Creative Futures 2013 Conclusion

Overall, Creative Futures week 2013 has been very insightful and extremely helpful. With this being my last Creative Futures week, I really wanted to gain some valuable information about the industry I am about to embark into. I feel that the main focus of this week has been on promoting yourself and setting up yourself up as a business, which has been very helpful, as this is what I am currenty trying to do. I particularly enjoyed and found the most helpful, 'Being a Children's Illustrator' by Kirsteen Harris-Jones; 'Self-Employed: The Basics' by Andy Gardner; and "If I Had Only Known...' by Sian Saunders.
Although there didn't seem to be as many talks focused on illustration as such, every talk I attended had a piece of information, or a tip or piece of advice that I can transfer into my work.

Beyond the Creative to the Business End of Things - Gary Edwards

This talk was given by Gary Edwards. Gary owns the company Digital Issue, where they produce online publications. He began by giving a brief overview of his career, and where he is today. He quickly made it clear that reputation is a very important thing for him. He said it was very hard to build, but can be lost so quickly. Once you gain a reputation, you have to make sure that you maintain it. He gave three pointers on how to gain a reputation:

• Research your market
• Look after your clients
• Know your competition

Although this talk was not what I was expecting, there was some interesting points brought up in it, and it was good to hear about the creative industry from another viewpoint.

Setting up Your Own Business - Andy Gardner HMRC

This was probably the most helpful talk I attended this week. Andy Gardner from HM Revenue and Customs, gave a lively, extremely useful and funny talk. Walking in to this talk, I was expecting to come out with my head fried, and so confused, but I was surprised to find that this was not the case at all. Considering it was only an hour talk, Andy went into a lot of detail about: tax, paying and the classes of National Insurance, keeping and maintaining records, calculating net profit from turnover, allowable and non-allowable expenses, capital expenses and how to fill out tax return forms. Andy also provided us each with a thick booklet, explaining what he was saying in a lot more detail. He gave us some links to watch 'webimars' which are also there to help us a lot more for when we need them. I have always thought of tax as a extremely complicated thing that should only be approached by those who know what they're doing; to be honest, I still think this, but this talk has helped my understanding of taxes a lot more, and that they're not quite as scary as I first thought.

Designing for Mobile - Tim Makin

This was probably my least favourite, and least helpful talk out of this week. Tim graduated from Glyndwr in 2007. He now has his own company wink;nudge>. I didn't find this talk relevant to me, personally. There was some interesting points made in this talk, but a lot of it was for people who understand web design and the technical terms, whereas I don't. Something that I found quite interesting was the fact that web access on mobile phones will overtake desktop use in 2013. I found a couple of things helpful, for designing websites, as I am currently starting to create my own website, for example, there are two types of website, dedicated and responsive.

If Only I Had Known... - Sian Saunders

The most inspirational talk of the week!! Sian began the Daydream Designs company in 2006, just working from home. In 2008, the company started to grow and grow, and now there are 6 full-time members of the team, with some added extras. Daydream Designs is quite a unique agency, as they a very small agency, working from a converted garage at Sian and her husband's home, that really gets to know their clients like they're friends. They a offer a homely experience. Sian expressed many times throughout the talk, that they are always looking at how they can do something differently! A good example of this was the work that they have done for The Real Ale Trail, where as you scroll down the page, the beer glass gets emptier and emptier (shown below).

With Sian, as Ffion, a graphic designer who currently works there full time. She gave some good advice; to go into shops and look at what they are selling. See what you think you could do better, e.g. logos, packaging etc, and ask the owner if they are interested in you re-designing it, and sell it to them.

They put together 5 top tips, which they think are the most important things to do/remember:

1. Stand out from the crowd! - designs with personality, because after all, we're hardwired to notice only what's different
2. It's all about the customer! - listen to them!
3. Live by design, not by default!
4. Perspective - look at things differently, and continue to be curious!
5. Go the extra mile! - this always makes a difference!

This talk was really inspiring, and you could really tell that Sian is extremely passionate about her work and her company. She really wants to make a mark, doing the thing's that she loves doing. It so refreshing to see someone get so passionate about their love for their job, not the commercial side, as Sian defines success as loving what you are doing, and waking up in the morning feeling excited about going to work. I came out of this talk, feeling inspired, thinking that I want to work for Sian and Daydream Designs, drinking tea, and creating quirky illustrations.

