CR Graduate Guide 2011

Free with the June issue of CR, this year’s Graduate Guide looks at how to promote your work, use blogging and Twitter to get commissions, and make the best of a studio placement. We also talk to the Lost in the Forest Institute who applied their “learning by doing” approach to designing the Guide itself…

The latest CR Graduate Guide (available now to subscribers and on UK news-stands) saw the Stockport College-based educational initiative, Lost in the Forest Institute, collaborate with CR and Barnbrook studio on its design.

For this edition we also have a great offer for UK-based students who can receive £2.90 off the price of CR June (which includes the Graduate Guide). To receive the discount, students should email Laura McQueen from their .ac.uk accounts. They will then be sent an exclusive voucher that can be redeemed at the news-stand for this month’s copy. An offer of a discounted subscription is also available.

Inside the Guide we have advice from SheSays co-founder, Ale Lariu, and some of her graduates from the Miami Ad School in New York on how you get your name out there, how to network and make the best of an interview:

Aberdeen-based illustrator and social media enthusiast Johanna Basford also answers questions on how she uses both her blog and Twitter to share projects and, ultimately, get some great client work:

The Lost in the Forest Institute tell us all about their unique learning environment for students (they’re a partnerhip between Stockport College and design studio Thoughtful) and the process of “learning by doing”, exemplified in their hands-on work on the design of the Guide this year:

Plus, we have Jonny Burch of ShellsuitZombie magazine talking to Jake Jennings – aka ‘Placement Man’ – on how he has managed to notch up nine placements at some prestigious studios since leaving university. He spilled the beans on how he gets them, what he gets out of them, and how best to use your time in a studio:

Finally, we have our list of Graduate Shows, which will appear on the blog as a separate post (feel free to add the details of your show to the list).

If you’re a student and would like to receive a voucher for £2.90 off the price of the June issue of CR (which includes the 2011 Graduate Guide), just email Laura McQueen from your .ac.uk account. Vouchers can be redeemed at the news-stand for this month’s copy.

Scotty Reifsny

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Scotty Reifsny

Posters. In Amsterdam

Thanks to our current Twitter guest editors, Mat Dolphin, we’ve just been enjoying some of the work documented at postersinamsterdam.com

Jarr Geerligs is behind the project, essentially a repository for images of posters taken on the streets of Amsterdam. And what a fine selection it is. According to the accompanying Flickr page, where all the pictures are displayed at larger size, Geerligs has been documenting the city’s streets pretty much everyday since 2002.

Visitors to the site can search by a range of categories – “faceless people”, “masked people”, for example – and there’s even a gallery dedicated to the “non-poster”:

See postersinamsterdam.com for the highlights from the collection.

The June issue of CR features a major retrospective on BBH and a profile piece on the agency’s founder, Sir John Hegarty. Plus, we have a beautiful photographic project from Jenny van Sommers, a discussion on how illustrators can maintai a long-term career, all the usual discussion and debate in Crit plus our Graduate Guide packed with advice for this year’s college leavers.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30%.

Ryan Todd’s New Found Original letterpress coasters

Illustrator Ryan Todd has created this set of four letterpress coasters, exclusively for the recently set up online store, New Found Original. Each coaster features a bird, but look again, there’s something a bit weird about each of them…

Yes, the duck’s beak appears to be tied on with string, the swift looks as if it’s been shot down by enemy aircraft but is going doing in a blaze of glory; the owl is a lesser spotted three-eyed, double beak owl, and the parrot appears to be engaging in a spot of topsy turvy meditation.

The set of four coasters is actually the first original product produced by New Found Original. “We’re friends with Ryan from uni and have known him for years,” says Jo Murray, one half of the duo behind the new online store. “We approached him to do some coasters and together came up with the idea of letterpressing them. Ryan came up with the birds idea, we discussed colours together and then had the coasters printed by Studio On Fire in Minneapolis.”

Murray and New Found Original partner, Dominic Bell set up shop a month ago (homepage shown above) and if you haven’t already had a butchers at New Found Original, we can thoroughly recommend that you do. It’s a very nicely designed webshop full of graphic items from vintage milk bottle tops, old football programs, tote bags, magazines, and other tactile design goodies both new and old. “All the stock comes from various places,” Murray tells us, “second hand bookshops, markets, and sometimes from our own shelves and collections of graphic ephemera.”

newfoundoriginal.com

 

 

The June issue of CR features a major retrospective on BBH and a profile piece on the agency’s founder, Sir John Hegarty. Plus, we have a beautiful photographic project from Jenny van Sommers, a discussion on how illustrators can maintai a long-term career, all the usual discussion and debate in Crit plus our Graduate Guide packed with advice for this year’s college leavers.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30%.

