Wednesday 28 April 2010

Lone wolf or gang warfare?

Over past few years, I have witnessed various artist's work and their methods and one way or the other I tried to incorporate their working methods into mine. Without making it complicated for me, I extracted elements from their methods such as organizing and referencing to suit me or better yet to speed up the process of constructing an image. Every time a brief is given to me, I want to make sure that I complete it in the given time or maybe have some time to spare in the end. In the real world, the deadlines are a lot tighter therefore the process has to be efficient and quick so that the work can be produced in the given time. I am use to working by myself and I think its easier and quicker. Illustrators such as Andy Martin has inspired me and proved to me that a lone illustrator can make it in today's world. Like any illustrator, Andy is given a brief and he basically responds to it. He has his own approach to the briefs and he knows the drill. There is no distraction or interception in is work by a third party and therefore he can just get on with it. The main problem that I face every now and then is when I am stuck for ideas and I do believe that at some point, Andy faces the same problem. And the problem with this problem is that You don't have a team mate to help you with your situation. This is where I think working in a team benefits the individuals. They can bounce off ideas and if any problems, they can help each other out. A good example would be the team behind container plus. They are quite successful multidisciplinary art selective and their clients include Burton and Volkswagen. They came to one of the lectures and explained what they do and how they do it. They first started off as a team of seven or eight people, all equipped with different skills which they bring to the table. From photography, illustration, to moving image and animation. Things started off well as they manage to bag few jobs but with so many creative mind working together, there are bound to be conflicts in ideas, which is exactly what happened. In the end, Louise and Nichola, the main founders were left. They decided that if they did get a moving image or animation or any other form of job which they are not able to achieve technically, they would simply hire people who are qualified to produce the skills needed. So looking at these two different practitioners and shedding light on the pros and cons, it is clear to me that both have advantages in their own right. I believe to begin with, I prefer working on my own as it would help me understand the system and its will make me learn to deal with pressure more. But I think that as you get more work and you get more recognized, its is better to expand your area of expertise by including people who have other skills to offer and it also gives one the opportunity to learn about different disciplines and you can grow as an artist.

Tuesday 27 April 2010

Book jackets


These are some of the examples of my final work and what it might look like. I have been looking at numerous book covers and experimented with text a lot in order for me to get the layout and the image working together. I am happy with the layout but the text still needs deciding but my aim will be to keep the simple therefore it would not interfere with the images.