Marketing Yourself - Denise Chilton

This was not your typical lecture. Denise presented a engaging talk, where student-participation was a must. The aim of this talk was to improve the way we see ourselves and our potential. Denise began by giving us an overview of her career, and how she got to where she is today. Leaving school at 16, she got a job in financial services. After having a midlife crisis ten years ago, Denise left her job in financial services, and brought a coffee cart and began selling coffees at events and shows. Two years into it, she won a small business award. She is now a qualified coach, who helps people get the lives they want. She showed us the importance of branding yourself as a company, giving us examples such as Coca-Cola, which had a largely negative view and Walkers crisps, which brought to mind the advertising campaign with Gary Lineker. There was numerous activities for us during this talk, the first of which, was us naming 5 adjectives that describe our first impression of her. Another quite interesting activity Denise got us to do was where we given a list of values, and we had to narrow it down to 5 values that are really important to us. She also got us to work in groups, and work out what our unique selling point is as an individual. Denise made it clear throughout the talk that the purpose of the talk and the activities was to make us feel uncomfortable; she certainly achieved this (for me anyway!).
You will never change the fact that people will have a impression about you as soon as they see you, but you can alter what they see and feel about you by the way you hold yourself and your body language. After all, 55% of what we read from a person during a conversation is from their body language, 38% is the tone we say things in and 7% is the actual words.


http://www.denisechilton.co.uk/index.php

Children's Illustration - Kirsteen Harris-Jones

This was one of the best talks this week. Kirsteen is an ex-student from Glyndwr and is currently represented by Bright Agency. This talk was extremely useful and helpful. Kirsteen talked us through the process of working with a client, and producing a children's book. She described it as:

1. You get given a brief, then you either accept or decline. If you accept, you then receive the contract
2. When given the contract, always check the royalties. If you feel they're not as much as you would like, then speak to your agent, and they can negotiate for you
3. Once you've signed the contract, you can start drawing!
4. You come up with a series of cropped, clean pencil sketches. Do you're interpretation of the brief, and write why you have chosen to do this in the margin
5. Scan them, and send it off. Wait for the response
6. The pictures come back with scribbles on from the client, stating what parts they want changing and adjusting
7. Once all your drawings have been approved, it's time to go onto final artwork, at this stage, the client may change their mind, or not like the final pieces. In this case, you must be professional and resolve any issues that they have
8. The golden moment your first published book arrives!

Kirsteen also gave some really handy tips during this talk. These included: when working with a agent, you have to trust them completely! A lot of late nights are involved for most jobs, so you've got to be prepared for this. You have to be professional and see each job through to the end, and treat each job the same, no matter what you're getting paid for it. It's really important to keep on top of your paperwork!! Keep files for your sales orders, invoices and contracts from each job. Expect to wait anywhere between 3-5 months before being paid. The average price for a picture book is between £3,000-£4,000, and this is paid in segments. Be prepared to chase outstanding amounts yourself; using sticky notes is a good way to do this; keeping them on projects that haven't been paid yet, and the deadline. Kirsteen also told us about registering for PLR or ALACS (if an author). These give you an annual income from library borrowings of your books; I hadn't thought of this, and hadn't realised you could do this, so that was a useful piece of information. It is also important to develop a thick skin, quickly, and to make a presence; get yourself known to publishers, sending postcards out every 3 months, so they don't forget you, and to get on everything, social-networking wise.

This talk was so engaging, and there were lots of invaluable tips and pieces of information in there. It really opened my eyes even more to how the children's illustration industry works.

Creative Futures 2013 - Opening Address

This talk started off my third and final Creative Futures week at Glyndwr. Dr. Stuart Cunningham (who walked in with a rock/wrestling style introduction playing) gave a brief introduction, welcoming us all to Creative Futures week, and explaining it's purpose; these being to help improve our employability, and our professional development. It is also there to help us gain a network with other working individuals. After a brief introduction, Sarah Mair Gates came on stage, and talked a bit about what the CCS (Creative and Cultural Skills) did, and how they help graduates get a job in the creative industry. This was a very brief talk, with a lot of statistics, just informing us of the work they do, and that they can help us get a job when we graduate (which is always a good thing!). The next speaker was unable to attend, so Dr. Stuart Cunningham talked through their powerpoint, which was about the work that the Creative Skillset Cymru do. Again, very statistic based, but there was some surprising statistics in there; e.g. there are 1.5 million people employed in the UK creative industries, and that the UK creative industries is worth £36billion per annum.

Keynote Speaker - Painting over the Cracks - Prof. Paul Haywood

This talk was given by Professor Paul Haywood, from Salford University. It mainly consisted of him explaining how he got to where he is today, and the projects he has been involved with. He was worked on a project that helped deal with the gun problem in Moss Side in Manchester. This saw the team melting down weapons that the police had confiscated, and turned them into ingots for use in industry; http://www.gunstogoods.org/. Another impressive project he was involved with was collecting colours from the landscapes around Littleborough and designing a colour palette that represents Littleborough; http://www.colouredge.org/. You could tell from the way Prof. Paul Haywood was talking about his work, that he was extremely passionate. Although I didn't gain much for my own knowledge and learning from this talk, it was really interesting to see a creative not working necessarily commercially, but more for helping the local community.

How Not to be a Designer - Robert Ball

This talk was a look at Robert Ball, and how he basically became a designer, by doing the things we aren't 'supposed' to do as a designer. It was split into three parts; a bit about Robert, a bit about his work, and a bit about us as designers. He talked us through his work when he first came out of uni working on the Robocop 3 video game, and up until now working with the London based advertising agency, The Partners. He showed us some of the work he had helped design for a new advertising campaign for The National Gallery. This work was really impressive, and very well thought out. They went on to do a marketing campaign, where they hung full size copies of the paintings on the streets of London.