Maps by Owen Gatley

Serie di mappe illustrate da Owen Gatley per Ling Magazine. Bravo!

http://think.bigchief.it/wp-content/files/2011/05/ATHENS4.jpg

Illustration and longevity, an interview with James Joyce

The above illustration by Joyce for Varoom! magazine was selected as a Best in Book in CR’s Annual last year

Today, commercial illustrators have to walk the tightrope of doing work for clients in order to earn a living whilst carefully managing their output and exposure to best ensure a long and commercially viable career as an artist. It’s a tricky balancing act. Just because there are some big brands knocking on the door and offering large fees doesn’t mean that those jobs are necessarily right for an artist to take on – for a whole host of reasons….

“A big part in managing your work and your reputation in the commercial arena is making sure you work with brands that you respect, and who in turn respect you,” says illustrator and designer James Joyce who runs his own studio in London and regularly works for well-known brands as well as for editorial titles such as Wallpaper*, The New York Times and, on various happy occasions, CR. We asked him about the concerns he faces when taking on various types of commissioned work.

Creative Review: We’ll get on to producing work for advertising briefs and big brands, but first, tell us about the value for you in the editorial commissions you take on.

James Joyce: Most of the time people commission me to do a piece because they like my work and approach and want to try and inject that into their product or brand or advert or publication. They want it to be recognisable as my work.

When working with publications like The New York Times  or Wallpaper*, they like the look of my work but what I produce for them also has to be clever, conceptual and ideas driven. The bar is raised and it’s always a challenge because the expectation is high – but the value in taking on those jobs is the exposure such titles offer plus the personal development that comes from answering their briefs. In terms of style management, it’s a conscious decision to work with these titles over less glamorous ones and although the editorial fees are usually quite low, the payback has to be in kudos and good exposure which is hugely valuable.

Illustration recently completed for the New York Times

CR: And what about working with ad agencies on projects for big brands…

JJ: There’s definitely big money to be made, but I do occasionally turn down advertising projects for a host of reasons. Firstly the brand might not be a good alignment with my work and would potentially have a negative effect on my ‘brand’ image which sounds egotistical but it’s vital. Sometimes it’s just not interesting enough and therefore the end result wouldn’t be interesting. I definitely believe in the maxim ‘good work breeds good work’ and I always endeavor to do the best work I can regardless of whether it’s for a supermarket in Mexico or a major global style brand.

 

CR: But what if there’s a serious sum of money on the table, perhaps more you’ve ever been offered for a job before?

JJ: Then there are various questions I ask myself: Does it have potential to be a great project? If no, is it an OK project that might not win any acclaim but isn’t that bad either? If neither interesting or credible, will it be obvious that I’ve done it? Is it going to be around for a long period of time? Where is it going to appear? For instance, if it’s just going to appear in South America and the Caribbean for a month does it really matter? This might sound cynical but I’m running a business and it would be bad business sense to turn down substantial amounts of money for a few drawings. The bottom line is that advertising briefs are probably not always the most creative jobs I tackle, but it’s a necessary part of my business at the moment, and whilst I am foremost an artist I am also a business man. I want to run a successful business and I want to make money to enable me to pursue new ventures.

Oh No, personal work

CR: So money talks and big sums can make you look twice at taking a job on. But when working for an advertising client, you’re fulfilling a brief and also relying on the art director involved to ensure a good result. Is that something you worry about?

JJ: A good art director is pivotal in getting a good end result because they are the ones championing your work to the client and pushing it through. A good art director respects the artist and has the vision and passion to see the project through. But the various levels of approval internally and from the client can make it difficult to police your style.

There are a surprising number of ad agencies that will alter your work without your permission. If my work has been altered without my consultation it’s frustrating because all they need to do is ask and I’d be happy to work together to make it work. A lot of the time now my agent (Breed) requests that I get to approve the final artwork before it’s printed / published.

Joyce designed a Victorinox penknife for Cuts, a project initiated by Wallpaper* (read our blog post about it here)

CR: I know that you’ve had trouble in the past with copycat work appearing that bears more than a passing resemblance to works of yorus. How important is it for you and your agent to police that?

