An ex-pupil of mine, Jordan R (Former Gleniffer pupil) has been setting up his own fashion brand and asked me if I would design some logos for him. The brand ‘Say It Like You Mean It – Reworked’ is an extremely long brand name. I had told him of my preference to just keep it as ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ which I was then able to abbreviate to ‘Sily Mi’. This adds more connotations to the branding and I believe it makes it more interesting. I hope he likes it, what do you think?
I’d been asked by a friend to provide a custom made postcard for the postcard auction in Aberfeldy to ‘Save Birks Cinema‘. The postcards, created by amateurs and professionals, will be auctioned off to raise money to hopefully rebuild the cinema. I thought I’d do something a little tongue in cheek by showing my love/hate relationship with the cinema. The boy is cynically remarking how he’s glad he saved the cinema, even though girls around him are on their mobile phones and throwing popcorn. Just so you know, the film they’re watching is ‘Jaws’.
I have had a few successes, working with/for artists and musicians that most would consider famous or have achieved the right amount of respectable attention, though it’s not always been pure sailing. For the small amount of projects I could brag about and get your attention, there have also been a multitude of designs that haven’t gone exactly as planned. I thought I should feature some of these below, to show you that you should never give up. You will be ignored and rejected a lot (well… I am), but sometimes you’ll get it just right and art is all about the little wins.
Above is a never used cover for the indie band ‘Language of Flowers‘. I spent a long time creating the right feel. The root system lettering alone took around three days, though Shelf Life Records ended up going with this atrocity. A lot of the time, good designs will be pushed out just to feature a picture of the artist, it’s always a safe move for the record company, but it’s incredibly boring. Below you’ll see a completely rejected redesign of Vic Rattlehead for Megadeth. It was developed for a competition ran on Deviant Art, getting into the shortlisted stage I was able to get a comment from Dave Mustaine (singer, lead guitarist) stating that ‘it was incredibly cute but way off for the branding of the band’ [paraphrased, I can't remember the exact comment, but that's the jist of it].
The cover below was for Fiona Apple‘s 2005 comeback album. She had been incredibly big, especially with her single ‘Fast as you can’, then took some time out to re-invent herself. Her ‘Extraordinary Machine’ album was very quirky, slightly Tom Waits, very unusual. I thought this modern cover would have been a great addition to her lyrical intention. Focusing on computers, analog machines, humanity and her. I worked hard to get an image of Fiona onto the cover and then Epic Records went all left field and chose this?
I really liked the logo below for the band ‘armaeda‘. I decided that it would be interesting to make a typeface out of the exact same character. If you look closely, all the letters are the same character, rotated and faded. Unfortunately for me, the band quit before they had even begun and the logo was never used. The same thing happened to ‘Son of Shrimp‘ below. I am usually quite proud of the work I pass on, so it’s a shame to never see it getting used.
The NIN (Nine Inch Nails) cover below was for the album ‘With Teeth’. There had been a call out on 99designs and I thought I’d give it a go. I don’t really like this cover at all, though I feel it is very NIN. They ended up going with this idea, which is a lot better than mine…
I am a huge fan of Karl Pilkington and have followed him since the first podcast with Gervais and Merchant. I had emailed them a few times and got some replies, so when I heard that he was getting a book together I thought I’d try my luck at sending them this idea (not finished, it’s just a low res. thumbnail) for the book cover. I never got a reply and they ended up going with some photo of Karl sitting down… so safe, so boring.
So there you go. Just some of the tries and fails that I have experienced in my long and torturous career. I’m slightly depressed now… What was my point again? Oh yeah… Don’t give up… Get frustrated and go demented over rejections and endless workloads… like me.
Becoming A Professional Artist / Designer – Part 3
This section is more important than being skilled or even interested in art. Networking is extremely important to initial artists to gain a reputation and also very important to established ones to keep that reputation. Technology and social networking has changed the way we connect to people, I know that most who read this will already have a profile on a social network, though there are specific channels you can try to help and push your talents.
1. It’s sometimes helps to create a pseudonym to help make yourself remember-able or to keep your creative career separate from your personal or business side. A pseudonym can be a fake name, a label or designer tag or even just a different spelling of your own name.
2. Show off among your friends. Put photos of your work up on your Facebook, your Twitter or on your favourite forums. (I would not bother with Myspace as it’s a sea of music flyers and self promotion anyway, you’ll just get lost amongst the rest).
