BRIEF IN A DAY; Love Glove

The Client; 

• Izzie Glazzard
• Graphic Design student @ LCA

The Brief; 

• Hey , i'm putting together a queer/LGBT+ arts and culture magazine and i'm looking for some illustrators to collaborate in creating some satirical adverts. I have a few ideas so far and am just looking for some talent to execute them for me. The ideas so far are...

- Finger condoms/latex gloves for lesbians
- U-hall van hire
- Vitamin D
- Nike - Dyke
- Lesbian manicure service - to cut and clean up nails rather than add falsies
- Gay conversion therapy - to make straight people gay
- Cock engagement rings
- Coming out cake makers
I'm completely open to any other ideas and would love you to get involved. Lemme know if your down. 

Iz

The Rationale;

• I was contacted by Izzie (who I worked with last year on responsive D&AD brief) about making an image for her queer/LGBT+ arts and culture magazine as a part of her COP practical work. This kinda came out of the blue but I really liked the idea of getting involved. I've enjoyed working with Izzie in the past, and this seemed like a really quick turn around brief that would be a bit of fun in between all the current COP stress I was dealing with in my own project.

How it went down

• I asked Izzie if it'd be cool for me to do the finger condoms for lesbians image. I'm an absolute sucker for puns and I had a ton ready for this image. I also really liked the half funny half satirical notion the image implied. 
• Having being around Izzie's work for some time I know she's a fan of bold graphic design and block colour, so I decided to incorporate bright colours into my own image.
• Given that her magazine was so inclusive (and that I'd been filling myself up with inclusive knowledge for my own COP) I also chose to make the central hand of the image a skin colour other than white, as an attempt to include queer/LGBTQ+ women of colour also

Examples of Izzie's work

• My main intention with this brief was just to have fun with it, and try out some quick digital work in between all the analogue stuff I'd been doing. I tried to stick with the fun and ridiculous notion of finder condoms for women, and I think that shows in my final piece. Izzie was really happy with it, and it gave me a nice break from my own COP for a few hours. Don't forget to wrap ur members ladiez!!!

Final Illustration

Image on Izzie's Insta

BRIEF IN A DAY; La Bete Blooms 'Low Hummer' Storyboard

The Client;

• La Bete Blooms

The Brief;

• Meet with Dan and run through his storyboard proposals for La Bete Blooms newest single 'Low Hummer'. Dan has already taken the time to sit down and plan each scene to the second, but needs someone to visualize and storyboard it for him so he can take it to his videotographers. 

The Rationale;

• I've kind of become the visual artist for La Bete Blooms during their 'I Know It's Nothing' EP run. As such Dan has come to me with this brief. It's not one that I really need to finish with a high level of craft or style, but one in which my skills as a visual storyteller are most needed. I must be able to translate what Dan is telling me into understandable visuals so his videotographers understand the angles, shots and frames used in each segment. This is also a chance for me to try something a little different, I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be doing a storyboard this year, so it's another avenue of live illustration work I can explore. 

Storyboard (rough)

How it went down

• Given that I'm only home for a couple of weeks at Christmas and I have my COP to focus on, me and Dan met up knowing we had to get the storyboard finished within a few hours.
• Luckily for me Dan had already done all the thinking behind the brief and just needed help to visually articulate it. We bounced ideas off each other for a few of the frames/transitions but most of the timing etc he'd already worked out; which made the task of story boarding far far easier. It was more like quickly sketching out something that he was describing to me rather than thinking in depth about the overall idea and concept of the video myself.
• Having had the experience story boarding last year for 404 I knew what needed to be included note wise alongside the image for each scene. It also helped that the second years were doing their story boards at the same time so there was a pile of story boarding sheets in the workroom for me to nab a couple of before going home.
• Working solidly for a couple of hours listening to the song, discussing timings, and what needed to be transcribed down, we got the full thing done just in time for Dan to rush off to band practice haha.
• I kept the storyboards myself and said I'd try my best to edit them together tonight with the music so he could get a better feel for the video as whole. I don't have a scanner at home though so I had to take photos of each frame and edit them so they were vaguely usable!!
• I slapped them into adobe premiere (which I've sort of taught myself to use after getting the basics from my responsive partner Izzie last year) and made sure the images matched with the timings I'd written down with each image. I also included the notes from each frame in the video so Dan could use it to show his videotographers.
• I actually managed to get the video finished IN ONE NIGHT. It was one of those really satisfying and pleasing moments where once it was done that I thought "wow I'm actually pretty alright at this illustration stuff". I sent it off to Dan and he sent me back his eternal gratitude. He popped by the next day to pick up the original storyboard sheets too so he could take those to his videotographer which means I still don't have the original storyboard files to scan in haha! My phone did the trick for what Dan needed however, and I really feel like this was a day well done!!!

