Position Statement

Line is at the core of my practice and I feel as though that I have solidified a creative process in the last few months. Through rigorous exploration of line in different mediums, I have noticed that it is most effective when realized traditionally and then scanned in to be coloured and enhanced on Photoshop– taking a purely digital approach from start to finish has been detrimental to pieces of work beforehand and it is good that I finally realise this in order to have a strategy to image-making. While the themes of my work tend to vary quite a lot, content-wise, the figure is often relevant.

I am strongly influenced by literature and would ideally like to work in the world of publishing and book design. I have built up a portfolio exploring this industry and will slowly send it out to relevant art directors in the form of my post card mailers, interwoven with regulated e-mails.

Screen print is also another strand of my practice that I wish to continue. I have spent the last three years on this course nurturing this skill and I feel like I will leave here confident enough to work independently in a print studio. I want to be able to intern at one, but if this doesn’t happen then I will purchase membership to East London Printmakers in order to further this aspect of my practice.

While I have built up a strong portfolio in both these areas over the last year, I am aware of the fact that editorial is the ‘bread and butter’ of most freelancing illustrators. I will not get regular work in the publishing industry immediately, so need to begin to think about how I approach this industry and build up a relevant portfolio to send to a new batch of relevant employers, as it is currently very sparse.

Summative Evaluation

I feel as though it took me a lot longer than it should have to engage with this module. I'm disappointed that I did the bulk of my contacting as late as Easter, but at the same time I feel that perhaps it was unavoidable: A huge concern of mine last year was my lack of a developing tone of voice - all my work was scattered and it was hard to make sense of it. It has only been in the last couple of months that I feel like my work has started to come together as a cohesive portfolio.
When I e-mailed a couple agencies at the beginning of the year, they said that they look for illustrators who are confident enough in what they do to have a 'style'. Now that I feel a bit more confident about what I do, I think I'm in more of a position to send out portfolios to art directors, agencies and other prospective clients.

In terms of my self-branding, I think this is something that has come out strong. I'm pleased with my visual identity - the idea was to make something a bit odd that people would remember. I think I have done just that, particularly by spilling my portrait onto variously coloured business cards which I think people will hold onto. I feel as though the brand identity is sleek and consistent through defined use of colours and type. As well as the printed material, this look is also translated onto my online presence sites: www.emanuelsillustration.com and emanuelsg.tumblr.com use the same colours and feature the same self-portrait.
Since getting my website, my use of Tumblr has radically changed - while I would only post portfolio-style work once a week, now I am posting multiple times a week with odd little things I do. This makes it much more exciting to view and makes me feel better about how much work I've been producing lately. My use of Behance definitely needs developing though, as a lot of people use it so post their conceptual development and process while I just tend to post finished artwork with a short description.

I feel as though without an Instagram, I am definitely missing out on a lot of potential attention and exposure that could come my way, but not having a smartphone at the moment makes this an impossibility. Instagram may be what pushes me to get one though - a lot of people I've spoken to speak very highly of it, and have even been told by practitioners that it's a huge help.

In regards to progression, I have researched into how I can maintain a screen printing practice. East London Printmakers is what I currently have my eye one as it is very affordable. I should have looked into getting an internship sooner than I did, but the thought that they might exist in these studios hadn't even crossed my mind. I have sent e-mails out to two studios asking if they do summer internships, but haven't heard back. I will chase them up a little later down the line, or think about visiting them in person over summer.

I think the most important thing to take from the module is that it never really ends - I am going to work very hard to continue doing what this module has taught me to do well beyond I leave this course. Luckily, my mailing strategy has me with a plan for at least 6 months.

Final Presentation

I was surprised by how smoothly this went, even though I was nervous about being first. Public speaking isn't my strong suit, but perhaps it's not as big a weakness as I think.

Presentation Boards

Professional Portfolio

This is my professional portfolio of a more general nature. It can be added to/taken away from as need be.

Rejecting

End of Year Show Art Marketing

I want to sell some screen prints at the End of Year Show Art Market, so decided to adapt the Lolita and Clockwork Orange illustrations I did into posters. I already have The Bell Jar one, which makes a nice set of three.

It would be nice to make a bit of money, and having sold that 2-colour A2 Flight Facilities poster before, I can do so more aware of how to price my work. At £35, I definitely undersold it. 

Each of these posters are 18"x24": The Bell Jar is 1-colour, Clockwork is 2-colour and Lolita is 4-colour, so I will take this into account when I price each poster.

I've sent off my application form so am hoping to hear back soon. If my work is chosen I have to attend a briefing on the 25th May. I won't be doing any printing related to these till after the 603 deadline though, which is quite a few days before this date - all very convenient.

Submitting

I've sent submission e-mails to The Artworks, Killington Arts, Heart and Eyecandy.
When asking for low-res JPEGs to submit, these are the ones I have been falling back on:

As I think they show a good breadth of work while still being able to show what I'm about.

