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Saturday, 30 April 2016

Manufacturer List

Since I'm creating a brand a client list wasn't really what I needed to do, instead I was advised to a list on Manufacturers.

Clothing 

sublab
sublab is a uk based printing company they produce all over print t-shirts which I have noticed are getting more popular lately. I personally love the look of all over prints. The prices start from £26 for 1 and £18 each if you are ordering 26-50 t-shirts. They also offer neck label printing for 25p per t-shirt. They have templates for both photoshop and illustrator on the website making the design process easier. They also do standard t-shirt printing starting at £24 per t-shirt.

identity manchester
I'm not 100% sure they are still up and running but they do/did t shirts, hoodies, shirts, hats, bags and other clothing. I have used Identity before back in A level and my Dad is friends with the owner.

Rapanui Factory
Offers screenprinted t-shirts (which I could do in college anyway) and digitally printed t-shirts. They also do embroidery but there is a local place I could go to get that done.

They also own a site called Teemill which functions like Redbubble but I think you get a bigger cut of the profits.

Headmasters Embroidery & Schoolwear
Local company going to them would help support the local economy and keep businesses like this up and running. I have seen patches made by them and they are just as good quality as any other company. The website might look naff but they get the job done.

stockingshock
I have personally had a piece of clothing made by Stockingshock and it is fantastic quality. StockingShock is an British Gothic and Lolita brand, based in the English Midlands. On the website they say "All our regular designs are tweakable- i.e. if you don't like one feature you can swap it for another, or add some optional extras. Hardcore individualists can select the 'Custom' option and build an entirely one-off piece. You can also supply your own fabric; if doing so, please mention the fabric type (ie. fibre content, such as poly- cotton, wool etc. or a brief description of the fabric if you aren't sure of its composition) and width, and we will advise you of the amount needed."
They also offer custom designs at a discount if you supply your own fabric.

sewport
London based "SEWPORT helps the fashion industry with clothing production capabilities.
We make sure designers and brands don’t get held back because of lack of machinery and labour to produce clothes". They do long runs and short runs, they cover everything I would need help with. They can work from a sketch and design the pattern and go through every step of the manufacturing process.

Fabric

surface pattern print
100% UK based "create your customised fabric and wallpapers with no minimum meterage". "Student discounts available please get in touch for your unique discount code". Silk, Cotton & Polyester Fabrics from £15.99 per metre. They also print wallpaper which would be nice if you had a booth at a trade show or something similar, wallpaper starts at £19.99 per metre.

lacunapress
Based in Gloucestershire, next working day despatch, create your own fabric starting at £10.00 a meter, they advertise that their fabrics are created with environmentally friendly inks and processes. They have a wide range of fabrics to choose from.

printmepretty
Uk based, only seems to print on 195gsm plain cotton and doesn't have any price lists on the site.

citrus rain
Manchester based they produce towels, tablecloths, cushions, blinds, wallpaper, fabric etc. They offer a large variety of printed fabrics and they have pictures on the site so you can see which are better for colour and what the texture is like. Slower turnaround than some of the other companies.

Prints and Other

dstudio
UK based, offers prints on Hahnemuhle Bamboo paper which is more environmentally friendly, I have ordered samples from this company and the Bamboo paper is really nice and is great for coloured pieces. I've made a whole separate blog post on this company and the samples will be in my Ideas and research book which I'll hand in with the rest of my work.

beespokeprint.
UK Based small scale printing company which specialises in creating stock for conventions they do prints, holographic prints, stickers, holographic stickers, printed portfolios, custom sketchbooks etc. Sadly they often have to close shop to work on orders especially around convention times so the shop is closed at the moment because of the up coming London MCM. I have spoken to the owner before and she did say if you were doing a convention she was also going to be at she would bring your stock with her so you don't have to transport it.

jimiagency
Not UK based but I am including it because it has options I can't find elsewhere.They are based in South Korea which would mean I have to consider customs charges and handling fees. They can get designs printed on clear acrylic, card wallets (the kind you would carry a bus pass in), memopads, stamps, washi tape etc. I'm particularly interested in the memopads, stamps and washi tape. I think I have purchase washi tape which was produced through this company and the quality is excellent.

zap creatives
UK based company they do custom acrylic charms for jewelry, zippers, phone charms, shoes. They also do things like badges, papercraft models, phone covers, posters, greeting cards, stickers, wall mirrors, clocks, cupcake toppers, tea light holders etc.



Monday, 25 April 2016

Replies which came to late

I have had a lot of problems getting feedback on my portfolio, recently I've been getting replies from the practitioners I decided to contact but they have come to late.