3. Join relevant social networks such as Deviant Art, Linked In or 99 Designs.
4. Create a business card for passing out into the real world. Vistaprint is always cheap and provides fast, high-quality cards.
5. Circulate your sample work among the relevant companies. The Writers and Artists Handbook is a great resource for contacts.
6. Always check your local arts councils for commissions and awards.
7. Keep in contact with anyone artistic you meet, Art Teachers, Art Tutors and other artistic peers will always look out for each other.
8. Everyone you converse with could be a future client or a pathway to another job. (I once got design work from buying a sandwich from a sandwich shop, presume that everyone will, at some point, need your talents).
9. Create a Pullfolio and use it to sell yourself.
10. Enter competitions, you never know…
Goodluck.
Becoming A Professional Artist / Designer – Part 2
As promised, please find an Artist’s/ Designer’s invoice available for download below from the ‘box’ (bottom of the right hand column). This invoice will let you see how invoices are laid out, to help you create your own, or you can download it, print it out and fill in the details. It is completely free for use. I can’t take any responsibility for the success of your work, your job or the passing of funds, though this should help those who are just starting out, or those that never knew how to invoice properly. As with all exchanges of money, you will need to clear such funds with the tax office and it will be likely that you will have to pay tax on the amount if you earn more than £5000. There will also be National Insurance Contributions to be made. More information on Self Employment and contributions can be found here. This always sounds a bit complicated, but it needn’t be. Most employers will automatically take contributions and tax from you before you get paid, so you don’t need to claim again or you’ll earn so little when you start off that you’ll be exempt from tax. It helps to know how to stay on the right side of the law though.
You should always clear with you client about what they are purchasing. Are they getting complete rights to the work for use and reproduction or are they buying a one-off piece that cannot be tampered with. As with all good invoices, I have left a rights and reproduction line for you to delete as appropriate, though this should not be considered as a contract, that may also be needed to protect your agreement.
I hope this helps some of you out there. Good luck and if you do use it, successfully or unsuccessfully, let me know.
Becoming A Professional Designer – Part One
I’ve recently been working on a friend’s band album art and t-shirt design. It’s always incredibly difficult to work for friends, deciding if you should charge them, what you should charge and if you give away a freebie, will you be stuck providing freebies for the rest of your life. As an ex-freelance designer, I used to find it difficult to say ‘no’ to work, no matter if it was free work or paid. Every job is an opportunity to sell yourself, every job is another step closer to getting the perfect job. Though I have learned to say ‘no’, I can now pick and choose the design jobs I want to get involved in. I don’t need to prove myself, I don’t even need to do them anymore financially, teaching pays my mortgage.
As an ex-freelance designer, I always have time for my friends. Lots of the artists turned professional, that I know, forget about their friends awfully quickly after they’ve had a little bit of success or fame. They start to believe the hype pushed onto them and when that dies down, the fall is so much greater and without your friends there, there’s no one to catch you on the way down. I always have time for my friends, for their ideas, for their trust and for their loyalty in asking me for my talents.
Always make time for your friends, do the best job you can for them, if they are a friend, they’ll see the work and they’ll pay you in whatever way they can. If you’re wondering what to charge, I’d always charge a friend rate of £80 (usually for around £20 an hour for 4 hours work), it’s not a lot, but it’s a little gauge of the work that you have put into it, especially in your spare time. Most of my friends who I have invoiced end up paying more for the work anyway, they don’t want to offend you for paying you pittance for your talents. Friends are friends and time is money, you’ll have to find your own compromise.
If you do the work and you’re not happy with the feedback or payment, next time, just say ‘no’. You can’t feel forced to involve your talents for something that annoys you.
I have been doing these Clay covers on and off for over ten years now, I enjoy pleasing my friends and giving them what they what, while staying true to myself and producing something I’m still proud to attach my name to. It’s a tough thing to do in design. It’s a very fine balance to keep.
This week I’ll upload some forms to help you handle your design work professionally. Tomorrow I will start the whole thing off by featuring an invoice form for claiming your cash.
I did a little work for a friend of mine about six months ago, his name is Ed Sheeran and he just recently had a No1 iTunes album (just last week). His album, ‘No5 Collaborations Project’, is a mix of singer/songwriter music with London grime/rap.