Bridge-ing

E-mailed Andy Bridge who I discovered a bit ago and whose book covers I really like and he got back to me with a really in depth e-mail with comments about my work and some insight into his practice - he talks about how his use of digital can keep his work fresh while still being his own and how he makes images more exciting by playing with viewpoint. What a nice guy! Will definitely take his advice and try and make my images as exciting as his.

Mailing

My business cards arrived a few days ago and so I thought it was time to start sending post cards out to art directors. I realised though, that since I'm sending the bio postcard first, it might look a bit odd to send that and the business cards when they have the same design on them - so this first bit of mail will just have the post card and a short handwritten letter.

Each letter is different and tailored to the respective art director. I've name dropped illustrators and designers they've worked with in the past in order to show I've done a bit of research into their work. It was a little harder for others though as either very few of their projects or none at all come up. Regardless, I still tailored the letters as best I could, referencing the company they represented.

Now that these are done, I'll wait a month or so before I send out the second batch, tailored further according to the spreadsheet. These will come with a business card as well.

Advice reading

http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/approaching-art-directors.html
http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/how-to-cold-call-email-art-directors.html

http://www.printmag.com/article/art-directors-and-illustrators/

Found some useful links with some tips about approaching art directors - some stuff which sounds pretty basic but makes sense - do your research into what they do and what they commission, don't get in contact more than once a month and what sort of thing to say in your e-mail/letter.

E-mailing pt.2

I discovered The Artworks, an illustration agency today and really like the work they represent - there's a consistently strong amount of draughtsmanship that can be seen across all their illustrators which I really like. I sent them a few low-res jpegs of my work to see if they would be interested.

I also sent an e-mail to Rachael Saunders, a recent-ish graduate is signed to them asking about her experience with them and she replied very quickly:

She says they're a really nice agency, but it sounds like she may not necessarily have needed them because the quality of her work has gotten attention elsewhere. Regardless, she still talks highly of the agency. I'll keep them in my books since I like what they're about.

http://www.goodillustration.com/submissions/

Spreadsheeting

This is a spreadsheet I've made as a sort of action plan for who I'm going to send out the postcards I printed out to - Everyone will get the bio post card first, but after that I'm going to send them out in terms of potential interest to each client. For example:
The Bell Jar is published by Faber, so I will send that one out to Faber first and other publishing directors later.
A Clockwork Orange was made for the Penguin Design Award, so I will send that one out at a later date as it is potentially being seen by directors at the moment.
etc.

I've also looked at the art directors' portfolios and the sort of work that they commission as well in order to try and gauge what they might be interested in.

Everyone will get every post card, but when they get them will differ from each other. My business cards are supposed to be arriving from Moo this week so I can get on with sending these out very soon.

Print interning

http://www.jealousgallery.com/

Was made aware of this print studio in London that does screen and digital printing services. I've sent them an email asking if they offer work experience or something similar so that I could continue screen printing after graduation. It would be a (potentially free?) alternative to East London Printmakers

Hi, 
I'm an illustration student from London currently approaching the end of his final year at Leeds College of Art. 

I was made aware of Jealous recently and really like the look of it - I'm passionate about screen printing and have been trying to adapt it to various briefs since last year. 
I want to continue maintaining a screen printing practice until after graduation and was wondering if you guys offered any placements for work experience that might be available over summer and beyond? I'd love to continue screen printing, but also learning about related processes.

Thanks for your time.

regards,

Emanuel Santos


Also didn't realise that Print Club London do internships - found a post from January 2016 about them offering one on another website. It requires a CV and portfolio, which I haven't set up for screen print yet, but I sent an e-mail asking if they have any positions open for the summer period. Hopefully they get back with news that they do.

I also messaged Louis Craig Carpenter, a brother of a friend who graduated from Arts Uni Bournemouth   a couple years ago after doing illustration- he's now a technician at Print Club London.
He said he just e-mailed them asking if he could intern while they were setting up a show, so they needed a lot of help and were happy to take him on. He worked as an intern for about a month before becoming a technician. Although the internship would be unpaid, apparently they're quite happy to have people help out for a bit.

Editorial pondering

As I e-mail and send my portfolio out to various people, I'm beginning to think that even though I have several publishing-related projects that I'm proud of, I've limited the amount of people I can send my work out to since there's very little in terms of other areas of illustration - particularly editorial.

I shied away from editorial at the beginning of the year because I didn't think the way I made work lent itself well to editorial-style projects, in terms of coming up with a snappy image that looks at articles from an interesting angle. I'm beginning to regret not trying to remedy this lack of confidence because obviously editorial commissions are the bread and butter of a freelance illustrator's practice.