I think that the most useful part of the talk, was where Robert got to the part where he was talking about us. Here he gave us some really helpful tips and pieces of advice. He advised us not to write a CV, as most employers will look at your portfolio over your CV. If you do have to write a CV, then only tell them things that you want them to know, and leave out interesting hobbies, unless they are really, really interesting. Enter as many competitions as possible, as it's great exposure for you; after all, it doesn't hurt to try. Another piece of advice he said was to look for inspiration somewhere other than the internet, because if you look in the same place, you’ll have the same portfolio as these. When putting a portfolio together online, keep it very simple, with as few clicks as possible. When putting a paper one together, keep it clean and tidy, and don't include any roughs and sketches, as most people wont want to see these. This was a diagram he put together on how not to put together a portfolio.

Design and Illustration in Illustrated Publishing - Yasia Williams-Ledden

Yasia is the Deputy Art Director of Octopus Publishing Group. She has been working here for 10 years, making her way up to the current position she is in.

Yasia gave us some great tips about design and designing book jackets, and just the publishing industry as a whole. She showed some of her previous work, and some of the work she is currently working on, all of which was very impressive, and really made me think about when I'm designing book jackets, and the impact I want it to achieve.

After Yasia gave her talk, she opened the floor to a Q&A session, with some good questions being asked, and each question was answered really well.

Yasia expressed at the beginning of the talk that she had a passion for typography, and how it can bring a illustration to life. It wasn't until I was thinking about this more, that I realised I completely agree with this. Choosing the right typeface is so important to making a illustration stand out. Although this talk wasn't as based on illustration as much as I would have liked, it really helped improve my knowledge and understanding of the publishing industry much more, and there was some great tips given in this talk.

Conclusion

Overall, Creative Futures week was a very helpful and interesting insight into the creative industry. Granted, there were a couple of sessions which I thought could have been slightly better, but I still gained some advice and helpful information from these.

The sessions that I particularly enjoyed and found helpful were there sessions by previous students, because I find it fascinating looking at how they got to be where they are, and the type of work they are working on. I enjoy seeing who their past and present clients include, and where these piece of works have appeared. Some of the advice the artist gave during this week was completely invaluable. This was one of the best things about this week; the fact that seasoned artists/designers/professionals in the design industry gave you their best tips and advice and told us what they wished they knew when they started out.

It is hard to choose the most useful and insightful session from this week, as it is a toss-up between the Publishing session with Martin Steenton; The Chip Shop Story by Andy Cheetham, and also the Character Design talk by Jonathan Edwards. The publishing session was really helpful, as this was something that I didn't have the best knowledge on, so it really helped me gain information about the relationship between writer/artist and publisher, and the process you go through. The Chip Shop Story was particularly inspiring as he was in horrible circumstances, and rather than just sit back and accept them, he got up and did something about it, even though it was just advertising for his mum and dad, it started his incredibly successful career. Character Design with Jonathan Edwards was another inspiring talk about how chance and luck. I fully believe that a lot of this industry is just being in the right place at the right time, and Jonathan is an incredible example of this.

What I will take away from this week, is to really push my work through social networking, and make contacts now, who will be more than willing to help you succeed in this industry. In conclusion, Creative Futures week has left me feeling very positive, and helped me try to make some sense of this industry.

Working as a Freelance Artist (Printmaker) - Ann Bridges

Ann Bridges graduated from Glyndwr in 1999 with a First Class Honours. She is a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy, and has developed her own style of stencil based mono-print. She mainly produces, original artwork to sell on, but some of her work has been used in editorial work etc. After college, Ann felt it important to keep putting her work in exhibitions, as a way of building her C.V. This makes a lot of sense to me, even though I won't be working as a freelance artist, I will be working as a illustrator, so this is the same as getting your work known to publishers, and/or agencies. This is an important factor to take into account after leaving college, as it is your way of making contacts and getting work in.

Ann had to get into something straight away, so she saw an advert in Artist Newsletter for an opportunity to work as a artist-in-residence at Chester Zoo. She quickly set up a website, and balanced her Chester Zoo work with freelance work.

Ann still gets involved in educational work, in particular, short projects in schools and educational centres. This is something that I would really like to think about doing in the future, as it would be great to work with schools to create a piece of work, as I believe that working with children is a very rewarding experience. Ann has also worked on several pieces of collaborative work with fellow ex-student Helen Bate, which were a series of picture books designed for adults with dementia, you can visit the website here.

