PROMOTIONAL ITEM - Business cards creation - PART 2 - Finalisation and end product

Continuing on from the development of my business card which I think is the important promotional item for me to have, I have made small various adjustments based on the feedback from tutors I was given after revealing the selected few that was improved from the first initial designs. I had borrowed some elements such as text and layouts from the recent designs to inform and to create the final text layout for my business card. 

Finalised Business card text and layout of my contact details and social media

For the visual imagery on the other side of the card I was considering a new original illustration (characters or landscapes based from my FMP content) to showcase my recent works, however the tutors disagreed and say it is better to use one of the landscape illustrations that I had considered using, back at the initial stage of my business card design and layouts. Initially I thought those illustration don’t really display the viewers what I currently do (as I just used them to see what they will look like), however they do have a point where the illustration needs to captivate the overall ‘style’, or content and it doesn’t have to be of a recent illustration, otherwise, putting a recent illustration on my business card would mean I would have to update it with a new illustration every year or so, which will lead to causing me to keep changing it and would be costly in doing so to print them. 

Chosen illustration of a personal work done in 2016 to be used for the business card’s visual presentation.

I have used an online printing website for business cards called ‘MOO’ in order to get these finalised design for my card printed. With a little help from a classmate who has recently used this site to print her batch of business cards, I go through the process of choosing the type of paper, corners and finishing touches to my liking. The cost of getting a batch of 50 business cards printed (as well as the choices I chosen to customise my card) is around £28, which is a pretty good price compared to other printing sites that costs more.

My printed business card the illustration at the front and the name/social media details on the back. As I received my batch through the post I also received a nice little box for storage, as well as for display for people to take a business card from. The illustration was printed nicely and it was the only thing I was concerned as I do not know whether the colours are being printed correctly, as I have a few experiences in the past where I get something printed online and some of the colours looks different, affecting the overall image quality. The illustration on the card looks perfectly normal and I cannot see any minor differences compared to the illustration when viewed digitally.

If I were to print more batches for my business cards, I would definitely use ‘MOO’ again, as the prices to print them are pretty fair and it is easy to follow the steps, in terms of customisation, paper quality and using its service. 

Tutors assessed the overall quality and has given positive feedback, only thing that they say it is needed is my website which is missing on the contact information side. I have not made my website at the time hence it is not on there, however once I get a website for my online portfolio I will add it on the design and will print a second batch of business cards with the added website address. 

Website Review - 12/01/2016

As part of the portfolio and promotion module I am to review two websites from artists who I am currently following/interested in and to answer the following questions for each website.

Stanley Lau, Digital artist. Website: http://artgerm.com

1. Describe the overall aesthetic and branding, including typography, layout and space etc.

Rotating imagery of visual artworks in the background on the home page. Each imagery representing some of the works he does (personal artwork to represent personal works, commercial illustration representing the commercial work he was involved in, etc.) Typography is simple and the text is at a bare minimum as the website is focused primarily on the visual presentation. Minimum colours, mostly white and navy blue to keep things clean.

2. Include Pictures

Mostly digital artworks he has produced, though not all of them (such as his recent works) are on the website. Sketches, doodles and/or pieces of illustration that he has produced as part of his teaching to students are excluded, maybe with the exception of a few.

3. What attracted you to this person’s website?

The professionalism and the presentation of the website. The layout doesn’t feel cluttered.

4. What immediately engages you with this site?

The website is visually appealing with the showcase of his artworks as the primary focus for attention.

5. Are the pages categorised?

Yes. The pages are divided into categories and sub categories (tabs) that allows for easy navigation around the website.

6. Is the site easy to navigate?

Yes, as explained above.

7. Are the images clear?

All images are clear and in high resolution with the option to view at a large scale.

8. How many images are there? Is this too much, too few, right amount?

Within each category (commercial work, digital art, traditional art and fanart), the gallery consists between 50-70 images, so personally I feel that’s the right amount, given that the consistency in each of his works are equally produced at a high standard.

9. Is there any writing? What does this tell you about the illustrator?

Minimum writing on the front home page, though there is a dedicated section in the “About Me” section where there is information about himself as an artist and his input within the art community as a professional. Not a lot of information was provided, though there is enough that reveals his educational past and his influence in the entertainment industry.

10. Client list? Links? Social media?

Each artworks are linked to various social media such as Google+, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. Links to other social websites such as Instagram and YouTube are also included as well as other artists he has collaborated (other founders and mentors of the school).