I'm definitely going to have to try and build up a portfolio in this area of the industry so that I can really expand the amount of people it would make sense to send my work out to. I might try and make a small 603 brief out of this - spending a day or so working on an editorial piece if I can manage alongside the big kahuna.

E-mailing

Killington Arts is a cool agency that represents the likes of Owen Freeman and Jun Cen

Hi,

I'm an illustration student coming up to the end of his final year of study at Leeds College of Art. I discovered your agency through the work of Owen Freeman and really like the type of artists that you represent - the sensibilities of the work really resonate with me.

Ive been trying to make sense of some recent projects on my website and was wondering if you had any feedback you could share on what's up at the moment:
http://www.emanuelsillustration.com

I appreciate you guys must be very busy, so thanks for your time.

Regards,

Emanuel Santos

This is the first agency I've emailed since Heart and CIA at the beginning of the module, when I asked them if there was any point getting in contact without a developed 'tone of voice'. I feel now that I have developed a bit more of that now so maybe it's not so bad an idea to contact them now.

 

Also e-mailed David Stevenson - an art director from Bantam, an imprint of Random House and Henry Yee - AD from Picador books. Picador does actually have quite an impressive catalogue of illustrative book covers

Burton-ing

Highly illustrative book covers which I love - particularly his Kingsley Amis series.

Even though he's not an art director, I'd still love to get his feedback on my work so I sent him a mini portfolio. Beginning to wish I asked Owen Freeman for feedback, but I wouldn't want to bother him again. 

His 9-colour screen prints are also insane - hopefully he gets back to me to talk to a bit about them.

John Gall-ing

Sent another mini-portfolio out to an American art director and designer for Vintage, John Gall - really like his work, although it's a lot more design based than illustrative. His design for the 1Q84 set is really cool, using transparencies as I've been doing recently.

I've also discovered Helen Yentus who has worked with John Gall on a lot of projects - her portfolio is also very cool. I'm beginning to find book design portfolios that aren't necessarily illustration heavy quite inspiring. It's definitely inspiring me to branch out even more with what I'm doing.

Portfolio updating

So in response to the advice I got from Henry Steadman, I've re-considered how I approach the creation of my cover for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and am now more aware of the necessity to break up the similar work.

I think the pages containing The Versions of Us covers and the War Horse illustrations certainly needed breaking up due to the similar colour palettes. I am removing War Horse and sticking in Electric Sheep to finish off the portfolio with a strong piece that stands out a bit.
Naked Lunch is being introduced after The Bell Jar as it breaks up my usual approach to image making with more expressive brush and ink work.

I really like my War Horse work and I think it's a good demonstration of my skills in purely illustration, but I feel as though for publishing-specific clients perhaps it's not as necessary to be included.
I'll send out this updated portfolio to people from now on. I want my e-mail to be a follow up to a mailer though. At the moment I'm waiting for my business cards to arrive in the post so that I can send them out along with the postcards I printed out recently.

I have also made a preliminary general portfolio. At the moment it's just the publishing one with the extra projects from 603 tacked on the end, but it's more representative of the portfolio I will have out on display at the end of year show which is good to see.

Henry Steadman-ing pt.2

This is an encouraging e-mail to receive with interesting feedback.

I sent Henry the mini portfolio for publishing and book design, but he says that it all looks quite same-y. A lack of consistency between projects has been worrying me for a really long time now, but I suppose this is a problem that is only really relevant in certain areas of illustration.
I guess in publishing, if I want to take on as wide a variety of projects as possible, I need to show a diversity in the appearance of my work, whereas with something more quick fire like editorial, perhaps a client would feel safer with that consistency so they know what I'm going to give them.

Considering I've been so worried about a lack of visual consistency developing, this is very nice to hear. If I want to build up a portfolio in something like editorial, I'd better keep that pretty consistent, but for my book projects I think it sounds like I can be a bit more experimental.

Henry Steadman-ing

Hi Henry,

I'm an illustration student in his final year of study at Leeds College of Art and I discovered you and your work from the judges list of the Academy of British Cover Design 2015.

I'm really interested in entering the world of publishing and book cover design, and even though you're no longer art directing and your body of work is primarily photography-based, I was wondering if you had a minute to let me know what you think of this mini-portfolio I've put together:
https://issuu.com/es251397/docs/portfolio_bd_and_p

I'm also interested in your decision to go freelance after art directing - what prompted it? Is there any advice you can give to a graduate that is most likely going to go freelance?

I appreciate you must be very busy, so thanks a lot for your time.

Regards,

Emanuel Santos

Sent this e-mail off to Henry Steadman - hopefully he has a minute to look through the issu document i sent him. Would be good to get some feedback on my work from someone outside of university, an ex-art director no less.


I also sent connection requests to Suzanne Dean of Penguin, Donna Payne of Faber and Jo Walker of HarperCollins on Linkedin. If they don't get accept in a couple days I'll shoot them an e-mail too.