Miss Wah took a quick look and said she loved the use of colour in my work and how the subject matter is a mix of cute and dark.

Lyn Bannister got back to me but made no real indication that she wanted to meet me at all.

Leo from Identity Printing Manchester got back to me towards the end of last week so it didn't leave me enough time to arrange anything. But I will be going to visit him regardless because I could really use his feedback.


Website link

To see my website follow this link
www.raeldangerart.wordpress.com

Sunday, 24 April 2016

Hopes and fears

In this blog post I will be talking about some of my hopes for what I want to achieve post degree and some of the fears I have.

Unlike some of the others on my course my aim isn’t to go into editorial illustration, instead I’m building a brand which has been the goal even before I took this degree. The course has helped me come up with new ways to do this and has also let me see what alternative paths I could have taken. It sounds like I’m just set in my ways but I can tell you I have given each avenue suggested to me plentiful consideration. I have come to the conclusion building my own brand is the best way to get to get my work to its intended audience and maintain my artistic integrity while doing so. With my style of working I can’t wait around for art directors see that my style does have a place in their publications.

 One of my hopes is that I will become a better salesperson; it’s something I will need to work on. The course has helped me build confidence in my work, now I just need to become more socially confident. One of my fears is I could set up my brand in the wrong way since I don’t know much in terms of registering a business and how small businesses are taxed. To remedy this fear I intend to take a short course in business to help me market and properly set up my brand, since I’m not going down a more traditional illustration route there are gaps in my knowledge that need to be filled.
The course has also helped me step out of my comfort zone before I would have been hesitant to email people but now I find it a lot easier and know that the skill will be necessary to contact stockists.  Due to my anxiety I would often catastrophize things like sending an email or asking someone to give me feedback on my work but through repetition it’s getting easier. This takes me onto a fear of mine I’m afraid my anxiety will get in the way of potential opportunities, there are techniques I have learned to help with my anxiety through the past few years which will hopefully help me in this regard.

Another hope of mine is that through my brand I can help de-stigmatize mental illness and work with mental health charities to help fund services for people suffering from mental illness and raise awareness of what people can do to help those who struggle with mental illness. Mental health is a subject I have often brought forth in my practice and I fully intend to continue to do that outside of university.

I think a lot of people leaving art and design courses have a fear of getting sucked into jobs not related to their preferred field, I can say that in my case I’m not scared of having to pick up a day job to support what I want to do. If anything I’m actually looking forward to having that experience. I don’t think I will ever be able to stop making work which is why I don’t feel threatened by having to do other things to get by. Being an illustrator is not a stable job which scared me a lot at the beginning but I’m not limited to just being an illustrator. With that I don’t fear failure because I will never stop trying and that’s the only true way to fail.


The fear I have had is that my direction is a lot more fluid than others; it can come across as me not knowing where I am going because there is not as many boundaries to what I can do. There is no need for me to limit myself to just doing t-shirts, prints or books. The thing about creating a brand is you can explore many different outcomes under that umbrella instead of limiting myself to just illustrating other peoples book or articles. Creating my own content suits me better otherwise most of the time it feels like I’m forcing my style to match up with content that it doesn’t go with.

Saturday, 23 April 2016

Final show considerations

I've been thinking more on how I want to brand myself, while looking at places to get my work printed I stumbled across dStudio which is a printing and framing service which offers bamboo paper which is more environmentally friendly www.digitalprintdesign.co.uk/papers/

There is also a 20% discount on getting your work printed on Hahnemuhle Bamboo 290gsm paper which is a nice incentive. It says on the website it is especially good for vibrant colours so it should be perfect for my work. 


Visiting Practitioners: Group portfolio feedback

On 20/04/2016 I went to Cake and Doodle and asked if any of the illustrators there could take a look at my portfolio and give me a bit of feedback. Most of my feedback came from Luis Gainzarain who is a Graphic Designer and comic artist from spain and Marta Gonzalez 
Luque who is a freelance photographer who also dabbles in illustration and animation.





Feedback from Luis Gainzarain
You should think a bit on the Why? What? and Where?

Why do you do the work you do? Is it self expressive? Does it have a message? Are you pursuing a stylistic ideal?

What are you going to do to convey what your work is about? What form will best convey what your work is about? What audience do you need to market your work to? (Who will appreciate what it is about).

Where can your artwork go? Where is your audience going to be? Where will your work be seen by the right people?

There isn't a right or wrong answer to these questions you just need to know what your answers are so you can take a step in the right direction.