11. Does this site feel professional?

Yes, since the artist is a teacher and a professional within the art community who has been drawing digitally for the past 20 years.

12. Does the imagery convey a consistent language of work? Or a range of styles? How would this make you feel as a client?

The consistency in his art style are recognisable, so as a client it will be easy to identify his work, especially since he is a known artist and teacher within the art community for his digital works.

13. Does the website show a range of projects on different themes?

A few, as most projects are focused on popular entertainment which are nearly similar to each other.

14. Summarise the website in a few bullet-points of handy tips that you can use for your own website.

- Categorising and grouping particular artworks that associates a theme or different projects.

- Keeping the text to a bare minimum and have a dedicated section for biography and contact details.

- Consistency is important. 

Feng Zhu, Digital Artist. Website: http://fengzhudesign.com

1. Describe the overall aesthetic and branding, including typography, layout and space etc.

Very professional and really well organised. Well-structured in presentation and space. The typography is simple and the overall space is not cluttered despite a lot of text for some information in regards of services, the school tuition application and free online tutorials.

2. Include Pictures

The website includes an image gallery of all Feng’s artworks, which also shows some step by step visual tutorials as well as design boards.

3. What attracted you to this person’s website?

The website holds some online tutorials (via YouTube) and they are very useful resources for learning new skills and educational purposes. For people who wanted to learn and to hear general Q&A directly from the artist, the website is directly linked to its dedicated YouTube channel for free tutorial videos.

4. What immediately engages you with this site?

The presentation and layout of the website. Everything is organised and not cluttered, despite a lot of text.

5. Are the pages categorised?

Yes.

6. Is the site easy to navigate?

Yes.

7. Are the images clear?

The image gallery showcases all his works in high quality though you cannot click each one individually to view it at a large scale.

8. How many images are there? Is this too much, too few, right amount?

There are many, many images of his artworks and visual tutorials in his image gallery, though it is not categorised, however it is ordered where you will see the recent illustrations first and as you scroll down you will view his previous works over time.

9. Is there any writing? What does this tell you about the illustrator?

There is a lot of information which includes the founding of the school, the artist’s history in the community and his success with working with big companies in the entertainment industry. A lot of vital information is provided on the website for online applications and services. Despite a large amount of text in some pages they are very informative and direct.

10. Client list? Links? Social media?

There is a large client list under the “About FZD” tab, that showcases all the various companies within the entertainment industry that Feng Zhu has worked with on AAA films and AAA games, as well as working with well established directors in Hollywood such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. Social media includes Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube for his free online video tutorials.

A list of clients that Feng Zhu has worked with. Most are big studios from the entertainment industry. 

11. Does this site feel personal?

Not really as it feels more commercial based.

12. Does the imagery convey a consistent language of work? Or a range of styles? How would this make you feel as a client?

His works are very consistent in terms of quality and visual output. His sketches and design boards are slightly different compared to his final artworks, though with a mixture of final artworks and design boards it adds a bit of variety to the website’s visual presentation. As a client I would say his expertise on anatomical design and visualisation is excellent.

13. Does the website show a range of projects on different themes?

It shows a variety of works that he has produced, though none of them are labelled as to what it is for. From what I know most of his works that are featured on the website are tutorial works or class demonstrations. Professional works that he has produced for clients and big companies are nowhere to be seen.

14. Summarise the website in a few bullet-points of handy tips that you can use for your own website.

- Professional presentation with limited colours to keep it clean and clear.

- Easy navigation.

Write your own bio/intro for your website – 3-4 short sentences that introduces you, your work and inspirations.

“I am a UK based artist and have begun digital painting in early 2013. Graduated from University studying Illustration and wanted to pursue digital art as my professional practice. Interested in popular culture and entertainment in games, movies and Asian culture which my works are based and influenced from. Characters and visual narratives is what most of my works centred around in."

Christmas themed workshop: Gif and pop up card - 15/12/2016

For the last workshop before Christmas we were put into groups and were tasked to produce an animated gif and a pop up card, based on a word we were given and to give our creations a Christmas theme.

CRUSH

A local juicing bar specialising in healthy fresh juices and mocktails. Contemporary typefaces, modern colours and simple bold imagery. No hearts.

