Creative Presence: Instagram and Tumblr

For a while now I've been using Instagram and Tumblr to get my work out into the world. Although I post mostly work, I also post things concerning my home life (nothing too personal) I have done this as I want to combat an issue I feel I have in regards to how approachable I am. If people see that I am a family man who cares for people I hope this will encourage them to approach me, be it on social media sites, or in person at festivals and what not.

Additionally, I have linked my Instagram page to my Tumblr so I only really have to post to the former to keep both accounts active. I am still to get many followers on Tumblr. This may be because there is a niche type of person on there maybe?

Here is my Instagram.

Here is my Tumblr.

Creative Presence: Promo Pack Initial Ideas

Here are some initial ideas for my promo pack. I have designed an image that shows me to be in a somewhat silly pose as I want to seen as non threatening, yet also display my skill. I used this illustration on a mock up business card pile and a mug of tea which humorously describes me as a mug. The mug is something that I would like to produce as people (in office jobs specifically) are always happy to receive a new mug for their tea and coffee! I will need to look into how to get such a thing printed.

Creative Presence: Political Business Cards

Whilst playing around with my work for OUIL501 I quickly knocked up this image as an idea for a business card. I think it would be interesting to have a politically based business card, should I decide to go down that avenue of illustration, however for the time being I think this idea will be put on the back burner.

Creative Strategy: Drew Millward - Dust

Last night several of us visited Colours May Vary to attend the opening night of Drew Millward's Dust Exhibition. It was interesting to contrast our exhibition to his as he obviously has more experience with screen printing and had them professionally printed and framed. Furthermore, with a larger following, the night was busier than our Off the Page event, this is not to be taken negatively, but is interesting to note.

I found several of his pieces quite interesting, but overall thought much of his work was quite similar, making for at times, a bit of a repetitive evening of viewing. One interesting aspect was a table of raffle items, which consisted of pillows, tshirts, caps and paintings designed by Millward. I made note of this as it is quite relevant when thinking about product, range and distribution within the module OUIL505.

Creative Strategy: Photography Refresher Workshop

Today I took part in a photography workshop with the purpose of reminding and developing my skills in Photography.

Initially I began to wildly take photos of my object (The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne), however we were quickly reminded of some of things we learnt in in Level 4 such as framing etc. Proper lighting was set then up and we were reminded how to effectively use ISO to think about the surrounding light source. Examples below show the object in florescent (giving a pink shading), daylight (a yellowish shot) and custom (that a made to acclimate the camera to the lighting we were using). We were also shown how to create a white balance using a grey card which is used as grey is the perfect middle ground, allowing for a perfect contrast.



After this I focused on my cycling gear which made me feel like I was taking photos of museum items based on my life. Initially I had trouble as I was getting too close so the autofocus could work correctly, however once I realised everything else worked rather smoothly. I took photos from different angles to see how the light sources affected the balance of the photos, and even went as far moving the light sources to experiment further.



Eventually I felt as though I had experimented enough and took one final shot of The Scarlett Letter in a well lit shot.

This photography refresher should hopefully come in really useful when it comes to production time in my OUIL505 brief.

Creative Strategy: Digital Colours to Print 4 - Notes

To create separate positives from channels in Photoshop click on the channels menu then its option selection before selecting split channels. The file then will open into layers. From here you'll need to halftone the files.

Only print halftones with inkjet printers/

Only downside really is having to save each document for each positive.

Angles 15, 75, 105, 155

How to create positives from a merged file -

Select colour range

Select area of colour for channel

Channels menu - create new spot channel

Play with levels to remove different shades/colours

Go back to original image (hide new spot channel)

Repeat for different shade/colour.

Black channel would already exist from CMYK channels.

Duplicate black

Double click new image

Change to spot colour

Make black by selectinf K100% in colour picker

Change solidity to 100%

Change name to Spot Black or something similar.

Next layer

Hide new channels and make sure CMYK layers are not hidden

Colour Range

Select area

Select

Modify Expand - this will feather the selection out a bit (try 3 pixels minimum)

This is called trapping as it will minimise mis-registration of prints when screen printing due to overlap)

Channels

New Spot Colour

Finally place channels in order of print (black on bottom - then up).

Photoshop -

For a layer with transparency press CMD and hover over layer. Then click - it'll select the entire visible layer.

Create new spot channel.

Creative Presence: Promo Pack Research

I have no idea where to begin building a promo pack, so this evening I set about doing a bit of research. At this point I'm going to say I don't want a promo pack that is overly crafty - largely because it would take a lot of time to produce one pack. I think I want something flat that will easy to ship.

Follow Tommy 'Zoom''s board Promo Pack on Pinterest.

Creative Strategy: Harry Potter Studios

Over the weekend my girlfriend and I went to Harry Potter Studios near London. I brought it for her as a gift, and wasn't personally too bothered about going. But I'm glad I did. The studios show you every aspect of the film making process from conception to filming - needless to say there was MUCH illustration on display. It was a truly fantastic opportunity and I now know how much illustrative work goes into movies such as this!