Since 1999, Ann has been keeping a visual diary for writing and drawing. She doesn't draw everyday, but may spend more time drawing on certain days. She is now on her 33rd sketchbook! Her reasoning for using sketchbooks so passionately is that sketchbooks document all your work done over a certain period of time. Sketchbooks are the point of reference. Personally, I never realised the importance of keeping a sketchbook until I started at art college. In A-Level, I always used to hate presenting work in a sketchbook, and had to pull pages out to put them in a display book. Now, it's the other way around. I do admit, I still need to push my sketchbook work, but I am starting to see the importance of sketching every idea down, no matter how simple or silly the idea is.

Ann loves discovering new things when something goes wrong. She's always experimenting to try to achieve new techniques. Her favourite thing out of all of her work is when she discovers something new about the piece, and "when an idea takes you on a journey." She is part of the open studios network, Helfa Gelf. She describes this as a inexpensive way of getting your work seen. At the last Helfa Gelf, Ann sold just under £5,000 worth of work.

When pricing work for a gallery, be aware that the gallery will take anywhere from 30% upwards of selling price. The average is 40-45%. Ann had already started exhibiting work, so that helped her gain some knowledge about pricing her work, but the advice she gave us was:

• Start noticing what other people are doing
• It's still difficult to get it right
• A lot depends on the context the work is being shown

She evaluates her work all along the process. Ann never gets to the end stage and thinks that she hates it, it's usually in the beginning she feels like this. If you don't have the facilities available to you, then you need to make your style not so dependent on this equipment (you need to limit yourself), for example, Ann couldn't afford a press and had no where to put one, so she developed a way of working where she didn't need a press. You also have to adapt your way of work depending on the time scale. This is something that I need to consider, as I am working partly digitally, I need to keep in mind size constraints for scanning work in, and printing it off.

Her number one piece of advice for anyone before you go freelance would be, you need to have experience behind you before you start.

Overall, this session was quite useful. It was interesting to get a different view point with a different type of media, and from more of an artist's view point. As for advice, it wasn't the best session, but that could just be because I don't want to work in print, so didn't really relate to her advice.

The Chip Shop Story - Andy Cheetham

Andy Cheetham is the owner of Cheethambell JWT, which has been around for 20 years. This session was, again, one of the best of the week. It was very insightful and also very inspiring.

In 1991, Andy had been made redundant 3 times in 3 years. He had never worked out of Manchester and there was also a recession on, so he had no job to go to. He had 5 years experience, had never been in a management position, and had no reputation to get a job. It ended up getting worse, as his car was then stolen. He asked himself 'what do you do now?' His answer was to get a reputation; he would do this by getting a portfolio. On his side, he had youth, boundless enthusiasm, a little talent, and he had no significant debt or assets that he wouldn't gamble. He also thought that if no agency would employ him, he'll start his own, the only problem was, he had no clients, no money and no contacts. The idea was to make/buy a reputation, using 3 creatives in similar conditions/situations, and all the money he had.

Barnacles is a fish and chip restaurant in Llandudno. It's owned by Andy's mum and dad. Andy started creating press ads for the shop, which were low cost, full page ads in the local press. They started to enter these advertisements into awards; the awards rulings said the ad has to run, BUT it didn't say how long/many times it had to run. The ads were really simple ideas, playing on the quality of the food; after all, people love a good concept! They then started to move onto bus campaigns. These are a good idea, especially in small towns, as there's not many and they tend to run an ad until they get a new one through. Eventually, though, there was an uproar about the ads; any ad for a small brand became known as a "chip shop ad."

One year later, the awards loophole was closed, as they tidied up the awards. They couldn't enter Barnacles any more, as award owners had gotten many complaints from creatives.

Twenty years later, many people don't know why they're called 'chip shop ads,' it's just what they've always heard them called. The Chip Shop Awards came about because of these 'chip shop ads', which is a global award ceremony. "The Chip Shop Awards is about fostering and recognising creativity with no boundaries and no rules. It's an international creative awards, open to anyone with great ideas." The slogan for the awards is "Creativity with no limits." The results, twenty years later, include:

• CBJWT is rated as one of the top UK agencies outside of London
• Andy has been a campaign A-List member since its inception 9 years ago
• Made a fello of IPA
• D&AD executive committee member
• Part of JWT World-Wide Creative Council
• 300 plus awards, plus 2 lifetime achievements
• An Atlantic yachtsman
• And also has a property portfolio

When asked if Andy is proud of his achievements, he answers yes and no. It's a dog-eat-dog world, where most creatives have manipulated an awards at some point. It has, however, created opportunities he never would have dreamed otherwise.

What's changed since the Chip Shop days?

The world became digital! Making things became easier than ever and cheaper than ever. People still love great ideas, and it's up to you to make it happen with new tools etc. Finally, the economy was bad in 1991 too, so don't be disheartened by it now.

The advice Andy gave us was:

• Show your personality when e-mailing your portfolio's etc
• Make an effort in EVERYTHING you do!
• Interrogate the brief, find out what the brief's about and get your core idea
• When it comes to awards:
• The best work wins
• Only enter your absolute best work
• Try to spend more time getting the few bits right, than scatter-gunning the awards with rubbish
• Always play to win!