Final Storyboard Animation

EDIT

• Final video released Feb '17, watch below to see!!
• Sent Dan over a .png file with 'Low Hummer' written similarly to their typeface logo that I designed earlier in the year to go at the start of the vid

Photocopied Gig Posters (La Bete Blooms)

Test copy

Ahead of the gig at Adelphi, I made a suggestion to Dan about photocopying some of the posters I'd made for him and the band to give out free at the gig. I'd be making a trip home for Christmas anyway and could easily drop them off if it was something he'd be interested in doing.

The piece itself was so inspired by punk/DIY I just really wanted to see it exist in a photocopied format. The boys agreed they'd love to have a few copies to give away at the gig so I ran the design through the photocopier. The above test on yellow was to make sure the paper quality worked with the photocopier (didn't want any jams haha) as the paper was slightly smaller than A4. Once this came out fine, I ran the design through on the original pink colour.

When prepping this design I also took away the added texture I'd used on the digital version. The paper quality gave the black it's own texture and depth, so the 'fake texture' wasn't necessary for this final production. 

Finals for Show

Third V.M. box Visit

On this visit I tried to get a lot of the line-work done so that the piece would start too look as though it was coming to the end. It was a really dry and sunny day (despite being December???) so I feel as though I was able to get a lot done!! I also blocked out the top 'bush' part of the design. Within the initial proposal the top of the box had been a darker yellow, however I felt that would be too much of one colour as a backdrop. Giving the spot pink colour I'd used within the bottom half of the box, I thought it made sense to balance the overall look out with a pink top.

I was a little nervous before doing it, and part of me wished I'd mocked it up with a pink top before going straight in with the paint. But once the block colour was filled in I was sure I'd made the right choice.

I got the lines on the bear completed, as well as the details on the top part of the image. I finally feel as though it's coming together as a finished piece!!!!

I think I'll only need one more visit to the box before it's completed. So I can finish the linework on the leaves and ferns, as well as signing the piece with my name and instagram. This has in no way been an easy brief, but I've learnt so much and had so many complements from the public; I recon it'll be worth it all in the end!!

La Bete Blooms; Final Adelphi Poster

Final Gig Poster

After hearing back from the boys, I scanned the image in properly at 300dpi and cleaned it up a little. This was mainly just altering the levels of the original piece. During the creation of the image I did mess up the text on the date and fixed it with tipex and black pen. I thought about correcting this with photoshop but I think what I really love about this image is rawness to it. I didn't really want to go in and start cleaning the image up too much as I liked it's flaws and it's honesty as an image.

At this point I also brought in a texture I made a while ago using crumpled black paper. I think it just gave the image a little more depth without over crowding the linework that was already there. I also muted the pink tone down to something more pleasing than the quick mock up version on photoshop. 

With all this done I sent it to the boys and they gave it a massive thumbs up. It has since been rolled out onto social media in place of the digital poster. I'm so much happier with this final piece and it reflects the genre of La Bete Blooms so much more effectively than the previous digital poster. I think this piece also reflects my own tone of voice so much more effectively. Looking at this image through the lens of line allowed me to create something that is true to who I am as a practitioner at this point, and showed me that my raw / sketch-y / loose nature is still commercially viable. 

Being Slightly Naughty with La Betes Brief

Original (right) and quick mock up (left)

I couldn't stop thinking about that La Betes poster and how much better I could have illustrated it. 

So I did something a little cheeky and I illustrated a new gig poster without telling Dan.

We've currently got some plans in the pipeline for me to design a zine about the band and how they've progressed since their origin. For this brief Dan sent me over a load of band photos from way back when they first got together. I was looking through these for the zine brief and came across this particular photo of Dan. There was just something about the composition of the piece that I thought would lend itself so well to a lofi punk gig poster.

With this in mind I did a version of the poster using the photo as a reference. I then added in the dates and details, and well as tracing over a print out of the Adelphi logo using a light box. 

I took a rough photograph of the drawing and sent it to Dan over messenger with a message probably something along the lines of "so just drew this up as an alternative to the digital poster? just wondering what you thought?"

Thank GOWD Dan showed the band and they all loved it way more than the digital version. He asked if I could do a really quick mock up of what it'd look like on a pink background, I just used a mobile scanning app on my phone to get the rough details of the image and then added colour to it using instagram and sent the image over to Dan and the rest of the group.

They all seem really keen to replace the original digital file with this DIY analogue version which makes me feel super happy. I know I went out on a bit of a whim with this idea but I'm really glad I did. I'm actually super happy with the rawness of the image and feel as though it reflects La Bete Blooms music so much better than the digital version. Double super points ayy!

Photo of Dan from their very early La Bete days

INSPO IMAGES

- punk

- DIY

- 80s / 90s gig posters