JJ: Yes, I’ve had my fair shaire of problems with certain individuals, brands and magazines copying my ideas, but badly, which can of course have a negative effect on me as an artist if people assume that I’ve done it. I had a recent problem whereby a publication had blatantly copied a piece of my work. Yes I got angry at first but I took immediate action and the matter was settled but it’s still there in print for everyone to see. Sometimes other illustrators produce work that is uncannily similar and I always have to take action because I have to protect my reputation and my livelihood. I’m lucky to have a great agent who is always willing to fight my corner and approach guilty parties on my behalf and to go legal if necessary. Actually, I’ll say this: A good agent is very important in the style management stakes as they can fight your corner if  project is going awry. I have daily contact with my agent and regular meetings to discuss where I’m at and where I want to go, which kinds of clients should I be working with, what kind of work I’d like to be doing and then actively pursuing these goals.

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The issues raised in this interview and further insights as to how illustrators can maintain value in their work over time are explored in the feature Style Counsel in the new June issue of Creative Review, out now

 

The June issue of CR features a major retrospective on BBH and a profile piece on the agency’s founder, Sir John Hegarty. Plus, we have a beautiful photographic project from Jenny van Sommers, a discussion on how illustrators can maintai a long-term career, all the usual discussion and debate in Crit plus our Graduate Guide packed with advice for this year’s college leavers.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30%.

Show us your worst

It’s #GuestEd week on the Creative Review twitter account and today Nick Asbury of Asbury & Asbury is in the hot seat. He wants to take the opportunity to extend an interesting invitation to CR readers: to show us your worst work…

Yes, today we officially declare a 24-hour Creative Amnesty. For one day only, share your most shameful creative projects with impunity. Post your contributions on Twitter via the #creativeamnesty hashtag. Pithy project descriptions are fine. Extra points for images and links. You can also blog about it in more detail elsewhere and tweet a link.

Nick has posted up some stories over here to get things going, including the time he agreed to write the horoscopes for a retailer’s magazine, weaving in subtle plugs for the retailer. We’ll be posting a selection of the best of worst, here on the CR blog (see below).

Asbury has this to say about the thinking behind the project: “It’s not often you get the chance to tweet to 380,000 people – about four Wembley Stadiums. So I thought I should take the chance to get a conversation going. We’re all good at sharing our best work, but there’s probably as much to be learnt from the worst. The real stinkers that we wince to recall. A project where everything that could go wrong did. An early piece of student work that you thought was genius at the time. Or a project you knew you should have turned down, but guiltily did for the money.”

Follow the action on Twitter via #creativeamnesty and we’ll round up some of the best examples here on this post throughout the day.

And we’re starting strong with Wet Lemon, an early web effort from designer, Jonathan Ogden (@ogvidius). It’s “one of the first websites I ever made,” he says. “I’m sorry, internet.” Don’t apologise, Jonathan! This may still have its day…

The full horror is:

Next up into the #creativeamnesty confession booth is Michael Johnson. Arriving in Sydney, at the tender age of 22, the young Johnson unwittingly carried with him a case of ‘brushstroke fever’. Coupled with a penchant for greys and yellows, Johnson got to work on a new identity for Manufacturers Mutual Insurance:

Johnson lays bare about the project in his latest Thought for the Week post. Though we imagine this is the one logo featuring here to have made it into a blockbuster movie…

Make sure you check out the shameful confessions gathering at checkthis.com/creativeamnesty. @Stuwdesigner, @Acejet170, and @Chris_J_Doyle have all recently divested themselves of some creative howlers.

Now here’s a beauty from Mark Wheatcroft of Wheatcroft&Co. Designed circa 1999, this is a set of ‘King’ playing cards for a once well-known picture library. Once well-known. Hmm.

“OK, how much are we paying the Elvis? Make him do some more moves…”

“I guess that will have to do.” Thanks to Mark (@WheatcroftandCo) for uploading his work to checkthis.com/creativeamnesty.

Now here’s the 7″ sleeve for Dannii Minogue’s 1991 top 20 smash, Baby Love (a cover of Regina’s 1986 club hit, music fans). So who’s behind it?

If you’re thinking, ‘Is it me or can I see the hand of Michael C. Place / aka Build in there?’ then you’re correct. And thank you Michael, for this one. Oh for a shot of the ‘Lim Edition 7″ Booklet’. (@BuildsBlog).

