Sunday 22 May 2016

OUGD602: Evaluation


This module for me has been a large stepping stone into the creative industry. In the past year I have organised and curated my own exhibition with Goat Collective, gained sign painting jobs and returning clients and well as developing my skills as a lettering artist to an adequate standard.

The experience of organising an exhibition really showed me what's necessary to produce work to industry standard and meet deadlines for events like this. From selecting submissions to buying screws and wall hooks, curating Disposable Society taught me a lot about art in the real world and who is prepared to spend time and interest in it. In that brief alone myself along with several others designed posters and flyers which were sent to print, ordered necessary equipment and produced our own frames and partitions, while sorting out a top quality space for a reasonable price due to our lack of profit and income.

Another thing I've learnt this year and improved on massively is how to communicate with clients and be firm about asking prices. I've had several people come to me with requests just from seeing my work published on social media, which has led to a few sales which is the kind of business I wish to get more of once leaving university and working freelance under Goat Collective.

Over the past year we have met a lot of important contacts in the art and design industry in Leeds. If we are to stay here, and it seems like a good idea to seeing as Leeds is bidding for capital of culture in 2023, Goat have a mural being produced this summer in the centre of Leeds and we have a real chance of getting our foot in the commercial world here straight from university, it would seem stupid not to take advantage of this. Contacts at East Street Arts and Hyde Park Book Club have helped us enormously this year, and this is something we want to push in the upcoming year while we are sourcing funding and studio space.

In the next 6 months it would be ideal for Goat to have a studio in Leeds where we can all work from as well as putting on small events and bringing clients to as an all-in-one office and base. Looking on towards a year, we need to have a regular client base and having incoming work that will sustain our needs to put money back into the Goat fund in order to progress further as a business. Search and application for funding is necessary in the near future if we want to put on more exhibitions, gain permanent studio space and develop our practices beyond university. We have already been given a £10,000 darkroom ready for us to set up as soon as we have space, which gives us and our potential sponsors or donators incentive to support us on this journey. We are also looking in to getting a screen printing bed set up so we can run off large numbers of prints at low costs, keeping the output low and income steady.

OUGD602: Goat Summer of 2016

Goat Collective is my main focus at the moment in terms of brand identity and transforming from university to the working world. We have big plans in collaboration with Hyde Park Book Club, who have an unused space next door to their cafe in Hyde Park which we could potentially make use of. I'm planning on staying in Leeds for the foreseeable future which means I'll be around to work on Goat projects and keep designing as a social activist.

Our online presence is mainly through instagram as we upload works in progress and process shots of current projects. During these last months at university it has been harder to keep up with the posts however we are now over 400 followers and we aims to keep our followers engaged from now on with regular posts of what we are up to as designers.


Saturday 21 May 2016

OUGD602: My brand; myself as an artist and designer

With Goat Collective being my main branding, I was unsure of how to brand myself and even think it unnecessary to have a logo or specific brand identity as I want my relationship with clients to be informal, and I have Goat branding to put myself under when seeking professional work or sending invoices which require brand design, all of which we have done within branding Goat Collective.

I've been keeping an updated online portfolio via Instagram of my calligraphy / lettering / typography journey as a graphic designer. My account now has over 2000 followers and I post regularly to keep a constant stream of work which shows I am dedicated to my profession.




I also post some of the same imagery on a tumblr account I have for the same purpose, but targeting an audience on a different platform. The design theme I have for this focuses on the images as main content with a  side bar on the right for more information and links to other portfolio and contact details. Linked on this is my parallel tumblr account which I post iPhone photography of everyday design in life, which is more of a personal archive to me of compositions and visuals I find interesting but it is also keeping my photography practice.



These two blogs have the same design layout as it keeps the branding for my work consistent on tumblr.

Another account I hold on tumblr keeps a log of all my typography inspiration I photograph myself, which I can refer back to when I am looking for inspiration. I haven't been as good at updating this as the others but its something I want to continue posting and updating in future.


A more formal portfolio of full projects is on my Behance account where I engage with other studios and artists as well as linking some projects to the Goat Collective behance page too.



