need something easier to work with, realistic for time frame available. 

Application; what else could the final images be applied to? Music selection; think audience and collection

Contextual Research

Books taken out of library for research 

Swedish Wooden Toys

I took this book out near the start of the project when I was thinking about possible materials to explore when making my 3D illustrations. Swedish design in wooden toy making is so lovely due to its bold colour and shape choices juxtaposed with streamline design. The feel to these pieces is one of flawless design and structured shape components, not something I think I really want to peruse in my own, their high level of finish and character work is something I can take into my practice.

Best of Disc Art

Now that a chosen context of my work has been established I feel a lot more confident in finding ways to apply my illustrations. Though I think an exhibition would be the primary context of my work, the notion of mocking photographs of my work up onto vinyl covers could also provide an appropriate and contemporary function of my illustrations. 

This book provided with some creative ways of using album artwork, and how parts could interact with one another // fold out to provide a more immersive experiences. Perhaps the exhibition could work as promotional material for a release of the chosen tracks I illustrate? The illustrations could then be placed on CDS, vinyls, cassettes, promo flyers, posters ect.

Keaton Henson & Theme Realisation; Project Proposal

Further Artist Research & Theme Realisation 

While drawing from my artist research, struggling to find an idea and theme for my work to follow, I took a step back and looked at the work I'd made so far. What did I want to make work for or in response to? While mulling over these questions, I took a break, listening to music as I usually do when I'm working, and I was thinking about how much I love the work of musician and artist Keaton Henson. It was during this moment of Henson appreciation that I had a eureka moment in what direction I wanted to take my artwork in! 

Henson, as well as being an introverted musician and poet, also creates album artwork for his musical releases using both 2D and 3D illustrative work. I've been a fan of his work for a long while and his ceramic album covers are truly lovely in how they reflect the fragility and rawness of his music. I thought about how I could apply this as a starting point for my own series of images, composed of 3D illustrations as album covers.

Context & Theme

Thinking about how this work would be presented, I thought about making 3D illustrations in responses to some chosen tracks and having an exhibition showing each of these responses with maybe a 7" vinyl mock up of the photographed piece being displayed with it. People would be able to listen to each track while they look at the art pieces.

The overarching theme of these pieces in a broad sense would be music, but I wanted work that was more specific than that. I wanted music that felt intimate and fragile, much like Keaton's. By focusing on indie//ambient music I hope that my audience will be more specific, and the pieces will work together as a series if the tone of voice and emotive values of each track are of a similar nature.

I've began making lists of possible considerations to keep in mind//narrow down throughout the making process. I want each piece to be primarily character driven, and have a soft and vulnerable feel to it. I've made notes of characters to research and reference from this point on as well as drawing up a rough proposal at this point in time.

Proposal 

Drawing from Research

 At this point I started doing some drawings in response to the artist research I'd conducted in order to try and find a new theme to explore. I wanted to simplify down my drawings so they would be more easily transferable from sketchbook drawings to 3D realisations. I wanted my work to be more shape driven rather than getting caught up in the details; the work had to be accessible.

I'm still struggling with a theme at this point, through drawing I prefer the more shape driven work as I think that would work best in a 3D format, but need something I'm passionate about to tie it all together. I really enjoy using character to explore a subject; I just need a definitive subject to explore.

Study Task 1; Product & Packaging

For my focus of this brief I chose product and packaging; this area woudl allow me to explore elements of 3D illustration work within a context. At the moment I'm a little unsure of where I want my work to fit, whether it be something more gallery//exhibition based or something more commercially viable such as toys // figurines. I'm hoping through extended research I will get a better idea of what I want my work to represent and how I want to communicate it. 

Charlotte Mei

An illustrator I've been familiar with for quite a while, there is something about Mei's work that always strikes a chord with me. In relation to this brief, what I've really honed in on with her work is how she applies her illustrations to a range of contexts and formats while still retaining a consistent tone of voice and 'series' like feel to her work. The idea of making illustrations and then applying them to products is something that interests me a lot; finding new ways of pushing my work into tangible objects is something I want to capitalise on throughout this module; the transition from 2D illustrations into 3D contexts.

