Human resources magazine, March 11th, 3pm

My last appointment of the day. I met up with art director Jean of hr mag. He is launching a new magazine and wants fresh art work. He was quite impressed with my work and said he can see it in his magazine. He said there will be work available very soon for me and therefore he wanted me to keep in touch. It is looking promising and I am hoping for the best.

Its been a great experience meeting various art directors and listening to their advise and I do hope I can break in to this very competitive market in the near future.

Computer which, March 11th, 2pm

Probably my most successful appointment yet. Judy was the art director whom I had spoken to. We had a good discussion on the magazine and on illustration and how we can incorporate my work in to their mag. She even suggested that my work could suit the gardening section of their mag very well. She was very keen and gave her business card and wants to keep in touch for future work.

Computer active, March 11th, 12pm

Nick Palmer was the art director whom I had the meeting with. They wanted to improve their magazine and make it more visually interesting. He looked my work and said it would sit well with their articles. Again they wanted to see my website if not, they wanted me to email more of my work so that they can refer to it when needed.

Time out magazine, March 11th, 11am

I started the following day with appointment with Richard the art director of time out magazine. He was very open minded and we had good discussion on other illustrations and how we could improve the magazine visually. He was very helpful and he was quite keen on what I had to offer. He wanted to see my finished final project at the end of the year and he would not hesitate to approach me with a job. It was quite positive meeting.

dazed and confused magazine, March 10th, 4pm

Later that day, I booked another appointment with dazed magazine. I met up with john the art director there and he had a good look at my work. He was quite impressed with my work and said that the magazine requires illustrations for quite few articles therefore he was interested in what I had to offer. He gave me his business card in the end and told me to keep in touch and when I have updated my website, he would like to see more variety and more examples of my work.

Top Gear magazine, March 10th,11am

My first appointment was with the art director Simeon Jewkes of top gear magazine. The meeting was quite brief but in that time we discussed about the profession itself and he touch upon how competitive the market really is. He did like my work but in the end he wanted he email him my pdf portfolio so he keeps me in mind for any future work.

Valerie Pezeron

Hi fahad farid,

What can I say? I read a lot, watch as many movies as I can, go to museums and surf the net also looking at design websites. It takes a while to know what you like and what works for you; I advise looking at other illustrators and studying the history of illustration. Eventually you will know what works for you,

Kind regards,

Valerie Pezeron
Freelance Illustrator

Tal Rosner

Dear Fahad,

Thanks for your email - the question you asked is quite big and this email will be too short to answer it in depth. I am influenced by various art-forms and work across a fairly wide range of projects (from art-installation to TV and film).

I think that books, design book and design websites are a good way to start. I don't know how big your library is but I am sure that one of your tutors can supply quite a significant list of good books to look at.

Also - going to see exhibitions in big museums or smaller galleries is always good. I don't really know of places in Stockport/Mancheter but I know that Liverpool has got a good small Tate Museum, and also another centre called FACT which has smaller but very interesting exhibitions all year-round. If you can get to London that is a good place to get 'inspired'.

I am listing below a group of artists, designers, architects and filmmakers that I like. They are from different eras and disciplines - I will leave you find out about them.

Josef Albers
Le Corbusier
László Moholy-Nagy
David Hockney
Christian Marclay
Hélio Oiticica
Sergei Eisenstein
Peter Greenaway
Oscar Niemeyer
Ernő Goldfinger
Saul Bass

I hope this is helpful!

Best,

Tal

Gillian Blease

Hi Fahad, I’ve finally got a bit of time to answer some of your queries.

Who are my influences?: Of course I love all the greats – Paul Rand, Hans Schleger, Abram Games. These were some of the first designers I came across when I started illustrating and they really resonated with me and helped direct my style. Other influences are the artists from my fine art days: Julian Opie, Claes Oldenberg, Andy Wharhol, Peter Doig, Terry Frost. They all combine interesting concepts with great design and composition. They have a real simplicity and richness at the same time along with being quite witty or clever. I look at work from all sorts of sources as much as a I can, especially textiles, graphic design (and logos), advertising, childrens illustration and lots of vintage images – posters and books.

Ideas and compositions: I work really hard on the ideas. When I get a brief I move away from the computer and books and just think, with a piece of paper and a biro. Its important to take time out just to let the ideas flow. Usually I get my best ideas when I let my brain relax – ie on a bus or walking somewhere but mostly there isn’t time for that. If thinking fails me then I’ll start to consult books or my scrapbooks of collected material and see if they spark an idea. The idea and the composition pretty much happen simultaneously. I have to be able to visualise it more or less immediately in my mind’s eye. That’s why I find it very difficult when a client comes to me with their own idea – I can’t get excited about it.

I try to keep things very simple and minimal and contain the interest within quite strict limitations. I find that good ideas need space which has become an integral aspect of my work. The success of an illustration though can very much depend on the client. If they truly appreciate your style/ideas and are happy to give you free reign it’s much likely that you will do a better job as there’s mutual respect all round! I had a job earlier this week and I simply couldn’t understand why they had asked me to do it – probably short of time and a lazy/inexperienced art assistant. Needless to say, it wasn’t one of my better illustrations. Illustrating comes and goes. I find you can have a really good run of several weeks where the ideas just keep sparking and then there are times when it’s like getting blood out of a stone. You just have to go with it and know it’ll get better.

Hope that goes some way towards answering your questions.

Best wishes, and good luck with your work
Gill