Me

I did a picture of myself which I want to use as a sort of brand image - it could go on various items on my promo pack or my business card!

Tumblr updated - Visual Identity

Turns out there are some really nice themes on this website: http://theme-cloud.co/browse/free/

So I took one and fiddled with the HTML a bit to get things just right and now my tumblr looks like this:

Which I would say is definitely a step in the right direction.

I think in terms of a visual identity, I want to maintain this handwritten "emanuel santos", and use of the font "Bebas" and"Bebas Neue" 

Tumblr blog

I've had a tumblr for a couple years now which I use to post work up. I never really took it seriously or thought of it as a portfolio blog, more just a place to share artwork because it can be fun to see your work online (and if people 'like' it, it's nice to know that other people around the world find your work interesting).

Recently however, I've become interested in professionalizing my tumblr as I want to build a stronger online presence. Although there's a lot of scribbles and not so professional looking work on my blog, 

John suggested I simply keep it and become a bit more selective about what I post in future.

I think the first order of business is to pick a better theme as I just use the default one with the custom background and header. Finding a suitable tumblr theme is really hard though, as there are a lot of really bad ones out there. I've got myself a bit more in the mood to go searching by updating my blogger layouts though - just tweaking the headers and adding gray to the background.

I also should probably put some information about myself as "Hello" doesn't quite suffice.

Mejirushi

Brushes and texture

http://mejirushi.tumblr.com/

Patrick Leger

Really great vintage style linework with texture to along with it

Making a business card

Here are some initial business card ideas scribbled on some paper - most of them use artwork that I've previously created, but I've also got an idea for an original one that uses an image of a hand with my details scribbled on there like taking notes on your hand.

Here are the made business cards - I once wrote my name in brush pen and really liked how it looked so it's something that I want to have on my business card for my name. I also like the hand business card but I wonder if it looks too much like an angry fist and also if it will be a pain to cut out or not.

Life drawing society

This year I volunteered to help run the life drawing society at the College. I did this because life drawing is something that I am really passionate about and to be a part of the team that helped run it would be very rewarding to me.

At first I applied for the role of 'treasurer' as I thought it would be a relatively relaxed job and that I would probably be quite good at it since I'm fairly organised. Unfortunately, due to general disorganisation within the team, we dropped formal roles and everyone ended up doing a bit of everything. I also designed the above poster and distributed it around the College

When the first session finally happened, I was asked to deliver it - i.e. introducing the session, greeting the class and being in charge of the pose times. I was uncomfortable doing this as I felt an unfair responsibility was being dumped on me (and I'm also really bad at talking to groups of people, especially if I don't know them), and the same thing happened again next week until the president of the society left without saying anything.

After this happened I pretty much took over all contact between the society and the Students' Union and continued to deliver the sessions. Although I initially disliked having to deliver sessions, I was proud of myself for doing something out of my comfort zone and eventually got a bit better at it.

Although this isn't strictly illustration related, I think this has been a development of my professional communication skills via email, organisational skills in a group and, to a certain extent, public speaking skills.

Jacob van Loon

  

Crazy precise use of watercolour to make really odd compositions with strong perspective

Kim Roselier process

http://kimroselier.tumblr.com/post/110436078616/illustration-du-dimanche-kimroselier

I used this process for my Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit brief in Responsive. I think it's a great way to get nice clean gouache paintings.

Vincent Tsui

http://pstk-way.tumblr.com/post/91916758785
Really really nice life drawing by Vincent Tsui

Kevin Whipple

http://kevinwhippleillustration.tumblr.com/post/86337229700/another-set-of-spreads-from-my-thesis-project-the

Shape and line and limited colour palettes yum

Same Rowe

http://samrowedraws.tumblr.com/post/98077369965/a-simple-four-page-story-made-for-an-anthology-as

Really good use of PS brushes to create a handmade aesthetic. Limited colour palette too.

Colours May Vary exhibition

I worked as part of the Promo Team for our exhibition "Off the Page" in February. I found this to be a very interesting and fun experience.
Some mistakes were made during the process which contributed to some good learning - the need for the unification of promotional material (we initially proposed to have 8 or 9 different poster designs), what kind of information that should be included/excluded on the poster (no free drinks) and some pointers in graphic design as me and Joe spent quite a lot of time designing the layout for the final poster (even though Matt came in at the end and pushed the quality even further).
Line breaks look really good on posters.

Packaging the prints that I wanted to sell was stressful as I did it the night before they had to be given in, but when I finally had my prints packaged in newsprint, signed and editioned, they looked incredibly professional and I almost didn't want to give them away to sell. It also made me feel a lot better about the work I had produced for the OUIL504 module.

On the actual opening night, the turnout was great which meant that the promotion had worked, which is always nice to know - I realised that you can never be sure that what you're doing is working until the actual event comes along.

Studio Brief 3 - CREATIVE PRESENCE

1.What should your identity convey about you?

It should convey who you are creatively, professionally and personally. 

Without divulging too deep into your personal life, you should be able to give potential clients an idea of what kind of work you make in a non-visual way - what you are interested in, how your experiences have shaped what you do and what you may have the potential for.

Creatively, you should be able to show clients what makes your work special - whether that's through your aesthetic, tone of voice, or process. They should understand where your work exists in the world - am I a poster artist? Am I a book illustrator? Am I a screen printer? These are things that I am interested in and should ideally communicate to potential clients.

2. Is it actually important to have an identity as an illustrator?

For the freelance illustrator, I think identity is very important. Not only is it a great way to make clients remember you (for personality/pseudonym/aesthetic), I feel like it makes you a lot more marketable. If you can identify your niche in the market, then building an identity around it will mean people will be a lot more likely to go to you for jobs you like to do.

If you have greatly varying areas of illustration that you enjoy working in, making identities (blogs/websites/names) for each genre can be beneficial as it means you will be able to present relevant work to clients without them getting lost in the work you do that they're not interested in hiring you for.

3. What could be included in your pack and why?

Fun stuff which I noted down that could be included in a promo pack:

-Cards

-Coasters

-Place mats

-Mouse pads

-T-shirts

-Postcards

-Stationary

-Calendar

I think there is a lot of potential for functional ephemera - things like coasters and stationary which people keep as they are useful, even if they don't look at them that much. Putting more luxurious items such as a bottle of wine with a label you have designed yourself is also something I noted down. This would also be a reflection of myself as I happen to really like red wine.

4.What are you wanting to achieve by producing promotional items?

I think that by making a promo pack I will not only help other people understand who I am, but will begin to get an understanding of that myself. Creating a unified set of products will show me what my identity looks like - choosing what pieces of work I place on the products (existing or specially designed) will show me what my work is about. Picking a few pieces of work to represent who I am as an illustrator will be incredibly difficult however.