Tips:

• Know what's good out there (know what's commercial out there, why things work etc.)
• Self-filter - if you can spot a flaw in something you've created, a creative director will too, and will grill you about it
• Edit, edit, edit
• If it's been done before, it's likely a creative director has seen it
• Get your core idea right
• "Be what people are interested in!"

Overall, Andy's session was really insightful into how you can make a success out of the most simplest idea. Although I don't agree with his approach of manipulating the awards, it was only because of this deception that Andy hit the 'big-time'. It is such an inspiring story, of someone who was so down on their luck, after being made redundant 3 times, in 3 years, and then no one wanting to hire him, and eventually going on to start your own company, just working small time for your mum and dad's business. It just shows that ideas come from anywhere.

A Career in Children's Illustration - Helen Papworth

Helen Papworth is an ex-student from about 6 years. Helen has always loved bright and vivid illustrations, in books that were small enough you could fit them in your hand. She became a teacher and taught art in Yorkshire in 1987. In 2003, Helen decided she wanted to work overseas and became a VSO volunteer in Ethiopia.

After spending 10 weeks in Rwanda, Helen came to Glyndwr, and started the Illustration for Children's Publishing course in November 2006. Her reasons for choosing this course were: she loved books, loved writing, loved drawing, wanted to be flexible, wanted to work from home, didn't have another job, and she had enough money to pay the course fees. Her influences were Arthur Rackham, whose illustrations she described as "magical," and just lately Shaun Tan. I completely agree with how she described Arthur Rackham's illustrations, because they are so enchanting, and out of this world. A lot of her influences also come from sketching from life (or using TV and Media, if not available). Helen was encouraged to do one sketch a day, which she felt was a  great learning/exploration process. Her number one tip for anyone in the illustration industry is to try to capture anything you can; get your sketchbook out whenever you can! A great place to do this is Illustration Friday. I think that this is a great way of drawing for just the sake of drawing, and for people to see your work. This is something I will definitely start soon, when I suddenly feel inspired by a topic.

Helen is influenced a lot from her African experiences; she visited Ethiopia for 2 years (2004-2006) and spent a couple of months in Rwanda (2006). So much so, she started work on her thesis at the end of her second year, which was a study of the influences on Ethiopian illustrators/illustrations. Helen returned to Ethiopia in June 2008, where she was asked to design books for primary and secondary schools and teacher guides to go with them. There is now at least one of these books in every school in the country. This is how she gains satisfaction; the fact that every child in Ethiopia will be learning from her books/illustrations. It was refreshing to meet a illustrator who works mainly for the satisfaction of children learning from her illustrations, rather than just for the money. I'm sure that every illustrator works partly for the satisfaction, but there is always the big factor of money. Helen made it clear that she is in a situation where she is comfortable for money, so doesn't need to work for it. I'm also pretty sure that every young illustrator sets off into the industry saying that they don't care about the money side so much, they just want the satisfaction of knowing people are creating that personal relationship with their work, however, after a few months of trying to break into the industry, and struggling, they soon realise that this 'dream' is not the reality.

Helen was worked for several publisher in Ethiopia, including Shama Books, who are publishing a no-words picture book entitled "Ten Donkeys", and Hable Books, who published a introduction to Amharic which is designed for people adopting Ethiopian children, called "Amharic with Amen". The biggest issue facing Ethiopian publishing industry is how to improve it; the artwork is lost when printed, as the ink runs over detailed pieces of the illustration.

Helen firmly believes that if you're illustrating for a foreign country, you can do it if you study the country enough, and embrace the culture. This is something that I agree with to a certain extent. I think it is very brave to start illustrating for a audience who's needs you are not used to, and respect Helen for this. However, I believe the same as Helen, that if you are passionate about it, and are willing to learn and experience a new culture, then you should be fine.

This session was quite interesting in the fact that Helen illustrates for an entirely different market, and it was good to see a different insight into how you could work in the future. Although Helen's work didn't exactly connect with me, I can appreciate the fact that she has so much passion about her job, and really just does it for job satisfaction, rather than the money. Helen was a refreshing insight into the industry in the sense that she recognises her limitations, and boldly says so. She also knows that she is still learning, and knows she doesn't know it all. Any person who can accept this and admit it is at the top of their game in my opinion; you (well, I personally) don't want to get to the point in my career where you think you know everything there is to know, and so start being arrogant or cocky, and start not enjoying your work, it becomes more of a chore then rather than a passion, and you may start loosing loyal followers. This is the point where I would hope someone would come up to me, and say I need to step back, and take a look at the bigger picture.

Publishing - Martin Steenton

This session was a talk with Martin Steenton, a publicist at Blank Slate Books, via Skype. Martin couldn't make it down to the university, so our lecturer set it up that we could talk to him via Skype. This was probably the most useful talks I attended over the week. I made PAGES of notes, so this may be a long post (sorry). The format for this talk was mainly questions and answers, with the odd bit of advice thrown in, so that's the way I'll post it on here.