From a professional practice point of view Mei also appeals to me for the way she works. A lot of her briefs are self initiated and both her and her friend Grace Helmer regularly put on exhibitions, it's inspiring to think that illustration can be seen in a gallery format, and not just on the pages of books and posters.

Rosie Brand

Brand's practice appeals to me in a similar way to Mei's. Creating both 3D and 2D illustrations that carry through the same tone of voice in an exhibition format, it's great to see illustration out there in exhibitions. As stated earlier, I'm not yet sure whether I want to take my work in a more gallery//exhibition space format with the products for sale, or whether I want to tailor the work to something more commercial and merchandise based.

Practically, what I enjoy about both Brand and Mei's ceramic works is how they are informed by the way they draw and vice versa. The ceramics themselves have a sense of rawness about them that I really love, exploring and pushing shape and form with the 3D media allows for a new way of looking at image making; something I would like to try out.

Izziyana Suhaimi

Suhaimi's work is very different to a lot of illustrators I've looked at for this module, whether she would even define herself as a Fine Artist, Illustrator or Textile worker I wouldn't know, but her work spoke to me for the emotive qualities it possesses. Throughout my time at LCA I've found that one of my skills within illustration is being able to communicate emotions, the personal and romanticised text of Suhaimi's "Let's Talk About Everything" really resonated with the way I go about making personally driven projects, and this is something I want to feed into this brief. Whether I choose an exhibition format or a more commercial one, I want the work to have some grounding in real world human emotions and feelings, succinctly communicated to the audience. 

Yan Ruilin

It took a long time to finally track down the artist behind the wonderful wooden sculptures I stumbled upon on pinterest, Ruilin's work is beautifully simple and engaging. Through a considered use of shape and materials, Ruilin communicates character in way that is accessible for folk of any age or background. The high level of craft and finish each of his pieces embody is also astounding. Not only the type of media worked in, but how it's worked with, will be something to really consider when making my own 3D illustrations. 

Melula Shoes

I chose to reference Melula shoes for this task because they really opened my eyes as the the breadth of formats illustration can be applied to. When I would first think of illustration products they would usually be that of stationary, home-wares, merchandise ect. But more niche applications of illustration are starting to open up. Where do I want my illustrations to sit in the modern world? In a time when images can be applied to almost anything I must consider and narrow down what MY images will be applied to. If I feel the body positivity is something I don't really want to continue with then what theme DO I want to explore? It is integral that I lock down a theme soon as that will inform what my illustration is applied to later down the line.

Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes

Another example of how vastly illustration can be applied in the context of products. Hand over your fairy cakes is an independent online shop focusing on merchandise stemmed from illustration, into the 3D tangible world. They also show that illustration can still carry a message even after going through the process of becoming commercial, and that that is something people value and will pay money for. Should my work be like a campaign? And if so what for? Do I have a message?

Pole Toko

Working with a similar media to Ruilin, PoleToko is a company that focuses on producing handmade wooden sculptures for commercial sale. Practicing both online and with their own shop in China and stockists in Paris, PoleToko's creations are charming and utterly collectible. Having a strong sense of consistent simplified character, the range works as it has a tone of voice that once applied can be broadened into new ranges//sculptures//animals. Having a consistent working method in this project will allow for easier application onto a number of products and range. 

Helena Covell

I originally chose to look at Covell's work because of it's pattern qualities (See sketchbook for more pattern examples) and how she applied her character driven illustration to pattern that could then be applied to packaging. If I want to create a kind of 3D figure that could be displayed or sold, I would have to consider how I wanted to package this product as well. Having a repeating illustrated pattern of the figure itself could be one way of going about this. Simplified character work is also something I'd like to explore in this brief and Covell's work shows a breadth in how simple characters can be both aesthetically pleasing while still communicating a feeling or emotion.