Reflecting on the feedback
For why I create my work I would say it is primarily self expressive but I would also say I was pursuing a stylistic ideal but I have gotten to a place where I am happy with my style but I still like to play with different mediums it keeps my work fresh and exciting. 

Not all my work has a message behind it and I've come to terms with that. I think in the illustration world right now creating decorative work is frowned upon and seen as fluff in a way. But maybe I just want to create bright and cheerful work sometimes that doesn't particularly have a hard hitting message behind it, I don't think it is wrong to do. There is a Japanese principle called "ma" and I think ma can explain why I do my work the way I do. Ma is the space inbetween the action, if you want to see ma in practice Studio Ghibli is a great example. So my work which is mostly for decoration is my ma as you will, it is the break I need from my hard hitting work. In terms of studio ghibli ma comes after important parts of the story to help the information sink in and to transition to the next plot point. Ma comes in the form of mundane details for example a girl has a hard day at school lots of bizarre things happen. The ma could be she goes home and runs a bath and just goes about her normal routine before she is thrown into the next set of ordeals.

 But I do also create work that does have meaning to it, I mostly focus on mental health and opening up that conversation and making the whole subject less taboo. That work is often very introspective and it takes a lot of energy to translate it into an image.


The what for me it to make prints, to make stories and t-shirts, I basically want to make the topic of mental health as accessible as possible. The more people are exposed to it the easier it becomes to talk about it. And I want to approach my decorative work in the same way, if someone wants to wear my designs doesn't want to wear a t-shirt about mental health instead they want something a bit lighter in tone I can also supply my customers that option. My main audience is 13-25 I think the younger end of my audience will like my work for it's style and the older end will appreciate the message behind some of my pieces.


I think in terms of where I could sell or display my work I think there is quite a few pathways I can explore. Comic conventions are where I have had the most success up till now and I think with me producing t-shirt they are going to continue to be one of the best places to sell. I've had varying levels of success when it comes to selling my work locally, children and teenagers are my main buyers when I sell locally. I have recently started to see a raise in street artists taking an interest in my work and I feel like paste up's might be a good way to reach that audience. I think selling my work online could work if I concentrate on actively advertising, as of now I have had no success with it but I think that is all down to me not giving my etsy and redbubble enough exposure.



Marta Gonzalez
Sometimes you need to experiment with platforms and what you are creating, the best thing you could do is just try things to see what is a viable option or not. And I would recommend just getting a regular job first because it helps you develop as a person and helps you gain confidence.

(when I mentioned Fig Taylor and her feedback regarding my work) Even professionals can give bad advice sometimes, just because one person tells you something won't work for you doesn't mean they are right. I don't see why you couldn't do editorial illustration for more alternative magazines. Don't let one person tell you what you can or can't do.

What might be unpopular now might be popular next week or next month, trends change so don't base your decision on where you want to go with your work on what is popular right now. What is selling now might fade out of fashion in a few months, what has faded out of fashion a few mouths or years ago might have a resurgence. If it is selling even if it's not selling much keep doing it, if it isn't selling at all that's when you need to consider shaking things up a bit. Just keep doing what you love doing and keep developing it.

Reflecting on the feedback
I think Marta really helped me realise that just because my style isn't popular with art directors at the moment it doesn't mean it never will, and maybe it's not worth worrying about how popular or unpopular my style is. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow.


Other thoughts
When I mentioned Fig Taylor I quickly found the people who did know of or have encountered her have a rather low opinion of her. One woman said when she was a student Fig Taylor gave her feedback and she said it was useless to her and ended up being completely off. She said Fig had been out of the industry for too long and didn't really have much of a grasp on what is currently popular. and to take what she had to say about my work and what direction I should take it with a pinch of salt She also said Fig was the one approaching universities to do these feedback sessions not the otherway round which it's a very good sign. 

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Cake and Doodle 20/04/16

I attended Cake and Doodle again it has been awhile since I last went.

This weeks theme was Oliver Twist, I didn't really get much doodling done but I went with a friend of mine who is studying illustration at Salford university, he was previously studying animation but switched courses.

The great thing about Cake and Doodle is that it is every week, each week there's a new theme and they feature a different artist every week. They often share the work produced on facebook and twitter if you choose to tag them in your drawings. The themes are something new since they weren't doing it the last time I went, you can work to the themes, do your own thing or use the time to continue with something you are working on.

It's also a good place to get feedback on your work, since I was struggling to get replies from the clients and artists I contacted I used this as an opportunity to get some group feedback on my portfolio. This will be detailed in another post.

This week I swapped facebook details with a few of the artists so if you are trying to make contacts within the industry it is a good thing to take part in every once in awhile. I plan on attending more frequently after I finish university.