Martin studied Media Studies at uni. Though he's not an artists, he always had a huge passion for comics. He and his girlfriend, set up a blog about comics, in particular unpublished French comics. The aim was to build an interest in the comics, and then hopefully be able to publish them. This blog attracted US publishers, which helped him attract UK publishers.

Martin started working at Blank Slate Books as the Translator Editor, which then led to more and more odd jobs, eventually becoming a Utility Man.

How do artist's 'weasel' in to publishers?

• Have a name that already exists - e.g. published works, etc.
• Be smallpress - through Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Pitch to them at conventions and/or on the internet

The main piece of advice Martin gave with this question was, the more visible you make your work, the higher chance you have of your work being seen, and that quality ALWAYS shines through.

What does a publisher do?

It varies from publisher to publisher. Some want to see fully formed ideas/pitches, which they can assess on the spot and buy for a certain amount of money.

Whereas other publishers, like Blank Slate, don't mind seeing unfinished pitches, that have a few pages, a good idea and a formed talent (i.e. skill set), they would then pay you to finish the book. This approach is usually more for smaller companies.

Bigger companies want to see a full body of work, but Martin would advise against this, as he said you could spend years designing the work, but then find that nobody is that interested in buying its rights.

You HAVE to know how to sell your work - know your key selling points of the text and the images.

The Process

You need to research what each publisher wants/what style of work they are after.

You have to tailor your work to the people you want to be published by.

Martin, then went on to say that you have to stick at it; some people work years and years, with no success, but it's because they have gained attention because of this. Martin gave an example of this, using Darryl Cunningham, the author and illustrator of 'Psychiatric Tales', which has gone on to be Blank Slate's most successful book. Daryl knows the strength of his work, and is confident in his narrative. He also got lots of eyes on his work through Blogger etc. 

Established artists will be more than willing to help you - ask them for quotes on your work, which you can give to publishers; publishers love it! After all, there's nothing better for a publisher than an artist with an established following from their peers. If you have any heroes, get in touch with them, and ask for a quote. Conventions are also a good way to interact with professionals.

Do publishers have house styles?

Yes, a lot do. Look at the "semiotic values" of what's on the page. 

Blank Slate has no house style, just as long as it has an appeal. They have a big scope of styles, ranging from cartoon to photo realistic.

Whereas, publishers like Self Made Hero, and DC Comics have a house standard, that's marketable and has a very high quality.

You need to think about what sort of artist you want to be - do you want to make work for the market? Or for yourself to sell?

Money side:

Again, this varies. A small company tends to be small money. The general rule is, an artist comes with their work, then the publisher buys it with an advance, but the rights they buy will depend on many factors. A publisher can buy its copyright, but it's often time limited.

You'll find a lot of the time, if you sell the rights to one of your characters, then you lose YOUR right to it.

Most of the money is invested in what happens between after publishers have brought your rights, to when you're work is actually published; it provides a marketing and publicity platform for you.

Is traditional publishing going the same way as vinyl records?

He can see companies like DC Comics etc, going digital because it's an entertainment form, while independent publishers going/staying in print. But this is just speculation, because no one really knows for sure.

Publicity and Marketing:

Pitch Tips:

• Have a fully formed pitch - have as many pages as possible (even if you have just a few, use your roughs)
• Give your artist insight into your work - why did you do that? Why does it work? Strengths? Key marketable points?
• Quotes from peers - quotes are easier to get from your peers, as reviewers will tend to go more with published artists
• Send your pitch to them, by e-mail's fine - if you have more than e-mail address for people at the company, send it to BOTH
• Don't be afraid to talk to publishers - get their attention long enough for you to show them your portfolio yourself - show them a few pages, then leave it with them - if they liked it, they'll look at it, and remember you personally when you contact them again

Don'ts:

• Don't be too arrogant! - if they think you're going to be difficult to work with, they won't go with you, as it will cost them more money and time
• Try not to be too unfocused when showing your work - it's got to be your most coherent work possible
• Don't send your work to people that won't be interested
• Don't ask for honest feedback unless you're ready for it - don't be afraid of honest criticism from peers and editors.

Convention dos and don'ts:

• Make your table look as nice as possible - make it look like a shop with book stands, table cloths etc
• Be friendly and polite
• Don't bring everything you've ever done, bring the work you think is your best

His number one tip for making a living out of comics would be: try making money from illustration as

well.

The International Markets:

The UK:

• The UK is a fractured market - to get a comic book, you have to go to a comic book shop, not your local book shop
• Almost entirely all of the market is defined by the US market; we are an extension to the US
• Over the last 5 years, publishers like Self Made Hero, Nobrow, and Blank Slate are now in book shops.

The US:

• This market is dominated by mainstream work
• The UK needs the US market to survive - we need to to grow so we can stand on our own two feet

The French market:

• Comic books are seen as another respected art form in itself
• All type of comic books are available in one place.
• Definitely pitch to French publishers if your work's suitable - try to do a French cover letter.
• A lot of people get published in France first, and then in the US, UK etc. e.g. Joe Daley author of "Dungeon Quest"
• France is more accepting to more diverse work

Is there a specific thing publishers are looking for? What makes work more publishable?

