Manchester Book Fair

Open publication - Free publishing

Photos taken from our day out at the Manchester book fair. It was a lovely day - got chatting to a few people about their work, did some letterpressing and spoke to a few people coming to look at the work we put out - all promising stuff - especially for those of us that sold. 

Someone got in touch... with me

So, I've started working at a radio station as a personal assistant - thought it was a good opportunity to get into the music world, get to more gigs etc and Adam my boss has said I can help work on some websites for bands with him, which is great.
Anyway, I was replying to one band's member who then went on to ask me if I was a design student as well and this is the conversation that has followed since...

Rick

"Hey,

Thanks that's great! The reason I asked is because I had a look at your blog and saw that you were keen on designing for people interested in sport and improving your skills in digital. I particularly like 'Design Brief Ten - Surfing' - is that one of your own?

Anyway - I work as a senior designer at Sky Sports (Digital Media), based in Leeds, primarily on digital products for web, iPad, etc. so if you want to send me a few examples of your work and/or your CV I will keep you in the loop if any opportunities you might be interested in crop up?

Cheers,

Rick"

Me

Hey Rick,
Hope you're well.
My boss just forwarded your email onto me.
Thankyou so much for getting in touch! It's mad how a person is searchable and all sorts comes up and you managed to find my blog! Yeah I'm really into sport - my current brief is working on something for the 20th anniversary of the premier league. Yeah the surfing brief is something I've set myself - but working on it from January.
I'm predominantly an illustrator at present but work across cross media and am keen to develop my skills in digital. I wanted to get in touch today to let you know I got your email and I'll put together my work today and send it across.
I was wondering if it would be possible to pop into the studio sometime - for a chat? See what goes on etc.
Thankyou so much again for getting in touch and allowing me the opportunity to show me my work.
Bests,
Steph

Rick 

"Great - looking forward to seeing your work but don't worry about putting a load of stuff together - It'd be good to see what you come up with for the Premier League and Surfing briefs though and if you're doing any digital stuff I'll be happy to give feedback. I'm working in London a lot at the moment on an iPad project but I'll have a word with my boss when I'm based back in Leeds full-time about you popping down.

Rick"

Really lovely to get some correspondence that I really never expected. I'm going to put together my work over the next few days to send to him and really hope I can get something out of it.

Visiting Professional - Robbie Porter

Really lovely to get a young professional in who's in a transitional phase from student to full time professional - was really encouraging to see someone who's doing what I want to in a few months time. Really enjoyed his presentation and then he was really lovely enough to chat to me after about my practice and look through some of my work. I did ask him how he went about getting work - whether or not he had a agent as a freelancer - which he said he was looking into now - so I think it would be really helpful for me to start look at agencies now.

Correspondence via Twitter:
 @robbie_porter thanks for your talk and chatting to me today - really useful - top guy.
@stephbourne thanks for showing me your work! great stuff, keep it up!

PPD Discussion

Today I felt like I have a focus - and a direction to take my work and practice - which felt really good.
I had felt that I was looking too much into working for a company and it was really putting me off when I know I want to be a freelance illustrator and it was really encouraging to hear it wasn't just me.
So now I feel I have even more focus off the back of today's tutorial and have a few points to focus PPD this year on:

• Enter competitions
• Enter into magazines - such as computer arts
• Look at agents - CIA, Thoroughgood, Mieklejon etc
• Set up Tumblr, Behance, Cargo, Website etc
• Look into intellectual property more and copyright
• Think about applying watermarks to work set to newspapers, sports teams etc.

PPD Year 3 Discussion - Group Tutorial

"Could we ask you to reflect on the Summer and any work experience, meetings and visits you may have had. Come prepared to discuss within the groups"
Questions to think about and discuss:

1. What major point stands out in your learning of this experience?

Didn't manage to get any placements or studio visits due to traveling and working, but the experience gained through traveling has given me a new perspective  on life - where I want to be, what I want to do in terms of business - i.e. I preferably want to move across to New York and be a freelancer. I have managed however, to line up a studio visit at a friend's photographers studio as I want to develop my skills in this area - understand how the lighting works etc and try and develop skills in Photoshop. One major point over the summer was getting feedback from Craig Ward (need to work on my illustration skills and make sure the finish is there) and Mr Bingo (who kindly said to contact him after I've graduated to go down for a visit).

I did contact a few studios in America before I went away - unfortunately no one got back to me and the time constraints in each place made it difficult and slightly pointless for me to ask to pop to any studios.

2.What one thing would you have done differently whilst there or in preparation?

Contacted American studios last Christmas rather than in May - give more time to contacting. Made more time in August to visit British studios. 

3. Has it changed your outlook on the business going into your final year?

From a cultural point of view, yes - I do want to live abroad now (I think) and after speaking to a couple of freelance illustrators I do realise this is what I want to do (eventually) but then again, I've not spent any time on placement - so need to see what that's like first.