With 5 of us in a group we split into 2 groups, one working on the gif and the other working on the pop-up card. With the current skills we each have, we each go to a group that we individually think our strengths lies in (in terms of practical skills). I decided to join the few who will be making the pop-up card, despite having the skills in digital painting I am not great in the technicality of producing an animated gif, though 2 other members will be working on it as one of them is keen in creating gifs.

For the group that are creating the pop-up card that I am taking part in, we first did some initial research of various pop-up card methods, ranging from the simple fold-ins and cuts outs to complex designs. Due to our lack of experience with pop-up cards, we decided to go for the most simple approach, as complex designs does confuse us with the amount difficulty it holds. Shapes and colours, particularly red and green for the theme of Christmas, are also important as they are something we are going to implement in our pop up card.

Initial research on some pop up cards based on the theme of Christmas. 

We had a little trouble along the way in how the pop up card is going to be produced and what was going to be in it, so we decided to do a simple pop up of a cocktail glass (an object that is relevant to the word and the description we were given) with a background. We have encountered some technical difficulties when it comes to print the illustrations as the intended plan was to print them on nice card for sturdiness though due to a slight problem with the printer we have to cut them out on regular paper instead and stick the individual parts onto the pop up card.

Shape templates to be cut out for the pop up card.

 Physical mock up of the pop up card to roughly plan out where things would be placed.

Digital mock up for the content inside the pop up card.

Illustrations created for the pop up card and the gif.

Final outcome for the pop up card.

The end result of our pop up card didn’t really live up to our expectations due to the lack of experience in paper crafting though in the end we have all enjoyed our team work together in bringing in our little creation together. Personally I think the gif is the more successful one as the two members who were working on it managed to get everything together for it. There are some areas that need tweaking to get it to run smoothly but due to the time we have as a one day workshop we couldn’t fix those small issues in time.

Websites for online portfolio - Exercise and thoughts

For this exercise we discussed about the possibility of getting a website for ourselves for online exposure and to showcase our online portfolio. Knowing the costs, benefits, pros and cons for getting an online portfolio site will help us to understand and to be aware of how things work, as each site are completely different. As groups we each research a given portfolio site and to answer questions in regards to whether the website is free, its monthly price range, etc.

The portfolio site my group was given to look into: Coroflot.com

Free Option?

There is an online application that you must submit and must be approved before allowing you to get an online portfolio on their network.

Dedicated portfolio site or general website builder?

It is dedicated and for professional use only.

Stylish clients? What people use it?

Professionals and specialists. Including established artists and creators.

Stylish templates? Professional look?

Simple, limited colour palette (white, black and orange tone).

How much per month for custom domain name? E.g. www.janessmith.com

No custom domain name. Unable to identify the monthly cost due to the online application that is preventing us to look into it further.

What is the default domain name? E.g. www.janesmith.carbonmade.com

Coroflot.com/”name of user”

Networking?

There is a choice for those who have an online portfolio on this site to follow each other, though outside of that the website is partnered with several other online companies as a shared network.

A graph revealing each group’s analyse on what they have discovered, as well as pointing out the differences each portfolio site offers.

I have not decided on what website I will use to showcase my original artworks, as I would need to do a little more research to find the right one that I personally think will be suitable, in terms of presentation and the aesthetics, as well as what each one will offer such as the monthly price, templates, etc. I would need to be sure on these things first before finally deciding what website i would want to use to showcase my online portfolio, otherwise it will cause some complications if I don't like it and wanting to switch which will be a hassle. 

PROMOTIONAL ITEM - Business cards Workshop and Creation - PART 1

Business cards are one of the key things I want to produce as one of the promotional items for this module. There will eventually be a time where I will hand out my very own business cards to customers or clients and this task will be the first step in creating my very own card that will identify me to the industry and community as a digital artist.

Before I begin the design ideas for my own business card I had a look at various types of cards from different fields of specialisms, ranging from freelance, graphic design, fashion, concept art and illustration. Looking into how each one is unique to one another it helps me to understand the personal touch that artists put into their business card to convey their style, world and professionalism.

Looking into various business cards for ideas on composition, size, type and colours.

What I want for my business card is to be simple, yet friendly and enchanting through the use of colours and font in combination with a simple illustration that will identify my art style and genre of my works. I would want to aim for a simple aesthetic, nothing too complicated or too fancy, yet, not too boring and plain. I would need to produce multiple rough designs to play around with the composition of text, colours and imagery. For the size of the business card it will just be in the traditional landscape format, as I personally don’t feel the need for it to be in any other sizes.