And if you would like to share your shame, please use the comments section below to link to your past disasters

Work/Life 2: Communication Arts coverage


The Communication Illustration annual has quite a nice representation of Work/Life 2 participants. First up is Michael Byers, who is profiled in the fresh talent column:


(The illustration in the middle of a man fishing is Michael’s Work/Life 2 contribution.)


Thom Sevalrud‘s Work/Life 2 illustration is included as well! And Renata Liwska‘s book projects are nicely featured:


Julia Breckenreid has a black and white illustration chosen:


Also included in the annual is Calgary-based illustrator Karen Klassen (Work/Life first edition, UPPERCASE magazine) for some of her unpublished personal portraiture work.


There are also many other talented illustrators included in the annual who have graced the pages of UPPERCASE and other past books such as Byron Eggenschwiler, Jody Hewgill, Sam Weber, Jesse Lefkowitz, The Heads of State, Ty Mattson, Joe Morse, Christopher Silas Neal, . It is an honour to work with so many talented people, thank you!

John Sibbick’s Flesh and Bone

In his first collaboration with London-based publishers Nobrow, illustrator John Sibbick deftly displays his skill at rendering a huge range of wild animals with a pen.

Sibbick has been drawing animals for about 25 years and is probably best known for creating prehistoric landscapes abound with dinosaurs and other ancient beasts. He regularly produces a diverse range of meticulously researched creature illustrations for clients including National Geographic, Puffin Books, and London’s Natural History Museum. Here’s a look at his just-published Nobrow publication, Flesh and Bone: A Colouring Concertina…

Remove the belly band and Flesh and Bone can be leafed through like a book…

Or you can open it out to see all ten panels (a whopping 136 cm wide) at once. Flip it over to see that each side contains exactly the same panoramic view of a host of creatures – only on one side the animals are as we would expect them to look should we encounter them in the wild…

…and on the other, the animals are stripped of their environment, skin and flesh to just their skeletons:

“The concertina can be coloured in, left as is, read or folded out and displayed on your mantle peice,” say Nobrow, “It is a great gift for a kid as much as it is is for a student of nature, draghtsman in training, or any illustration afficionado.”

Flesh and Bone (£9) can be ordered from nobrow.net

See more of Sibbick’s work at johnsibbick.com

Helsinki wants to… see something else

Student Elissa Erikson organised a campaign to replace the advertising on 21 bus shelters in Helsinki earlier this year with the message: “I want to see something else.” In response, site owners JCDecaux asked designers to create new work for each space…

Late last year, over 1,400 people got behind Erikson’s campaign “Haluan nähdä muutakin” (I want to see something else) and donated 6,000 Euros in order to purchase the ad space on 21 different sites from JCDecaux.

The message on the inaugural poster, shown below, reads: “I want to see something else – 1,458 people wanted to free this space of commercial messages.” The poster features a list of ‘wishes’ from each of the donors detailing what they would ideally like to see in their urban surroundings.

Following on from Erikson’s action, JCDecaux responded to her challenge by commissioning 11 designers to take one of the ‘wishes’ and turn it into a poster.

Shown here is the full set of posters, which includes contributions from James Jarvis, HORT, Mike Mills, Kokoro & Moi, Antoine+Manuel, Byggstudio, Mario Hugo, Niessen & de Vries, officeabc, Project Projects, and Rami Niemi. The Facebook page for the campaign is facebook.com/Muutakin.

Thanks to Teemu Suviala, creative director of Kokoro & Moi, for getting in touch about the project.

“I WANT TO SEE BEHIND THE MASKS” by Rami Niemi

“I WANT TO SEE SOMETHING THAT MATTERS” by Project Projects

“I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD IN ANOTHER WAY” by officeabc

“I WANT TO SEE QUIETNESS” by Niessen & de Vries

“I WANT TO SEE CONFESSIONS OF LOVE, WORDS OF LONGING, GOLDEN MEMORIES, WARMTH IN THOUGHTS AND SIGHS OF BEAUTY” by Mike Mills

“I WANT TO SEE YOUR BRIGHT EYES” by Mario Hugo

“I WANT TO SEE AND SOMETIMES NOT” by Kokoro & Moi

“I WANT TO SEE OWLS AND FLY AGARICS” by James Jarvis

“I WANT TO SEE YOU TO STOP FOR A WHILE AND SMILE” by HORT

“I WANT TO SEE TO THE FUTURE” by Byggstudio

“I WANT TO SEE IMAGES OF TRUE LOVE” by Antoine+Manuel