Thursday 19 May 2016

OUGD602: PPP presentation notes

Goat Collective
branding

- worked on the business cards using traditional method of letterpress to save money, but not time
- Clarendon is our adopted typeface, which is our logotype on the business cards
- our logo is a friendly hand drawn sketch of a goat with typography across its eyes and collective surrounding its chin
- we also have a website, invoice and letterhead
online presence

- our website is our homepage and platform to social media sites which is where we upload all of our work
- the site acts as a base and displays a few pieces of work along with our manifesto

freshers poster pack

- all 8 of us submitted 5 images to be photocopied and packaged in to a tube of 40 designs
- we aimed to brighten the halls of freshers in Leeds
- our stall at the LCA freshers fair got rid of all the postal tubes within an hour and a half

veg out / outlaws yacht club
- 6th december we had stalls at both veg out and outlaws to display our work 
- we all created christmas card designs to sell at veg out

disposable society

- we called out for submissions from LCA, leeds uni and other places in leeds to try and create a collaboration of artists works
- raising awareness of our disposable culture
- guerrilla advertising campaign highlighted the disposable nature of our society and was captured on social media by people in leeds
- event curation required finding a space through east street arts, building frames and partitions, collecting and hanging work 

interview with independent leeds

- interviewed by louise fletcher for an article on independent leeds about our upcoming exhibition, disposable society

hyde park book club

- monthly exhibits and artist residency at HPBC in leeds
- we update our work there regularly and all is for sale
- this is a place we can showcase our work when we produce new stuff


Online presence / self promotion

behance
- an updated portfolio of my recent work. includes full projects and expresses all talents
instagram
- specifically for lettering and typography
- showcase videos and photos in one space seen as an active online portfolio
tumblr
- lettering account / elettring
- photography account / iPhone photographs

Sign writing
- goat collective sign, produced ahead of fresher’s fair in september 2015
- hpbc takeaway coffee sign written on widow to advertise takeaway coffee
- menu boards, updating the sandwich and drinks board in the cafe
- smaller sign painting commission on a small cabinet for use at a burger van for festival
- amplify leeds sign painting commission; live, paid brief that required me to source onboard and paints


Live art

- LCA christmas party December 2015; created a large calligraphy piece inspired by the festive season
- Nurag clothing launch, March 2016; Goat Collective participated in live art panels during the event night


Commissions \ Contests \ Paid work

- CM logo contest for calligraphy masters. check out website calligraphymasters.com
- Stray Weather logo; paid
- I <3 crafting video; paid
- Irish Boxing logo & EP cover; paid
- Sign painting for Amplify Leeds; paid
- Progressio poster; live brief
- Funkybit poster; live brief


Mural painting / artist Pete Barber

- workshop and introduction with Pete Barber, mural artist
- took part in competition for plus net to design a wall mural for their back yard at their Leeds offices


After university

- continue with Goat Collective in leeds for the foreseeable future
- move to barcelona?
- studio search; Hey Studio, Lo Siento, Atipus (all barcelona based)
- look in to doing festivals and outdoor murals & signs
- get work placements or apprenticeships with mural artists and sign painters

Thursday 5 May 2016

OUGD602: Vicar Lane mural submission

Today we received good news that our design has been selected to be put on the outside of a building on Vicar Lane in the centre of Leeds. East Street Arts got in touch with us saying our design was successful so this should be a great opportunity to work as Goat on this job and get first hand experience creating a mural.

OUGD602: Johnathan Barnbrook talk

Creative Networks gave us the opportunity to see Johnathan Barnbrook talk about his typefaces and designs as well as experience working with David Bowie. It was nice to have an insight in to his experiences as a designer and hearing his stories about working with such a highly valued artist.

Saturday 16 April 2016

OUGD602: Paint by number submission



I found an open submission for artists to submit designs for a printed publication. I intended to submit a calligraphy painting but ran out of time so just submitted a few photographs I'd taken.

Deadline; 14th April


 




Unfortunately I was unsuccessful with this submission, but Paint by number asked if they could post my work on their Instagram feed which I was more than happy with.