Initial design roughs for my business card.

After the first initial designs of my business cards, I am more conscious on how the back (the side with the contact details) would look, as there are many ways to play around with the text and icon placement for composition and I will continue the designs for it until I narrow down to a few that I am satisfied with. For the front of the card it will be just be a full illustration to showcase the kind of artworks I create, though I might need to create an exclusive image for it, or use a recent illustration I had produce. 

Had made some minor tweaks and adjustments to the text and their placements, as well as changing the logos of social media to simple colours (or black and white) to match with the text/colour scheme. 

After these tweaks I then narrowed down to a selected few which I think would look best to be the final design for my business card, although I will need to forward these to tutors to see if there are any final adjustments needed. Once that is done I will move forward to produce an illustration (front) of the business card, however I will need review what I have (personal works) that could possibly be used as the illustration, though making one exclusively for the business card is very likely.

"The Apprentice" Workshop - 1/12/2016

In this workshop we had learned to see how we can make money by creating and selling a product under a strict budget. This task helps us to inform our business and marketing experience/strategy, as we are creative people who would be looking to sell original products to the market, whether they will be prints, shirts, or illustrated items.

As a group of 6, we each donate £1 to our group budget, totalling £6. To begin the task we analysed the potential products that we think we could create that will enable us to ‘profit’ from the limited resources we have. T-shirts with printed illustrations was something we all kind of agreed towards, as the market for it is quite big and relevant in the industry. We begin by splitting into 2 groups: the research team and the product team. The research team, consisting of 2 people, will look online for prices and other potential products that we could go forward with. The other team, consisting of 4 people (including me), go out into town to seek out products that we could buy within our budget that will help us forge the final product we are aiming to make.

Researching

Myself and 3 other classmates, head out to stores such as Primark, Wilko and Poundland to seek out T-shirts that are relatively cheap within our budget range. It was not that difficult as we stumble a few good deals in t-shirts, some ranging from £2 per coloured shirt, while there are packs of shirts (mostly 3 shirts) for the price of £3.50 in Primark. While we are at the store we contacted the others who are back at the studio to see if they were to agree with buying them. They agreed although they also suggested into looking for materials for another potential product we could make and that is paper lamps. This is a backup plan, which I think is a good idea, just in case if we were to fail or to unsuccessfully produce the printed shirts, as that will be time consuming for the setup and the usage of the screen printing machinery.

We headed out to other stores such as Tiger and WHS Smith, as well as revisiting Wilko to seek out paper materials and electronic items that will aid with the construction of the paper lamps. We remained in contact with the other group while on the lookout and we regroup with the others to discuss further.

Looking into Wilko and Tiger for ideas on prices.

With the knowledge of what we have discovered from each of us, we decided that we are to create paper lamps as our final product, as we came to the conclusion that T-shirts will take a lot of time to produce, especially multi-coloured illustrations for printing. Plus, T-shirts are very common when it comes to creating items for the market/industry and we all feel that creating paper origami lamps are more innovative than shirts.

Production

We then proceed with buying the items that will forge our paper lamps. We discovered LED tea lights which only costs 50p at Wilko and bought 4, totalling £2 from our budget, which is pretty good for its price, however, the light it generates wasn’t strong enough for the light to shine through the paper. We return 1 back to the store (getting the 50p back to our budget) and use the remaining amount to purchase fairy lights (costing £2.50) and coloured sugar paper (£1).

With the materials gathered, we begin with the production of the paper lamp shaped origamis. We created multiple origamis to see which ones would fit in the best with the lights, all ranging from different sizes. There were some difficulty in terms of construction, as most turn out not as great due to the lack of experience in paper crafting. Most of my attempts failed due to some of the complex step by step tutorials which were kind of hard for me to follow. We tried to avoid the easier origamis as they tend to be flat, while the more harder ones are more blocky and 3D, which would fit nicely over the lights with its shapes/design.

Our Origami paper lamps. Prototypes ranging from various sizes.

Our business plan highlighting our target audience, production/material costs and selling prices for our products.

Other groups’ final products for the workshops task. Hand printed Christmas cards and custom sketchbook covers.

In conclusion to the overall experience, I was surprised with the amount of good group work we had put in. Personally, this is perhaps the best group work I have done and to be involved in, as there was actual progression. The task does help us to understand how we could work under a budget, especially for creative people like us in the industry, as we often promote our work/craftsmanship to the market.