A good mix of understanding comic grammar, layout, a good storyteller, draws coherently and knows what's good about their work and expresses it!

Remember...

You are pitching to people just like you! People who are passionate about comics.

This session was incredibly helpful, and was a great insight into the world of publishing. This isn't something that I have encountered yet, and is quite a scary thing to think about, but Martin's talk really helped to get my knowledge of how publishing houses work etc up to scratch.

Putting a Portfolio Together - Jason Minksy

The aims of this session were: to explain what's included in a portfolio, and how to impress with it. Jason studied at Glyndwr, and then sent to Manchester. He worked for several artists, then decided to work for himself, then went to study for his MA.

One of the important things Jason told us when putting a portfolio together, you have to remember that the things that interest you, may not interest the person who's interviewing you, but it gives them an insight into who you are.

Think about the order you put your work in. The order of your work, should be like a story; it should IMPACT the viewer, with a very strong beginning, a strong middle, and a strong end. Information about each piece of work should be on the back and should have a plastic cover on to protect it.

Getting your work professionally printed looks so much better than some pieces of copier paper, that you have printed at home.

Get your work out there! Whether that be through a website, blog, or twitter.

A showreel is about 'how do you show what you're about in 4 minutes?'

Think about:

• Who you're showing?
• What's relevant to them?
• What do you want out of it?
• How much time do you have? Can you plan it properly with this time-scale?

Be prepared! Be confident in what you're showing your potential clients.

Portfolios are ongoing things, you don't just stop updating them.

This session didn't prove to be as useful as I was hoping it would be, but I did gain some useful bits of information from it. I was hoping that it would show us how you would literally go about putting a portfolio together, for example, how do you choose work to go into it? And how much work you should include? That sort of stuff. Saying this though, some of the advice etc Jason gave us, was really helpful,  for the beginning of a long process I will be doing in the near-future.

Gin and Tonic - Tim McCracken

Tim McCracken owns his own agency, Gin and Tonic, which is an ideas agency, that works graphically, but also works 100% digitally. He is currently based in America. The aims of this talk were: to tell us about his journey through college, his inspiration, your era and culture and key people.

Tim started this talk by asking the question, 'Are you in the right place?' His answer? HELL, YES! His reasoning for this was that it's not where you are, it's the people and lecturers around you that make your experience. I agree with this. Though, I believe that part of it, is where you are. You have to make the most out of the people that are around you, after all, they will be your competition, but they will also be your friends, and ways to collaborate with people. You also have to make the most out of your time with your tutors, as they are there to help you become the very best you can be, and know what they are talking about.

Tim came straight to art college from high school. During his first week, two of his tutors (surprisingly, the same tutors that I have now), set a mark-making exercise, which he had to complete pages, and pages of work for it. This was his first ever case of hard-work. This is how I connected with Tim, as I came straight to art college from A-Levels at high school. I found that first couple of weeks very intimidating, as I was surrounded by all these people, who all seemed to have more knowledge about the industry than me, and the work that was set, was a lot more than I was used to at A-Level.

One piece of advice Tim gave, was, if not you're already doing so, look at your era; i.e. the movies, music, typography in these etc. (the fine details that make up all of these things). Lately, I have found that I am doing so much more of this, for example, when the credits come up in a movie, I pay attention to the typeface they used, and/or the way they laid the text out using grids. I am starting to appreciate typography as an art form itself nowadays, and a lot of that is to do with the fact that we have had several briefs set about typography, and this has really helped me look at things more critically.

Tim wanted to do T.V., but didn't have the experience, so any company he went to, wouldn't hire him. This led to him animating in PowerPoint, and then started learning Flash.

Catalyst Studios saw his work, and hired him. Clients of this company included, Hello Kitty, Target, and fashion labels. While here, he had one of his most important learning curves, he was told his designs were too masculine, and had to get in touch with his feminine side. The main point he learnt from this was to listen to the consumer!

He eventually hit the big time, when he moved to Boston, and started to work for Arnold! Here, he came up with an advertising campaign for ESPN's Fantasy Baseball league. This was a spoof of a American soap opera series. The website is still active now, you can visit it here.

Tim ended the session with asking the question, 'So, you've made it, what next?' He answered this by saying, just be happy, and maybe you could also start your own company. This is a extremely important factor, and piece of advice, as if you are not happy, then you aren't going to be motivated to do your work, and it wont be worth it in the end. You have to have passion, but also be happy doing your work.

Character Design - Jonathan Edwards

This talk was one of the most interesting, motivating and positive talks we had this week. Jonathan has been at this for 20 years, starting out in editorial work, comic books and animation design.

The first major character that Jonathan came up with was completely by accident. It started out as 2 doodles on a page in his sketchbook, which he combined, to create Inspector Cumulus. A 1950s/60s detective, who is made up of a cloud as a head, and a human body.