I’m totally over the moon for him and anyone looking for something a little different than the usual pop-shlop should check him out.
This is the product of eight years of hard grafting and well deserved, when I met up with him last year he was slogging his rucksack around on trains from England to Scotland and selling a few CDs per gig. I’m glad people have come to there senses and given him the opportunity he deserves. Now signed to Atlantic, he has Jamie Foxx looking after him… I’m sure he’s in very good hands. Well done Ed!
There has been a bit of interest into the post a bargain job that I had been working on, I don’t know why, I thought the Ipod Cases were more interesting, though you can never predict what people will be interested in. Below are the final designs for the website revamp planned later this year.
Most of you know that when I’m not teaching, I’m faffing around with music or book writing or designing. The teaching has been fairly thin over the past while (and doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon), so I’ve thrown myself into my work. I recently had to create a poster for my friend Madaleine, an extremely talented songwriter and rhythm and blues performer.
She was looking for something ‘retro blues’. I researched album artwork by Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder and came up with the idea below. When you’re designing for a client it’s important to forget about what you want and fulfill what the client wants. You should put your own slant on it and keep your style, though the most important thing is making sure that the person paying for the design is completely happy with it.
When I first designed the poster, Madaleine hated it as it looked very similar to Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker cover. This was totally unintentional, I hadn’t even noticed the similarities until she mentioned it. It had to be changed. Stars were removed, the rainbow was softened and there was less focus on colour and more on the lack of colour to attract attention to the performers photographs.
I’ve also been working on a logo for postabargain.co.uk. The client has been using a stock photo and is hoping to have their own customised logo to use throughout their website and on promo materials. Ideas are ‘thumbnailed’ (small creations to give the idea of what the larger design could look like), and then these are emailed to the client. The client then looks over the ideas and reports back what they like/dislike, or which thumbnail they’d like to go with. Sadly the client did not like my initial ideas and I’ve had to change my tact.
The site sells and trades games, so I thought I could do an 8-bit version of their logo. The client wasn’t really into this idea and described that they were looking for a more ‘street’ graffiti style. They mentioned some examples and it looks like we will edge more towards this kind of look (below).
Lastly, I’ve been working on an artist series case for Grove (they make bamboo cases for iphones). This hasn’t been an easy task either, they rejected my first submission. The trick with design is to keep working at it, tween it, fix it, change it, work on it to achieve the best product you can. Sometimes you will hit the idea right away, though it’s very rare. My first idea for the case was ‘cats’, cats are a perfect subject to sell something quirky or esoteric. Sadly, it wasn’t what the group was looking for, it may have been too detailed, or just not right for their brand. My second idea is based on the Day of the Dead. It’s a boy and girl skeleton couple in love. This should also attract teens and trendy twenty somethings to the case as it’s gothic and about love. Elements that are very important in western culture and media right now. Here’s hoping… though I have a feeling I may end up getting back to the drawing board.
Over the weekend, myself, Mrs Lyons and Mrs Longmuir, from Notredame High School, attended a life painting class held by Andrew Radcliffe. Andrew has painted many important people including Prince Charles and Neil Kinnock. He can paint photographically, almost hyper-real (too real).
For 4 hours we painted, I have to say, it was such a daunting task for me, those who know me will know that I’m not a patient man, I have to have things done and they have to be done yesterday. I suppose that I should have found the whole task relaxing and rewarding, though I found myself becoming very frustrated and unhappy with my own progress. Something that I would usually pick pupils up on… now I know how you all feel.
I am still fairly happy with my work, though I find that I didn’t get enough ‘work’ for the effort that was put in, maybe that’s why I work with digital media most of the time. It’s quick to use with a virtually instant output.
The piece above is what I finished the workshop with, below is the piece 20 mins in.
It contains no starter guide lines or pencil layouts, it’s just straight painting. Below, Mrs Lyons works colours into her piece at 20 mins in too. Her style is frustrated angular lines like mine, though she layers her paint as if it is a sculpture. This gives her figure more form and life. I was so amazed by all the different styles created by the handful of art practitioners.
I really like Mrs Longmuir’s piece below (20 mins in), it’s a style of painting that I wish I could do… flowing, curving lines. She shows off Kelly’s (the life model) femininity, while capturing the colours perfectly.
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