Jonathan was always interested in having a toy produced. He thought that you had to wait for something to come to you, but they don't; you have to be proactive. So he used this design to make it happen. He had a CGI model of the Inspector Cumulus made, and took it to PlayLounge, where he asked about the possibility of making and selling the toy. They liked the idea, and could see it selling, but suggested he try CrazyLabel, a toy manufacturer in Hong Kong. They were very keen. It took several attempts for the company to get the sculpt right. He wanted the toy to not be realistic; he wanted to keep it how it was drawn; graphic and simple. The next stage was to design the packaging. The toy was released March 2011, with 500 produced in total. Hopton Moss is a new character in this series. Another version is to be released at the San Diego Comic Con this summer, with another 500 being produced. All the characters are to put into a comic book.

After this phase, Jonathan went onto designing t-shirts for a sports brand. Some of these designs included various monster designs. His partner, Louise Evans, said she could make them out of felt. The pair went on to make these monsters, and sold 200 over 18 months, all through one shop in Chester.

Louise was trained as a dress-maker, and so they wanted to make something more bespoke to show off her skills. This was where the monster politician came into play. Jonathan was watching the News one day, and they were showing repeats of the 1982 elections. This is where he came up with the idea for the monster politician.

One day, Louise decided that she would like to make monster versions of the lead singer and his then wife, Brixx Smith, from her and Jonathan's favourite band, The Fall. Louise tweeted this, and by chance, Brixx saw this, and replied to her. The two got talking, and Brixx saw Louise's and Jonathan's work. Brixx owned a boutique in London, called Start. She commissioned some of Jonathan and Louise's work to go in her windows.

Somebody from Selfridge's saw this window display, and was interested in hiring them for their Christmas window display, which was all about 'Adult Play'. They commissioned Jonathan and Louise to come up with a doll's house, with the monster's in each room. The display was up in Selfridge's Oxford Street for 2 months during Christmas 2010.

All of the monster's have back stories, which interconnect with each other, and Jonathan's planning to create a book with all the characters, which also includes a family tree.

The advice that Jonathan gave us was:

• Get your work on as many places as possible, e.g. blog, website, twitter
• It's important to have a back story with your character, not just a character
• When suffering from drawing block, you've got to get through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. Set a goal of 10 or so drawings a week, and this should get rid of the bad stuff.
• People either work in lines or shapes; it's important to figure out which you work in, so you can work to your strengths.

Overall, this talk was probably one of the best I attended during this week. He was very positive, and proved that ideas taken from a side hobby, or a whim, can be very successful. I really like the idea of actually making your character in 3D after you have designed it. I especially like the idea of making it out of material and fabric, rather than the plastic toy route, but this is something I could perhaps research into, and see how easy/difficult it is to get into this area. The idea of someone gaining a connection to your character in a book is a great feeling, but the thought that by making your character in 3D, and it being someone's favourite toy is really wonderful to me. The thought that your toy could be a child's all time favourite and would never leave home without it, is really, really inspiring to me. I would love to take this sort of thing into practice in future work.

Illustration and Key Graphics - David Newell

David Newell started his career by studying the sciences, but soon decided it wasn't for him, and went to study art at college. He began working in mostly gouache, and eventually went on to use an airbrush. After leaving college, he started sign writing as a way to make money.  TranSound, a local business, had just had a new garage built, and he decided he wanted to paint the shutters, so he went to talk to the owner who agreed to this. This opportunity eventually led to David designing their newspaper and magazine advertisements.

After a while of working traditionally, he changed direction and started to work digitally, for companies such as Linnhoff March. This has been his chosen medium, and now works in Adobe Illustrator. It is very clear in a lot of David's work that his inspiration comes from American comics. After spending a significant period of time with Linnhoff March, he decided to leave, and went to work with some agencies.

David designed the advertising campaign for the 2002 Clothes Show Live. This was a collection of characters, which included, a model scout, a DJ girl and the main character, Chloe. This campaign led to an issue with copyright. He was accused of copying a CD cover from that time. The case was later dismissed, but it was quite interesting to gain a different insight into the industry, and the sort of thing that that does to you. The advice on copyright that David gave was, it's mainly about who's got the most money? How many points of similarity is there in your and their work? ALWAYS keep your prep work, sketchbook work and references.

David now works with Multi-Brands, and designs the packaging of products like the batteries SupaCell, Flouorodine Contour toothbrush, and Ultra Loc superglue.

His last words of wisdom to us were, you can work anywhere in the world, but it's the people who make it enjoyable. I fully believe in this statement, you could be working in a tropical paradise, with the best pay and best jobs coming in, but if you are not comfortable with your work colleagues, then you are not going to be happy and motivated to get your work done on time. Whereas you could be in a building where pieces of the wallpaper are hanging off, and there's buts of mould in the corner on the ceiling, but surrounded by friends who are your peers, who you feel so comfortable around, and are happy to get on with your work.